CAN NOT INITIALIZE 3D ENGINE

[Auld Man Crag]

I am running a gamming PC purchased this year from new and have no probelms with any newly release games (Total War Warhammer 2 is my newest purchase and runs perfectly).

However, when I try to open Silent Hunter III which I purchased and downloaded from Steam I get the "can not initialize 3D engine" message. The Ubisoft and game video play but when the game video ends the screen srinks and goes black and the "can not initialze 3D engine"messge pops up.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 TI graphics card. I have tried changing the screen resolution to "1280x768" but to no success. I'm not PC savvy at all all so have no idea how to resolve this even after trawling the internet. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[sENoZ]

lower screen resolution, also install a widescren mod.

[Auld Man Crag]

I've already tried a lower screen resolution as advised on threads on the internet to 1280x768 but it made no difference.

[cobalT]

Originally posted by Auld Man Crag:

I've already tried a lower screen resolution as advised on threads on the internet to 1280x768 but it made no difference.

Get this mod[www.subsim.com] and set it to your screen's resolution. Follow the instructions carefully!

[Auld Man Crag]

Any advice on where to get the SH3_XPSP2_Res_Fix_for_1.4b; file from? The links I've found wont actually download the file? Also, this seam a hell of a lot of hassle to simply make the game play? Is there no simpler fix?

[hawkdancer_myrick]

Good day
I had the same problem but in more then one game.
it turned out to be the fire wall I just went into the firewall settings and made the game exc excempt so they passed trought the fire wall this fixed the problem in all the game i had that where giving me that error

[Auld Man Crag]

Thanks but tried that to no avail. I'm not interested in playing the game in widescreen or fitting my TV perfectly (at this stage at least). I simply want it to play.

[teleguy]

Originally posted by Auld Man Crag:

I've already tried a lower screen resolution as advised on threads on the internet to 1280x768 but it made no difference.

I think it needs to be 1024x768, same as the games max resolution.

Tried this already?
https://steamcommunity.com/app/15210/discussions/0/1742229167173856505/

[Auld Man Crag]

Yep. Changing to screen resolution 1024x768 makes no difference. The Ubisoft Video plays then the game intro video then a black screen (the only difference with the above resolution is rather than an off set window the whole screen went black) followed by the "cant initialize" window.

One other thing is the desktop icon for the game is a white sheet rather than the game icon all my other games are. This sent warning signals off before I tried teh game but being new to PC gaming (console since my ZX Spectrum days!).

[sENoZ]

you just need a gui like magui final for example so.

[Auld Man Crag]

I wouldn't know where to start with a gui. I'm sure I could create one but use it would be another matter. To give you an idea of where I am with a PC i can turn it on, click on a game icon and play. That is about it.

[teleguy]

Originally posted by Auld Man Crag:

I wouldn't know where to start with a gui. I'm sure I could create one but use it would be another matter. To give you an idea of where I am with a PC i can turn it on, click on a game icon and play. That is about it.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/15210/discussions/0/1742229167173856505/ ?

[ZenZone1]

Desktop res need to be in 4:3 aspect ratio for full screen to work. 1680 x 1050 works for me.

Another solution involve modifying the 'main.cfg' file.
File is here:
C:\Users\"Your PC username"\Documents\SH3\data\cfg

Open it with notepad.

Mine looks like this under this section:
[VIDEO]
Resolution=1680 x 1050 (although mine is manually set at this i don't think it matters because it just seems like 1024 x 768 expanded)
DynamicShadows=Yes (default=No)
FullScreen=Yes (change this to No for max compatibility)
Synchronized=Yes (This is for V-Sync On)

Haven't played the game. Just got it to work today into the main menu. Mine isn't Steam version though; it's a standalone version with Tages DRM activation.

[denPes]

Nvidia control panel/Adjust desktop size and position/
then on the right side you see the scaling tab. and the setting "Perform scaling on: "
there you have to select GPU (the default is "Display")

[Baker]

Originally posted by Auld Man Crag:

I've already tried a lower screen resolution as advised on threads on the internet to 1280x768 but it made no difference.

yeah but actually that is still too high.
you want 1024 x 768

[w.f.harney]

i have the same problem which makes me not want to buy any more games here