YBnormal

I just remembered something else. The first time I had a black screen issue, it was caused by having vidiot maps installed. Once i removed the maps, no black screen. Its something else to think about. Its easy enough to remove them and try launching, can always put them back in. Control click on CoH application and pick "show package contents". Then go to contents>resources>transgaming>c_drive>coh and delete the Data folder. You can go to your trash can and put it back if there is no change.

Thanks sooooo much Cuppa! Turning off the geometry buffers was the ticket! Took care of SG Base lag, Vanguard Base lag, Anarcos map lag, so much better now!

This is so strange! i20 fixed the black screen issue for me. I was having black screen issue after the last patch, but found if i deleted certain folders from my preferences file before i ran the launcher, it would load correctly. Don't have to do that now, it just comes up right, of course the servers are down so it doesn't really help much.

Anyway, the files i was deleting were in user>library>preferences>City of Heroes Preferences, folder/filenames = wineserver-(username)-MacBook.local-user, p_drive, and ftfontcache. I tried deleting my entire CoH Preference folder but it wouldn't let me, so i put each item back until it would launch, the 3 listed above were the only ones it would launch without.

Before that, I was looking in my Activity Monitor during launch and ending some processes that started up after City of Heroes was launched, then force quitting CoH from there, then relaunching CoH. This would sometimes help. It might be interesting to watch the Activity Monitor while this issue is happening to see what processes are being activated after CoH. The ones i was seeing pop up that I noticed and quit before relaunch were cvmsComp_x86_64 and cvmsComp _i(some number I can't remember). After i20, I no longer see these processes in my activity monitor after launching CoH, even if they are there before I launch. The only extra process that pops up is wineserver. So you guys getting the black screen try watching that Activity Monitor and see if you notice anything. Might be interesting.

I have been crashing very frequently as well, plus the long loading screen and sometimes black screen after a crash. I have to restart my computer if I get the black screen. My most frequent crash messages are Assertion failure and corrupted pigg file. I crash at least once every TF and frequently on zoning. I have also noticed some strange graphics issues where the people or objects disappear and only the basic background is present. I turned off Ultra Graphics mode after the Feb 15th patch as I could barely run the game after that one. I haven't done a clean install to see if that helps because the process takes so long.


Mac Book Pro, OS X10.6.6, 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

I also found that the vidiotmaps overlay was responsible for my black screen issues as well. Its sad since I really like the maps. But I'd rather be able to play the game without having to delete files and reset graphics every time. After I removed the data folder that has the map overlays in it, deleting my preference folder, starting the game in safe mode to change the graphics settings, and restarting the game, CoH launches normally every time now.

So get this, after going through all that stuff downloading the test and all and getting it to run consistently, I noticed my vidiots maps was gone. I moved the data folder into my new CoH app, and the big black screen returned the next time I tried to log in! I moved the data folder back out, deleted the preference folder, logged in in safe mode and reset my graphics. Now it loads every time again! Can that folder be the cause of our problems? Anyone having this issue without vidiots maps installed?

OK I finally got a fix for this situation from tech support. Here is what they said to do. I had to still open it in safe mode the first time and change my graphics setting, but it loads every time after that. I also didn't have to edit the info.plist file as those lines weren't present.

Please download the City of Heroes Test client and check to see if it has the same issue. The test client can be found at http://download.cityofheroes.com/Tes..._Server_US.dmg

If the test client works properly, please try the following:

1. Move the "City of Heroes.app" file from /Applications and "City of Heroes Preferences" from ~/Library/Preferences/ to the Trash.

2. Control-click on "City of Heroes Test.app" and choose "Duplicate". Rename the new copy to "City of Heroes.app"

3. Control-click on the new "City of Heroes.app" and choose "Show package contents".

4. Open Contents.

Now, I would like you to modify the info.plist file that is located in the Contents folder and remove the following lines:
<key>CiderGameOptions</key>
<string>-- cohupdater.exe -test</string>

5. Close and save the file. Then check for the issue again.

*make sure you check safe mode the first time you run it and change your graphics settings there or it will just give you the black screen. If you forget to, then just delete your preference file again and launch it again in safe mode.*

I downloaded the new I17 mappack right off the vidiotmaps download page. It comes as an exe so you will need bootcamp/parallels running windows, or crossover to run the exe file and extract the folder with the new maps in it. I ran it in crossover and picked my desktop as the location for the files. You can do the same thing in bootcamp or parallels, there should be a location in network places for your mac desktop. Mine was in Start>My Network Places>.Mac on .psf>Users>(username)>Desktop. When you run the exe, there should be a folder named data placed on your desktop. Go to applications, control-click on City of Heroes and pick "show package contents". Now go to Contents>Resources>transgaming>c_drive>coh. There should be a folder there named data also. I deleted it and moved the new one from my desktop to the same location. New maps are now up in CoH for me. I got this info from CuppaManga's Mac guide published on this forum. Thanks Manga for all you do!

Mac Model, video processor, video RAM:
15" MacBook Pro, GeForce 8600M GT, VRAM 512GB

Installed RAM (memory):
2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz x 2 (4GB total)

MacOS Version (Leopard/Snow Leopard and version):
Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L31a)

What you were doing when it got stuck:
Launching CoH

The last thing you saw before the black screen:
License Agreement Page

What date/approx time you patched to Issue 17 (it sounds silly but there's a reason):
First I17 patch installed April 28th, 8:00am Mountain, latest patch May 4th, 8:00am Mountain (didn't help)

If there's anything in the Console Log just before the black screen: Last entry in console is on 3/12/10

3/12/10 9:41:40 PM com.apple.launchd[111] ([0x0-0x417417].com.transgaming.cityofheroes[6884]) Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 6892 PPID 1 cider


I have tried Shutting down the winserv in activity monitor and rebooting. Deleting my checksum file, and deleting my preference file. So far the is the only way I can run CoH is to delete my preference file every time I want to launch the game. I can start in safe mode, change the display setting to my monitor size, and re log to get the nice graphics again, but this only works once, then I have to delete the preference file and start all over the next time I want to play.

I'm so happy to find I'm not the only one having this issue (not happy we are having an issue)! Same as most of you, the Big Black Screen. Tech support told me to delete the preference file also, but I have to do it every time I want to play and have to play with the crappy low graphics setting. I sent a ticket right away and my system profile as well to help them narrow it down. I hope they get it fixed soon, I miss my beautiful wide screen mode though . I will definitely try to do the safe mode thing and see if it works.

Command + Tab no longer works after the last patch

Never mind, I found it by myself.
Command+Tab works

ARRRRRR! 'e vast ye maties!

Can anyone tell me how to exit full screen mode to see other apps running with out logging out. I hear my ichat ping and I can't answer. I did it once on accident and have no idea what key combo did it. I tried the standard expose key strokes but they didn't work.