Can anyone help me please?

johnnysmack

I downloaded Rome Total War last year from steam and it worked grand. Haven't touched it in months but the other day I fancied a game of it. I click on the desktop icon and screen goes black for about 20 seconds then returns to the desktop with a pop up saying "install directx 9". I tried downloading directx 9 but it looks for a location when you down load it and I don't know where to put it.

I then borrowed a physical copy of Rome from a friend hoping the directx 9 would reinstall itself with the disc as it states on the box it will. It appeared to do so as during installation a pop up came up saying "install directx 9 now". Clicked yes, everything installed but still the same end result, black screen followed by "install directx 9".

With the disc I get as far as the pop up that says

"Play Rome
Un-install
Extras
Links
Credits"

Click on play but nothing at all happens except the pop up disappears.

I now have two versions of Rome installed but neither will launch.

Any ideas?

Moon54

There should be a folder called "Redist" or "DirectX" in the Steam/SteamApps/Common/Rome Total War location.
Try reinstalling the DirectX files from there using DXSetup.exe, they should be on the disc as well.
Then, a restart would be advisable, as well.

Spear

The location the installer asks for is just a temp location to unpack its files. So just create one and dump them in there in the short term.

johnnysmack

Thanks for the replies lads but no joy.

Got the directx file in and then it said mss32.dll was missing so i went through a few youtube "how to" videos to fix that one but no luck.

I then deleted the whole thing and downloaded it from steam again and ive crap broadband so it took a few hours to do. All the files appear to be there now, the directx, the mss32.dll yet its still the same problem. Black screen for 20 seconds while it tries to load and then a pop up saying install directx even though it's there!!! Very frustrating.

Agricola

johnnysmack wrote: »

Thanks for the replies lads but no joy.

Got the directx file in and then it said mss32.dll was missing so i went through a few youtube "how to" videos to fix that one but no luck.

I then deleted the whole thing and downloaded it from steam again and ive crap broadband so it took a few hours to do. All the files appear to be there now, the directx, the mss32.dll yet its still the same problem. Black screen for 20 seconds while it tries to load and then a pop up saying install directx even though it's there!!! Very frustrating.

Check out this thread from, probably from around post #50 on is best. Some odd little fixes have resolved a similar issue for others.

johnnysmack

Agricola wrote: »

Check out this thread from, probably from around post #50 on is best. Some odd little fixes have resolved a similar issue for others.

Thank you very much kind sir, i found a solution on that at long last. This guys advice is what worked in the end...."go to your rome total war folder go to the preferences then open it up in note pad or whatever, scroll down to the AA_QUALITY:AA_HIGH and set it to AA_QUALITY:AA_OFF
hope this helps!"

Thanks to everyone for helping!

Agricola

So turning off anti-aliasing sorted it.... weird.
It's a pity to do without it, assuming your pc is well able to play a 10+ year old game.
Maybe have a go at launching the game and then enabling AA from the graphics options, see what happens. But if you can run the game at a very high resolution anyway, you may not miss it.