Crash on startup

Hi all, new here. Just bought precursors on GamersGate after reading about it on RPS, and I found this forum and all the patches. So I download the patches, run it all in the order it says I should, and now the game starts with a black screen. Any help?

Patch order:
Install vanilla
Russian sound
wesp 1.4 (2nd version? corrected startup error message)

All I get from the game is whatever wooshing noise the intro video makes (idk, black screen) and then it drops back down to the desktop with a big black box covering about a third of the screen.

Edit: Tried patch 1.5, no change.

Really? Not a single reply, not even "well that sucks"?

Wish I could figure this out, or at least get pointed in the right direction, I'm out of ideas and ready to move on to a game that works :/

The game logs errors in a text file, somewhere in the game folder I think. It might contain something useful. And speaking of game folder try installing it somewhere other than C:\program files\…

Turn 'desktop composition' off if using Win7.

Desktop composition did the trick, you're a lifesaver

Also: there was no error log even though something obviously went wrong, and I have it installed in a different folder. I never saw anything about turning off Aero (as windows itself calls it) in any other threads. Hope this can help someone else too!

Edit: For future reference, right click on the shortcut or program, select properties, go to the compatibility tab, and check "disable desktop composition"

Originally Posted by NooklearToaster
I never saw anything about turning off Aero (as windows itself calls it) in any other threads.

This is already mentioned in the unofficial patch readme, but I will call it desktop composition for easier reference in the next version.