crash on startup

douchebagatron

almost every time i start the game (at least 2/3rds of the time) it just boots up to a black screen. the submit crash report dialog pops up in the background, but that's about it.

there's not much in my crash log:

Date: 03/28/13
Time: 17:40:56

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Build 243
Steam initialized
Render Device: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (8.17.10.1172)
Sound Device: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) stereo
Record Device: Microphone (High Definition Audio Device)
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Loading config://FavoriteServers.json
Main Menu Initialized at Version: 243
Steam Id:

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Resource 15f479b0

dxdiag (i can provide the rest if necessary):

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System Information

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Time of this report: 3/28/2013, 17:45:54
Machine name: DOUCHEBAGATRON
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130104-1431)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: X58A-UD3R
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 9216MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 9214MB RAM
Page File: 3291MB used, 15135MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

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DxDiag Notes

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Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Display Tab 2: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

rws

Delete your cache folder located in C:\Users\<your user account>\AppData\Roaming\Natural Selection 2\cache. This will delete your shaders. Then load up the game and let it redownload them. Also make sure you are not running any overlay devices (such as in Ventrillo, Mumble, Teamspeak, etc.).

IronHorse

Side note: i have your CPU 6john.. it can easily handle 4 ghz with some 60 buck water cooling. PM me if you need details. Its so worth it though for NS2.

douchebagatron

seems to stop crashes, but it's also worth bringing up that when I compile shaders my cpu temps shoot up to 90c+ at which point I alt+F4 to prevent bad things from happening. beeps start going off in my computer and whatnot. I can get around it by setting the affinity for ns2.exe, but it's not ideal.

I'm not sure if it's something specific to my setup (defective cooling or something, i'm using stock cooling with no overclock) but if it's something that could happen to others then it could cause some serious issues if they aren't paying attention or know what to do.

IronHorse

Deleting your cache would not do this.
Sounds like something wrong with your heatsink/cooling/processor.

Tyrsis

This exact same thing happened to me, and I found that it was one specific shader file that caused it.

If you run into this problem where it black screens (with crash in the background and no menu), or black screens with a mouse cursor but no menu, exit and go to your cache and delete this file:
renderer_Deferred_shader_template_models_props_descent_descent_skybox_planet_surface_shader.cached_surface_shader

Then try to relaunch. I found that this fixes the issue without having to recompile all your shaders (which was really annoying)