Windows 10 issue and fix?

[Terl]

I have DWU installed with and without Steam on my new windows 10 laptop. It would not start and would "stop working" just as it started to show the main screen with the menu and such. I set it to windows 7 compatibility and all but still it failed on both.

I went into startup.ini and set playmovie to 0 so the line is: playmovie 0 instead of the playmovie 1 and the game runs perfectly.

Just sharing in case anyone can use it

[Sereg]

You're my ****ing hero, Terl. I'd completely abandoned the game for several months after upgrading to windows 10, and then for the past few days I've been dicking around with things trying to get it to work again.

Commenting it out, deleting it, no success, but setting it to 0 magically works.

Thanks.

[zakblood]

other option to try is, alter the default in windows 10, then try it, and alter nothing in game





as the default media player may not play the file so causes an error[;)]

[Terl]

Thanks zakblood, but, I did try that one first with both the steam installed version and the Matrix version. But I don't need the movie, just the game...

[Smith1212]

Thanks Terl! I have been in an identical situation as Sereg. Thanks a great deal, new hero!

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: Terl

I went into startup.ini and set playmovie to 0 so the line is: playmovie 0 instead of the playmovie 1 and the game runs perfectly.

Brilliant! That works for me, too.

I'd found a different solution, though yours is better. I had another game which switched to an unusable graphics setting when I upgraded to Windows 10. So I edited the startup.ini to run Distant Worlds with my native resolution (1920 x 1080).

That worked, but I had to play in a window. I'd prefer to play full-screen, which your solution seems to allow. Thanks!

PS. Is there no way to adjust the graphics settings in this game, other than the crude method of editing startup.ini? (And that forces you to run in windowed mode.) That seems bizarre, doesn't it?

Or am I missing something?

[Blabsawaw22]

well just throwing it out there, but there is something more going on.. cause how many people have windows 10 now and playing Distant Worlds and haven't reported this windowed mode? or error like you..

what I'm saying is it works for plenty of other Win 10 users..

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22

well just throwing it out there, but there is something more going on.. cause how many people have windows 10 now and playing Distant Worlds and haven't reported this windowed mode? or error like you..

what I'm saying is it works for plenty of other Win 10 users..

Might not be DWU causing the problem, could be other software or even subtle differences in hardware. On mine the video sometimes stopped with a black screen but clicking the screen caused it to cancel playing, allowing the game proper to start.

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: Blabsawaw22

what I'm saying is it works for plenty of other Win 10 users..

Of course. But that's always the problem, isn't it? Everyone has different software and a different hardware configuration to run it on. Someone is always going to have problems.

[Blabsawaw22]

yes I know guys.. but this is Distant Worlds .. what does this need to run? Qbasic? haha..

look it's not Call of Duty 9, Black OPS 7 whatever.. or Battlefield 4 or Star Citizen or you name some huge game that has to demand from the systems and need this and that....

this is a 2D CPU hog.. I guess in .NET framework..

lets see... other games -

Terraria, Rimworld, AI war fleet command? , Bastion? and others ..

I'm just saying it ain't no Unreal, Unity 3D or Cry Engine etc..

I'm sure it took a long time to program I know.. but it just needs what? XNA and directx and windows media player??

you can't change fonts, size or anything of depth..

I'm just having a good laugh that in 2016 and windows 10, we are still having errors, but I hope they get solved.

[zakblood]

the game only needs the pre requisite that come with the game to work, plus if using windows 10, to maybe alter the default media player to see or watch video etc

apart from that it's all standard stuff regarding game running,

add the exe of the game to your Anti Virus and firewall program, to make sure check the logs of these to see if it was one if any of them which was to blame.

That usually means a 3rd party program, like an Internet security programs, is or could be interfering with the game or update installation.

run the game from a admin account and use full admin permissions.

please make sure all game pre requisite are installed with the game, even if you think or fully know there are already installed, it will only over write, and it may be that you have a older or newer version of these where as the game in question may need a certain version.

please make sure you are running the latest game version and have up to date drivers installed on your pc,

If you have the original version. So you'll need to update it from the Internet.
Please note that you'll only need the last update, as the updates are comprehensive. (not needed with steam)


as all this is stated in the release info as needed, it maybe not common knowledge that windows 10 users who have later versions of most pre requisites still need the correct ones to run the game, as it's no good having a 64bit version of .net if the game is 32bit, as it may or may not work and could or may give errors, so it's always best to have what the game was programmed with on release as that works, anything else may or may not work

Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 or later, Microsoft XNA 4.0 (both included with installer), Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer

as you can plainly see, i test a lot of older games so have more than one version of almost everything installed, as each game can use a different version, this is common, one program doesn't and never will support all versions, this is by M/S design, same as DirectX

if you have the latest video card and windows 10, you will have DirectX 12 or 12.1 installed on your pc, but to have older games working also on your pc, you will need other versions installing as well, these don't over write but go into a different folder, so again it's common to have more than one version of DirectX installed on windows 10.

also as you can see, if the game runs or supports 64bit coding, then i also run the 64bit version of the program, while most are written in 32bit / x86, it's common to mostly only have these bundled with the game, if so it's normally only supports one type and not both...

having the latest version on any file matters little in this matter, as you need to one that comes with any game installing, this will sort of 99% of most errors posted in windows 10, the next is drivers, always use the latest, and don't run the resolution past what the game can handle and at 96DPI, higher and txt or the game may not support it and could cause errors.

[Blabsawaw22]

Ok good to know, that comment was for other users in general I assume, as my game works perfectly by the way..

(uh.. minus the AI flaws or bugs whatever..but we ain't getting into that!) ha...




and I don't have all that other "stuff" installed either.. just the standard extras that came with the game and tell you to install when you install Distant Worlds!

[zakblood]

yes for notes not one user in general, and also yes, extra is for other games, just pointing out what is needed is set / sent with each game is needed and does need to be installed in every game that it comes bundled with, hope that makes more sense or is clearer [:D][;)]

[offenseman]

How does one change the startup.ini ? Or perhaps I should ask where to find it.

edit- found it. fingers crossed that this will solve my win10 startup problem

[ldog]

it's such a bug ridden piece of shit, it hardly runs on win7 anymore even...dunno why I put off updating to win10.
Shame because it really is a fun game...when you can get it to work.

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: ldog

it's such a bug ridden piece of shit, it hardly runs on win7 anymore even...

Really? It always ran perfectly for me, and I don't think I ever encountered a bug. Once I made that simple change of setting "playmovie" to 0, it's worked flawlessly in Windows 10, too.

Of course, everyone has different hardware and runs different software. There are always going to be people who have problems with a game - pretty much any game. I sympathize, because I know how frustrating it is. (Trust me. I do know how frustrating it is!)

But "bug ridden piece of shit"? That's something that's easy to say if you're not the one trying to get software to run perfectly for everyone - even on operating systems that didn't exist when you developed it - don't you think?

[ldog]

3 seperate computers, 3 different OSs
Same problems between all.
Yes, pretty fucking easy to say.
And the tech support has been thoroughly useless.

[JosephM]

Hello ldog,

Sorry, but we in Tech Support have tried to help, but this is not something we are able to fix. There are times where we can't help and do have to admit defeat, and in this case only the developer can help with the issue. We have contacted the developer about this, but with out of memory issues we on Tech Support aren't able to help. Only the developer can help further with the issue.

Also, on the ticket, we did ask if MSConfig had helped with the issue, but we never heard back from you. Did MSConfig help with the issue?

[jadei]

Writing this to help others since the only thing that worked for me was to run the DXSETUP.EXE in \_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010 directory

This got it to start on Win10 v1709 on a Surface Pro 4 i5 8gb

[zakblood]

and here's my complete list of tips and helps for windows 10 to make it more backwards compatible

tm.asp?m=4446201

different game, but same applies to more tbh