Crash on startup with 4.0

[KamikazeRockets]

I just bought the game from STEAM and launched for the first time, but crash as soon as game window popped up.
"GameInit[4-10/28/2010 10:01:44 PM]" always appears in the center of the screen right before it stops responding.(time part changes but 4 is allways same)
Could anyone help me?
I don't know if it helps, but I will attach DxDiag anyway.
If there are any other log or anything I could check, let me know.
Thanks.

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the forums

Sorry about the troubles you're running into.  Would you mind checking the game directory and its RuntimeData subdirectory for any log files (like UnhandledErrors.txt)?  For a steam install the directory is usually something like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ai war fleet command\

On some setups the game can't write a log file to that location unless the game is running in admin mode.

[KamikazeRockets]

Thanks for a quick responce!
I looked through the game folder, but I cannot locate anything that looks like an error log.
Anywhere else I could look?

By the way, I am logged in as an admin for my Win7 and stupid UAC is turned off.

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm, that's odd, normally it would generate something, and with the protections off it shouldn't have that much trouble writing a log file.  How much memory is free on your system before you start the game?

I'm looking at the code for steps 4, and it's initializing the screen resolution, a ton of data classes, checks for updates (if auto-check is enabled, which it is by default), and some other stuff.  Perhaps we should split out that chunk a bit

In case it's the auto-update thing, can you try replacing your settings.dat in the RuntimeData subfolder (create settings.dat if it doesn't already exist) and paste this into it:

Code: [Select]

SERIALIZATION_VERSION:67
DisableSound:1
DisableMusic:1
SortShipTextures:0
ShowScoreByDefault:1
AllowEdgePanning:1
KeepPlayingMusicWhilePaused:1
AutomaticallyCheckForUpdates:0
UseTBSFriendlyPause:1
RestoreZoomWhenActivatingControlGroup:0
ZoomInHotkeysCenterOnCursor:1
SizeWindow:1
ReversePanSpeed:0
ReverseZoomSpeed:0
AlwaysShowPlanetNames:0
AlwaysDisplayWormholeNamesTopmost:0
OmitMarkINumerals:0
ShowIntelSummaryByCursor:0
HideShipBarsInFarZoom:0
ShowShipRechargeBars:0
ShowMinimapBoxOnTopOfShipBlips:0
LastShowSaveLoadByDate:0
LastHasCloaking:1
LastHasTeleporting:1
LastHasHeavyDefense:1
LastHasMines:1
LastHasParasites:1
LastHasStarships:1
LastHasTurrets:1
LastHasTractorBeams:1
LastEnableCheats:1
LastShowsNonScoutedWormholeLinks:1
KeepAutosaves:0
DisableStarfields:0
DisableNebulae:0
DisablePlanetDisplay:0
DisableJunkRockDisplay:0
HideShots:0
HideExplosions:0
DisableDamagedShipSmoke:0
DisableBoostLines:0
DisableForceFieldRotation:0
SkipBatchNetworkSending:0
IsFullscreen:0
ReduceVisualStimulation:0
DisableHoldShiftToMultiPlace:0
TreatLeftAndRightModifiersAsSeparateKeys:0
WindowWidth:1024
WindowHeight:768
IconGroupingDistance:12
CurrentProfileIndex:-1
LastMapSeed:1087402344
LastNumberOfPlanets:80
LastAutoAIProgressAmount:1
LastAutoAIProgressMinutes:30
AutosaveInterval:10
NetworkPort:32320
MaximumTransmissionUnit:1400
masterSoundVolume:100
weaponVolume:70
explosionVolume:80
voiceVolume:98
interfaceVolume:95
shipSoundsVolume:70
alertsVolume:80
musicVolume:90
LastAI1Difficulty:6
LastAI1Handicap:0
LastAI2Difficulty:6
LastAI2Handicap:0
ZoomIncrements:20
ZoomSpeedNew:10
KeyboardZoomSpeed:10
PanLevel:4
ShowIconsAt:21
NebulaDetail:100
MinimapSize:1
ShowVersionWarning:0
FullscreenWidth:1280
FullscreenHeight:768
FullscreenPreferredRefreshRate:60
LastManualServerIP:
Language:
LastFoundAIWarVersion:
LastFoundBetaVersion:
LastFoundZenithVersion:
LastFowType:0
LastShipDifficulty:1
LastCombatStyle:1
LastUnitCapScaleType:0
LastPerformanceMode:2
LastMapStyle:0
LastGalaxyDisplay:7
LastGalaxyFilter:0
LastAI1Type:21
LastAI2Type:21
NetworkSyncSize:6
LastAI1Color:-5952982
LastAI2Color:-831487
ExpansionsDisabled:
LastAIMods:

Note that normally settings.dat will contain private data (license keys, not in plain text, but still) and so shouldn't be posted.  But this is my settings.dat with those removed and some sanity added.

Anyway, if you can give it a try with that, it might help narrow things down a bit.

[KamikazeRockets]

When lanching the game, I have about 1.6 ~ 1.5 GB of free RAM, so I'm guessing that should be enough.
Under the RuntimeData folder, I did not see the settings.dat file, so I made one and pasted what you wrote in previous post.
However, no change and still crash at same place.

[KamikazeRockets]

OK, so I downloaded demo off your homepage, and it lanched smoothly!
However, STEAM version still crash on the same place.
I used STEAM's verify cash thing but no good.
It seems like STEAM is the one causing this trouble.
Any guess on how to fix it?

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, my next suggestion was to detach it from steam to test it

If you like, you can simply put your license keys into the demo that you downloaded and it will unlock like normal.

As far as why it's not working from steam, I'm not really sure, it may be the steam-specific code that's called to start the steam overlay, etc.  If you rename (or delete, but rename is more undo-able) the vendor.dat in your steam-aiwar directory, and try to run it from steam, it should start without the overlay.

That said, it would obviously be nice to get it working with all that, but an important step is verifying that the overlay is in fact the problem.

[x4000]

If you launch from Steam, the steam overlay gets injected regardless.  It sounds like it might be crashing right around the time that would initialize, regardless of what we're doing.  That's most odd indeed; you might try and see if there are any other steam client updates you could install?

[KamikazeRockets]

launching demo with STEAM overlay works fine.
deleting local content from STEAM and reinstalled, but no good.
I don't really think there are anything else I can do, so I guess I will be launching game without STEAM.
DEMO with CDKEY from STEAM still works as a full product right?
and also with 2 DLCs?

[x4000]

You might check to see if your windows username has access to write to the AIWar folder in Steam -- if not, that could be the problem.  But, worst case, you can totally use the CD keys from Steam in the non-Steam versions, with no problem.  Sorry about this, that's quite odd!

[Zeraxeal]

I have the same problem.

The thing is, I bought the game in an internet cafe, where Windows XP is being used as the OS. It worked fine in there, but when I got home and tried to install it with a computer that uses Windows 7, the game crashes just as OP's game did.

What's funnier is that the game works when I launch the game directly from the C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\ai war fleet command folder. (which launches it WITHOUT steam overlay.)

I assume that it must be something to do with Steamworks (and possibly Windows 7).

[x4000]

Can you post any error files that you find inside the runtimedata of the game folder? This is a fairly obscure issue, we've got a ton of people on win7 (including me), and a ton ton of people using steam, all without incident. Clearly it's something related, but I'm not yet sure what that would be. Are you using kaspersky? Or any other programs that might inject themselves into the game (like livestream, Xfire, etc)? There is a workaround for kaspersky posted as a sticky in this forum, and for the others those ought to show up in the error logs if they are causing the crash.

[Zeraxeal]

Problem solved...but it actually left me with even more question.

Being a Korean, My computer would automatically install Microsoft IME 2010 (Input Method Editor) when I install MS Office 2010.
The thing is, IME 2010 is known to cause crash the installer for CoreAVC (A video decoder), so I usually revert it back to original IME (I don't know what it is called in English, sorry) as soon as I'm done with installing Office.

Surprisingly, when I reverted my input method back to the original one to install CoreAVC, that took care of Steamworks' problem as well.

This problem is also present on Microsoft IME 2007 (the one that comes with Office 2007), so I don't know how this could fix anything, but I recommend the OP to check if his input method is either one of above, and if it is, try to change it into something else and see how it goes.

[x4000]

Okay, wow. That's awesome sleuthing, thank you! And, great to see some folks from Korea here, we've got far too few.

[Zeraxeal]

Yeah, it's not like we are all obsessed over original Starcraft Although it's difficult to find an indie game multiplayer server with a fast ping.

I'm trying to find out why CoreAVC's installer would be having a problem with IME 2010, but there is no known explanation behind it, and to top it off, all the pages that mention this problem are in Korean.

Still, I suppose you can now suggest people to check whether they are using IME 2007/2010 when they have problem with Steamworks

Edit - Great game BTW, you managed to pull me out from Civ V's clutches. XD I especially love the soundtrack, are there any plans to release it somehow?