Trying to launch the game... No luck so far...

[Laederic]

Hi everybody,


Well, new to the game, I've spent the last hour to try and launch the game, with no luck at all. Each time I'm trying, the music goes on, the resolution changes, while nothing appears on my screen but what was there previously and a clock from the game I guess. CRL-ALT-DEL for tasks manager shows heart of iron 3 exe not responding, but with no action avaliable, so I am only left with the option to CTRL-ALT-DEL again and to close my session...

Anyone having the game playable in windows 10 64 bits, and if yes what are your ideas as to how to (really) launch the game?

[Didz]

Yes! I am.

First question is where did you buy and what exactly did you buy?

Second question is what are you seeing when you try to launch the game. Is this screen or something similar appearing.
https://i.imgur.com/UH6vAVa.png

[Laederic]

Hi Didz,

Thanks for your help. So the game was bought a long time ago on steam, every major DLC being included in my purchase.

The image is exactly the one I get when I prelaunch the game, right before I click on start Hearts of Iron III. Then the mess described earlier begins.

[Laederic]

Major DLCs being :

Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi
Hearts of Iron III Semper Fi: Dies Irae Götterdämmerung
Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour
Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland

[Didz]

Ok! So you have exactly the same version as I do and i had similar problems when I first tried to play it.

First thing to check is what DLC you have running. So, can you go to your steam library, right click on Hearts of Iron 3, select Properties, and make a note of which of the DLC options you currently have ticked.

This is important for two reasons

1) I found some DLC is incompatible with other DLC and if you have the wrong combinations ticked as active the game won't load. As a test you might want to untick everything and see if it loads without any DLC active.

2) Some of the DLC provided by steam was incomplete and so won't work unless you download the full version from Paradox.

3) The order of installation is important for the DLC, but I'm not sure if steam handles it correctly. I think it was a mistake for steam to include the DLC in a single installation file.

Relevant post from the Paradox Forum.
https://i.imgur.com/qrK7gIz.png

Secondly, did you Register the game with Paradox and so have access to the Paradox Forum?

You may also need to download the podcast Hoi3.exe for TFH from there at some point.

[Laederic]

Ok,

1) I have unclicked every DLC and clicked on play button via Steam. I end up with a slightly different prelaunch window showing 404 Not Found nginx... If I click on start HOI3, I get the same result as previously described, except that I can terminate the process without closing my session

2) Thanks for that piece of information about completion. I still have to figure though how to download full versions of theses DLCs on Paradox site.

3) Steam uninstalled everything but game base as I unchecked every DLCs, I assume that I could now install DLCs according to order as posted by Forowaith and take care of incompatibilities

4) I had registered at Paradox but upon your message I also linked my steam account, assuming it could help for 2). Meanwhile I don't see on Paradox sites any aknowledgement that shows Paradox games I bought on Steam...

5) I have seen that there is a major mod, naming Black Ice, for HOI3, but I don't feel like proceeding with unofficial content before I have a stable game. As it comes to it, I still have to access to main menu... and I am back to 1 :-(

[Didz]

Personally! I'd get the game running in its vanilla state before adding any further complexity by loading additional mods.

1) I did a quick google search on 'HOI3 404 Not Found NGINX' and this looks like a missing asset on the PC rather than a HOI3 problem. Might be worth searching to see if there is an asset of that name present.

NOTE: Just out of interest I performed a full file storage search of my PC looking for NGiNX and I have no file on my PC with that name suggesting that it has nothing whatever to do with running HOI3.

Further google investigation reveals that NGiNX (pronounced 'Engine X') is a web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Igor Sysoev and first publicly released in 2004. A company of the same name was founded in 2011 to provide support.

I have no idea why your PC is looking for this file, or why it thinks it needs it, but it has nothing to do with HOI3 per see.

Quite where that leaves you is a bit hard to determine. I can't see why disabling the DLC would have deleted NGiNX or why if it was missing before you have only just got the error 404.

What you could do is try doing a local file validation of HOI3 just in case the DLC deselection deleted something it shouldn't have. It's pretty obvious that whoever prepared the HOI3 download package for steam did a pretty crappy job so it's possible the deselection process deleted more than it should.

2),3) & 4) It was a long time ago now but as I recall I did download the full versions of the DLC from the paradox site and installed them in the correct recommended order. What I can't remember off-hand is how Paradox knew I'd already paid for them. But hopefully if you link your steam account it will know.

I have also downloaded and installed Podcats.exe patch although as I recall it was largely on faith and the assurances that it improved things as my game was in fact working without it.
https://youtu.be/kRaN2ZXm3bs

5) I don't use the Black Ice Mod although a lot of people recommend it. However, as I said it might be better to get the game working before trying to enhance it.

FYI: At the moment I'm only using three of the DLC (Semper Fi: For The Motherland and Their Finest Hour.)
https://i.imgur.com/bV7YPyd.png

When I played the USA I switched to 'Stars and Stripes' ,but as I recall I had to switch Their Finest Hour off for it to work and likewise I think the 'Dies Erai Gottendam' is incompatible with TFH.

[Laederic]

Nginx for me has to do with HOI3, it is the webserver used by the program to locate an address that in my idea should return some image instead of the blank board I get with the 404. And I am not the only one getting that 404, another user mentionned it lately in the discussions.

I made some integrity check of the files after uninstalling DLCs and Steam basically said everything was all right.

Paradox site appears a bit "messy" for a newcomer, and threads about an ancient game like HOI3 are a bit "hidden" (tech support only restricted somehow) but I will try to find solutions there as it seems I am not the only to struggle to have the game launched.

Thank you for your help Didz, I will keep this post for reference about order and incompatibilities for DLCs. Hopefully that could prove useful when I have get the game menu.

[Didz]

I find the best idea of by-passing all the dross on the Paradox site is just to type 'HOI3 Forum' into Google and let it find the right board. It takes you straight to it then rather than having to navigate all the Paradox Forum menus.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/hearts-of-iron-3.415/

Originally posted by Cynderic:

Nginx for me has to do with HOI3, it is the webserver used by the program to locate an address that in my idea should return some image instead of the blank board I get with the 404. And I am not the only one getting that 404, another user mentioned it lately in the discussions.

Ok! Well sorry I can't be of more help on that particular issue. All I know is that my PC doesn't have that file either and my game seems to be working perfectly without it. But you seem to know more about Engine X than I do so hopefully you will work out what's happened to it.

[Laederic]

I might have found a solution, solution being making some changes in settings.txt to launch the game in a window instead of fullscreen, which allowed me to finally get the menu and not the music only ;-) Once the menu loaded I can switch to full screen without a problem as it seems for now. So my current problem is fixed and I will now be able to dig in the game.

Besides, the forums about HOI3 are located at this address as I have found out => https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/hearts-of-iron-3.415/

[Didz]

Good news!

You just beat me to it in posting the HOI3 Forum address.

[2MXG]

copy HOI out of steam location and just start without steam.
HOI doesn´t need steam at all and is working way more stable without.

[Didz]

I must admit that's a tempting idea as most of my problems with the game seem to be steam related. The only reason for me not doing that is that I'm writing an AAR in Steam and use Steam screenshots to illustrate it. If I wasn't then I might consider it.

[ghetto]

Did visual C++ get installed?

Is your anti Virus conflicting?

Only Semper Fi: For The Motherland and Their Finest Hour.)

When you get game working than install podcat ex.

If you get game running what version is it?

I have uninstalled reinstalled this game 10 or 20 times a day trying to get to work in the past.