Zero Hour - Black screen when starting the first map of the GLA campaign begining with the 2025-10-03 weekly release

[killermosi]

Prerequisites

• I have searched for similar issues and confirmed this is not a duplicate

Game Version

• Command & Conquer Generals
• Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
• Other (please specify below)

Bug Description

When starting the Zero Hour GLA campaign from the main menu, the map is completely black and unplayable.

Reproduction Steps

1. Update the game to the 2025-10-03 or later weekly release.
   • The issue is not present in the previous releases, I tested them.
2. Start a new GLA campaign from the main menu. * Wait for the introduction video to play out.
3. Upon entering the map start cutscene, the screen is completely black
   • There is a white flash at some point near the start (the tanker explosion?)
   • The audio plays in the background, but only some elements (all voices and some SFX) can be heard.
4. After the cutscene ends, the bottom command bar becomes visible, but the map remains completely black.
   • Trying to drag the map around, or clicking on the minimap does not seem to allow for the viewport to be moved
   • The pause menu and the command bar buttons work normally.

Additional Context

1. The game can be saved and loaded, but the map remains black.
2. Returning to the main menu will prevent the "battle map background" from being visible.
3. Starting a skirmish game will keep the map black.

Important

Saving the game, exiting to desktop, re-launching the game and reloading the save will allow the map to be played from that point on.

Main menu screen after failed campaign start

New skirmish game after failed campaign start

[yamenarhim]

Yeah i manged to replicate the problem in "generals-weekly-2025-10-17" the same solution mentioned above works.

[Skyaero42]

@killermosi @yamenarhim what happens if you play the game in 800 x 600, does the problem then still occur?

[Caball009]

I suspect it's an issue with full screen mode.

[yamenarhim]

what happens if you play the game in 800 x 600, does the problem then still occur?

Yes problem is still there.

I suspect it's an issue with full screen mode.

Tried to force the game game to play in windowed mode through creating a shortcut and adding -win to the end of the file path, to make it run in windowed mode. but i still have the same problem

[killermosi]

Yes, the problem reproduces in both fullscreen and windowed modes, regardless of the resolution.

However, skipping the map intro movie (when the reported is talking) causes the map to load and play normally.

• I don't know if there is a dedicated "skip movie" key, but ALT+TAB-ing out of the game and back causes the movie playback to be aborted.
• Only when skipping the movie in the early playback stages the map loads normally, if the movie is skipped close to the end, the issue still manifests.

[L3-M]

I cannot replicate this on main 5dff203ffc6eb92227788d6a31b925ca1e4cc673.

Only when skipping the movie in the early playback stages the map loads normally, if the movie is skipped close to the end, the issue still manifests.

Tested with and without skipping the movie cutscene.