Help ECW launches into a black screen

[Guard55]

Hey there!

I'm having some difficulty playing ECW. 

When launched via the W3D launcher, I'm taken to a black screen and all I can hear is music. I somehow connected to the server and could hear the sounds of vehicles and what not.

Attached is a video of what I see. (Ignore my friend asking about a Japanese dish.)

Unfortunately, the recording only lasts a couple of seconds before automatically stopping. Curiously though, when connected to the server I see nothing but light blue.

Any help would be appreciated.

[danpaul88]

Perhaps an odd suggestion but have you tried rebooting your PC? It's been known in the past for w3d engine games to not work properly until after a reboot - as far as I know we've never figured out in what circumstances it's required though 

[FRAYDO]

Are you running full screen? Try running ECW in Windowed Mode and see if anything comes up.

[Guard55]

Sorry for the late night reply, I was out and about.

I tried Windowed mode but it keeps launching in fullscreen. Looks like it keeps reverting back to fullscreen in the settings. I decided to download the latest drivers for my video card (GTX 1070), but still it's a black screen. Restarted my computer but it's still launching into a black screen.

Another thing to note, is that the intro to ECW (I'm assuming it's an intro, it's still a black screen for me) stutters and my frames drop to 14. I have to hit ESC to be able to listen to the main menu music.

I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. Still black screen. Ran repair installation on it and nothing was broken or needed re-downloading.

I even disabled Shadowplay and GeForce Overlay, but it's still a black screen.

Any suggestions? I don't know what could be causing this.

 

Edited October 17, 2019 by Guard55

[NoSoldier]

Did you try various resolutions? (Starting with 800x600)

[Jeod]

Install DirectX 9.0c

Set the game.exe for ECW to run compatibility mode with Windows XP SP3 (not SP2)

[Guard55]

I tried running ECW in Compatibility mode with Windows XP SP3 but still a black screen.

I tried installing DirectX 9.0c but it says it's only available for 98, 2000, ME, and XP. I have Windows 10.

I've tried running it in different resolutions but it still gives me a black screen.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Guard55

[Jeod]

4 minutes ago, Guard55 said:

I tried running ECW in Compatibility mode with Windows XP SP3 but still a black screen.

I tried installing DirectX 9.0c but it says it's only available for 98, 2000, ME, and XP. I have Windows 10.

Try this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

It's a compatibility package for d3d9 apps and games.

[Guard55]

Unfortunately, this is what I get.

[Jeod]

Longshot, but try fiddling with the Nvidia options to disable any hardware acceleration and maybe put PhysX to the CPU.

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2700/~/disabling-nvidia-physx-gpu-acceleration

[Guard55]

Still get a black screen unfortunately.

[Jeod]

Do you get anything in event viewer when you launch the game? Administrative Events (hoping for an error or warning to tell us the fault)...

Also, does the same thing happen in other games from the launcher like APB?

[Guard55]

Interim Apex works without any issues. I just installed APB and it works perfectly fine.

[Jeod]

@Jerad2142

[Jeod]

While we're waiting for him I found this in the bug tracker for ECW:

Currently the windowed mode checkbox in the launcher doesn't work, I assume the 5.0 games must use a different reg values. ECW's reg value is stored in: ECW\Render\RenderDeviceWindowed

Dunno if you're familiar with the registry or editing it, but if you want to try windowed mode go to the game's install folder and look for wwconfig.exe, use that to configure settings instead of the w3d launcher for this game. If it doesn't work, I'd suggest trying to enforce window mode via registry.

[Guard55]

I can't seem to find ECW\Render\RenderDeviceWindowed. I checked in My Documents, W3D Launcher folder, ProgramData, Program Files, etc.

I forced it to launch in windowed mode with the config.exe

Still a black screen when launched in windowed.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Guard55
Mistake

[KTFF]

I have the same issue with ECW. Unless I close my NVidia apps running in the background then it works perfectly.

[Guard55]

9 minutes ago, KTFF said:

I have the same issue with ECW. Unless I close my NVidia apps running in the background then it works perfectly.

Wait, you think Nvidia might be causing me an issue? What apps do you have running in the background when that happens?

[KTFF]

I think I have to shutdown that Gforce Experience app you see in the systray.

[Guard55]

NVIDIA Settings?

9 minutes ago, KTFF said:

I think I have to shutdown that Gforce Experience app you see in the systray.

 

[KTFF]

Shutdown the Gforce Experience application would be the quickest, which is what I do.

Simply find the app in your systray and Exit it. Then launch ECW..

 

[Guard55]

Yup! That was the issue. Turns out, having Nvidia settings in the systray and the ingame overlay would cause it to be a black screen. Disabling both makes the game visible now.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Guard55
Forgot to add the word 'makes' inbetween 'both' and 'the'

[KTFF]

Glad that fixed it for you.

But now I will have to kill you in ECW!