From Dust

[Draconi Redfir]

""From dust" is a new game now available on steam and XBLA in which you are... a glowing worm with the power to control nature itself, and you need to protect a small village of masked-people.

The first few posts are about my issues launching the game, so if you are new to the thread your best bet may be to check the second or third page. (Though they do not exist at time of writing.)

So i just recently got this game, but for some reason i can't play it, the thing just keeps crashing at the cloudly loading screen thing.

i know it's not the graphics, as my computer can run more advanced games like left 4 dead and saints row 2

i know its not memmory since i uninstalled like five games beforehand and now have sevral thousand gigabites of ram availible

and i'm pretty sure my speakers emit it and i don't see how that would cause it to crash.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[Domochevsky]

You gotta come up with more details than that. :smallwink:

What does the eventlog say and are there any extra error messages?

[Draconi Redfir]

the only thing i get is a popup saying

"From dust.exe has stoped working.
Windows will check for a solution and then notify you if one is availible"

or something along those lines, and then nothing.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Check the eventlog or errorlog.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

i know its not memmory since i uninstalled like five games beforehand and now have sevral thousand gigabites of ram availible
Quick note: this isn't RAM. This is hard disk space. Several thousand gigabytes of RAM would be... :smalleek: I would be so happy to have that.

Go to "My Computer" (or Start -> Computer on Windows 7), and right-click it. Select "Properties". You'll get a window that lists important stats like CPU speed (measured in gigahertz, "gHz") and RAM (usually measured in gigabytes, GB, will likely be anywhere from 4-12 GB, depending on how crazy souped your computer is).

[Draconi Redfir]

allright looks like i got 3.00 then dispite my attempts at increaseing it. but the game only requires like, 1.5 or 2, so this cant be the issue.

as for the eventlong think i've got general
Faulting application From_Dust.exe, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x4dde1d92, faulting module From_Dust.exe, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x4dde1d92, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x001519c3, process id 0x1cb8, application start time 0x01cc62c48a782e92.

and details.
- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-08-25T01:16:03.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>101204</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Terry-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>From_Dust.exe</Data>
<Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>4dde1d92</Data>
<Data>From_Dust.exe</Data>
<Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data>4dde1d92</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>001519c3</Data>
<Data>1cb8</Data>
<Data>01cc62c48a782e92</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

As well as this one laybled "system" whereas the first is "applicaition"

Failed to create restore point on volume (Process = c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\from dust\Support\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe files\steam\steamapps\common\from dust\Support\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe" /silent; Descripton = ôåu; Hr = 0x80070057).

Details
This event is not displayed correctly because the underlying XML is not well formed. Below is the raw text of the event.

8193200x80000000000000101191ApplicationTerry-PCc:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\from dust\Support\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe files\steam\steamapps\common\from dust\Support\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe" /silentôåu0x800700575700078002020000D6010000000000 0032CA19E58CAF4DCB010000000000000000000000

and i have no idea what any of this means.

[Leecros]

i know it's not the graphics, as my computer can run more advanced games like left 4 dead and saints row 2
Could you give more info on your graphics card. As far as i can tell From Dust is more graphic intensive than either of those games with From Dust requiring at least a 256 MB & Shader Model 3.0 graphics card and Saints Row/L4D2 requiring a minimum of 128 MB 3D Video Card & Shader Model 3.0

[Eledragon]

try updating your graphics driver. I was getting strange crashes on Mount & Blade, and the fix was as simple as getting the new driver.

[Winter_Wolf]

Did you try to uninstall/reinstall it? If it's from Steam, can you re-download it without paying for it again? You might have a corrupted download. DirectX and/or DXSETUP crop up a lot in those error reports you posted. Just yesterday I had to re-download a few things because they were corrupted.

[Draconi Redfir]

Could you give more info on your graphics card. As far as i can tell From Dust is more graphic intensive than either of those games with From Dust requiring at least a 256 MB & Shader Model 3.0 graphics card and Saints Row/L4D2 requiring a minimum of 128 MB 3D Video Card & Shader Model 3.0

looks like i have a NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 though googling this didin't turn up anything, it did give me this (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080613155457AAlzxP0) page, and following those instructions the display tab reads

Device:
-Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
-Manufacturer: NVIDI
-Chip Type: GeForce 8400 GS
-DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
-Approx. Total Memmory: 1520 MB
-Current Display Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit)(60Hz)
-Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor

Drivers:
-Main Driver: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
-Version: 7.15.0011.6369 (English)
-Date: 11/09/2007 8:28:00AM
-WHQL Logo'd: N/A
-DDI Version: 10

So i don't know if i have that one or the NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 thing or if they are both the same thing, or what, as two diffrent things on my computer say diffrent things.

really sorry about all this guys i don't understand any of this hardware stuff, and just so i'm not hogging the spotlight here feel free to discuss from dust yourselves, i'll just make sure to read it to avoid spoilers.



Did you try to uninstall/reinstall it? If it's from Steam, can you re-download it without paying for it again? You might have a corrupted download. DirectX and/or DXSETUP crop up a lot in those error reports you posted. Just yesterday I had to re-download a few things because they were corrupted.

Yes i did un/re instal it just before createing this thread, sadly it doesent seem to have helped.

[Brother Oni]

looks like i have a NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 though googling this didin't turn up anything, it did give me this (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080613155457AAlzxP0) page, and following those instructions the display tab reads

Device:
-Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
-Manufacturer: NVIDI
-Chip Type: GeForce 8400 GS
-DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
-Approx. Total Memmory: 1520 MB
-Current Display Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit)(60Hz)
-Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor

Drivers:
-Main Driver: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
-Version: 7.15.0011.6369 (English)
-Date: 11/09/2007 8:28:00AM
-WHQL Logo'd: N/A
-DDI Version: 10

So i don't know if i have that one or the NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 thing or if they are both the same thing, or what, as two diffrent things on my computer say diffrent things.


Well the card you say you have and the card listed in the dxdiag report are different.

Fortunately, the card listed in the dxdiag is better, although the drivers look very out of date (2007!).

As Eledragon said, upgrade your graphics drivers (Nvidia driver download page link (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us)), probably your DirectX as well, along with any relevant Windows updates.

[Sipex]

Yeah, looking at the errors and judging from the type of crash I would have to pin it on graphics somewhere. Do as the others have said. Get the latest drivers for your graphics card then upgrade Direct X to it's latest version.

[Draconi Redfir]

Oh so the drivers thing is just a software? That's good news. Allright i'll give it a shot and let you guys know, thanks for all the help.

[Winterwind]

Drivers are basically programs a computer uses to operate its hardware components. Essentially, shortcuts for programs to use to communicate with the computer's parts, so that the programmer doesn't have to code stuff like "fill out pixel A with red, then the pixel below it with green, then the pixel next to it with red again, then...", but instead just a brief "fill area between A, B and C with pattern X". Those keep being updated and changed, so if your drivers are outdated, it may be a programmer uses some driver that your computer just doesn't have - basically, the programmer says "fill out a circle with radius X at point Y with colour Z", and the computer goes "what the hell is a circle?". Drivers can pretty much always be found for free on the Internet, most commonly at the site of whoever made your operating system (so, Microsoft, if you are using Windows), or the producer of the hardware component you are looking for the drivers for (so, in this case Nvidia).


Also, while we're at it:
RAM is the memory that a computer loads everything it is working on right now into. The hard drive is where it stores all data, all programs and everything else - it's what you see when you browse through it with the Windows Explorer, and where you can free up space by deleting stuff - but that's all the hard drive does, store stuff. The computer can't actually do anything with stuff that's on the hard drive, except copy it or delete it. In order to do something with it - run a program, for example - it must copy it from the hard drive into the RAM. Think of the hard drive as the computer's store house, and the RAM as the computer's factory, where the stuff from the store house is brought to be worked upon, and from which it is sent back to the store house once the work is done. Trying to get more RAM by deleting stuff is like saying that one can make a factory bigger and more effective by throwing stuff out of the store house that supplies it - one doesn't have anything to do with the other. Hard drive and RAM are two completely different components in the computer, physically quite a bit apart; hard drives are massive devices, larger and thicker than a CD case, RAM are tiny chips of just a couple inches size. You can't increase your RAM by deleting stuff from your computer; there is only one way to increase your RAM, and that's by inserting more RAM chips into the computer or upgrading the ones that are inside to better ones.


All of the above rather simplified. I'd recommend reading up a bit on it - in the modern age, having at least a basic understanding of how a computer works is just about the most useful skill to possess, and it's not really all that difficult. :smallwink:

[Sipex]

That was a really good analogy, good stuff.

[Draconi Redfir]

all right, i downloaded the new drivers, and the good news is i managed to get past the cloudy loading screen, and got to this cinematic(?) involving the camera pacing between two rocks while there is what appears to be a headless white giraffe statue in the background. no kind of menu popped up or anything, and pressing escape enter and space didn’t do anything to skip it. After about three paces between the stones i had to go to a doctors appointment, and since ctrl-alt-deleting to try and close the program wasn’t working, i had to opt for a hard shutdown, sooo... hopefully that doesn’t create any issues.

edit: yaay it works!

[Brother Oni]

RAM analogy

*Cough*Virtualmemory*cough* :smalltongue:



edit: yaay it works!

So the game works, or the hard shutdown worked? :smallconfused:

[Mistral]

*Cough*Virtualmemory*cough* :smalltongue:

Bringing a small tool kit with you to the storehouse so you don't need to haul everything all the way to the factory and back again. Yes, it's completely wrong in every possible way, but all good analogies are.

[Draconi Redfir]

*Cough*Virtualmemory*cough* :smalltongue:



So the game works, or the hard shutdown worked? :smallconfused:

The game works. The controls are a bit wonky at first, but after getting used to them you get the hang of it.

[Brumski]

I'm having the exact same problem, Draconi. Glad to hear you got it worked out. Hopefully when I get back to my PC I can update my drivers and that will fix it. Was considering getting a new video card since I figured that was a problem, since I haven't done anything with my hardware since my friend built the computer (ah geez, like 4 years ago :smalleek:)

If I get it up and going, I'll have things to discuss about it after the weekend.

[Draconi Redfir]

Well at least i can take comfort in the fact that i wasnt the only one having troubles :smallbiggrin: