Technical issues FAQ

[Chris Koźmik]

In case of problems you can email me at: [e-mail] (please make sure to mention the game name)

Basic technical notes:

• The game should run on almost any machine with even quite outdated one.
  
• Almost all technical problems reported so far were from Win 8/8.1 users. If you use this OS I strongly recommend to update it, add service pack, etc, etc.
  
• EDIT: This stopped being reported after 2019. Many reported problems were related to scaling fonts under Windows. You might try to disable it (again, only if you run the dreaded Win 8, on any normal OS it should work without any adjustments).

Typical solutions to usually reported problems:

• Outdated drivers (even on brand new machines!), try updating those.
  
• Missing Microsoft VC++ redistributables. Those should be automatically installed by Steam but... well, try manually.

1. Q: Where can I find config file (to edit manually), or logs.txt (to send to the developer)?
A: Config is located here: "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Stellar Monarch\config.ini" (just open this file in notepad)
Logs are located here: "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Stellar Monarch\logs.txt"

2. Q: When I run the game I see rectangles instead of text and a single picture, the blue imperial eagle.
A: There is a problem with your machine, there are three cases. First, your hardware is way, way too old and nothing can be done. Second, your drivers are incredibly outdated. Third, the most interesting one, it was reported once (a cheap Acer laptop), the manufacturer of your hardware locked you out of integrated gfx capabilities, which also makes updating drivers fail and everything is software emulation (fixing this is doable).

3. Q: The games does not launch at all, even the "Stellar Monarch" folder is not created and there are is no logs.txt file.
A: Based on the reports (it's a rare problem), there are three causes/solutions.
1) Outdated drivers/missing OpenGL insallation: Updating those was frequntly a solution, note that there were reports that even brand new machines had those messed up.
2) Lack of Microsoft VC++ redistributables was also freqently the cause (Steam should install those for you but...). You could do so manually:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads
Also one quite funny solution I got once "It started working after I installed Civ5 which first installed some VC++ stuff" :)
3) Broken OS (Windows 10). Unconfirmed, but I got some report that running a tool to fix the OS helped here.

4. Q: DLL is missing (missing api-ms-win-crt-stdio-l1-1-0.dll, etc)
A: There are two possible solutions. One is to download/repair VC++ redistributables (2017 or 2019 will do) which can be downloaded here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads but it rarely works. Second is to fix your Windows (first make all pending Windows Updates, then go to Windows Update and "Run the tool to fix problems").

5. Q: The screen is odd or the mouse is odd
A: Find the game.exe file, select properties, go to the compatibility tab and check 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings'.
EDIT: starting at v1.04 it's applied automatically :)

6. Q: I have a very old computer and I have some strange problem with running the game.
A: Check if your desktop is not set to 16 bit (it must be 32bit, probably 24bit might work too).

7. Q: When starting the game, it shows a dialogue box telling me something really wrong happened (as of v1.10.1 you should not need this fix).
A: A quick fix:
1) Go to steam folder and find Stellar Monarch, locate launchsettings.ini file and open it (it's a text file so notepad would do).
2) Set all variables to 1:
[files]
LogsFileInRootFolder=1
ConfigFileInRootFolder=1
SaveFilesInRootFolder=1
3) Save the file.

8. Q: The mouse cursor is not visible at all, but the position of it is correct (I see the buttons highlighting)
A: Probably you enabled Magnifyer tool (pressed "Windows" and "+" combination), just close it.


9. Q: Drivers problems (AMD GPU).

A: If you have an AMD gpu and you are experiencing intermittent crash to desktop behaviour upon starting the game on windows 10, check event viewer -> custom views -> administrative events. If there are errors about atioglxx.dll, please do a clean uninstall following the instructions at: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601. Then, reinstall your drivers: https://www.amd.com/en/support. (solution provided by a player)

[Chris Koźmik]

Linux
While the game does not support Linux, I got numerous reports that it runs perfectly using Wine.

In addition, according to Linux Gaming Consortium it works via Proton on a Platinum level.

Q: How to run it on a very old graphic card (Intel 945GM integrated graphics) on Ubuntu.
A: Just in case anyone else wants to play on Ubuntu with an old intel gpu heres what I did:
1) I installed the mesa graphics drivers found here: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers
2) Then in PlayOnLinux create a new virtual drive, I chose the newest available version of Wine, and install "dxfullsetup" in the Install Components tab.
3) Copy the game folder to the virtual drive and use the "create a shortcut form this virtual drive" option to make a shortcut to "game.exe".

[eddieballgame]

Are there any issues with Windows 10?

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by eddieballgame:

Are there any issues with Windows 10?

No, it runs on all Windows machnes (minimum XP).

But you in some rare cases you might need to set 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings' (find the game.exe and right click it, select properties, then compatibility tab, then mark the ''Disable display scaling on high DPI settings' box).

[eddieballgame]

Thank you, btw...this is a very good game.

[Dalmighty]

I got a question about the sound. The music and the sound effect when you click a button has this high khz click and it leaves that ringing sound in your ears. Pretty noticeable when you're wearing headphones. Is there any way to tone that down?

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by Nokillz and Noskillz:

I got a question about the sound. The music and the sound effect when you click a button has this high khz click and it leaves that ringing sound in your ears. Pretty noticeable when you're wearing headphones. Is there any way to tone that down?

Well, I'm not very proficient with sound so excuse me if my question is silly :) Do you mean the sound effect volume is too high? Or the sample quality is poor? Or you mean those should be redone with different khz (I thought the highest the better?)
Does it apply to all sound effect or only the click button sound effect?

[Chris Koźmik]

Q: Mouse cursor works fine in windowed mode but missing on full screen (based on one report where the user had "probably degraded Windows") {UNCONFIRMED}

A: I disabled Vsync and returned to full screen, mouse cursor reappear. After that no matter what mode I choosed (or enable Vsync), cursor remains visible.
Also, try running the game in "safe_mode" (there is such option on Steam launcher)

[Chris Koźmik]

Announcement: Win 8 and 8.1 removed from recommended OS list

I have analysed the reports I got over the years and most of them were related to Win 8 or 8.1. Therefore I have removed Win 8/8.1 from the list of recommended OS versions.

Note that the game runs on Win 8/8.1 and the problems occur in a modest portion of Win 8 players. Still, there is a significantly higher chance for encountering a problem when running this OS version. It's supported just no longer recommended.

[fire_i]

Hi,

I just bought Stellar Monarch on sale a few days ago. I have an issue where all text boxes appear blank or covered by black squares (see this link[imgur.com] ). This makes the game unplayable (I haven't been able to navigate my way through the main menu at all).

I tried rebooting, reinstalling the game, running in safe mode or not in safe mode, and even tried he fixes outlined in the FAQ above (even though they're not about my problem).

I'm using Windows 10 and I've never had a similar issue with any program before.

Can you help me? If you need anything from me (logs, specs, etc.), I'll be happy to provide!

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by fire_i:

Hi,

I just bought Stellar Monarch on sale a few days ago. I have an issue where all text boxes appear blank or covered by black squares (see this link[imgur.com] ). This makes the game unplayable (I haven't been able to navigate my way through the main menu at all).

I tried rebooting, reinstalling the game, running in safe mode or not in safe mode, and even tried he fixes outlined in the FAQ above (even though they're not about my problem).

I'm using Windows 10 and I've never had a similar issue with any program before.

Can you help me? If you need anything from me (logs, specs, etc.), I'll be happy to provide!

Your graphics card does not support "non power of two textures". Unless you have another machine, please request a Steam refund, you won't be able to play on that one.

But I'm surprised that you said you use Windows 10. I thought anything that was manufactured up to 15 years ago should still be able to run it... Typically I got such reports from people trying to run it on some ancient Win 98 machine not something with Windows 10... How old is the machine? Does it have an integrated gfx card (if yes, do you know the model)?

You could also try updating gfx drivers, maybe you have very, very outdated ones? But I doubt that would be the case, since the game requires OpenGL 2.1...

Also, can you send me logs.txt file?
Location of the file: "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Stellar Monarch\logs.txt"
My email: [e-mail]
Also if you have some extras like specs or DXdiag I would be eager to get a hold on those :)

[fire_i]

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for the very quick reply! You're amazing!

This is actually a brand new machine (barely over a month old), but it's a laptop I'm using while I'm away from home. It does have an integrated graphics card which is simply labeled "Microsoft Basic Display Driver". As you might expect from the laptop being nearly factory fresh, the drivers should be up to date, though dxdiag did point out an issue that a driver update attempt didn't fix. Not sure what's up with that.

Although this graphics system is about as basic as it gets, it's actually been pretty decent with non graphic-intensive games like Civilization 5, Minecraft or Factorio. It can't handle much beyond that, but this is its first outright failure at running a game in a workable manner at all (to be fair, I haven't even tried to run anything truly graphics-intensive given it would assuredly fail).

I have a desktop at home on which I should be able to run the game. Even should that fail, I don't intend to refund the game. Your quick and very considerate response is reason alone for me to want to support you as a developer, even if it means just letting you know about a technical issue. I really admire your hard work and I think you deserve my $10 regardless of the outcome! :)

I'll send you an email shortly with logs and dxdiag info.

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by fire_i:

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for the very quick reply! You're amazing!

This is actually a brand new machine (barely over a month old), but it's a laptop I'm using while I'm away from home. It does have an integrated graphics card which is simply labeled "Microsoft Basic Display Driver". As you might expect from the laptop being nearly factory fresh, the drivers should be up to date, though dxdiag did point out an issue that a driver update attempt didn't fix. Not sure what's up with that.

Although this graphics system is about as basic as it gets, it's actually been pretty decent with non graphic-intensive games like Civilization 5, Minecraft or Factorio. It can't handle much beyond that, but this is its first outright failure at running a game in a workable manner at all (to be fair, I haven't even tried to run anything truly graphics-intensive given it would assuredly fail).

I have a desktop at home on which I should be able to run the game. Even should that fail, I don't intend to refund the game. Your quick and very considerate response is reason alone for me to want to support you as a developer, even if it means just letting you know about a technical issue. I really admire your hard work and I think you deserve my $10 regardless of the outcome! :)

I'll send you an email shortly with logs and dxdiag info.

The logs you sent was an interesting read indeed. OpenGL Version: 1.1.0 on a modern machine... that's insane :D Didn't know they make it that way nowadays. Anyway, in such case it's definitely a problem with drivers and/or some windows update.

EDIT: All right, updating drivers fixed this, thanks for reporting! I will add it to the FAQ.

[Chris Koźmik]

Q: Drivers problems (AMD GPU).

A: If you have an AMD gpu and you are experiencing intermittent crash to desktop behaviour upon starting the game on windows 10, check event viewer -> custom views -> administrative events. If there are errors about atioglxx.dll, please do a clean uninstall following the instructions at: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601. Then, reinstall your drivers: https://www.amd.com/en/support.

[Dionicio]

1.47 with DLC -can't play anymore?
**1.43 legacy runs ok**

i was able to run the game in my outdated vaio 2010 (integrated intel 3000) machine up to a week ago, when i last played, after the update i am locked out of the game even in safe mode, might have glitched something myself or the engine update.

[Iviom]

I have the same issue. Game just din't start at all. Fixed it manually by taking StellarMonarch.exe from some 1.401 torrent version and it started fine.