Game cant start - help required

[MightyJoy]

Hi all, I just purchased the game this morning and after installing it, the game doesnt launch.
After clicking play, there will be the word running beside the title but after 30sec-1 min unfortunately it doesnt run.

I have been trying to get it working for hours to no avail. I have also contacted the customer support too but the steps they gave me was what I was already doing so it wasnt very helpful.

Here are the things that I have already attempted multiple times:
1. Reinstall
2. Verify the game twice after installing
3. Clean boot
4. Updating drivers (graphic/visual studio/microsoft update)
5. Disabling anti virus/putting it into exception
6. Disabling steam overlay/steam cloud and putting language to english
7. Run game as Admin
8. Renaming "appcache" under "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam" to "appcache.bak" and relaunch steam
9. Reinstalling Steam
10. Disabling gaming center

My rig:
OS: win 8.1 64 bit
Model: MSI GT72 2PC
Graphic card:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
Processor: Intel (R) core (TM) i7-4710HQ CPU @2.50GHz (8CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 16384 MB ram
Direct X 11

Thank you in advance!

[ukie]

Hmm, 870m should run this without any problems, and you said your drivers are updated and antivirus bypassed. Here's some other things you can try:


1. Check if you have any kind of speed boost software or stuff like asus game center or sonic suite, close those out too as they may cause conflicts with some games.
2. Uninstall / reinstall steam.

[Sugoi]

The game is probably trying to run on your iGPU rather than the 870M. Make sure the correct GPU is selected in the nvidia driver control panel.

[MightyJoy]

Thank you Ukie and Sugoi!

1. There is dragon gaming center but I have tried turning it off before launching the game.
2. I have tried uninstalling steam and downloading latest steam. Then I reinstalled VC4 and reverified.

3. I have checked and the program is using 870M. Just in case I also customized it to select 870M.

Unfortunately all steps still wont launch the game :(

But thanks again guys!

[ukie]

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

Thank you Ukie and Sugoi!

1. There is dragon gaming center but I have tried turning it off before launching the game.
2. I have tried uninstalling steam and downloading latest steam. Then I reinstalled VC4 and reverified.

3. I have checked and the program is using 870M. Just in case I also customized it to select 870M.

Unfortunately all steps still wont launch the game :(

But thanks again guys!

So steam reports it as running and you can see the process in the task manager but no actual in-game screen shows up? 'Cause that's exactly what happened to me with another recent Sega title, Two Point Hospital....

[MightyJoy]

Hello ukie
It only states as running for about 30s-1 min. I could find it in task manager under detail tab for about that long too. Then I suspect it just crashes.

Sadly, I dont even see the in game screen show up nor do I see any black screen or whatsoever.

Not that I have any proof but I am starting to suspect it could be Denuvo problem since I have tried installing my other steam games (non denuvo games) and all works perfectly fine. A friend mentioned he had similar problem starting sonic which was a denuvo protected game.

Currently I am waiting for advise from the customer support.

[ukie]

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

Hello ukie
It only states as running for about 30s-1 min. I could find it in task manager under detail tab for about that long too. Then I suspect it just crashes.

Sadly, I dont even see the in game screen show up nor do I see any black screen or whatsoever.

Not that I have any proof but I am starting to suspect it could be Denuvo problem since I have tried installing my other steam games (non denuvo games) and all works perfectly fine. A friend mentioned he had similar problem starting sonic which was a denuvo protected game.

Currently I am waiting for advise from the customer support.

Did you try the beta branch / hotfix that Sega rolled out?

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

Hello ukie
It only states as running for about 30s-1 min. I could find it in task manager under detail tab for about that long too. Then I suspect it just crashes.

Sadly, I dont even see the in game screen show up nor do I see any black screen or whatsoever.

Not that I have any proof but I am starting to suspect it could be Denuvo problem since I have tried installing my other steam games (non denuvo games) and all works perfectly fine. A friend mentioned he had similar problem starting sonic which was a denuvo protected game.

Currently I am waiting for advise from the customer support.

Possibly not your case, but I've had a similar problem (CTD before seeing the game screen) which, after 3 days of investigation, I finally managed to resolve. If you tend to customize your Windows installation, make sure you have LanmanServer service running. VC4 has some telemetry garbage built-in, which apparently works over SMB and requires said service to function. There's more info in bugreport & patch #2 threads.

[MightyJoy]

Ukie,
Yeah I have tried the latest patch but it still wont run the game. T_T
I am currently also waiting for the customer support reply after sending in my diag report and msconfig. Will keep you all updated if they manage to resolve it for me.

Originally posted by DoomyDoom:

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

Hello ukie
It only states as running for about 30s-1 min. I could find it in task manager under detail tab for about that long too. Then I suspect it just crashes.

Sadly, I dont even see the in game screen show up nor do I see any black screen or whatsoever.

Not that I have any proof but I am starting to suspect it could be Denuvo problem since I have tried installing my other steam games (non denuvo games) and all works perfectly fine. A friend mentioned he had similar problem starting sonic which was a denuvo protected game.

Currently I am waiting for advise from the customer support.

Possibly not your case, but I've had a similar problem (CTD before seeing the game screen) which, after 3 days of investigation, I finally managed to resolve. If you tend to customize your Windows installation, make sure you have LanmanServer service running. VC4 has some telemetry garbage built-in, which apparently works over SMB and requires said service to function. There's more info in bugreport & patch #2 threads.

DoomyDoom, Could you teach me how to run LanmanServer? I didnt customize my window installation but at this point I am desperate enough to try any method. Thank you in advance!

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

DoomyDoom, Could you teach me how to run LanmanServer? I didnt customize my window installation but at this point I am desperate enough to try any method. Thank you in advance!

1) Open up your Services mmc by one of these methods:
- Control panel->Administration->Services
- Start->Run (shortcut Win+R)->Services.msc
- Task Manager (full mode, afaik it's already "minimal" by default in Win 8)->Services tab -> Services (or somesuch)

2) Look for service named "Server". Right-click for Properties, check that it has LanmanServer in its name (not display name, that would be "Server")

3) If it's not started, start it and try launching the game. If it's startup type is set to Manual/Disabled, change it to Automatic

[MightyJoy]

HOLY MOLY DOOOMY! You are my savior! It finally booted up after I changed it to automatic then restarted my PC.

Thank you so much!

[RedSlave]

Originally posted by DoomyDoom:

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

DoomyDoom, Could you teach me how to run LanmanServer? I didnt customize my window installation but at this point I am desperate enough to try any method. Thank you in advance!

1) Open up your Services mmc by one of these methods:
- Control panel->Administration->Services
- Start->Run (shortcut Win+R)->Services.msc
- Task Manager (full mode, afaik it's already "minimal" by default in Win 8)->Services tab -> Services (or somesuch)

2) Look for service named "Server". Right-click for Properties, check that it has LanmanServer in its name (not display name, that would be "Server")

3) If it's not started, start it and try launching the game. If it's startup type is set to Manual/Disabled, change it to Automatic

Doomy, you're a hero. Thank you so much.

[Neuromant]

Originally posted by DoomyDoom:

Originally posted by FurryJoy:

DoomyDoom, Could you teach me how to run LanmanServer? I didnt customize my window installation but at this point I am desperate enough to try any method. Thank you in advance!

1) Open up your Services mmc by one of these methods:
- Control panel->Administration->Services
- Start->Run (shortcut Win+R)->Services.msc
- Task Manager (full mode, afaik it's already "minimal" by default in Win 8)->Services tab -> Services (or somesuch)

2) Look for service named "Server". Right-click for Properties, check that it has LanmanServer in its name (not display name, that would be "Server")

3) If it's not started, start it and try launching the game. If it's startup type is set to Manual/Disabled, change it to Automatic

Hi!
I also seem to have a problem with launch and I tried to follow your recommendation, but I cannot find the "Server" service in both Extended or Standard of Services

UPD:
The error I get says the following:

The instruction at 0x00000001428385A0 referenced memory at 0x000000000000010. The memory could not be read.
Click OK to terminate the program.

As I mentioned before, I tried to follow your fix and couldn't find the corresponding service on the laptop that I am trying to launch the game on. However, that may be due to the fact that the laptop uses a not-regular version of Windows, but LTSB version. Also this LTSB version has been custom-modified to lower its CPU and RAM load, so for that reason the Server Service may be absent. It is present on my normal desktop, which runs the normal Windows Home version.

Does this mean the game is unlaunchable on my laptop without a Windows reinstall? Or are there any other workarounds possible?

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by Neuromant:

Also this LTSB version has been custom-modified to lower its CPU and RAM load, so for that reason the Server Service may be absent.

Try to check from command line just in case:
- open Powershell (start menu or Win+R -> powershell)
- "Get-Service | findstr Lanman" should show you the status of the service. Something like

Running  LanmanServer       Server

Obviously, yours will probably be "Stopped" if it exists, or absent if it was removed from your system somehow.
- set startup: "Set-Service -Name LanmanServer -StartupType Automatic"
- start: "Start-Service LanmanServer"

And no, I think you're out of luck if you don't have it. The game isn't even able to check if the service is down and bring it up when it's on "Manual" startup, like mine was. It just crashes.

I guess the only thing you could try is to block the game on firewall. But it has to be not the basic firewall (the one you see under Control Panel -> Windows Firewall), but at least the advanced one (Win-R -> WF.msc). Make a rule blocking outbound connections for executable. That should stop telemetry, which might allow the game to launch (this rule cuts literally minutes from its startup and close when their telemetry servers randomly go down and the game faithfully waits for 5-minute timeouts on attempts to connect to them)

[Neuromant]

Originally posted by DoomyDoom:

Originally posted by Neuromant:

Also this LTSB version has been custom-modified to lower its CPU and RAM load, so for that reason the Server Service may be absent.

Try to check from command line just in case:
- open Powershell (start menu or Win+R -> powershell)
- "Get-Service | findstr Lanman" should show you the status of the service. Something like

Running  LanmanServer       Server

Obviously, yours will probably be "Stopped" if it exists, or absent if it was removed from your system somehow.
- set startup: "Set-Service -Name LanmanServer -StartupType Automatic"
- start: "Start-Service LanmanServer"

And no, I think you're out of luck if you don't have it. The game isn't even able to check if the service is down and bring it up when it's on "Manual" startup, like mine was. It just crashes.

I guess the only thing you could try is to block the game on firewall. But it has to be not the basic firewall (the one you see under Control Panel -> Windows Firewall), but at least the advanced one (Win-R -> WF.msc). Make a rule blocking outbound connections for executable. That should stop telemetry, which might allow the game to launch (this rule cuts literally minutes from its startup and close when their telemetry servers randomly go down and the game faithfully waits for 5-minute timeouts on attempts to connect to them)

Hi!
Thanks for your recommendation. I haven't done all the steps yet because I want to write everything that happens as it happens, so I will make several updates.
I ran the powershell and pasted in the text "Get-Service..." that you wrote above. All words in the pasted text were yellow except for Lanman, which was white.
The result was text: "Running LanmanWorkstation Workstation"

UPD:
upon pasting the set startup text ("Set-Service..."), the following text appears: "

Set-Service : Service LanmanServer was not found on computer '.'.
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-Service -Name LanmanServer -StartupType Automatic
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (.:String) [Set-Service], InvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetServiceCommand

" So my guess is, the service is completely missing from the system.
Next thing, I will try to run it with the outbound connections disabled as you suggested and also with airplane mode on.

TBC

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by Neuromant:

The result was text: "Running LanmanWorkstation Workstation"

Well, that's that then, you truly have no such service on your system. Good luck with comms disabled. If that fails, I don't think there's anything else to try short of installing the service back into the system somehow (never did something like that, you'll have to find help elsewhere on that one unfortunately).