Topic: User can't get any game to launch. Has weird workaround.

[Dave Gilbert]

So one of our Unavowed testers has had a very strange problem. He launches the game and nothing happens. The task manager lists the game as active, but the game isn't displaying. I asked the user to open winsetup to change the display driver, but the same thing happens when running winsetup. On a whim, I asked him to try running Shardlight (made in the non-openGL version of AGS) and he had the same problem. What's weird is that he used to be able to play Shardlight just fine.

He found a weird workaround -- he went through the Windows compatibility troubleshooter and set it to "Windows XP Service Pack 3" -- and now it's working.
We asked him to try launching Shardlight and see if the same thing happens. So it seems like either something has changed in Windows or something changed on his computer that's causing a problem. But no one else has reported this, so I'm confused!

Any light shedding would be appreciated! Thanks.

-Dave

edit: Here's his DxDiag.txt, just in case that's helpful.

[Crimson Wizard]

Hmm, no immediate ideas, but in the past "Windows XP compatibility" helped when game files, or save files, were in directory with non-latin characters. This is not necessarily related, only something I remembered.

What about anti-virus, does he/she run any?

E: strange thought, but how many active monitors this person has?

[morganw]

It sounds quite similar to this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_apps-insider_other-insiderplat_pc/171341-build-have-so-many-bugs/60064892-1b85-4e85-a207-176c3b858468
Potentially, since it is affecting winsetup too, it is new automatic display scaling features which is breaking it.

If you search release notes for this version of Windows, it includes:

“Advanced scaling” has been added under Display and allows you to enable “Fix scaling for apps”

...so I'd probably try to find where you can fix the scaling for the game and winsetup, and try again without the XP compatibility mode.

[Dave Gilbert]

The non-latin thing probably isn't the case since he is a native English speaker. I'll ask him about the rest.

[Dave Gilbert]

So the user says he does use anti-virus (AVG free version), but the games folder is ring-fenced to avoid such issues. And he only has a single monitor.

He actually was mistaken and it turns out that our old games DO run just fine, so it's something specific to Unavowed.

[eri0o]

I have nothing to add except to point that DxDiag has the event below as reported error.

EventType: BEX

Indicates a buffer overflow (/GS) or DEP exception (BEX64 indicates a buffer overflow (/GS) or DEP exception on 64-bit versions of Windows)

DEP is related to data execution prevention.

[Dave Gilbert]

Does that mean there's a problem specific to his machine? Or with how the game is interacting with his machine?

I admit this is worrying. One user having this problem at testing time usually translates to several hundred once the game comes out.

[ManicMatt]

Why does it bring up Unforeseen Incidents in that text file guys? Doesn't that suggest this was running at the same time??

+++ WER4 +++:
Fault bucket 1367982366222296850, type 5
Event Name: RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Unforeseen Incidents.exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: 10.0.17134.2.0.0
P4:
P5:
P6:
P7:
P8:
P9:
P10:

[Crimson Wizard]

Why does it bring up Unforeseen Incidents in that text file guys? Doesn't that suggest this was running at the same time??

Not necessarily at the same time, these errors are stored in system log.
You may notice Unawoved.exe is mentioned 3 or 4 times, probably run in different time. There is also chrome.exe mentioned.

Dave, do older versions of Unawoved cause same issue for him? What was the version of AGS Shardlight made with? Maybe do few experiments and see if other games made with AGS 3.4.1 cause this also?

I tried turning on DEP on my system (Windows 7 64bit) and Unawoved runs fine, but I have last year version.
Have anything significant happened to the game, like you started using some plugin?

[ManicMatt]

Oh okay, I thought they were processes running in the background. So they're presumably retries on the .exe.

[Dave Gilbert]

Why does it bring up Unforeseen Incidents in that text file guys? Doesn't that suggest this was running at the same time??

Not necessarily at the same time, these errors are stored in system log.
You may notice Unawoved.exe is mentioned 3 or 4 times, probably run in different time. There is also chrome.exe mentioned.

Dave, do older versions of Unawoved cause same issue for him? What was the version of AGS Shardlight made with? Maybe do few experiments and see if other games made with AGS 3.4.1 cause this also?

I tried turning on DEP on my system (Windows 7 64bit) and Unawoved runs fine, but I have last year version.
Have anything significant happened to the game, like you started using some plugin?

Haven't used any new plugins. Shardlight was made with one of the 3.3s. This is the only user this has happened to so maybe it's an isolated incident? Hoping so.

[Dave Gilbert]

Well, another tester had the exact same problem so it's not an isolated incident. Couldn't get the game or winsetup to launch, but running in XP compatibility mode fixed it.

[Crimson Wizard]

Well, another tester had the exact same problem so it's not an isolated incident. Couldn't get the game or winsetup to launch, but running in XP compatibility mode fixed it.

So, is this something related to Unawoved, or other games too?
Is it possible to narrow problem down by trying
a) games made with previous versions of AGS
b) other games made with AGS 3.4.1?

Additionally, you may ask testers to turn the log on by putting

Code: Text

1. [misc]
2. log=1
3.  

in the acsetup.cfg.
The log will be found in C:\Users\YourUserName\Saved Games\.ags
Maybe it will contain some hint.


EDIT: There is another thing, winsetup actually initializes graphic drivers to be able to get list of supported resolutions. If this crash is related to one of them, that could explain why winsetup also does not run.

What about changing driver in acsetup.cfg by hand and trying if any of them works?
List of possible options is here: https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/blob/master/OPTIONS.md

[Dave Gilbert]

I'll ask them to create a log!

EDIT: There is another thing, winsetup actually initializes graphic drivers to be able to get list of supported resolutions. If this crash is related to one of them, that could explain why winsetup also does not run.

What about changing driver in acsetup.cfg by hand and trying if any of them works?
List of possible options is here: https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/blob/master/OPTIONS.md

Since running it in compatibility mode works, would running winsetup in compatibility mode and changing the settings that way work just as well?

[Dave Gilbert]

Sorry the the double post. This has happened to two more testers. Hopefully one of these two will help me out and generate that log file for me!

[Crimson Wizard]

EDIT: There is another thing, winsetup actually initializes graphic drivers to be able to get list of supported resolutions. If this crash is related to one of them, that could explain why winsetup also does not run.

What about changing driver in acsetup.cfg by hand and trying if any of them works?
List of possible options is here: https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/blob/master/OPTIONS.md

Since running it in compatibility mode works, would running winsetup in compatibility mode and changing the settings that way work just as well?

I believe it should, but then they will need to turn compat mode off to try if that another renderer works (in game) without it.

[Dave Gilbert]

OK here's the log file. It looks very strange to me. I'm not sure if the tester did it right.

Code: [Select]

Adventure Game Studio v3.4 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2018 others
ACI version 3.4.1.13

Installing exception handler
Initializing allegro
Initializing game data
Looking for the game data file
Located game data file: c:/PROGRA~2/Steam/STEAMA~1/common/Unavowed/Unavowed.exe
Opened game data file: game28.dta
Game data version: 49
Compiled with: 3.4.1.13
Setting up game configuration
Running Setup
Built library path: d3d9.dll


[eri0o]

Actually it's cut short, it probably crashed right after Built library path: d3d9.dll

[Crimson Wizard]

It's the log of running winsetup. "Running Setup" tells that.
"Built library path: d3d9.dll" should currently be the last line, it does not write anything else after that.
Also, was this log run with or without compatibility setting?

[Dave Gilbert]

I told him to run it without, but I asked him to confirm.