Unable to launch game - crashes steam on startup.

spikerm · October 2016

I am hoping someone can assist with this. I have tried all the basics (uninstall the game, reinstalling, running the installers from the dist folder, windowed mode, admin ect). I haven't played the game in a while but it used to run on the exact setup I have now, not sure what changed.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot to go on. I start the game and the game loads up I can see the loading screen and the loading... wheel starts spinning. Then after about 3 seconds it stops and the game eventually closes. What's interesting is that there is no real logs for the game (I pasted what is there) but the actual Steam app crashes in the background, which I suspect may be the issue. I attached a windows event log for that crash.

Date: 10/16/16
Time: 00:03:46:

[ 0.021] Unbound/Unknown : Filesystem initialized, cache enabled
Build 310
Windows 8 64-bit (build 9200)
Steam initialized
[INVENTORY] Granting Promo Items
Num displays: 3
Direct3D 9 initialized: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (21.21.13.7306)
Sound Device: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) stereo
Record Device: Microphone (USB Audio Device)
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Loading config://FavoriteServers.json
Loading config://HistoryServers.json
Loading config://RankedServers.json

Faulting application name: Steam.exe, version: 3.65.13.80, time stamp: 0x57feda52
Faulting module name: tier0_s.dll, version: 3.65.13.80, time stamp: 0x57fed988
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x0001f0ee
Faulting process id: 0x1e40
Faulting application start time: 0x01d227777af88ae1
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\tier0_s.dll
Report Id: 370eb4ff-56b5-4708-94b2-82c0ee496bf9
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

IronHorse · October 2016

Are you running a beta branch of steam?
You may have to reinstall steam if its continually the culprit (doesnt take long and it preserves your games etc)

Could you also upload your techsupport.exe generated zip file? (the exe is found in your ns2 folder)

spikerm · October 2016

Sorry for the delayed response, was gone last week. Game still won't launch, here is my tech support log.

spikerm · October 2016

After a bunch of messing around I realized I was able to launch the game if I was in offline mode. So I tried launching the game using a friends account and it works fine. If he logs into my account on his computer it crashes. I looked at the logs and I see this:

Date: 10/27/16
Time: 22:36:13:

[ 0.052] Unbound/Unknown : Filesystem initialized, cache enabled
Build 311
Windows 8 64-bit (build 9200)
Steam initialized
[INVENTORY] Granting Promo Items
Num displays: 3
Direct3D 9 initialized: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (21.21.13.7563)
Sound Device: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) stereo
Record Device: Microphone (USB Audio Device)
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Loading config://FavoriteServers.json
Loading config://HistoryServers.json
Loading config://RankedServers.json
Remote patch received. Loading...
Remote patch applied succesfully.
Main Menu Initialized at Version: 311
Steam Id: 28053233
[ 18.401] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_8
[ 18.743] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1
Client : 8.730178 : [Analytics] Recording launch event
[ 18.745] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_1_0
[ 18.759] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1
[ 18.771] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_2
[ 18.777] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_3
[ 18.785] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_4
[ 18.790] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_5
[ 19.888] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1

So it looks like this is achievement related? Is there anyway to reset them or something? I really don't care about the achievements, they can get wiped for all I care.

GhoulofGSG9 · October 2016

spikerm wrote: »

After a bunch of messing around I realized I was able to launch the game if I was in offline mode. So I tried launching the game using a friends account and it works fine. If he logs into my account on his computer it crashes. I looked at the logs and I see this:

Date: 10/27/16
Time: 22:36:13:
[ 0.052] Unbound/Unknown : Filesystem initialized, cache enabled
Build 311
Windows 8 64-bit (build 9200)
Steam initialized
[INVENTORY] Granting Promo Items
Num displays: 3
Direct3D 9 initialized: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (21.21.13.7563)
Sound Device: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) stereo
Record Device: Microphone (USB Audio Device)
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Loading config://FavoriteServers.json
Loading config://HistoryServers.json
Loading config://RankedServers.json
Remote patch received. Loading...
Remote patch applied succesfully.
Main Menu Initialized at Version: 311
Steam Id: 28053233
[ 18.401] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_8
[ 18.743] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1
Client : 8.730178 : [Analytics] Recording launch event
[ 18.745] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_1_0
[ 18.759] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1
[ 18.771] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_2
[ 18.777] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_3
[ 18.785] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_4
[ 18.790] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_5
[ 19.888] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_1

So it looks like this is achievement related? Is there anyway to reset them or something? I really don't care about the achievements, they can get wiped for all I care.

Start the game offline and open the console with ~ or whatever key is above tab and next to 1 for you and enter reset_achievements . Also try to see if disabling the steam cloud (right click at Natural Selection 2 in your library -> properties -> Updates -> Remove the check mark under steam cloud) helps.

spikerm · October 2016

No luck unfortunately, I did notice when I did the reset_achievements that it said initilizing reset and it appeared to work, then when I restarted the game it crashed again. Just to confirm I don't actually know the achievements are my problem, I just see that message. I do know its related to my account though. Is there a way to get in contact with someone from unknownworlds? I think they need to reset my account or something.

IronHorse · October 2016

Again, have you tried reinstalling Steam itself?
There's very little ways that Ns2 can make the steam app crash that I know of, so the easiest thing to try is just reinstalling steam.

spikerm · October 2016

It's not just steam though. I am able to launch and play the game just fine when I use my friends account. When he logs into my account on his computer, it crashes the game. Somehow my account is foobar.

Also, I tried reinstalling steam, didn't help

IronHorse · November 2016

That's... really weird. Never heard of anything like that here.

Could you try two things:

With NS2 closed..
Right click Ns2 in steam > properties > Set Launch options > add "-verbose 3" without the quotes
Now run NS2 again and when it crashes you can either go to to your hidden folder here and grab the file %appdata%/natural selection 2/log.txt ... Or you can just run techsupport.exe again and provide us with a new zip file to see the updated log.

2nd thing (after you did the first step)

With NS2 closed..
Go to your hidden folder where settings are saved C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\AppData\Roaming and Delete the 'Natural Selection 2' folder.
Then go to your Steam/userdata/YOURSTEAMID/4920 folder and delete it.
Now right click NS2 in steam > go to "Updates" tab > Uncheck "Enable steam cloud sync for NS2"
Try running NS2 and see if you still crash.

The line of thinking being.. if another PC is crashing using your account, there could be a corrupted file somewhere lurking in a settings folder that has been uploaded to steam cloud.
But hopefully the new log will tell us more with verbose turned on anyhow.

spikerm · November 2016

After I deleted the data from steam userdata the game launched for a min and showed my avatar but crashed a few seconds after I clicked play. Then when I tried to relaunch it wouldn't get past the loader again. I captured 3 logs.

1: Before I did anything with verbose logging (didn't show anything special).
2: Launched the game in offline mode, went into server browser then restarted steam in online mode and clicked refresh on the server browser. This caused the game to crash and show [ 9.649] MainThread : Error: Attempted to get unrecognized achievement: First_0_8
3: A log after I had deleted my settings from the app data and my steam folder.

IronHorse · November 2016

Definitely seems more and more like its just achievements.
I'll pass this along, but in the meantime why don't you try adding "-reset_achievements" to the launch parameters and see if that doesn't help, since it appeared to before restarting ns2 again.

spikerm · November 2016

Tried that, nothing, heres my params:

-nomodupdate -noerrors -verbose 3 -reset_achievements

spikerm · November 2016

Any word? Also is there any way to contact someone from uw directly? It's been a few weeks now and I still can't play the game

. I'm actually a dev as my day job so I ran a debugger on the app and it seems like a call that's being placed to the steam dll that's causing the issue.

Soul_Rider · November 2016

HI, I just googled:

"Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\tier0_s.dll"

This error appears with lots of different steam games, including Insurgency, Day-Z, Rocket League, Path Of Exile. There are many more, all with game crashing on startup.

This definitely looks like a steam issue, rather than any individual game, although it could just be a commonly loaded module.

Interestingly I found pages of these reports on various game forums and windows forums, but nothing on the steam forums. Maybe a random steam bug no-one has yet thought to post on steam?

I didn't directly search steam forums, only checked first 3 pages of google results.

IronHorse · November 2016

@spikerm

@GhoulofGSG9 Is actually a UWE employee. They are aware of the issue, but do not have a solution right now. I'll bring this up again though and see if anyone has any ideas on what to try.

edit: just another stab in the dark thing to try : change the Steam download server through steam settings. Probably won't fix it, but its an easy thing to test.

Zavaro · November 2016

spikerm wrote: »

It's not just steam though. I am able to launch and play the game just fine when I use my friends account. When he logs into my account on his computer, it crashes the game. Somehow my account is foobar.

Also, I tried reinstalling steam, didn't help

This is a curious thing. If it was relegated to just your computer, I'd say it's likely an anti-virus doing some shenanigans and quarantining/locking important Steam libraries. This seems much different, though. Just to verify, you may want to temporarily disable that to see if it helps. If not, re-enable it.

Tier0 library just appears to be one of the first libraries which Steam loads. It would make sense that with an early crash, it would trigger a failure to load the module.

Makes me think there's something account specific. Complete stab in the dark: change your Steam name in your profile. I know how idiotic that sounds, but an illegal character could (potentially) cause an issue for translation into NS2's naming conventions on boot.

spikerm · November 2016

If someone at unknowworlds needs a test of this I'd be willing to let you try to reproduce the problem using my account. Just let me know.

Zavaro · November 2016

A link to the account would probably be fine for now. It's a super odd issue that nobody has seen before, though it seems more a Steam related one than NS2 related.

spikerm · November 2016

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197988318961/

I hope that's the link needed.

Zavaro · November 2016

Yep. Nothing weird or out of the ordinary. I figured that the issue could arise with a character which wasn't the standard characterset with NS2, such as something like Hiragana or Thai. Unfortunately, my guess seems to be wrong. We'll continue to look into it for you.

GhoulofGSG9 · November 2016

@spikerm Could you please provide (either directly here or via private message to me) a memory dump of given issue. That way I can check if the issue is caused by the interface between NS2/Spark and Steamworks.

Otherwise maybe just switch to the Steam Client Beta to see if a newer version of given module fixes the issue. The main version of the steam client is not that often updated and can contain long fixed issues.

spikerm · November 2016

Sorry for the delay, I hope I got this right. I started steam in offline mode, started the game, closed steam then relaunched in online mode. Then clicked refresh on the server browser to get the game to crash. It was too big to upload here so I put it on dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcmzuz9hbgqniuf/ns2.exe_161115_214036.zip?dl=0

IronHorse · November 2016

Ok so supposedly nvd3dum.dll is what is crashing..
So just something to try right now:

Completely uninstall all display and graphics drivers.
Restart your PC.
Reinstall the latest nvidia graphics driver.

See if you can reproduce the issue.
It might just be a leftover/corrupt driver installation. (that is somehow shared between your friend and you, coincidentally enough?)

It's a long shot, sure, but its worth trying, anyways.

spikerm · November 2016

I can try that in a bit but I don't think it will make a difference. I am at another house for the holidays and I just reformatted a 3rd computer a few days ago. The only things installed are one or two other games and ns2. I downloaded the latest drivers when I reformatted. Interestingly enough when I first started ns2 on the fresh installed it launched fine (even in online mode). I could see servers. I though the issue was fixed so I rebooted to update the display settings for the game. When I rebooted the game it crashed again and now crashes every time.

IronHorse · November 2016

spikerm wrote: »

I though the issue was fixed so I rebooted to update the display settings for the game. When I rebooted the game it crashed again and now crashes every time.

While I agree that it probably wont make the difference... this part above is suspect. What display settings?

spikerm · November 2016

I don't remember. I just turned all the settings to max. What do I need to delete to reset them again?

BeigeAlert · November 2016

Go to %appdata% directory (Win + R, then %appdata%), then from there find Natural Selection 2/system_options.xml and delete that. This will reset all system-specific options for the game, like graphics settings.

Still doesn't explain why other people's steam accounts would be able to play on your system without any problems...

BeigeAlert · November 2016

For those interested, the problem was steam was crashing whenever ns2 was requesting the profile picture from steam (to be displayed in game). Changing the profile picture solved the issue.

Unable to launch game - crashes steam on startup.

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