Crash

[Xanax the Rizzomancer]

Has anyone else here had issues with the game crashing after a few minutes? I don't get any error messages, it just closes to windows. I'm running on Windows 10

[Qbeneuss]

Happening to me as well, 30 sec after i start a new game.
Hoping for a solution

[Brotalix]

Yes constant crashes. After crash settings always reset. Using Win 8.1. I think the game is not ported properly.

[mopserator]

Hej there. Same for me too. :(

[Redder12]

Having the same issue. If i dont run with windoes 9e compatability it will open up in a minimized screen. When run with that capability, game crashes within a few minutes of starting. Assistance required!

[Sir.Tomato]

Could anyone please try the following and let me know if it worked:
1. Start the Setup executable. You can find it in the games installation folder.
2. Replecate the settings from the following screenshot: https://imgur.com/RcywBlm
3. Let me know if there was an improvement!!!

[Xanax the Rizzomancer]

Sir.Tomato eredeti hozzászólása:

Could anyone please try the following and let me know if it worked:
1. Start the Setup executable. You can find it in the games installation folder.
2. Replecate the settings from the following screenshot: https://imgur.com/RcywBlm
3. Let me know if there was an improvement!!!

I gave it a try and it still crashes. It also crops the game so I can't see the full screen.

[Sir.Tomato]

Jonny eredeti hozzászólása:

Sir.Tomato eredeti hozzászólása:

Could anyone please try the following and let me know if it worked:
1. Start the Setup executable. You can find it in the games installation folder.
2. Replecate the settings from the following screenshot: https://imgur.com/RcywBlm
3. Let me know if there was an improvement!!!

I gave it a try and it still crashes. It also crops the game so I can't see the full screen.

Could you try starting the game from the installation directory and not through steam. Make sure that the Setup that i posted earlier is still applied beforehand.

[NerevarineGMSV]

I have the GoG version (and original cd version) and thought I'd try Steam version, but was disappointed to see users with Steam version having the always crashing issue.

Anyways, I spent time researching but couldn't find a solution. If you have two versions installed, that might an issue so best just to have one. Also, in general, if something worked fine before and then stopped, then something changed, so it would be necessary to find what that is. My only guess is to do full uninstall, clean registry, and reinstall and see if that works. Whoever is responsible for putting this old gem out there on GoG or Steam should step up and take responsibility for making sure it works on modern systems. Do a remaster or whatever but stop messing around lol.

The game has various resolution problems.
To get the normal fullscreen (and not the shrunken arse one) as the game was intended to play, there seems to be various options that work for some and not others. After way too much time tinkering, this is what worked for me:

1. In setup.exe
compatibility is enabled
resolution is set to highest (1024 res)

2. tzar.ini as:
[VIDEO]
BUFFER_IN_VIDEO_MEMORY=0
DIRECTXDEVICE=-1
DIRECTDRAW_DEVICESNUMBER=2
SETUPFXDEVICE=0

3. Tzar.exe
Compatibility Mode: Windows98 / Windows Me
Disable fullscreen optimizations
Administrator mode enabled

4. Run the game from the .exe in the folder

Too bad it always crashes now. Maybe I'll dig up the old CD and download the "patches" and do it all old-school style instead.

[blayt shot]

Hello my friends,
since I've had a lot of troubles with this game over the years, I want to share with you my experience. I'll talk about 2 main crashes of this game.
I recently bought Tzar on steam, but it didn't work on Win 10 if ran from it's platform. So I changed the compatibility to Win 98 in the game folder and enabled 'disable full screen optimization'.
Setup: 1024x768xHiColor - OFF DirectView - ON DirectSound - Compatibility mode.
Running the game from it's folder works. The size of the game window was the bigger one.

Than I played a Single Player Random Map, STANDARD, Europe, 8 players, real world size, everithing ON (mountains etc), cheat hmnopop that brings up the limit of population to 1000.
Everything was perfect.
After about 6/7 hours of gaming (I didn't record the time), at about 320 of population (max peak), it suddently appeared a frustrating bug: newly created characters get stunned in the texture and you can't select them no more. You can't attack them, they are just there like spots of color. This quickly leads to a crash of the program.
However, when I fought an opponent faction for the first time, it appeared a lag. That tipical flaw that occours when the cpu or the internet connection are not good enough. I carried it with me til the end, it started pretty early but it never got worse that much.

INFO (more or less, at the time of the crash):
game time >6 hours, <350 pop,100 working peasants( WP),15 galleons, 20-30 towers, cows and fishermans, 2 wars won, all technology discovered, some priest, some wizard, heavy siege machines (the bug started from the cration of a heavy siege engine), massive use of the tavern's service of converting resources, no mercenaries (years ago I had the same problem thanks to the creation of mercenaries):

Knowing that the settings are very basic, and every change would have shift the screen size to the small one, I looked for a patch. I found it. I installed it. IT F***ED UP everything.

The game began crashing after few minutes or seconds. I tried several combinations of Setup settings but the bigger size of the windows led inevitably the game to crash.

SO I MADE A TEST

I attempted a 'stress test' looking for clues.. with an alternative resolution

Setup: 800x600xHiColor, OFF DirectView, OFF DirectSound, Maximum Performance
Compatibility mode: Win 95, enable 'disable full screen optimisation'
(this combination will not always work later...)

Single player, Random map, STANDARD, 5 players, Europe, real world size, everithing ON (Mountains etc)

-I wanted to research what leads the game to this particular crash: in this test I focused on the number of units, progressively adding more technology and special units.-

As a stress test, I used hmnopop-hmpetleva x4.

I started with the training of 300 peasants and I send everyone of them to work.
Then I began whit the massive creation of the army: 600 soldiers, of every kind.
I descovered only the essential technologies: the foundry-warehouse-sawmill ones, crop rotation, galleons related, architecture, healing and medicine, siege tactics, learning, bats and golem.

NO use of tavern, no cows and fishermen, no unnecessary technologies, few farms, few special units (wizard, spy, siege engine,priest), no cannon tower.
POPULATION mantained over 500 units for all the lenght of the match.

INFO:
(game time-F4)

h 01:00:00 --> 300 pop
h 02:00:00 --> 850 pop, 150 WP, 30 galleons, 7 bridges
h 02:45:00 --> first great assault to enemy, than 350 pop, the lag that appeared in the other game seems now to be less effective.. considerably smoother. It doesen't distract you from playing.
h 04:20:00 --> +50 farming crops with peasants
h 05:20:00 --> 620 pop, 20 wizards, 10 golem, 5 priest, 7 barracks, 7 bridges, 1 of every building apart from normal houses, 3 farms, 2 churches
h 05:40:00 --> I tried discovering heavy siege engines technology and produced 10 heavy siege machines.. everything ok.

7+ savings.

I quit the game because I won. I commanded over houndreds of troops at the same time, using also special units. The game was smooth, the lag barely perceptible.
I didn't use 'unnecessary' technology, and I played less than 6 hours.
Also, 5 players are few maybe, and than the game run better.

This kind of crash doesn't seem to be related to an excessive amount of units in a row, neither to the creation of some unit in particular.

Things I usually use when the game crash (stunned-in-texture-crash), that I didn't employ in the test:
- Tavern (convert resourches or mercenaries) (in test I only built it)
- Cows and fishermans
- 8 players
- Different resolution
- Longer time of game
- A lot of walls

In the end, I can't say if the problem is the lenght of the match, the balance of the resolution and compatibility, the use of too much technologies or the number of players.
At least it's not a matter of number of soldiers and peasants.

The issue is that even if the game works and appareantly if you finish a match in less than 6 hours you are safe, the window is quite small. This resolution makes the game a gameboy thing.
I tried to connect my pc to tv with hdmi cable.
It opens a whole new range of resolution defects and crashes.. but also allow you to play full screen mode, if you are lucky.


*Also, after few time, the game was no more able to be launched in 1024x768 (appears a 'configuration error' message when launched) but only in 800x600.
For now, the correct start and operation of the game and random map seems to be a random thing.
Maybe, I've noticed a little reduction of crashes due to disabling of DirectSound and DirectView.

I'll try other tests. If someone is intrested to share some ideas or something we can give this game a chance!

Thanks, and have fun
(<>. .<>)

[Furc]

Regards game crashes, here is a suggestion. Open files where game is installed. Right click on Tzar_ > Properties > Find 'Compatibility' section. There is tiny section for compatibility, tick that tiny square "Run this program in compatibility mode for: " and select windows XP from the list. Press Apply. It might be a fix for crashes on windows 10

[gepard28]

my fix was use what --> [TRICK] Make Tzar run on 1080p (desired to include on original version)
Now it run perfect no problems.

[76561199170131022]

For me I went into the game files through the Steam library, from there I hit the little gear icon (Manage) ---> Manage --> Browse Local Files --> Right click BOTH Tzar.exe (I had two of these one with a generic program icon and one with a crown icon, I choose the crown, not sure it makes a difference though) AND Setup.exe --> Properties --> Compatibility --> tick "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select windows XP (Service Pack 2).

Haven't played much as of yet, but will update IF the game begins crashing. This fixed the game being off center and crashing instantly with no error message when trying to scroll the camera.
Now I just have to figure out how to adjust the screen size to it uses more then 25% of my screen, but that's not related to the crash fix it was small to begin with.

Good luck

Update, also run Setup.exe and set screen at 800X600 HiColor as 1024X768 HiColor causes it to crash as mentioned above.

[NerevarineGMSV]

cody_norman21 eredeti hozzászólása:

For me I went into the game files through the Steam library, from there I hit the little gear icon (Manage) ---> Manage --> Browse Local Files --> Right click BOTH Tzar.exe (I had two of these one with a generic program icon and one with a crown icon, I choose the crown, not sure it makes a difference though) AND Setup.exe --> Properties --> Compatibility --> tick "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select windows XP (Service Pack 2).

Haven't played much as of yet, but will update IF the game begins crashing. This fixed the game being off center and crashing instantly with no error message when trying to scroll the camera.
Now I just have to figure out how to adjust the screen size to it uses more then 25% of my screen, but that's not related to the crash fix it was small to begin with.

Good luck

Update, also run Setup.exe and set screen at 800X600 HiColor as 1024X768 HiColor causes it to crash as mentioned above.

Thanks for sharing! This is what worked for me as far as the resolution issue (not crashes). It seems various other things might work but this was mine:

1. In setup.exe
compatibility is enabled
resolution is set to highest (1024 res)

2. tzar.ini as:
[VIDEO]
BUFFER_IN_VIDEO_MEMORY=0
DIRECTXDEVICE=-1
DIRECTDRAW_DEVICESNUMBER=2
SETUPFXDEVICE=0

3. Tzar.exe
Compatibility Mode: Windows98 / Windows Me
Disable fullscreen optimizations
Administrator mode enabled

4. Run the game from the .exe in the folder