Crash at the start of the game (Below Zero, PC)

Toast1833

Hi. I've recently gotten BZ for PC and went to start a game, menu loads fine and world generation works, but when the story starts and you sit up, it crashes and closes the game down without warning. When i go back on it doesn't have the save file and it's like i never opened it in the first place. My PC should be within the minimum specs (i5, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD 6850 X2, fully updated drivers) and its on low settings. In the Player.log file it says some errors before the crash:

ACTIVATING SCRIPTED WEATHER:  Early Game - Scripted Weather A
 
(Filename: W:\unity1\Runtime/Export/Debug/Debug.bindings.h Line: 35)

Caching tech types for 4845 prefabs
 
(Filename: W:\unity1\Runtime/Export/Debug/Debug.bindings.h Line: 35)

d3d11: failed to create buffer (target 0x1 mode 0 size 1344) [0x887A0005]
d3d11: failed to create buffer (target 0x2 mode 0 size 180) [0x887A0005]
D3D11: Failed to create RenderTexture (1600 x 900 fmt 27 aa 1), error 0x887a0005
 
(Filename: W:\unity1\Runtime/GfxDevice/d3d11/RenderTextureD3D11.cpp Line: 207)

D3D11: Failed to create RenderTexture (1600 x 900 fmt 19 aa 1), error 0x887a0005
 
(Filename: W:\unity1\Runtime/GfxDevice/d3d11/RenderTextureD3D11.cpp Line: 207)

Crash!!!

I've also checked creative mode and that doesn't work either. Is my PC not quite powerful enough for the game or is it some other issue?

Toast1833

I've also just checked when trying a new game again and it runs fine at first, even getting out of bed and waiting a few seconds its fine, but as soon as i start to look around it crashes.

narfblat

It's a graphics card/driver issue, but there's a few things to try:
Change graphics drivers. The most recent isn't always best. Sometime, old drivers aren't completely removed, there is a program called DDU to completely remove drivers.(I can find it if needed)
Opengl mode. In startup options, -force-opengl
If GPU is overclocked, set down to normal.

If you are playing experimental, switch to regular to see if that helps.

Toast1833

narfblat wrote: »

It's a graphics card/driver issue, but there's a few things to try:
Change graphics drivers. The most recent isn't always best. Sometime, old drivers aren't completely removed, there is a program called DDU to completely remove drivers.(I can find it if needed)
Opengl mode. In startup options, -force-opengl
If GPU is overclocked, set down to normal.

If you are playing experimental, switch to regular to see if that helps.

Thanks for this. Turns out my PC had an old driver still installed which seemed to be for a different model of GPU anyways, and once i uninstalled it the game works now. Thanks narfblat!

Toast1833

Actually i don't know exactly what happened but it seems that it didn't quite fix the issue, maybe it did but only temporarily. After the trying to remove old drivers thing didn't work i tried using a different driver instead but that one doesn't seem to work either, and when i used -force-opengl it worked better and i was able to play through till I got out into open water, but then it got really laggy and crashed. Looking at the log for when i played with -force-opengl, the log keeps on saying this from pretty much the start of the document till the crash constantly, with only a couple of small errors in the middle:

(Filename: W:\unity1\Runtime/GfxDevice/opengles/DeviceStateGLES.cpp Line: 72)

OpenGL Error: Invalid texture unit!

My GPU wasn't overclocked in the first place and I was playing on the stable branch. The only thing i haven't tried is to use the DDU program because it has a lot of warnings about loss of data and my PC going bust, etc. Is that going to be the only thing I can do?

narfblat

I don't have any experience with ddu myself. Let's see if @0x6A7232 is around anytime soon.

Below Zero seems to have more issues after the most recent update(lost ship, I think). There is a way to play older versions, I'll try to find that.

Toast1833

narfblat wrote: »

I don't have any experience with ddu myself. Let's see if @0x6A7232 is around anytime soon.

Below Zero seems to have more issues after the most recent update(lost ship, I think). There is a way to play older versions, I'll try to find that.

Thanks for your help with this! Yeah I wouldn't mind going back a version of it made it work again.

narfblat

okay, I found it, hope you're on steam. https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/subnautica-below-zero-story-changes-and-save-games/

For Steam players: ... Use the password belowzeroearlyaccess to unlock Steam EA branches; you can go back and play all of the EA releases there if you’re keen!

Toast1833

Thanks for this. Seems to work fine now, played through the opening story to a little while into the game and it hasn't had any problems, so I'm assuming that it was a problem with the lost ship update.

0x6A7232

DDU can be had from here: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

For the first step, if you want to disable Internet without unplugging or disconnecting from WiFi (NOTE: be sure you've already downloaded the display driver version you want to install after DDU!), simply find your network adapter (search for View Network Connections in the Start Menu) and right-click > Disable. After you're done with DDU and restarted and installed the new driver, then just open up View Network Connections again and right-click > Enable.

* You MUST disconnect your internet or completely block Windows Update when running DDU until you have re-installed your new drivers.
* DDU should be used when having a problem uninstalling/installing a driver or when switching GPU brand.
* DDU should not be used every time you install a new driver unless you know what you are doing.
* DDU will not work on network drive. Please install in a local drive (C:, or else).
* The tool can be used in Normal mode but for absolute stability when using DDU, Safemode is always the best.
* If you are using DDU in normal mode, Clean, reboot, clean again, reboot.
* Make a backup or a system restore (but it should normally be pretty safe).
* It is best to exclude the DDU folder completely from any security software to avoid issues.