Fable - The Lost Chapters - Video Issues on Brand New iMac

[itommyboy]

So I picked up a Mac version of Fable today and was excited to play one of my all time favorite computer games on my shiny new 3.06 GHz iMac with the GT 130.

Everything seemed to install fine and go well (tried twice even) but after intro movie, all of the text in the game is all strung together white blurbs and blocks rendering the game unplayable.

There is apparently not a single update for this Mac version (gg Feral) which blows me away. I've played around with low video settings as well as high settings and uninstalled and reinstalled and still the same thing. Anybody play this game (now or back in the day) and experience anything like this?

[Rodus]

Feral sometimes do have updates available but whilst they are in beta, only give them to people experienceing specific problems. Getting a response from them via email can be impossible as they get so much spam but if you go and post this problem at the insidemacgames forums you should get some help as some of their guys hang out on that board and they're extremely helpful.

[Foop]

It's been a common recurring issue whenever Apple releases new video hardware that the initial drivers have problems with some games. It happened with the ATI cards in the previous iMac as well. I suggest being patient and I'm sure your problems will be solved by a driver software update in the near future. I doubt the issue is with Ferral.

[itommyboy]

10-4 thanks for the replys folks. I found some interesting articles somewhat related to the issues I'm having. It seems the graphics engine in the Mac port of Fable has some "quirks" to it. From what I can gather if Fable sees an "onboard" GPU it thinks your system won't be able to run the game and turns a bunch of things off that cause all sorts of graphic issues.

I'm guessing it sees the 9400m chip (which is still probably plenty enough for this old game in itself) and not the GT 130. I'm doubting this will ever get fixed/changed/patched in such an old game so hopefully a driver update is willing and able to fix this - and soon being patient is for PC's!

[SquareToes]

I've had exactly the same problem. Glad I'm not alone.

Will the driver update itommyboy mentions appear like any other update or will I need to go looking for it? Is the same problem likely for NWN2?

[SquareToes]

Email Ferral's support with the subject line "Fable problem on iMac" and they'll reply with a link to the patch.

[JollyRogers]

Feral came out with an update yesterday...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=686526

http://support.feralinteractive.com/...gamename=fable

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by itommyboy

From what I can gather if Fable sees an "onboard" GPU it thinks your system won't be able to run the game and turns a bunch of things off that cause all sorts of graphic issues.

The problem is caused by a small driver update by Apple. OS X 10.5.6 has different grahics drivers if you bought a unibody MacBook or new iMac in the last two months compared to the older Unibody MacBooks. This new driver has a bug which means it corrupts certain types of textures. The older unibody machines with the older driver work fine! The only way of telling is running an Apple System Report and looking at the driver build numbers, the OS X version will both say 10.5.6 but the newer released machines will have a slightly higher driver number.

Sadly it is not possible to just download these updated drivers as they don't officially exist! We converted the effected textures to a known format and the text started to work again. So far everyones problems have been solved by this patch.

You should also notice a bunch of other fixes and performance improvements.

Edwin

Feral Interactive

[RaginKajun]

I played Fable TLC for a few days with a couple minor hiccups. Then, my wife added a profile for herself and the HUD items were really small on screen. Problems mounted.

I found update 1.01 and downloaded it. Now, the program won't even launch!

It occurs to me that the update "install" only took about ten seconds when it ran. What I have read seems to indicate it took much longer for others. Perhaps it didn't actually update? Please help. Is there an additional step I am missing?

Finally, after the update, in Applications, there is the original "Fable - The Lost Chapters" folder, and an additional folder named "Fable TLC", which I think is added by the update. Am I supposed to keep both these folders, or delete the old one? I have tried it both ways and when I try to Launch from the new "Fable TLC" folder, it crashes immediately.

Very frustrated.

[IanAtFeral]

Originally Posted by RaginKajun

Very frustrated.

Hey Ragin, sorry to hear about this annoyance. The best thing to do would be to email our support guys at support@feralinteractive.com, making sure you put 'Fable' somewhere in the subject line. They'll get right onto it.

-- Ian

[Jon B]

Originally Posted by IanAtFeral

Hey Ragin, sorry to hear about this annoyance. The best thing to do would be to email our support guys at support@feralinteractive.com, making sure you put 'Fable' somewhere in the subject line. They'll get right onto it.

-- Ian

I like the way you used the term 'guys' - do you need glasses

[Jon B]

Right - the fix

Please download the latest update from the Feral Website to fix the issue.

http://support.feralinteractive.com/...gamename=fable

The above installer will require the disc to be in the drive to perform the new installation. The process will take approximately 15 minutes to complete so please be patient while the install completes. Once finished you will find a new folder in your Applications window named 'Fable TLC'. This is new application folder - inside you will find the new updated Fable app as well as a data folder which contains all of the game data - (whatever you do do not delete this).

After confirming the new application works, please feel free to delete any other previous copies of the game.

[ultimaorb]

Sounds like I'm having similar issues to those described by others on here.

I bought Fable TLC last month and have been attempting to run it on my iMac, which is the 24" 2.66GHz model (with a GeForce 9400m) that I bought new in July this year. Clearly, the iMac should be more than capable of running this game, yet I have had stability issues with it from the start.

When it actually runs, the game plays perfectly with no graphics issues at all. However, most of the time when I attempt to run it, the sound of the opening titles starts playing over a blank (black) screen which remains blank, leaving no option but to force quit. Other times it just crashes on load and refuses to open at all.

Updating to the 1.0.1 patched version seems to have made no difference to these problems. Feral are yet to respond to my request for support. Presumably this is a software issue (not properly recognising the hardware) that simply requires an appropriate patch? Having paid £30 for the game I'd like to be able to actually play it once in a while!

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by ultimaorb

When it actually runs, the game plays perfectly with no graphics issues at all. However, most of the time when I attempt to run it, the sound of the opening titles starts playing over a blank (black) screen which remains blank, leaving no option but to force quit. Other times it just crashes on load and refuses to open at all.

What version of the game are you running? To properly install the patch you should delete the game from your Mac. Place the DVD into the drive and then run the patch installer. This will guarantee you are running the 1.0.1 patch.

Originally Posted by ultimaorb

Updating to the 1.0.1 patched version seems to have made no difference to these problems. Feral are yet to respond to my request for support.

We have not seen any emails from you (or anyone recently) about a black screen, please double check your spam box and that you are using the correct support email address.

Originally Posted by ultimaorb

Presumably this is a software issue (not properly recognising the hardware) that simply requires an appropriate patch? Having paid £30 for the game I'd like to be able to actually play it once in a while!

This is a software issue but most likely related to the OS installed graphics driver for the 9400. The 1.0.1 patch was mostly to fix a (different) driver bug in the operating system which caused black screens or missing text. When something does not work is not always the fault of the software it can also be the hardware or the OS which is causing the issue. If we can work out why the screen goes black and it is not an OS installation issue on your Mac we will look at releasing a patch to fix it to help with this please follow the instructions below.

If you contact the support email with a support report generated from the 1.0.1 version of the game attached we can have a look and investigate your exact installation and setup. Instructions on making a support report can be found here. Our support team work between Monday - Friday 9-6 (UK Time) so you might not get an answer till next week depending on how many support issues are open and when your email arrives.

Edwin

Feral Interactive

[RaginKajun]

Originally Posted by Jon B

Right - the fix

Please download the latest update from the Feral Website to fix the issue.

http://support.feralinteractive.com/...gamename=fable

The above installer will require the disc to be in the drive to perform the new installation. The process will take approximately 15 minutes to complete so please be patient while the install completes. Once finished you will find a new folder in your Applications window named 'Fable TLC'. This is new application folder - inside you will find the new updated Fable app as well as a data folder which contains all of the game data - (whatever you do do not delete this).

After confirming the new application works, please feel free to delete any other previous copies of the game.

Jon B et al.

After deleting all Fable TLc applications form my machine, I did the following:

Reinstalled Fable: TLC from disc.

Downloaded the update from your link above.

Ran the install of update titled Fable TLC Multi-Language installer v3

Again, the "install" of update only ran for about 7-10 seconds.

After completion, I can still no longer launch the game. It fails immediately.

[CanonicalKoi]

Big fat problem, here. I just received the game today, popped it into my MacBook Pro and it loaded fine. Both the "Fable" file and the TLC file were installed in Applications. When I booted the game up for the first time, the screen went black while the opening audio played. I'm sure it was impressive, but I couldn't see anything. Even after ejecting the disk, nothing worked and I wound up having to shut the machine down hard and restarting it.

This is a nearly new (as in a couple months old) MacBook Pro. It's got a 2.66 GHz processor and 4 gigs of DDR3 Ram. So....is there a fix for this?

ETA: Nothing in the Feral Knowledge Base about this problem, so I sent their support an email. And I verified that the version I have is 1.0.1

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by RaginKajun

Again, the "install" of update only ran for about 7-10 seconds.

After completion, I can still no longer launch the game. It fails immediately.

This sounds like your disk is not being recognised by the installer in some way as the installation script is failing. If you contact support we can try a few things and get more information about your installation and set-up however this is best done over support emails, drop support an email and Jon will get back to you and we can work out why your install is failing.

Originally Posted by CanonicalKoi

Big fat problem, here. I just received the game today, popped it into my MacBook Pro and it loaded fine. Both the "Fable" file and the TLC file were installed in Applications. When I booted the game up for the first time, the screen went black while the opening audio played. I'm sure it was impressive, but I couldn't see anything. Even after ejecting the disk, nothing worked and I wound up having to shut the machine down hard and restarting it.

Just FYI for next time something like this happens with any program (including Fable) just Apple + Tab out of the application and force quit from the Finder. The other solution is press Command + Option (Alt) + Escape repeatdly when in the application which will force quit the front most app.

Hard pulling the plug is very rarely needed, hope this helps in the future.

Originally Posted by RaginKajun

This is a nearly new (as in a couple months old) MacBook Pro. It's got a 2.66 GHz processor and 4 gigs of DDR3 Ram. So....is there a fix for this?

ETA: Nothing in the Feral Knowledge Base about this problem, so I sent their support an email. And I verified that the version I have is 1.0.1

We will look out for your email, the version number is useful but we might have to ask a few more questions as it works fine on an identical laptop running in the office so we will need to trace how your OS setup and installation differs to the office hardware.

Anyway tech support is easier done over email with attachments etc not in forums, just wanted to let you know we are trying to work out why you have problems

Cheers,

Edwin

Feral

[Jon B]

Originally Posted by CanonicalKoi

Big fat problem, here. I just received the game today, popped it into my MacBook Pro and it loaded fine. Both the "Fable" file and the TLC file were installed in Applications. When I booted the game up for the first time, the screen went black while the opening audio played. I'm sure it was impressive, but I couldn't see anything. Even after ejecting the disk, nothing worked and I wound up having to shut the machine down hard and restarting it.

This is a nearly new (as in a couple months old) MacBook Pro. It's got a 2.66 GHz processor and 4 gigs of DDR3 Ram. So....is there a fix for this?

ETA: Nothing in the Feral Knowledge Base about this problem, so I sent their support an email. And I verified that the version I have is 1.0.1

Hey - try deleting your preference file and see if that helps. The preference file for Fable can be found in ~/library/preferences/lionhead studios/preferences data - Restart the game and check that the colours drop down menu in the video tab is set to millions and not thousands.

If this doesn't work then please send a support report to fabletlcsupport@feralinteractive.com and i will see if there is anything else that could be causing the problem.

[CanonicalKoi]

Originally Posted by edddeduck

Just FYI for next time something like this happens with any program (including Fable) just Apple + Tab out of the application and force quit from the Finder. The other solution is press Command + Option (Alt) + Escape repeatdly when in the application which will force quit the front most app.

Hard pulling the plug is very rarely needed, hope this helps in the future.

I tried the Command + Tab application switch and Command + Option + Escape. In both cases, I may have been out of the application, but there was no way to tell--black screen. So, I went for a hard shutdown via the power button. No plug pulling since there wasn't a plug involved.

I'll await an email response, though I'm not sure how my OS set-up is going to differ that much. As I said, the machine's only a couple of months old (I bought it the same day Snow Leopard was released). The only things I've installed on it to date are iWorks, Bento 2 and upgraded to Snow Leopard (since it was release day, it didn't come pre-installed), so a lot shouldn't have changed from "stock", so to speak. Well, and I attempted to install Fable yesterday.

I'll try starting things up again and see what happens. And Jon B, I did a search via Finder and wasn't able to find that preferences file. Would there be one created even if I had done nothing in the game? Loaded the disk, installed, start and poof! Instant black screen.

ETA: Tried again. This time, I held down the Command key on start-up to get the Mac features. Colors were set to "thousands". Check-boxed the gamma setting and whoa! almost total white-out the way it was, so I adjusted it down to look "normal". Went ahead with starting the game and got an error message that it had unexpectedly shut down. Hit the key to send an error message to Apple and replay. This time, it worked fine. I played through a couple of the village starter quests and then saved and quit. Unless something else unexpected happens, it looks like it's working. Since it seems (to my uneducated eye) that the default gamma setting might have been the problem, you might want to put something about it in either the readme or FAQ files. And I'll send an update email to support.

[RaginKajun]

So I finally and officially submitted an email report to Feral Support about the issue I am having with the game. It has been two weeks with no response.

Hoping to get some action on the matter. Thanks.

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by RaginKajun

So I finally and officially submitted an email report to Feral Support about the issue I am having with the game. It has been two weeks with no response.

Hoping to get some action on the matter. Thanks.

Emails unless they are on the weekend are answered within 24 hours on average so I suspect your email did not make it.

Make sure you send the email to the fable support email address in the manual and that your subject line contains something that is definitely not spam. Due to the public nature of our support addresses we get over a few thousand junk emails a day so the odd email can get lost.

Edwin

[HOUPDOG]

i have the same issues as everyone else, i bought the game downloaded it and started to play. it started up fine, but no video. I downloaded the patch from the maker of the game and still same issues. That is when i found out that apple has an update for the game as well. once it was installed no problems! i hope this helps!

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by HOUPDOG

i have the same issues as everyone else, i bought the game downloaded it and started to play. it started up fine, but no video. I downloaded the patch from the maker of the game and still same issues. That is when i found out that apple has an update for the game as well. once it was installed no problems! i hope this helps!

What patch from Apple? Any patch on the Apple site will be from us so should be the same as the Feral patch. Can you let me know where you downloaded it from as this game is physical DVD only no online download has been licensed.

If you can let me know that would be really helpful in passing on what you did to other effected customers.

Cheers,

Edwin

[ilmatthews]

Recently purchased fable for my new iMac 27" Quad-core.
Everything loads and is playable. (I expected better game play and graphics but I was content for the most part)
In any case, the Background music plays ONLY for opening credits and the intro movies. No dialogue or title screen sounds is played. When people talk to each other during the game there is no sound, and game-play has no sound effects.

Ever heard of this happening? (mind the pun)

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by ilmatthews

Recently purchased fable for my new iMac 27" Quad-core.
Everything loads and is playable. (I expected better game play and graphics but I was content for the most part)
In any case, the Background music plays ONLY for opening credits and the intro movies. No dialogue or title screen sounds is played. When people talk to each other during the game there is no sound, and game-play has no sound effects.

Ever heard of this happening? (mind the pun)

Sounds like you may have an incomplete install (at a guess) if you email support attaching a support report we can have a look.

Edwin