[SOLVED] DEVS, TAKE A LOOK, PLEASE - Empyrion Crash on Startup (Black Screen) - Workaround

Discussion in 'FAQ & Feedback' started by SmaugBR, Jan 31, 2020.

  1. SmaugBR

    SmaugBR Lieutenant

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    Hi everyone,

    This post is for the ones who, like me, were having trouble starting Empyrion and can't find the answer anywhere. While this doesn't represent a real fix, it is a workaround which worked for me. It is a weird situation, since Empyrion has ALWAYS worked on my system and suddenly stopped doing so, but, nevertheless, here we go.

    The issue:

    - Upon starting Empyrion, the game starts to load, then a Black Screen, then nothing. When I clicked CTRL+ALT+DEL, this message was shown (in a non-technical translation from Brazilian Portuguese):
    "Application error. The instruction in "0x********" made a reference in memory in "0x00000000". The memory cannot be 'written'."

    ... or, if I tried to run Empyrion.exe directly, it just gave me this:
    "Empyrion has stopped working and needs to be closed".

    What people say (proposed solutions I found over the Internet):

    - Game is unable to load a certain version of DirectX (DX11, people said to downgrade to 9);
    - Outdated system / RAM / GPU hardware;
    - Not enough VRAM / GPU RAM / GPU VRAM available;
    - The game is trying to use a portion of your RAM which is reserved for the system / other software and so there is a conflict no one can resolve - change your hardware;
    - You have a hardware issue (mainly RAM issue);
    - Outdated GPU drivers;
    - Outdated Windows;
    - You need to downgrade your nVidia drivers to an early version and try again;
    - ...after trying, you need to revert back to the most recent nVidia drivers and try again;
    - The game needs to have their files verified on Steam;
    - The game needs to be reinstalled from scratch;
    - Your antivirus software is conflicting with the game;
    - EAC is conflicting with the game, you must run directly through Empyrion.exe;
    - These things happen because the game is in Alpha, try using EmpyrionLauncher.exe;
    - The issue simply disappeared magically since the last update.

    These were the solutions I remember right now, and of course I tested everyone single one of them (yeah, I like Empyrion that much), but none worked.

    - The "solution" I found:

    I read somewhere a Dev asking a player to press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open the Task Manager and follow what happens to the game executable as it loads. I did so and the game WORKED!

    - The cause of the problem I discovered:

    I discovered Task Manager stayed "always on top" when Empyrion loaded. Since it forced itself to show on screen, Empyrion could not enter fullscreen mode. It loaded, but BEHIND Task Manager. Inside the game, I found the video settings were changed to accomodate this situation, from "Exclusive Fullscreen" to "Fullscreen Window" instead. When I tried to manually revert it back to "Exclusive Fullscreen" (which I normally used), the game crashed again, as usual.

    It also seems that this "exclusive fullscreen" is set as the default loading option, since everytime I load the game without an open Task Manager on screen, the game crashes. (For the ones worried about immersion: this "Fullscreen Window" changes nothing in the game visuals when compared to "Exclusive Fullscreen").

    So, here is the deal: something happened to the game when the last big update came out and messed with how the game deals with this fullscreen thing. Now, the game crashes in "Exclusive Fullscreen" mode.

    - The only remaining thing:

    Please, if someone knows how to change something (a config file?) outside the game, so it doesn't revert back to "Exclusive Fullscreen", I'd be glad to know. In order to stop this problem, I need to permanently change video settings so it always starts in "Fullscreen Window" from now on - and not just when Task Manager is open in front of it.

    Thanks a lot - and I really hope this helps.

    SmaugBR
     
    #1
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
  2. Beasthammer

    Beasthammer Commander

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    And one more hint: use those texture sizes in half. When i set it to full it will always crash my game... You know 6GB of Vram is not enough :D
     
    #2
  3. Pantera

    Pantera Administrator Staff Member

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    Will look into this but 'Exclusive fullscreen' hasn't shown any issues for me on any of my PC's.

    What version of windows are you on ? there is a issue with the unity engine & windows 8.1 with 'Exclusive fullscreen'
    Can you attach a client log from the last crash where 'Exclusive fullscreen' caused it ?

    You can edit the setting via the windows registry editor:

    Open registry editor in windows & navigate to here:
    Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Eleon Game Studios\Empyrion - Galactic Survival

    Then for the parameter called 'OptionFullscreenMode_h1850645978' double click on it & with the 'Base' set to hexadecimal set the 'Value data' to 1 for Full Screen Windowed, select ok then try to start the game again:
    The following numbers in 'Value data' change the window mode:
    3 = Windowed mode
    1 = Full Screen Windowed
    0 = Full Screen Exclusive mode
     
    #3
  4. Pantera

    Pantera Administrator Staff Member

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    If I remember right your issue was because you disabled windows page file when it should be enabled.
     
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  5. Beasthammer

    Beasthammer Commander

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    Should i prove you wrong again?
     
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  6. Myrmidon

    Myrmidon Rear Admiral

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    Alt+Enter ancient windows shortcut key combination to change from fullscreen to window etc.
     
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  7. Pantera

    Pantera Administrator Staff Member

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    Feel free to PM me let's not go off topic from what is in the OP.
     
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  8. SmaugBR

    SmaugBR Lieutenant

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    Weird... I have 6 GB RAM in my GPU and it works nicely with full textures... probably your issue is connected to what Pantera said above.
     
    #8
  9. SmaugBR

    SmaugBR Lieutenant

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    It didn't work either. I have tested it before. The game crashes before it responds to the ALT+Enter command. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
     
    #9
  10. SmaugBR

    SmaugBR Lieutenant

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    Yes, you're right: I'm a Windows 8.1 user.
    I just attached the file. Thanks for all the attention.


    Oh, thank you very much! :D
    I'm gonna try this right now.
    EDIT: It worked. Empyrion loads correctly now - in Full Screen Window. Thanks.
     

    Attached Files:

    #10
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2020
  11. Xandrathii

    Xandrathii Ensign

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    Not crashing but the game gives me a low memory message every time I load it. Seems to run fine. 8gig video card 16gig says mem 4gig of the 16 are reserved for the video card dxdiag shows it as 12gig. This has been happening since the last game update.
     
    #11

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