Game Does NOT even start

[Jorgen_CAB]

I just installed the game (from Steam) and also installed the Bacon mod with the RetreatUE on Windows 10 64bit on a Laptop with an Intel/Nvidia double graphics card, probably the most complicated setup to install any game on.

My problem was three things that needed to be done...

Step 1

in your "...\Steam\steamapps\common\Distant Worlds Universe" folder there is a text file called "startup.ini". In this file change...

playmovie 1 to playmovie 0

Note: The reason why the movie does not start are most likely becasue you have a hybrid Intel/(Nvidia or ATI) as you do on many laptops, but even some dasktop computers have those. The media player will try to start the movie with the Intel CPU and the game runs with the proper GPU. This will not work. You can force the game to run with the Intel GPU but I would not recomend doing that, just disable the movie...
You sadly can't force Windows 10 to run the Media Player with the proper GPU such as Nvidia or ATI


Step 2

Install DirectX9... the files does not come with the Steam installation so use this one...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/downloa ... px?id=8109


Step 3

I had to start the game with Administrator mode for the Bacon mod to load, but I don't think I needed to do that with the standard game. Most likely because the Bacon mod throw a modal popup when the exe is run.

Note: This step should only be necessary for the Bacon mod...

[zakblood]

there's plenty of my tips posted on the site to make windows better for older games, and nothing i do or suggests makes newer games not work, so you've lost nothing by trying them, some apps or programs you disabled, others you enable, so rather simple tbh imo

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4454024

[moonraker65]

I've found it on my system to be a .Net issue. Thought it was missing dll's at first as Win 10 64 bit is notorious for having some missing for certain app's and device drivers. Have a look at .Net repair on the MS site

[rjord2021]

I purchased a gaming system back in January and for the first time in 6 years the game would not open despite having media player etc installed.
I resolved the problem by disabling the startup movie by changing playmovie 1 to playmovie 0

[Shogouki]

Never mind, fixed it!

[btd64]

Having a start problem similar to the above. I double click on the desktop Icon, then single click to play DWU. I get the start screen and a second later it disappears. This is on a new system with 8 cores, and 64bit win10....GP

[USSAmerica]

GP, did you get your new install of DWU working?

[btd64]

Nope....GP

[rjord2021]

For those of you who have Windows 2004 installed and cannot run the game:





In regard to Distant Worlds Universe not running under Windows 2004..... these are my findings.

If you run from Steam or use the Desktop Shortcut you will get the popup screen giving you the button Play Distant Worlds.
This no longer works under Windows 2004.

However if you go to the Distant Worlds folder under common and click on DistantWorlds.exe the game will run.

Bacon Mod will however crash still...... but the original Distant Worlds Universe game still runs via the Distant Worlds Folder.

[Hattori Hanzo]

what is Windows 2004 ?

[Retreat1970]

It's a big update to windows 10. Last one was 1909.

[Hattori Hanzo]

thanks Retreat1970, is it possible to go back from Windows10-2004 to Windows10-1909 ?

[U235]

ORIGINAL: moonraker65

I've found it on my system to be a .Net issue. Thought it was missing dll's at first as Win 10 64 bit is notorious for having some missing for certain app's and device drivers. Have a look at .Net repair on the MS site

This worked for me. I Downloaded the tool at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downloa ... x?id=30135. Started the tool and let it do its thing (Important: keep the tool open) The went into the DistantWorlds folder opened the subfolder "redist" and ran the DXSETup.exe. It did not complete the first two times but I noticed it got further with each attempt. You will click next after each attempt with DXSETup.exe in the .Net repair tool. The third time was a charm, DX finished all the way, and I clicked finish on the .Net Repair tool. DW worked immediately, no other modifications to ini or exe files needed. Thanks for the tip moonraker65! [;)]

I'm still on Windows 10 1909.

[U235]

I should also mention I'm the Distant Worlds PC version. I have it on Steam but haven't tried it there. There was no "redist" folder in the game files at the Steam location, at least for me. I will try it later and see if the issue is repaired there as well.

Edit: Also takes care of the same issue with Steam.

[Protonic2020]

What MEDIA file type is it that starts the game? Because i think this is a good lead to solving it as well. The thing is that in Windows 10 it´s a HUGE list to set the standard program for which program that opens a certain media file so best if i know the first if i will get anywhere in my own troubleshooting this common problem with DWU as it seems. Thanks Tullius for that input.
EDIT: Intro file is .wmv file extension, plays fine directly from the player.
Nah this problem was one of those naughty ones, tried lots of fixes now to no use. Difficult problem here.

Footnote: I ment to say media file at first up here and i left out the word "media", darn i get irritated on myself how sloppy i am, excuse.

[Protonic2020]

Link broken U235
Yes i finally got it to work!

And i will try to describe here as best as i can to help any other customer running into the same problems like i did.
The thing for me was personally that i got to eager to run the game so i clicked twice after installing the game from the game menu so i got two executed programs on startup so i chose to shut down one of them. After that the game was not able to execute the program so some seconds into trying to start it several times, something had apparently gone wrong\corrupted there.
So i tried possible fix after fix but it shut down rather fast and any crash log to view was just one of the problems i had to skip since it for the moment just was too far stretched to get that to even produce one to view.

So my solution was: Uninstalling\reinstalling paying close attention and making sure to follow all steps exactly to avoid any little mistake during the installation, shutting down AV program as well as setting User Control Account to a minimum during download and installation, the .Net 4.0 frame, the three of the instances to install checked so it did it´s thing finishing with one repair try at one of the first applications mentioned above, restarting the PC, clicking once from the game menu to let it execute the game. And it went further and loaded it all as it should.

[deMangler]

I have found the simplest way is to install it to a windows 7 virtual machine. That is ok because it is not graphics heavy. I love distant worlds so much I have a VM dedicated to it. Nothing touches it to this day for sheer gameplay and a living universe.
I really hope distant worlds 2 runs on linux. By the looks of it there will be some 3d stuff and if it doesn't run in linux natively or with proton that will definitely be a real shame.

[cbelva]

I'm having the same problem. I install DW Universe and it will start to launch the game and then disappear after a few seconds. I have WMP installed and gone thru this thread. The DW_CrashDump appears to indicate that the file Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound is missing. I have DirectX 12 installed and .NET Framework 4.5. I tried to reinstall them but Windows won't let me telling me that they are already installed. Any help would be appreciated.

I will post the CrashDump file below.

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound, Version=1.0.2902.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound, Version=1.0.2902.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'
at DistantWorlds.Main.v0N2iKhKFv(Int32 , Int32 , Boolean )
at DistantWorlds.Main..ctor(Int32 width, Int32 height, Boolean windowedMode, Splash splashForm)
at DistantWorlds.Start.iTYOzJ5MC8(Object , EventArgs )
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.SetVisibleCore(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.set_Visible(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(Form mainForm)
at jLxldM9XTqtG17kf9b.oM5LtUV4H5mWoatiYO.w3E0UgaaIQdie9YPk0SR(Object )
at jLxldM9XTqtG17kf9b.oM5LtUV4H5mWoatiYO.S6cP2uyLiyH()

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

[rjord2021]

ORIGINAL: cbelva

I'm having the same problem. I install DW Universe and it will start to launch the game and then disappear after a few seconds. I have WMP installed and gone thru this thread. The DW_CrashDump appears to indicate that the file Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound is missing. I have DirectX 12 installed and .NET Framework 4.5. I tried to reinstall them but Windows won't let me telling me that they are already installed. Any help would be appreciated.

I will post the CrashDump file below.

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound, Version=1.0.2902.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound, Version=1.0.2902.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'
at DistantWorlds.Main.v0N2iKhKFv(Int32 , Int32 , Boolean )
at DistantWorlds.Main..ctor(Int32 width, Int32 height, Boolean windowedMode, Splash splashForm)
at DistantWorlds.Start.iTYOzJ5MC8(Object , EventArgs )
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.SetVisibleCore(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.set_Visible(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(Form mainForm)
at jLxldM9XTqtG17kf9b.oM5LtUV4H5mWoatiYO.w3E0UgaaIQdie9YPk0SR(Object )
at jLxldM9XTqtG17kf9b.oM5LtUV4H5mWoatiYO.S6cP2uyLiyH()

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

in the startup.ini file in main folder make sure the line reads as
playmovie 0

Also make sure directx is updated.

so it does not play the video.

[jmscho]

Spent a couple of days trying to get Distant Worlds to run on a new PC.
Even tried using a VM loaded with Windows 8.1.
All failed.
Eventually, when loading steam onto the new machine tried again, under steam.
It worked but it did need the playmovie change, as per above.