Cutscenes causing crashes (Divinity 2)

Errant911

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January 11, 2010
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Ok after days of tinkering and trying to get this blasted game to work, I seem to finally have pinpointed the root problem. However, I can't seem to fix it...

First of all.
I'm running this on:
Intel i5 2.66GHz Quad-core
4.0 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 5850
...etc
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate


Whenever Divinity 2 goes to a cutscene, the video starts to stutter then completely freeze my system. It usually requires a hard reset to get rid of. For the longest time I couldn't even make it to the character creation scene because the opening video would start then freeze. I finally took an early game save from someone else and started playing with everything working fine. However, the next time a cutscene came about the same problem presented itself.

Here are some of the issues in the game's error report...
1.Couldn't create renderer.
2.The game has detected that you have installed a different version of PhysX. If this is a newer version of PhysX than the one with which the game shipped, this may be fine, but should you encounter abnormal termination of the game, please visit the support page or contact technical support. (I'm not using an Nvidia card, so I don't know why it's trying to initialize PhysX. I don't have the PhysX drivers installed, but ATI doesn't support PhysX so it shouldn't matter, also PhysX isn't used in a .wmv)
3.Invalid Shader Model. Make sure your graphics card supports shader model 3.0 or higher. (I'm using ATI's newest drivers and have installed DirectX 9.0c posted on the main tech. problems thread)
4.Not enough video memory. Make sure you have at least 128 MB of video memory. (I have 1 GB of dedicated visual memory.)

I've tried running it using just about every different version of compatibility (Vista: SP 1, 2 and 3, XP: SP 1 and 2). I checked "disable desktop composition" as was suggested by many groups. I've tried just about everything I can think. Also, I can play the .wmv's when I am not in the game.

This game looks amazing, and the tiny taste just got me wanting more. I really would like to get this fixed. In the mean time, if anyone could suggest a way to just skip all cutscenes, I would be willing to do that just so I can play the game. I tried backing up and removing the cutscene files, but the game just gets hung up right before it transfers to the cutscene.

Sorry for the wall of text. I just wanted to make sure I included everything I've done.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
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OK, I just started a new game under Win 7 64 bit Ultimate and had no issues whatsoever. However, I am using a Nvidia card. Therefore, I would suspect that the problem has something to do with your ATI card. Check on the official Larian forums tech support and see if they have anything.
 
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I've checked the Larian forums, and tried everything suggested. So far nothing has worked. I've tried multiple driver versions and that hasn't helped. I can't imagine them designing a game without taking into account one of the biggest video card brands out there.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
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I agree, I'm sure it would have been tested for ATI, but perhaps not with Win 7. Until more people with ATI cards try the game, I don't know what else to suggest.
 
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You are correct that PhysX is not used for playing video, so your current problem is not related to that.

I would like to clear up one misunderstanding that appears to be quite common - PhysX is *not* only used/required for nVidia graphics cards!

PhysX is a middleware package that does physics simulation. It was recently acquired by nVidia, and the physics simulation is hardware accellerated (or can be) when running with an nVidia card. If you have an ATI card it simply means that physics will be simulated on your CPU. You need the correct PhysX drivers installed in any case!

As a developer (not at Larian) I agree that it is a stupid way to distribute a physics middleware package - I would very much prefer it to be statically linked into the individual games - but that's just how it is right now I'm afraid :)
 
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Oct 18, 2006
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Maybe a graphics driver problem, try downloading newer or older driver from ATI webpage and see if it helps.
 
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Fixed?

Did you ever figure out how to fix your problem?

I've got two machines, both running Windows 7 Home, both with ATI cards. The i5 with 8GB of RAM crashes without fail on cutscenes, but the crappy Core 2 Duo doesn't have a problem with the cutscenes.

I've tried everything I can think of--other than a complete reinstall--so I'm really hoping you got it figured out...

Help?
 
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
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2.The game has detected that you have installed a different version of PhysX. If this is a newer version of PhysX than the one with which the game shipped, this may be fine, but should you encounter abnormal termination of the game, please visit the support page or contact technical support. (I'm not using an Nvidia card, so I don't know why it's trying to initialize PhysX. I don't have the PhysX drivers installed, but ATI doesn't support PhysX so it shouldn't matter, also PhysX isn't used in a .wmv)

I don't think that the PhysX thingie will fix your locking up on cutscenes issue but I still thought it might be worth pointing out that you are incorrect as far as the quoted part above is concerned. Even if you don't have a nVidia card (or a dedicated PhysX card from Agaeia) you must install the PhysX drivers for some games to work properly. It was like that even before nVidia took over Agaeia and started supporting PhysX. You need those drivers.
It is unlikely that it will fix your cutscene probs since I don't think that the cutscenes would trigger any PhysX stuff but I've seen stranger stuff so this may be worth a shot. And since you need the PhysX drivers anyway... why not? Just install them and see what happens.

Good luck! :)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
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Could it be a codecs thing ?

It very much sounds to me like that.

Besides, I just read in the German-language parts of the Larian forums the weird report of someone claiming the game lost its "monitor signal" after starting ... this was fixed by disabling a "Defender+" anti-virus ? software that shipped - according to the poster - together with an online connection (ISP ?) software.

That's one of the weirdest reports I have ever seen ... but on the other hand issues wth anti-virus software are't uncommon.

Which means that you could check whether it is an anti-virus program intercepting, too.
 
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