FATAL ERROR | and no, the PhysxCore.dll replacing thing doesn't work

[The Nyctophile]

Lots of people seem to be having the same problem but I can't fix it after reading the solutions. I've verified the game files, uninstalled and reinstalled the game, restarted Steam, Restarted my computer, uninstalled and Reinstalled Physx and I've done the thing where you replace the nvidia dll with the game's one - I've done all of that countless times.

I don't have some folder called Remember Me which some people talk about
I also don't have that DB8A731FDBD5 folder
However apparently both of those things don't matter. Apparently you can just do the dll swapping thing with Life Is Strange instead and you can find the latest created Nvidia folder instead of DB8A731FDBD5 if it doesn't exist and that has apparently worked for some people.

It doesn't work for me. I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time I found a seemingly common issue a lot of people have but seemingly everyone else is able to fix it while I can't. How the bloody frick am I supposed to play this game? I was able to play the first chapter. I just bought the rest of the chapters and now I can't launch it.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[Make]

Uninstall the old PhysX and install it from here:
https://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_system_software.html

[The Nyctophile]

I already tried that. That's what I was referring to when I said "Uninstalling and reinstalling Physx" in the first paragraph.

[The Nyctophile]

Yes, to clarify I do have that version you linked. Do you have any suggestions for what to do considering I don't have this DB8A731FDBD5 folder? There is no folder in the Nvidia engine folder called that.

[The Nyctophile]

The game was working fine until I bought every other episode. I completed the first episode

[The Nyctophile]

An image of the error I get: https://imgur.com/a/PHrUxNm

[Qiana]

No wonder you can't find the folder DB8A731FDBD5. It doesn't exist anymore. The names of the subfolders change from driver version to driver version.

You should never have to swap DLLs manually. A properly installed driver will automatically install the latest versions of both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions in the correct locations.

All of this copy and paste advice is "safe to ignore" and should be ignored. Although it may work in some cases, copying and pasting system files is never a solution, but at best a workaround. This kind of advice comes from people who don't know much about computers.

If you manually copy and paste PhysX.dll from one location to another, you are essentially either replacing a newer version of the file with the older (or vice versa), or replacing a 64-bit version with a 32-bit version (or vice versa), depending on what you copied and pasted from where.

However, your problem here is not related to PhysX, so it's not surprising that reinstalling it won't help. In your case, the correct PhysiX file is (or was) there, but it can't be seen/found.

You are trying to play a 32-bit game on a 64-bit operating system, and you are missing the 32-bit versions of the game's prerequisites. On a 64-bit machine, you need to install each version of vcredist as both 32-bit and 64-bit versions if you want to play 32-bit and 64-bit games.

Essentially, you are missing the correct version of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (which is a 32-bit version) and possibly UE4PrereqSetup_x86.exe.

Life Is Strange is built with Unreal Engine 4, which uses the Microsoft Visual C++ libraries to build games, and games built with it require the same version that they were built with.

The Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable is very old and no longer supported by Microsoft, and it has a known and unfixed security problem, which may be why it didn't install automatically. I don't know.

UE4PrereqSetup_x86.exe should be in the "C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist" directory, or you can get it from another UE4 game.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/319630/discussions/0/2962768085011536645/

The easiest way to solve the mess of Visual C++ Redistributable Runtime versions at once and for all games is to use the "All-in-One" version offered by the TechPowerUp team.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/visual-c-redistributable-runtime-package-all-in-one/

[The Nyctophile]

Okay hang on I'll check out all that stuff but I would like to emphasise that the first episode had worked. I literally completed it so I have no idea why I suddenly can't play it. So the prerequisites just deleted themself?

[The Nyctophile]

Okay I downloaded those things from the last link you have. The game still comes up with the same error. So what now?

[Qiana]

Originally posted by The Nyctophile:

Okay hang on I'll check out all that stuff but I would like to emphasise that the first episode had worked. I literally completed it so I have no idea why I suddenly can't play it. So the prerequisites just deleted themself?

I can't tell you what and why has changed in your case, even less if you used to copy and paste some system files.

Mysterious problems like "it used to work, but now it doesn't" are exactly why you should avoid copy & paste.

[Qiana]

Downloaded or downloaded and installed and rebooted PC?

[The Nyctophile]

I haven't restarted. I'll do that then

[The Nyctophile]

Anyway, installed the files - command prompt automatically opened while they were installing. Then I restarted my computer. Still doesn't work

[Qiana]

As I said, it is hard to say what and why has changed in your case, especially if you used to copy and paste some system files in the past.

In your case, I would definitely reinstall the video driver, reboot, install those prerequisites, reboot, have Steam check the game files, log out of Steam, restart Steam, and see if the game starts.

If not, I'd go to the games folder, right click on the executable, and try to run it directly in compatibility mode (e.g. Windows 7) and "as administrator".

If it still doesn't start, it might also be a system security issue (antivirus, DEP execution prevention, etc.).

LIS is actually an exemplary game that runs on almost everything. It even runs on Linux, under WINE, and on a pretty old machine.

[Qiana]

For further troubleshooting, you may also want to look here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1642130/discussions/0/3049485912459242685/

[The Nyctophile]

I didn't do anything with any files until the fatal error occurred.
Timeline:
Game worked
Computer had problems
Had to reinstall Windows
Downloaded Steam and then Life is Strange
FATAL ERROR
Looked up how to fix it
Did what people suggested