[UPDATE #3] Crashes? Please read...

[WBacon]

UPDATE #3 (weekend edition)
Hello Dead Rising fans,

First of all, on behalf of the team, I'd like to thank you for your patience on the matter while the dev team continues to work on a possible solution.

There appears to be some confusion with regards to the nature of the crash, so I'd like to take this opportunity to provide some clarity on all currently reported issues and potential workarounds.

There are generally three types of crash incidents reported, but they're all caused for different reasons and all are mutually exclusive to each other.

1. Desktop Nvidia users with discrete graphics cards

The dev team is aware of reports of random crashes that occur in middle of active gameplay. It can happen 5 minutes in or 2~3 hours later. It's seemingly random but fairly consistent for those users affected by it.

For those experiencing random crashes, many users have reported that rolling back to GeForce 335.23 WHQL driver[www.geforce.com] resolved the problem, or at least reduced frequency of the crash. While the dev team continues to look into fixing this issue, this may be a viable workaround for the time being. For those who cannot roll back to 335.23, some users have had success by turning off the “Shader Cache” option in the Nvidia Control Panel.

2. Laptop users with NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics

While laptop graphics fall outside of the minimum spec requirements and aren’t officially supported, we understand many users still choose to play DR3 on laptop systems.

There are currently two unique issues that prevents NVIDIA Optimus systems from running DR3.

The game crashes or freezes right after the Capcom and CV logo. The game either enters the “Dead Rising 3 is Not Responding…” state and stays stuck indefinitely, or crashes to desktop immediately. Windows error log seems to indicate deadrising3.exe crash is related to Nvidia’s Dynamic Link Library known as nvwgf2umx.dll – a DLL that controls a number of display functionalities such as gamma, power profile, multi-monitor modes, and so on.

At this time, there’s no permanent user-side fix and it’s something the dev team needs to look into.

Workaround: While not practical, a known a workaround is to connect your laptop to a second monitor or a television set via external video output. This essentially bypasses the Intel integrated graphics chip and allows the system to talk directly to the Nvidia chip at a hardware level instead of passing through the on-chip solution. It essentially operates as if Optimus doesn’t exist at all, allowing the display to hook directly to the NVIDIA GPU. Note: you will also want to assign “High-performance NVIDIA processor” to Dead Rising 3 in the Nvidia Control Panel --> Manage 3D Settings menu. This workaround should circumvent the crash/hang at the initial start-up while using the Nvidia chip.

Note for Nvidia Optimus users with Windows 8.1 64 bit…there’s also a known issue with the new SecureBoot feature that was introduced via Windows 8.1 update. This bug is currently preventing Nvidia graphics from reliably establishing connection to device enumeration APIs. Due to this issue, some games (including DR3) defaults to “Integrated graphics” even if you manually assign “High-performance NVIDIA processor” in the Nvidia control panel. A temporary workaround is to disable SecureBoot in the PC’s system BIOS menu. This should at least allow the game to operate using the Nvidia chip. Note, however, that this solution doesn’t mitigate the 2a crash issue. A true, temporary workaround is to bypass integrated chip by connecting to a second external monitor.

3. “Crash-on-Boot” issue

The symptom: game crashes almost instantly upon launching the application. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused as it was clearly a human error on our part due to working with a number of different build versions.

For clarity’s sake, this issue affected a small subset of users who redeemed a Steam key that was purchased outside of Valve’s Steam store, from a boxed retail copy, or obtained via other means. Unfortunately, some of these keys were associated to an older build branch which unfortunately had missing files that the game depended on.

Number of users who had experienced the ‘crash-on-boot’ issue (we simply looked at the number of redeemed keys that were tied to this incomplete build branch) at the time was roughly 2.38% of the entire user base before we updated the build tree with the missing files. The missing files became available the same day via automatic update that downloaded approximately 1.4GB worth of files.

To clarify, not all users will be prompted to download this 1.4GB ‘missing file update’ since most already have them on their PC.


Finally, thank you for your patience on the matter, and we’ll be sure to update you as soon as we have more information or a solution in place.

-wbacon

================================================
UPDATE#2: The 1.4GB update addresses users who were affected by the "Crash on boot" issue.

The other random crash issue is a different problem from the above and the dev team will continue to look into this. We'll update as soon as we have more info.

If you encounter new issues, it'd be great if you can provide details in the main thread.

================================================
UPDATE#1: So we have an update coming your way very shortly which we believe will address the crash-on-boot issue and/or other instabilities.

It seems to have affected some users who have purchased or obtained the activation key from non-Valve resellers (those keys are associated to a different package ID than the ones sold directly through Steam).

I'll respond once the update goes live, followed by additional details. Please stay tuned, and thanks for your patience on the matter.

================================================
Happy Zombie Apocalypse Day! While we hope most users are busy installing and playing Dead Rising 3, we realize some of you have been experiencing random crashes preventing you from enjoying the game.

The dev team have actively been logging and prioritizing issues that have been posted on the stickied "Post your issues here" thread.

In the meantime, there are possible solutions and/or temporary workarounds that may solve the problem which we'd like you to try.

1) Right-click Dead Rising 3 in your game library. Select “properties”, select the “LOCAL FILES” tab, and click “VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME CACHE” to ensure that there aren’t any missing or corrupt local version of your files.

2) Nvidia users: rollback to GeForce 335.23 WHQL drivers[www.geforce.com].

We'll continue to update as we have more information to share. Please stay tuned.

-wbacon

[Marcel]

Done both, still crashes. Its not the driver (for me).

[sarah]

done everything there and the game still crashes at loading screen

[Abedoo™]

done everything there and the game still crashes at loading screen

[Rhinne]

Doesn't help for people crashing on the loading screen.

[code]

done everything anybody wrote here nothing worked still crashing at the very first loading screen

[Noddy]

Any workaround for AMD users? i have a 7870 and i'm running into the same issues

[INFYN]

R9 270X getting stuttering and CTD.

[Boaty McBoatface]

Didnt work

[Super Sheep]

Be aware, AMD users are also having this issue.

[ThuanePM]

Well, still crashes, but it's nice to know you guys know about it.

[phylum sinter]

crashing at loading :(

running w7-x64 , i7-920, MSI Twin Frozr R9-270 w/2gb, 24gb ram. Installed on secondary drive via usb 3.0.

[Dart]

Crash on the loading screen, fix it !!

[WBacon]

Ugh, sorry to hear it's not working for you. :( Can you share your system information and symptoms in the stickied "Post your issues here" thread? The dev team is actively scanning reports there.

[Octanen]

Intel i7 4770k clocked to 4.5Ghz
Asus ROG Maximus Hero VII
32gig DDR3 Kingston Beast 2400mhz Ram
2x 256 Samsung EVO 840 SSD + 1 500GB Samsung EVO 840 SSD + 2 TB 7200RPM
Asus Nvidia Titan 6GB
Asus VG278HE 144hz Monitor

Game runs off the SSD
Drivers rolled back to GeForce 335.23 WHQL drivers
Game also reinstalled.
Game Verified.

Still crashing at main menu / window with the Loading Text and DR3 Logo.

[Shephard]

Nothing happens. Still crashing on title screen.