Common and Potential Issues - Troubleshooting

[chaosavy]

Let me first apologize for any bugs/issues you may encounter. Please feel free to contact me in anyway about a bug/issue.

If the solutions below don't help - friend me, then message me - we'll try to work it out.

Issue:

Intel graphics chipset related

See post dedicated to this topic:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/259660/discussions/1/598198356181662460/

Quick summary - performance issues and startup crashes

Issue:

Crash right after loading screen
Common cause: sound card driver issues
Likelyhood: rare - varies by system and hardware

Potential solution:

Go to this directory: Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer

Find OgreLogfile.log - open the file (using notepad for example - it is a text file)

Look for these entries:

20:33:43: *** --- AVAILABLE DEVICES --- *** (your time stamp wil the begining will be different)
20:33:44: *** --- Generic Software
20:33:46: *** --- My Sound Device (example sound device)

If you have another entry other than Generic Software for available devices (for example - My Sound Device), copy that entry and paste it into a file named: soundConfig.cfg1 (again use notepad since this is just a text file) located in:

Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer\Config

Like so:

<soundDriver attr1="My Sound Device"/>

Where "My Sound Device" is that other entry you found.

Save the newly edited file, and try to run the game again.

If the file doesn't exit - create a new file, and name it: soundConfig.cfg1
Also add this line to the top of the file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

So the entire file should say:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soundDriver attr1="My Sound Device"/>


Potential solution:

Go to this directory:
Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer
Right click on VoidDestroyer.exe
Click Properties
Click Compatibility
Click Run this program in compatibility mode for
Chose Windows XP SP3

Click Ok to confirm settings, test game


Potential solution:
Multiple sound cards.

Some players have a built in sound card (on the motherboard) and an additional sound card.

Sometimes graphics cards have sound cards built in.

Disabling the "extra" sound cards can get the game running.

For the record, disabling the sound devices from the device manager didnt work, but going to control panel->hardware and sound->Manage Audio Devices, there were six amd HDMI sound cards listing above the realtek, I disabled them there and it took them out of the list.

Disabling the sound system

If the above don't work try this:

In the main game directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer

Create a file named: skipAudio.cfg (empty file is ok)

When the game launches and detects this file, it shouldn't initalize the sound system.

If the game does launch - this confirms it is a driver/sound issue.


Potential solution:

One player reported using "Driver Booster" a free third party utility for updating drivers with success here is a link: http://www.iobit.com/driver-booster.php for a download page.


UPDATE: Most players with this issue successfully resolved it via updating their sound card drivers.

Issue:

Crash that references MSVCR110.dll as the culprit
Common cause: Visual Studio 2011 Redistributable not installed
Notes: appears to be issue with Steam installation scripts

Solution:
Install/reinstall Visual Studio 2012 Redistributable

Download here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-winapps/the-program-cant-start-because-msvcr110dll-is/f052d325-3af9-4ae5-990b-b080799724db?msgId=46d0dd44-18ac-44e2-8004-e8cfb18cac1e

Notes: might need to install 64 bit version in addition to 32 bit version

Issue:

Unsupported resolution
Common cause: DirectX reports a possible resolution that the monitor doesn't support


Potential Solution:
Go to the game folder:
(Default Location) C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer
Double click on zRenderingConfig.exe

Double click on zRenderingConfig.exe
This will bring up a rendering config screen.

Change the Video Mode option to a compatible resolution.
Click Ok
Try to run the game.

Potential Solution:
Go to the game folder:
(Default Location) C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer
Double click on zRenderingConfig.exe
Find the line that resembles this: Video Mode=1680 x 1050 @ 32-bit colour
and change the 1680 x 1050 numbers to a resolution that your PC supports.

Another potential tweak/fix is this line:
Full Screen=Yes
change Yes to a No to run in Windowed mode, then chose the correct resolution using the in game graphics menu.

TODO - Pernament Solution:
Better "launcher" that allows you to chose resolution before starting the game.

Potential Issues - Best Practices:

Care has been taken to avoid these issues, but they still happen, below are best practices when encountering one.

Issue:

Crash at saving game
Frequency: currently appears to be extremely rare/fixed - but might pop up due to updates

Best practice: send the last save file written to paul @ voiddestroyer . com
The save game directory is here:

(Default Location) C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\VoidDestroyer\Save
Sort by date modified then send the most recent for testing - to paul @ voiddestroyer . com

Issue:

Crash during loading saved game
Frequency: currently appears to be fixed or extremely rare - but might pop up due to updates

Best Practice: send the save file that you attempted to load (see above for save game file location).

Issue:

Crash after loading saved game
Notes: after game loaded, a few moments later - crash (as opposed to crash during loading process - before the start of the loaded game)
Frequency: currently extremely rare or fixed - but might pop up due to updates

Issue:

Crashes during gameplay

Game engine/logic issue:
Best practice: if regularly re-occurs - send latest save file to paul @ voiddestroyer . com
Then I can attempt to reproduce via loading that file into the game

Memory issues:
The game doesn't have a limit as to how many ships you can add in the battle editor, causing out of memory errors. If you've added many ships (eg: more than 100 versus 100) to a battle the game may crash. This also depends on the type of ship, because larger ships tend to have more weapons thus eating up more ram.

Issue:

Game "alt tabs" out at start
Notes: player reported that game constantly "alt tabs" out of itself on startup
Frequency: one player reported

Potential fix: found this via google search and it helped player - "There is a bug in which notifications tab you out. Make your start up with friends offline to fix"

[chaosavy]

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[chaosavy]

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[chaosavy]

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[aMetzgermeister]

The game crashes after starup, I see the loading screen for about 6-9 seconds then I get a message saying VoidDestroyer.exe stopped working. No error number or reason to why. My system is up to date, everything should be wokring. I tried the sound issue fix to see if that worked but there seems to be nothing following *---AVAILABLE DEVICES---* and on top of that I have nothing in the config folder. Could the config folder being empty be the culprit?

[Ogractor]

Hey, I hope this is the right place to post this... So after being in tactical mode for a while (about 1 to 2 minutes) and switching back to normal mode, the game starts lagging badly. When I switch back to tactical mode the game runs normal again, but when I switch to normal mode again it's still lagging. I can only fix this by saving and loading that save or restarting the game.

EDIT: seems like I can also fix this sometimes by switching camera modes

[chaosavy]

zachni - send a freind request then send me a message and maybe we can work through it together.

Ogractor - that's odd... what are your system specs?

[Ogractor]

Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit
Intel Core i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz
8GB Ram installed (3.5GB used)
Nvidia Geforce Gtx 460

The problem seems to get less frequent the longer I play until it doesnt happen anymore at all. I will try if it happens again after I restart the game.

[Justivus Rex]

I have the same CTD problem during the loading screen. With voiddestroyer.exe not working.No error numbers or anything either.

[Space_elmo]

Not sure if this is a bug or just not supported yet but the throttle on my x52 pro cannot be assigned to thrust control. Really enjoying the game btw.

[chaosavy]

Darth - and others having crash issues -

I udpated the first post with this -

If the solutions below don't help - friend me, then message me - I'll should be glued to a PC for the next 4 days in working on these issue - and maybe we can come up with a solution.


Space_elmo (hehe) - I have to buy one of those to be able to support it - its been on a TODO list, so hopefully getting closer (now that my old Cyborg Gold USB's "hand thingie" broke - I definatly have to get a joystick).

[Zowlawl]

Alt tabbing on the menu is causing my main menu buttons (options, exit game etc) and mouse cursor to disappear.

[chaosavy]

hmmm.. I tried this and it works - both windowed and full screen - maybe its your graphics drivers? could you try updating?

["The D"]

ok from what i have seen, sometimes the crew/marine ships do not actually get made when they get finished, and the population limit gets taken as soon as the ship starts roduction, so even if you start a ship, then cancel it, that population still gets reserved

[The 7th]

I find that when in the tactical mode, autosaving is occuring and you click the 'command ship' in the top right - it tends to crash the game every time

[chaosavy]

when autosave happens (or any save) - the game "freezes" - nothing else is happening until the autosave - saves. Its incredibly quick on modern pcs so you probably don't even notice a frame drop.


So these two don't seem to be related. Any more info? thanks