Galactic Civilizations III Crash on startup, completely unable to play.

from Stardock Forums

Decided to get back into the game as the Crusade, Retribution, and Mega Events DLC were on sale on Steam. Upon install however I have had many issues and have been unable to play all day.

Firstly Steam hit me with a disk write error (to my SSD with more than enough storage space left) which was not an issue with different games.
Uninstalled and deleted all GC3 data, reinstalled and same again, disk write error.
Ended up clearing steam download cache and changing download location to no avail. Restarting steam didn't work, took restarting my whole PC to get it to download properly.

"Okay solved" I thought, time to play. Oh boy was I been wrong

I can now load the game onto the Stardock launcher but when clicking to play it shows me the loading screen for 1-3 seconds before flashing black and sending me to the crash report screen.

AVG antivirus noted "SDCR64.exe) as a virus and tried to quarantine it but I set it to make an exception for this and retried installing with my antivirus disabled. (no luck)

Since then I have set it to not use any DLC and just be the base game
I did actually have some steam workshop mods subscribed from the last time I played which I unsubscribed to.

I have tried getting the debug.err to show me anything useful but it only reads this five times in a row

"Debug Message:  Command Line: 

Debug Message:  Personal folder located at C:\Users\Dom\Documents" 

I've checked my documents folder, there isnt a GC3 or stardock sub folder anywhere but I think this just noting where the personal folder is.

I have also updated my GPU drivers to the most recent nvidia release (471.68) updated from about 466.something.

I then uninstalled and cleared everything and reinstalled in a different SSD just for good measure, still no luck.

 

I am pretty much stuck at the moment, I would like to get into playing again but I really am unsure what else I can even try to get it working.

 

Any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated, I would rather my £9.51 wasn't wasted lol.

 

 

 

58,569 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

And because I realise I forgot to mention it, I have Verified the integrity of my game cache about 10 different times. each of these would show 1 or 4 things that needed downloading.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

There are a few files that get customized on install, so getting up to 4 files failing verify is normal.

Sorry I can't help you otherwise, I'm sure someone from Stardock will respond.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I have also now tried disabling my anti virus for the entire download, install, and open process. Same issue crash on startup. debug.err shows the same as before

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Go to \Documents\My Games, is there a GC3Crusade folder?

I suggest whitelisting Steam and GC3 with any antivirus installed.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

ooh there is a GalCiv3 and GC3 Crusade folder in there I didnt realise it would be further in as there were many games just straight in Documents. 

I figure delete these as well and ty validate and reinstall.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Deleted both GalCiv3 and GC3 Crusade, Validated and tried to play again but same issue (however with the dlc all turned off only the GalCiv3 folder was recreated).

I have also whitelisted steam and GC3 within my antivirus as well.

Am going to do a fresh install (round 7ish!) but this time also make sure that these above folders are deleted beforehand because screw it im trying everything now.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Before doing a reinstall, in the folder GC3Crusade there should be a debug.err file. Either upload it to a file sharing site and share a link here, or simply post its contents.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm afraid I did that reinstall run before seeing your reply. I didn't realise there were two debug.err files as there is that one mentioned in my original post that just points to the users file.

Debug is as follows

Debug Message:  Current Time UTC: 08-21-2021 16:33

Debug Message:  Version 4.2, Build #10730, last updated on: 08-21-2021 17:16

Debug Message:  Product Version 23.1.6.9

Debug Message:  Steam Build

Debug Message:  Working Directory: K:\SteamLibrary Kingston\steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations III

Debug Message:  Initializing DLC status. Online: 1

Debug Message:  DLC0_Founders Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC1_MapPack Owned: 1 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC1_5_Registration Owned: 1 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC2_MegaEvents Owned: 1 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC3_Snathi Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC4_PrecursorWorlds Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  EXP1_Mercenaries Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC5_BuildersKit Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC6_RiseoftheTerrans Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC7_LostTreasures Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC8_AltarianProphecy Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  EXP2_Crusade Owned: 1 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC10_MechKit Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  EXP3_Intrigue Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC11_StarControlHeroes Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  EXP4_Retribution Owned: 1 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC12_StarControlVillains Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  DLC14_WorldsInCrisis Owned: 0 Installed 0 PathExists: 0 Enabled By Default 1

Debug Message:  Finished initializing DLC status

Debug Message:  Personal folder located at C:\Users\Dom\Documents

Debug Message:  Personal folder located at C:\Users\Dom\Documents

Debug Message:  Initializing data directories

Debug Message:  Checking if data bins needs to be rebuilt.

Debug Message:  Loading options binary

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Attempting to login using persistent auth.

Debug Message:  No existing persistent auth credentials were found for automatic login.

Debug Message:  [EOS SDK] Login Failed - Error Code: EOS_InvalidAuth

Debug Message:  Disabling persisent auth.  User will need to login manually.

Debug Message:  No existing persistent auth credentials were found for automatic login.

Debug Message:  Initialize Prefs

Debug Message:  Checking data binaries

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Social overlay is disabled due to overlay setup failure (EOS_UnexpectedError).

Debug Message:  [EOS SDK] Connect Login Complete - ProductUserId: 0002a603bf4440428c21ea5e3113c5fa

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Loading core binary

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Core XML has been changed: Yes

Debug Message:  Setting core data

Debug Message:  Loading particles binary

Debug Message:  Setting particle data

Debug Message:  Registering types

Debug Message:  Setting data for assets

Debug Message:  Activation successful.

Debug Message:  Checking virtual memory

Debug Message:  Initializing event center

Debug Message:  Checking for valid working directory

Debug Message:  Entering WinMain

Debug Message:  ******* Starting Game Shell *******

Debug Message:  InitializeResources.

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Initializing Shell

Debug Message:  Initializing Fonts

Debug Message:  RegisterFont: Font with file: BankGthd.ttf, face index: 0, size 18 ALREADY registered, ID of -245753110 with same properties will not be registered separately.

Debug Message:  Initializing Fonts - complete

Debug Message:  Initializing Direct3D

DebugMessage:  Particle Engine Created.

Debug Message:  Adding DXSAS clean up function

Debug Message:  Initializing device

Debug Message:  DrawManager InitializeDevice

Debug Message:  Creating renderer

Debug Message:  Initializing Direct3D 11 Renderer

DebugMessage:  Force Clean generated files: 0

Debug Message:  Creating FBX animation core

Debug Message:  Enumerating device settings

Debug Message:  CD3D11RendererSettings::Enumerate: Preferred adapter is 0

Debug Message:  CD3D11RendererSettings::Enumerate: Creating DXGI 1.1 factory

Now im not familiar with the debug lines of GC3 but the only obvious error to me is that login fail for this EOS SDK but i believe that is just an Epic Games launcher thing so shouldn't be an issue with it being installed through steam.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Do you have an dedicated graphics card or just an integrated one?

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Should have said the specs.

I5 6600k 

GTX 1070 8gb is an ASUS dual cool thing

24GB ddr4 2400mhz

Games are installed on a rando 500gb Kingston SSD separate from my OS which is on a different crucial 500gb SSD.

 

 

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Open the Nvidia control panel and set the game to utilize the dedicated card.

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Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Found GC3 in the Nvidia panel, It doesn't actually give me the second drop down there with the preferred graphics processor but I did restore to settings the game shipped with just in case.

I've never had an issue before where something was trying to run off the igpu on the cpu and obviously my displays are plugged into the GPU so I figure I would have more issues if that were the case.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

So, it's not related to the graphics card.

I want you to see if Controlled folder access is disabled. Go to your 'Windows Defender Settings' --> 'Virus and threat protection --> Ransomware protection --> Turn off 'Controlled folder access'.

Another thing to try is find GalCiv3.exe, select its properties and Disable fullscreen optimization in the Compatibility tab.

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

I disabled fullscreen optimisation for GC3, no luck.

Within Windows Security (I couldn't find virus and threat protection as a tab in windows defender firewall) I cant find a randsomware option at all, appears to be covered by AVG.

My randsomware settings didn't specifically cover the install location of GC3 but it did cover the documents folder (which has stuff for GC3 in the "My Games" sub folder) and disabling randsomware protection there also did not help

Doing a direct search for Controlled folder access I get this:

Which is odd because I put this damn computer together and I am the administrator.
digging around online for expanding the options to show it I find that my pc doesnt seem to have the same options for windows defender at all in gpedit, regedit, and services.msc.

Big shrugs all round.

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

For the sake of testing, and to get at the Ransomeware settings (and turning it off if on), remove AVG from the equation.

The next would be to see about installing the game on C (again, just for testing).

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

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Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top

Okay uninstalled AVG, completely deleted any GC3 files from my computer.
Reinstalled GC3 onto my C: drive.

Now AVG is gone the Virus and threat protection sections show as expected by Rhonin, Controlled folder access is turned off.

It sat on the loading screen longer than before but alas it still dies. I also went back and disabled fullscreen optimisation for good luck but still getting the same thing.

 

 

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Dom3497, reply 17

Okay uninstalled AVG, completely deleted any GC3 files from my computer.
Reinstalled GC3 onto my C: drive.

Now AVG is gone the Virus and threat protection sections show as expected by Rhonin, Controlled folder access is turned off.

It sat on the loading screen longer than before but alas it still dies. I also went back and disabled fullscreen optimisation for good luck but still getting the same thing.
 

Does your PC have an integrated Intel graphics chip?  If so, please follow this thread:
https://forums.stardock.com/504917/page/1/#3815045

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

 

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top

So going through that thread: I am going through it because my 6600k should have integrated graphics as well but I am about 99% sure they aren't being used in any way.

I've run dxdiag which showed no issues, it also only found my gtx 1070 for Display Devices. Have a link to it in case anyway.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PdpVBDmaPGMpQsYucNDR1ISCMCa-zhJM/view?usp=sharing 

I figure doing the GCCrusade.old thing is just a way to maintain the old folder without it being recognised by the program so old data isnt lost when it is rebuilt by being launched again? I have deleted my original folder and uninstalled the DLC already.

I'm not going to do a fresh windows install like the other guy did I have other stuff going on not just GC3 and Sins :D 

and by the looks of it the other guy was having just a driver issue and was actually able to load into the game but not play it, mine dies before I even get to the main menu.