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Solved Need help with engine crash on windows 8

People have done it in the past, so I know there is a way. Unfortunately I myself don't know how. :facepalm
 
Its somewhere in the nvidia settings. I only have ATI cards so cant check but a quick Google search should help you
 
Well, as I said, I've already done all those :p and I quite know my way around a computer so I am sure that the game is not utilizing the Nvidia processor even after I have set it to do so in the Nvidia control panel..
 
Does it use it for other application? Might be in your power settings else, if its on balanced or energy saving often the computer uses the integrated video chip to save energy.
 
It's on high performance. I use the control panel to set all my games to use the Nvidia processor, but it's not working only for POTC.
 
I, too, have installed PotC on my new Windows 8.1 laptop with both integrated Intel graphics and an nVidia card, and I can confirm that for Davy knows what reason PotC refuses to use the nVidia card. I right-clicked -> run with nVidia, I set it to use nVidia in nVidia's control panel, and I set the nVidia card to be always used as default, to no aval.

I even went as far as to disable the integrated graphics chipset, only to have PotC crash during the STORM ENGINE 2 loading window.


On a sidenote: I too tried downloading the compatibility toolkit, but PotC doesn't seem to be there, neither in the linked 5.6 version nor the Windows 8.1 version.
 
This is a strange one. Just out of curiosity, do either of you have DirectX 9 installed?
 
I installed DirectX 11 directly. I don't know if having installed 9.0c is necessary despite that, but I do know that the DirectX installer (which includes the one offered during PotC's setup) will refuse to install 9.0c because my system already has a superior version.

Some small progress, but with some even more bizarre colloraries:

I've managed to force PotC to use nVidia card (at least I hope that's what it uses, not 100% sure) sometimes while I disabled the Intel chipset in the device administrator, but not every time I disable it that way (maybe it only does if I run CONFIG after disabling and before running ENGINE, I dunno; needs more testing). New Game loaded fine this time.

However, the perfomance was horrendous, at least for a Geforce 820M. I've played New Horizons for years on an older laptop with a factually worse nVidia card, so I know I should be getting more FPS (and I disabled ENB).

What's worse, two interesting details caught my attention:
-The performance when allegedly running on the nVidia card is so bad even the cursor has noticeable lag on the main menu... while there is no lag when it runs on integrated graphics.
-Trying to open the nVidia control panel when the integrated graphics chipset is disabled will just promt an error telling me the screen isn't running on an nVidia device... despite that being supposedly the only enabled screen adapter remaining.
These two details make me think that maybe, MAYBE, instead of a graphical card or integrated graphics, what I did was manage to make it use "software rendering", or on the CPU, or whatever, considering it might be even more laggy than on integrated graphics. I'm not very versed in the possibility of that though, so feel free throw me overboard for suggesting that.
 
MrMister said:
I installed DirectX 11 directly. I don't know if having installed 9.0c is necessary despite that, but I do know that the DirectX installer (which includes the one offered during PotC's setup) will refuse to install 9.0c because my system already has a superior version.
Click to expand...

You will get that install error with the the one that comes with POTC. However, what you need is included with the DirectX 9 Runtimes, which will install just fine alongside DirectX 11. You can download them from Microsoft HERE, or use the web installer HERE. I have done this myself in Windows 7 with no issues at all. Others have installed them without a problem in Windows 8 as well.

The Storm engine was originally written for DirectX 8, it looks for different libraries than those that are included with DirectX 11. Microsoft claims that DirectX 11 "interprets" these calls correctly and translates them. Even if they are correct in this claim, which I doubt, at the very least this slows performance, and at worst can cause crashes when it is not interpreted correctly.

As for your latest problem, yes, that does sound like software interpretation, that should only happen if you have installed Swiftshader though, strange indeed. I am wondering if this may be an issue with Nvidia's drivers. Of course, it could also be a BIOS issue, or Windows issue too. Is your laptop memory shared? or does your Nvidia chipset have dedicated memory?
 
We did use to have SwiftShader as "Intel Fix" in the past, which was software rendering.
But now that we have a new Intel Fix, I removed the old SwiftShader from the downloads.
So you shouldn't be ending up with software rendering anymore. :confused:
 
Installing DirectX 9 from Thagarr's link did not fix the problem, so I don't think the problem is with DirectX..
 
Hmmm, as I haven't used an Nvidia card for quite some time, I did a bit of searching and apparently Nvidia has issues with support for DirecX 9 and newer cards and chipsets. I tracked this fix down on Nexus Mods, it is called the Optimus Fix and was originally developed for Skyrim, but it works for other games, and might work here.

From the Readme :
*****************
** OPTIMUS FIX **
*****************

=== HOW TO USE ===

(1) Rename your current d3d9.dll (from the game folder) to "d3d9orig.dll"
(2) Copy our d3d9.dll to the same folder (the game folder)
(3) Open NVidia control panel, and explicitly add your game's EXE file to the list of "high-GPU-requirement" programs.
(4) That's it!

=== WHAT IS IT FOR ===

This adapter DLL, originally created for Skyrim users, is actually working
for all games. It is needed for those who want to use custom d3d9.dll (SweetFX, FXAA,
SMAA, Dynavision, ENB or others) on systems with NVidia's Optimus technology.
This custom d3d9.dll is sometimes called proxy or wrapper DLL.

Specifically, you will need it if:

(1) You have custom d3d9.dll file in your game folder, and
(2) You have a computer with NVidia's Optimus technology.

=== WHY IT IS NEEDED ===

With Optimus technology, installing using custom d3d9.dll often causes the
game to not use the discrete GPU and switch to integrated GPU, which is much
weaker and is not intended for gaming.

Our adapter DLL allows the game to stay with the discrete GPU when
using custom d3d9.dll.


Enjoy,
HiAlgo team.
www.hialgo.com
Contact: contact@hialgo.com
Click to expand...

I am not currently running Windows, so I can't test it, but you can download the file from HERE!
 
Hmm, but I don't have a custom d3d9.dll n my POTC folder. Just inserting the new dll there didn't work. I also play skyrim, but I didn't need that fix for that game..
 
That is because as far as I know potc still runs on DX8 ...
 
What I did find is this:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/DirectX-Tweaker.shtml

In this program you can set the DX to use a certain videocard and driver
So if you use this program to use your nvidia driver it might work.
I will look into it more later, maybe we could include it as a kind of fix if more peopl experience it and I can find where the changes are actually made....
 
THis is very wierd... having changed nothing since last time, now it seems to finally obey and use the nVidia card without me needing to manually disable the integrated chipset's drivers. However, the performance is still very poor for the card, so I'll try both some DirectX shenanigans and a reinstaoonof New Horizons but with ENB unchecked from the get-go, instaed of uninstalling it afterwards.

By the way, there's no uninstall option for the mod, right? It'd be easier if I didn't have to reinstall PotC every time to make sure everything's okay.

EDIT: My bad, I actualyy did still have the integrated driver didsabled, so no progress yet.
 
Last edited:
MrMister said:
By the way, there's no uninstall option for the mod, right? It'd be easier if I didn't have to reinstall PotC every time to make sure everything's okay.
Click to expand...
There is no uninstaller. Easiest is to ZIP up your game folder before installing the modpack.
Then when you reinstall, you can just delete the game folder and extract your ZIP to start fresh. That is much, much faster than using the CDs every time. :yes
 
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