game crashing upon start

[jenny.crider77]

I just bought this game about 5 days ago and the last two days have been nothing but issues upon loading the game. what's going on? my husband is a software engineer and he can't find anything wrong with the game. please help. it just crashed in the middle of me making an exhibit and it won't let me in to check if anything was saved.

[grampers62]

okay, a couple things to check. May we first assume that windows and system drivers are all up to date? And that the computer exceeds minimum spec as shown on the store page?
first thing is to verify game files through steam library. Even if it finds all files in tact it can repair some broken links. First thing to check is any installation of geforce experience is up to date. Also confirm that microsoft runtime libraries are up to date and/or do not need repair. Also confirm that nvidia settings has image scaling disabled or set to 100.
There does seem to be a new bug involving the billboards that is causing some zoos to crash so if none of these things do the trick file a report on the issue tracker being sure to add to any existing reports rather than start a new one.

[Frontier Viking]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear you've had trouble with the game!

You can reach our customer support team via the following link and we can take a look for you should issues persist:

https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/hc/en-us

~ Viking

[jenny.crider77]

Originally posted by grampers62:

okay, a couple things to check. May we first assume that windows and system drivers are all up to date? And that the computer exceeds minimum spec as shown on the store page?
first thing is to verify game files through steam library. Even if it finds all files in tact it can repair some broken links. First thing to check is any installation of geforce experience is up to date. Also confirm that microsoft runtime libraries are up to date and/or do not need repair. Also confirm that nvidia settings has image scaling disabled or set to 100.
There does seem to be a new bug involving the billboards that is causing some zoos to crash so if none of these things do the trick file a report on the issue tracker being sure to add to any existing reports rather than start a new one.

Yes, everything is up-to-date and all files have been validated

[HeatherG]

Originally posted by jenny.crider77:

I just bought this game about 5 days ago and the last two days have been nothing but issues upon loading the game. what's going on? my husband is a software engineer and he can't find anything wrong with the game. please help. it just crashed in the middle of me making an exhibit and it won't let me in to check if anything was saved.

When it comes to the issue of "crashing upon loading" check out this post by a content creator. They have a fix through Steam. What happens is it takes to long to load so the game just crashes. I'll link it here... People are having a lot of luck with it.
https://twitter.com/i/bookmarks?post_id=1758942491565322297

[grampers62]

Note that many players do not use twitter (x) and it's better to copy/paste the info directly here.

Originally posted by HeatherG:

When it comes to the issue of "crashing upon loading" check out this post by a content creator. They have a fix through Steam. What happens is it takes to long to load so the game just crashes. I'll link it here... People are having a lot of luck with it.
https://twitter.com/i/bookmarks?post_id=1758942491565322297

[HeatherG]

I can't post a picture here. The text probably won't make sense without it.
----------------
"Just as a PSA to anyone in Planet Zoo,
If you every have trouble loading into your map (it crashes while on the loading screen), add "-watchdog 0" to your steam launch options.
It basically tells your game not to crash if loading takes too long."

[grampers62]

To clarify that.
Open steam library then right click on planet zoo and select properties. In the window that opens at the bottom type -watchdog 0 in the box labeled launch options.
This is less often the issue but it will do no harm if one does add that.
Also clearing the steam cache can help many players that are having slow or failed game launches.