Black Screen Workaround

I have tried this guide: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showpost.php?p=2870666
Sadly it did not work for me, but I did find out why.

The problem is that I have installed the Vidiotmaps maps (they are *really* good). This is a bug with the game, not the maps.

When I uninstalled the maps I got the game to work again, but that is not a good solution. So instead I wrote me a little script that "fixes" the problem caused by having the maps installed, and then starts the game. The problem is that the fix must be done before *every* gaming session. As an extra bonus the script also fixes the blank updater problem that some people have.

NOTE: I run on the EU servers. Some modifications to the script is needed for the US servers, but they should be evident.

/usr/local/bin/start_cox.sh

#!/bin/sh
#
# This is a temporary fix to be able to play City of Heroes/Villains.
#
PREF_DIR="$HOME/Library/Preferences/City of Heroes EU Preferences"
EVIL_DIR="${PREF_DIR}/p_drive/User/Local Settings/Application Data/NCSoft"
CONF_FILE="${PREF_DIR}/user.reg"
CONF_TEMP="/tmp/user.reg"


# Fix black screen problem.
rm -rf "$EVIL_DIR"


# Fix the blank updater problem.
cat "${CONF_FILE}"\
    | sed 's/^"WebPage"=.*$/"WebPage"="http:\/\/uk.cityofheroes.com\/updater\/update.html"/'\
    | sed 's/^"WebPageEnglish"=.*$/"WebPageEnglish"="http:\/\/uk.cityofheroes.com\/updater\/update.html"/'\
    | sed 's/^"WebPageFrench"=.*$/"WebPageFrench"="http:\/\/fr.cityofheroes.com\/updater\/update.html"/'\
    | sed 's/^"WebPageGerman"=.*$/"WebPageGerman"="http:\/\/de.cityofheroes.com\/updater\/update.html"/'\
    > "${CONF_TEMP}"
mv "${CONF_TEMP}" "${CONF_FILE}"


# All done. Start the game.
open -a "City of Heroes"

Those directions had an error in them. The missing step was:

- Locate the section (in info.plist) that looks like this:

<key>PrefsFolderName</key>
<string>City of Heroes Training Room</string>

And change it to this:

<key>PrefsFolderName</key>
<string>City of Heroes</string>

Failing to do that can possibly corrupt the Training Room preferences at a future patch, and it can also cause support confusion if something goes wrong.

I edited and fixed the original post as well.

Thanks for the information, but I actually managed to get the test client to hang just like the normal client, just by adding the vidiotmaps. That means that the test client has the same bug.

It generates some cache or similar in what I call EVIL_DIR (in my script). The problems seems like the cache does not work well with the maps.

I'm using vidiotmaps and I don't get any hangs because of it.

Any errors in the Console log?

Also, try throwing out ALL the preferences. There's both a cache and a user settings database, if they get out of sync that might cause additional problems.

Tried these steps (on test client):
* Installed vidiotmaps.
* Deleted all test server preferences.
* Started game in safe mode (works).
* Logged in a character (just to be sure).
* Exited game.
* Started game in normal mode (works).
* Exited game.
* Started game in normal mode again (hangs with black screen).

No errors in Console (except complaining about missing F:, but it always does that).

---
PS: I found a nice program called Platypus that creates a fake '.app' around a script. Lets be get rid of using the Terminal to start the game at least.

For all you readers out there, try CuppaManga's solution first. If it works for you then all is good. My script should only be used as a last resort.

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.

Alright, time for a quick "me too".

Removing the vidiotmaps overlay folder also fixed the black screen issue for me.

Thanks for figuring it out, Eldman.

Did those of you who are having Vidiotmaps problems upgrade the maps from an older Vidiotmaps or install them new?

Hi CuppaManga,

If I remember correctly I installed the Vidiotmaps shortly after the Mac client became available. I probably just copied them over from my Bootcamp XP install. The files are dated April 22, 2007.

After your post I ran a couple of test trying to be a little more selective in what I remove.

In my initial clean-up I had removed:

Contents --> Resources --> transgaming --> c_drive --> coh --> data

That fixed it and I had no problems.

Last night I took a look at the content of the data folder. It had one folder called texture library inside, which contained three folders (GUI, V_MAPS and MAPS).

So I put everything back in place, and yes, I had the black screen again. At first I removed the V_MAPS folder. Still the black screen problem. Next I put the V_MAPS folder back and removed the MAPS folder. Now the game would start up, but showed some graphic issues. You can see the problems here, but basically a lot of things were missing their textures:

MAPS folder removed
Normal view

So next I took out the V_MAPS and the MAPS folders, and the games started fine and everything looked as it should.

If you feel that it would be worthwhile to try some further selective removals, just let me know and I'll give it a try.

I suspect this issue is related to the same thing that makes the icons in the base editor corrupted (since that seems to cause a crash eventually too). I would guess it's an issue with loading small bitmaps properly in the Mac version.

Sadly though it all works properly for me (even with vidiotmaps). I even tried tossing out the prefs and starting over to see if maybe it was an issue with new installs, but that didn't corrupt anything either.

My suggestion would be to send a support ticket so the issue can be tracked and so the engineers can figure out which configurations have this problem and why.