Instant crash to desktop when launching game

Post » Sat May 12, 2012 2:26 pm

As soon as I launch the game, it crashes. If I look at the task manager, it will have a process called arx.exe running, which terminates itself after 8 or so seconds.

I have fiddled with the config.ini (anybody upload theirs for download?) and disabled community overlay. I'm running as administrator and tried ticking the other options such as forcing it into 640 res. I've applied the newest official and unofficial patch. Someone said something about copying steam.dll into the Arx folder, that didn't do anything either.

2x ATI 5870 (not running crossfire)
i7 @ stock, 3.2 Ghz
12 gigabytes of ram
2560x1440 native resolution

Any suggestions?
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Robert Jr
 
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Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:49 pm

Post » Sat May 12, 2012 12:21 pm

Are you running Windows 7?

Did you try to run it without applying any patches?

Did you buy/download it on Steam?

Did you try to run it without messing with any files?
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kyle pinchen
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 2:58 am

Are you running Windows 7?

Did you try to run it without applying any patches?

Did you buy/download it on Steam?

Did you try to run it without messing with any files?

Windows 7.

Well I'm playing the Steam version, but I've tried an install where I didn't manually install any patches.

Yes, also tried without messing with any files.
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Marcus Jordan
 
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Post » Fri May 11, 2012 10:46 pm

Oh man... I can't believe Steam sells sells games they don't test. When I "bought" Bloodlines, it crashed to desktop every time ~Their 'help' was to recommend that I remove ? of my RAM when I wanted to play the game. :banghead:

I am going to guess that its DRM related in some odd and unexpected way. I have zero problems running GoG's version of Arx Fatalis in 1920 x 1080.

As an option... Doesn't Microsoft offer a free XP virtual machine to Windows 7 users for those apps that just can't be made to work with it?

**Arx Fatalis is a DX7 game that I've had no trouble running (playable) on an old P4 with integrated Intel Graphics. So playing it in a VM (at last resort) should still play just fine for you.
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John Moore
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 12:44 pm

If it's possible, you can try to get a refund and just get it on GOG.com. Not sure if Steam lets you return stuff though.
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Jade Muggeridge
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 10:27 am

Oh man... I can't believe Steam sells sells games they don't test. When I "bought" Bloodlines, it crashed to desktop every time ~Their 'help' was to recommend that I remove ? of my RAM when I wanted to play the game.

This isn't Steam responsability. Both Arx and Bloodlines are rather old games now, and it's very hard to keep supporting 5+ years old games (i.e. Arx uses DirectX 7, which was handled in a very different way under Windows 98 than DX10/11 are under Vista or 7). We did our best with the 1.21 patch, but we know there's a couple of issues yet (at least a startup crash and an in-game BSOD) we couldn't manage to pin down and fix. I wish we could do more, but obviously, with the source code now released, I believe it's up to the community to keep supporting these games. One again, Bloodlines probably is the best example of a community supported game (once again a new patch was released a few days ago)!
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Sasha Brown
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 3:35 am

This isn't Steam responsability. Both Arx and Bloodlines are rather old games now, and it's very hard to keep supporting 5+ years old games (i.e. Arx uses DirectX 7, which was handled in a very different way under Windows 98 than DX10/11 are under Vista or 7). We did our best with the 1.21 patch, but we know there's a couple of issues yet (at least a startup crash and an in-game BSOD) we couldn't manage to pin down and fix. I wish we could do more, but obviously, with the source code now released, I believe it's up to the community to keep supporting these games. One again, Bloodlines probably is the best example of a community supported game (once again a new patch was released a few days ago)!
Luckily I've not had any issues with Arx ~except the texture bug with the mice and other models; but that was fixed in 1.17 IIRC.

**BTW do the Arx tools still exist? Arxpak, and maybe the mapper?
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Quick Draw III
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 9:16 am

Windows 7.

Well I'm playing the Steam version, but I've tried an install where I didn't manually install any patches.

Yes, also tried without messing with any files.

1. Make sure your sound card drivers are updated.
2. Try to delete the cfg.ini, reboot, then either launch through the exe in the game file or start menu (preferably as "administrator").
3. Make sure the game is at least patched to v1.14; For Vista or Win 7, you should be patched to 1.21 (look in the Arx install folder for Arx-patch_r1.21.txt. as a good indicator).

**BTW do the Arx tools still exist? Arxpak, and maybe the mapper?

Yup;
http://teachsolaisgames.com/utils/ArxPakFull.zip

Not sure about the mapper. :shrug:
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Damian Parsons
 
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Post » Sat May 12, 2012 1:01 pm

I am having the exact same problem. I bought through steam and I am running windows 7. I don't understand the talk about patches as steam automatically installs all patches. As far as I am aware steam doesn't allow you to return games. I tried contacting steam and got the response 'Technical support for this title is handled by a third party support department "
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Alada Vaginah
 
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