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BGEE and BG2EE crashing on startup

ed_boyed_boy Member Posts: 142
I'm having an issue where both BGEE and BG2EE are crashing on startup. Upon trying to launch the game, I get a vague error message (only saying that an error occurred and that a dump file has been produced). No game windows are visible, only the error message.

I last played the game in January of this year, and there were no errors then. When I started it up again this morning, I was prompted to install the latest patch. After installing the patch, the game started crashing (I didn't try playing before the patch).

The error occurs when trying to run baldur.exe - the launcher opens fine, but attempting to run the game from either the launcher of the executable directly causes the error.

The steps I have taken so far to try and resolve it:
  • Restart my computer
  • Reinstall the games (both of them)
  • Installed OpenAL (as suggested here)
  • Disabled the fullscreen option in baldur.ini (as suggested here)
The game has been downloaded via the beamdog client (both originally and when I reinstalled)

I have attached a dump file that is generated.

Comments

  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    I would check the manufacturers website for your video card and make sure you have the latest driver installed.
    mf2112
  • ed_boyed_boy Member Posts: 142
    I've tried updating the drivers, and the problem persists.

    Does the dump file mention a video card error? I don't know how to interpret those files.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    In the same folder as your baldur.ini file there should hopefully be a file called baldur.lua.

    Try opening that file (in for instance wordpad or notebook) and changing the line

    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','0')

    to

    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','1')

    (if the line isn't there then you should be able to add it in)
  • ed_boyed_boy Member Posts: 142
    I seem to be missing the baldur.lua file in that directory (Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition and Documents\Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition). There doesn't seem to be a baldur.lua file in the directory that I installed the games either. Is there an example baldur.lua file I can download?
  • ed_boyed_boy Member Posts: 142
    The thread here suggests that trying to run the game form the command line will give some useful output.

    Trying to run BGEE gives me:
    C:\BG\00806>INFO: status: 1
    INFO: error: cannot open file pointer: No such file or directory
    INFO: Creating DPWrapper
    INFO: Steam not found
    INFO: scanning:(0) C:/BG/00806/override
    INFO: scanning:(1) C:/BG/00806/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(2) C:/BG/00806/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(3) C:/BG/00806/lang/en_US/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(4) C:/BG/00806/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(5) C:/BG/00806/characters
    INFO: scanning:(6) C:/BG/00806/movies
    INFO: scanning:(7) C:/BG/00806/lang/en_US/movies
    INFO: scanning:(8) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/override
    INFO: scanning:(9) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(10) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(11) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(12) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/characters
    INFO: scanning:(13) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/movies
    INFO: scanning:(0) C:/BG/00806/override
    INFO: scanning:(1) C:/BG/00806/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(2) C:/BG/00806/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(3) C:/BG/00806/lang/en_US/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(4) C:/BG/00806/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(5) C:/BG/00806/characters
    INFO: scanning:(6) C:/BG/00806/movies
    INFO: scanning:(7) C:/BG/00806/lang/en_US/movies
    INFO: scanning:(8) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/override
    INFO: scanning:(9) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(10) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(11) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(12) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/characters
    INFO: scanning:(13) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/movies
    INFO: LUA: UI string not found: Recent events text will go here.
    INFO: Error loading menu: [string "SetPrivateProfileString( 'Lua Edit', 'String..."]:2: unexpected symbol near ')'
    INFO: LUA: Initializing Quests
    Trying to run BG2EE gives me:

    C:\BG\00783>INFO: status: 1
    INFO: error: cannot open file pointer: No such file or directory
    INFO: Creating DPWrapper
    INFO: Steam not found
    INFO: scanning:(0) C:/BG/00783/override
    INFO: scanning:(1) C:/BG/00783/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(2) C:/BG/00783/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(3) C:/BG/00783/lang/en_US/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(4) C:/BG/00783/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(5) C:/BG/00783/characters
    INFO: scanning:(6) C:/BG/00783/movies
    INFO: scanning:(7) C:/BG/00783/lang/en_US/movies
    INFO: scanning:(8) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/override
    INFO: scanning:(9) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(10) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(11) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(12) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/characters
    INFO: scanning:(13) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/movies
    INFO: scanning:(0) C:/BG/00783/override
    INFO: scanning:(1) C:/BG/00783/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(2) C:/BG/00783/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(3) C:/BG/00783/lang/en_US/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(4) C:/BG/00783/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(5) C:/BG/00783/characters
    INFO: scanning:(6) C:/BG/00783/movies
    INFO: scanning:(7) C:/BG/00783/lang/en_US/movies
    INFO: scanning:(8) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/override
    INFO: scanning:(9) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/scripts
    INFO: scanning:(10) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/sounds
    INFO: scanning:(11) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/portraits
    INFO: scanning:(12) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/characters
    INFO: scanning:(13) C:/Users/Admin/Documents/Baldur's Gate II - Enhanced Edition/movies
    INFO: LUA: UI string not found: Recent events text will go here.
    INFO: Error loading menu: [string "SetPrivateProfileString( 'Lua Edit', 'String..."]:2: unexpected symbol near ')'
    INFO: LUA: Initializing Quests
    From what I can guess, it tries to load a malformed lua file, and this causes an error. However, the only lua files I can find are in the same directory as each executable, both called engine.lua, which contain very few lines.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    Try launching the game after putting this lua file in your

    my documents/baldur's gate enhanced edition folder

  • ed_boyed_boy Member Posts: 142
    That has solved the problem - Thanks!
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    Glad to hear it. If you encounter any other problems let me know.
  • BelegCuthalionBelegCuthalion Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 453
    @elminster
    as you have provided the solution to my problem, i'm wondering if you could clarify for my understanding what
    SetPrivateProfileString('Graphics','Backend','1')
    exactly does?
    From what i read, it is switching to the alternate renderer (Directx instead of openGL).


    But it must have been doing something else too - i had this obscure problem:

    Windows 7, latest EE games (BGEE, SOD, BG2EE, IWD - all patched to latest 2.3 or 1.4)
    thinkpad notebook with both nvidia and intel chip (to select on running).

    until a week ago, no problem running the games at all - fullscreen, windowed, nothing wrong.

    then, after a reboot (and i'm rather sure i have *not* installed anything new in the meantime like new graphics cards drivers!), all 4 of the games just switch back to the desktop after starting. if i alt-tab back into the games, i can see the video or start menu for half a second, then i'm thrown back to the desktop again. so the games are running, but not displaying. forcing windowed mode still works, but i don't like it.

    i have been fiddling around with restarts, with windowed mode, switching to directx renderer ingame etc., but nothing worked, it was all the same the moment going to fullscreen.

    then i set your line above into my baldur.lua (only for BGEE - not the other games!) and ran BGEE again - voila, game running fullscreen with alternate directx renderer.
    To test, i switched back to openGL ingame, restarted the game, still running like a charm now! And to my surprise, also the other three games are running completely trouble free again - i did not change anything in there .lua or .ini - even IWDEE 1.4 is running again.

    Could it be that this command is somehow re-initializing the graphics drivers system?
    it must have been something system wide, as i only tested with BGEE, but all the others are affected too.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    It just switches between OpenGL and DirectX
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