Crash on start, suggestions tried and died.

[SyberSmoke]

I guess I went and bought this at the wrong time but hey, that is life.  After seeing it on RPS it sounded like something I would like.  Bought the full pack through steam and downloaded finished.  I got to play for 70 minutes...and now I am getting a crash after Init Load of:

The exception Breakpoint
A breakpoint has been reached.
(0x80000003) occured in the application at location 0x7781805d.

I have done much of what has been suggested, Avast has Steam directory as an exception.  Heck I even turned Avast off...nope.  Compatibility mode...nope.  Elevation to Administrator...It gets to the title then crashes.  So...the low hanging fruit have been picked and it is time to use the forum ladder.

Attached are copies of my DxDiag and the crash log from inside the RuntimeData folder.  If more is needed I will be watching.

Edit: Tried the Beta of Steam...nope.

[keith.lamothe]

Sorry for the inconvenience   This sounds anti-virus related but I guess not if you've already turned it off.  Sometimes antivirus's interpret "turn off" as "be even stricter", but maybe that's an older generation of antivirus. 

I've let Chris know since he's been making various changes to the render pipeline and such for compatibility with the new version of unity and also with linux, so he might have some ideas.

[SyberSmoke]

Yeah Avast was the first thing, first creating an exception for the Steam Directory and then just turning it off completely.  Right now I am trying re-download and install.  I did download the stand alone version on your site and that works fine...catch is for some reason steam can not give me the CD key.  It is stuck at "Requesting Key", what fun it is today.

Any way may be steam will get their act together for at least the keys.  And I hope that this issue will help solve some problems.

[keith.lamothe]

Oh, the standalone version works?  Well, this might be simpler than I thought: go into the AIW directory in your steam library, and run AIWar.exe directly.  You won't get the steam overlay, but it should run and not be in trial mode.

[SyberSmoke]

I tried that actually...it got to the title screen...then a split second after the fade crashed.

[keith.lamothe]

I tried that actually...it got to the title screen...then a split second after the fade crashed.

Sigh.  Ah well, worth a try.

Could you try copying your steam AIW's RuntimeData directory over the RuntimeData directory of your non-steam install?  That should snap that one out of trial mode.  Obviously the steam copy should work too, but playing is better than not playing.

[SyberSmoke]

Ok, after a complete reinstall it still bombs in the same way...interesting.  I will transfer the files...does that folder include the DLC in the $16 pack?

Huh...still wants a Cd key including those for the DLC.  And steam is still showing me a "Requesting Key..." from the AI War: Fleet Command CD Key menu.  Interesting...well back to minecraft I guess.  :-D

[keith.lamothe]

does that folder include the DLC in the $16 pack?

Yep   It's in RuntimeData/Expansions/ , with one subfolder for each expansion.

[SyberSmoke]

Well I am not sure what to do.  Steam is not giving me keys, so where does steam get the keys from.  AND could steams inability to supply keys cause a crash in the steam version of the game?

[keith.lamothe]

Well I am not sure what to do.  Steam is not giving me keys, so where does steam get the keys from.  AND could steams inability to supply keys cause a crash in the steam version of the game?

It actually doesn't need to give you keys for the steam version to work anymore, since we moved to a license-key-less approach.

Did copying the RuntimeData stuff over to the non-steam copy help make that one not trial mode?

[keith.lamothe]

And the keys thing shouldn't have anything to do with the game once it's running, as the game doesn't use any of steam's DRM, etc.

[x4000]

Hi there, sorry about the troubles.

Can you look in your RuntimeData folder and post any error logs from there after you run the new version that is now released?  And also, can you look in your AIWar_Data folder and post your output.log?

Additionally, I've now released 7.059, so there's a chance your issue may be fixed in there regardless.  Release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-7.000_Beta#Prerelease_7.059

You can restart steam to force an update.

Additionally, I think this thread on various Last Federation crashes and how people worked around them (what other programs were interfering) may be useful: http://steamcommunity.com/app/273070/discussions/0/558753803782716565/  It may be that some things that were previously not affecting AI War because of the old graphics pipeline now are, I'm not sure.

Specifically of interest are that windowblinds causes issues, and apparently msi afterburner.

Hope this helps!

---

As an aside, about the keys, that is all working properly.  It's not supposed to be giving you a key at all, but steam's server just kind of sits there requesting for some reason, though, rather than telling you that.  Our current website version is on a much much older version of AI War.

There is a new beta version in steam called oldgfxpipeline that will take you back to the version that was previously working for you, which you can use in the meantime if your issue persists.  That will at least let you play while we try to resolve your issue on the main release path, if that is something that isn't either already fixed or an interaction with some other program that objects to the new graphics pipeline.

[SyberSmoke]

Updated through Steam...Check
Logs purged before start...Check
Application starts properly...Fail, Breakpoint reached
Uploading new logs...Check

:-D Gotta have  my fun some how.


Edit:
Achievement Get:  Head-Scratch Moment - After the first crash games starts...subsequent starts...the game crashes.  Such a tease.  It let me put in a profile name that one start after the first crash.  I exited out to see if it would do it again.  It now crashes again with either a Breakpoint error or nothing at all.  Logs are after the nothing at all crash.

And please pardon the Minecraft reference, I play it a lot.

[SyberSmoke]

Hurm...So it is specifically something in the settings.  Default settings do not crash...so with out the settings.dat file the game starts.  Tried setting to windowed...no joy there.  Interesting what is going on...also turned off Auto Update check...nope still crashed.

Or not...it is odd since it is intermittent.  Some times it goes...most of the time it is a no go.  Strong in the ways of stubborn this one is...Yes.

[x4000]

Thanks for the log files.  That is super odd that it is sometimes happening and sometimes not, and that the default settings seem okay. :/

There is one other guy also with this problem intermittently, if you want to compare any notes: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15650


A new version 7.060 is now out, hopefully that helps. There were some errors in your logs that made it seem very likely that automatic update checks were getting killed by some form of antivirus.  Some people have said Avast continues to still run and randomly kill games even when disabled, from what I've heard.  Not just our games; it's been kind of nutty.

Anyway, I should have mentioned this before, but in your settings.dat file inside your RuntimeData folder, you can add/change the following line:

AutomaticallyCheckForUpdates:1

to

AutomaticallyCheckForUpdates:0

That would prevent the crash if it is indeed update-check-related.  One way or another, even if Avast is still killing the game, that would stop it for sure, because Avast would only be killing it because of the call out to amazon to see if there are new updates or not.  With that off, Avast would be fine with the game.

You can restart steam to force a new update.

No problem on the minecraft reference, I also love it.