Game crashes during the first intro scene

[topgun047]

Game crashes during the first intro scene

Hello

I own the GOTY edition, bought via steam.
My game freezes during the intro scene when Geralt is sitting in a bathtub.I only need to double tap escape to go desktop.I have never gone past the first cut-scene in the game.
I can play the expansions since they do not begin with a cut-scene.

My system specs are as follows.

CPU i5 7600 laptop
GPU GTX 1080 laptop
Monitor reso 1440p
SSD 500 GB

Things I have tried


Please try the following steps:
1. Set Windows Power plan to High Performance (Power Options in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options).
2. Install Microsoft .NET Framework.
3. Maybe you have some settings forced on your graphics device in NVIDIA Control Panel. If so then try to reset them.
4. Disable all unnecessary programs running in the background.
5. Disable in-game V-Sync.
6. Set your in-game FPS limit to 'Unlimited'.
7. Change in-game Graphics and Post-processing Presets to Low (disable NVIDIA HairWorks).
8. Change in-game Display Mode to Windowed/Borderless Window.
9. Lower in-game resolution.
10. Go to NVIDIA Control Panel -> "Configure Surround, PhysX" and switch PhysX settings' Processor to CPU.
11. While in NVIDIA Control Panel:
a) Adjust image settings with preview -> Select 'Use the advanced 3D settings', click 'Take me there'
b) In Global Settings set:
- Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to '1'
- Set the Power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance'
- Activate V-Sync

As you're playing on Steam, there are several things you can do here.
1. Try verifying integrity of game cache:
a) In your games Library right-click The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and click Properties
b) Select the Local Files tab. There press "Verify integrity of game cache...". A few files should be downloaded
c) Try running The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Steam again. Redists will be reinstalled. Make sure the reinstallation is not cancelled and that nothing interrupts it
2. Try to turn off the Steam Overlay as this might help with your issue:
a) Click on Steam and click on the "Settings" button. Click on the "In-Game Settings" tab.
b) Uncheck the box next to "Enable Steam Community In-Game" and click OK.
c) Disable the Steam Overlay on specific games only by right-clicking on the game title, click on "Properties" and uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game" in the "General" tab.
3. If this doesn't solve the issue please try to override Steam client following these steps:
a) Open directory for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64
b) Create a txt file, edit it with Notepad, so it reads <"witcher3.exe" -window> without <>
c) Save it as *.bat file. It's very important it's a .bat file
d) Use this file to run the game
4. Delete the game and redownload it​

It seems only thing left for me to do is re-install windows and try again.
Does anyone have any other ideas before I try that ?

Thanks.

 

[SigilFey]

Welcome to the Forums, topgun047!

Sorry to see you've hit a snag! The issue lies somewhere in your system config. Good news is that we should be able to fix it quite easily...but finding the source can take a bit of doing. Please, don't reinstall Windows quite yet. The only reason that might be necessary is if you installed the game, then upgraded to a new windows version over the existing installation. It doesn't sound like that's the case, but can you also identify Windows version and whether you upgraded Windows itself at any point?

Also,using any mods, or have you ever used any in the past?

Ensure that you install / repair all of your Microsoft Redistributables:

DirectX 11 / 12
DirectX 9.0c
Visual Studio 2010 - present (installing both the x86 and x64 versions of each release)
Visual C++ 2010 - present (x86 and x64 of each)
XNA Framework
.NET Framework Skip if you're sure you've got the latest version.

There's a good chance that this will fix things outright, so I recommend you do this first. Especially Visual Studio 2013 and Visual C++ 2013 (as from what I've read, there was an installation issue with these upon their initial release).

If that's not it, my guess would be mods followed by GPU drivers. Rolling back to a driver version around January of 2017 might help. (I'm using Nvidia Reference v381.65 ona GTX 980 ti, and have no issues with any games.)


To address the steps you list:

5. Disable in-game V-Sync.
6. Set your in-game FPS limit to 'Unlimited'.
8. Change in-game Display Mode to Windowed/Borderless Window.

I recommend strongly against these three suggestions, as they can and will introduce other issues. While troubleshooting, ensure you are running Fullscreen, Vsync is ON, and your refresh rate is set to 60 Hz (it may be necessary to lower this on certain monitors, as they may default to 120, 144, etc.) Also, set a Frame Limit of 60 or less. (Certain game functions are tied to accurate frame timing, and unlimited frames will create issues even if they're "invisible" during play. Mostly cosmetic things, but that can compound other problems.) Once the game is working, you can go back and fiddle with these things. For now, just leave everything in the game's ideal operating environment.

10. Go to NVIDIA Control Panel -> "Configure Surround, PhysX" and switch PhysX settings' Processor to CPU.

This will do nothing. TW3 will always run PhysX on the CPU, regardless of the setting.

It was necessary to fix something a long while back (but I can't remember what exactly [...maybe the physics...]).

11. While in NVIDIA Control Panel: a) Adjust image settings with preview -> Select 'Use the advanced 3D settings', click 'Take me there' b) In Global Settings set:
- Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to '1'
- Set the Power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance'
- Activate V-Sync

The setting for Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames will do nothing unless you're using a VR headset (and the game was certainly not built for that). You can and should set "Maximum frames to render ahead" to 1, which will affect regular monitors and should smooth out some hitches and stutters. (This is almost certainly not the cause of the crashing, though.)

Please, do not attempt to force AA through the GPU. TW3's engine is quite...particular. If this even works (most of the time the game will refuse to recognize the calls and simply disable AA), it will not cooperate with all aspects of the game and will probably introduce some interesting graphical / performance errors (even if minor ones). Just use the in-game AA options for TW3. (I actually used a forced AA back when the game was first released. It performed better than in-game AA, but there was so much shimmering it was torture and it stopped working altogether after one of the 1.0x updates, at least on my end.)

b) Create a txt file, edit it with Notepad, so it reads <"witcher3.exe" -window> without <> c) Save it as *.bat file. It's very important it's a .bat file d) Use this file to run the game

This is simply a batch file telling Windows to run the game in Windowed mode. Same as changing the setting in the game. You can also add the line directly to the shortcut command line and achieve the same results. The only time something like this is useful is if it allows access to game parameters that are not available through in-game configuration options. In general, use game menus for such options to avoid config conflicts / issues.


Other likely candidates:

1.) Be sure the game is not installed anywhere under Program Files or Program Files(x86). These are protected directories in Windows and it can introduce issues, even using standard Administrator accounts. Best bet is to install all games to the root of the drive or a folder of your own creation, i.e. C:\The Witcher 3\... or C:\MyRPGgames\The Witcher 3\... (If using Steam, you can simply follow these steps for moving an existing Steam installation. You'll likely have to verify each of your games once after doing this.)

2.) Add the game to the exceptions list for your anti-virus, firewall, etc.

3.) Set the game's .EXE to "Run as administrator". If using Windows 10, be sure that the Permissions for the game's folder and the ...Documents\The Witcher 3\... folder are set to "Everyone".

If the above don't work, try disabling and / or uninstalling your anti-virus programs completely. Certain, aggressive anti-virus programs (McAffee, Norton, etc.) can be extremely intrusive and interfere with games. Comodo is known to cause problems with TW3 in particular. If this happens to be the case, I recommend looking at Avast! or some of the more friendly, free anti-virus available.


Let's see how that goes! Post again if you get it working or need additional help!

 

[topgun047]

I appreciate your prompt advice.

I am busy this week with work so I'll reinstall the game and try out the measures you suggested later.
I 'll let you know how it goes by end of next week.

Thanks.

 

[SigilFey]

I appreciate your prompt advice.

I am busy this week with work so I'll reinstall the game and try out the measures you suggested later.
I 'll let you know how it goes by end of next week.

Thanks.

Appreciations! No rush.

 

[Saminim]

Hello !

Same problem here, the game crashes after the first cutscene if I try to launch a new game, at the very beginning of the loading screen. It doesn't help if I try to begin only an expansion (but the game crashes after the loading screen in this case). The computer crashes and reboots.

I bought the GOTY on gog. I reinstalled it with no success.
All the Microsoft Redistributables mentionned higher are up to date, the game is not under Programs files, and I added it on Avast.

The specs are the following :
- CPU i7-4790
- NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
- Windows 7.

Every driver is up to date.

There is no mod installed, I never played it.

Any idea of what I should do ?

Thanks in advance (and sorry for bad English).

 

[PloughEnthusiast]

Wow, that sucks.

Did you overclock your PC?

Lol sorry, I know that's a shitty question. I just know that whenever I start W3 with even a medium overclock, it either freezes or crashes after only a few minutes, if even that.

 

[Saminim]

Never overclocked the PC, and I have never had any problem with any game before ! It is so frustrating.

 

[SigilFey]

The computer crashes and reboots.

This is a Windows / hardware error. A computer program (even viruses) cannot shut down or restart a PC. They can, however, put your system into a situation in which Windows is forced to restart -- normally a result of a.) some form of data corruption due to driver issue, bad Windows installation, borked update, conflict with BIOS / firmware, etc. or b.) a hardware issue. Even if this is the only game that causes the issue to appear, it has nothing to do with TW3 itself.

Can you explain more about your present PC? Is this a clean installation of Windows on a formatted drive? Any partitions or multiple OS installations? Installed any new hardware before the problem started occurring?

From your description, it sounds like the game crashes when it needs to transition from 2D to 3D (where the camera zooms in on the crystal crow skull). Is that the spot? I would say that it sounds like a bad installation or driver problem...but crashing and rebooting has my eyebrow up.

 

[Saminim]

Thanks for your response.

I installed W7 in december 2015, with no problem during or after the installation. It comes from a download and then it was activated with a key. It crashed very few times since then. There is only one OS, and I never changed any part of the hardware.

Hardware is the following (from the receipt) :

Motherboard MSI B85-G43 Gaming
Processor Intel Core i7-4790 Haswell Refresh
16GoDDR3 pc12800 1600Mhz G.Skill RipjawsX Gaming series (en 2x8Go) Dual-Channel
Nvidia Geforce GTX-970 OC-Edition 4GoDDR5 MSI/Gigabyte
Sound control integrated to motherboard
"Bloc d'Alimentation" FSP (Fortron) Raider S650W 80+ Silver
SSD Samsung Série 840 EVO 120Go sata 6gb
Hard Disc 1000Go sata3-600 Western Digital Caviar Blue cache=64Mo
Wifi card 802.11N + Bluetooth Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I

Does any of this can help ?

 

[SigilFey]

Well...somewhat! We actually have very similar systems, spec-wise, but I'm using different brands of hardware. I can safely say that you should not be having any problems as far as power or performance go.

Can you answer this part?

From your description, it sounds like the game crashes when it needs to transition from 2D to 3D (where the camera zooms in on the crystal crow skull). Is that the spot? I would say that it sounds like a bad installation or driver problem...but crashing and rebooting has my eyebrow up.

Also:

1.) How easy is it to re-create the crash?

2.) Does it happen every time, almost every time, randomly, infrequently?

3.) Ensure you've covered all the steps in this post: https://forums.cdprojektred.com/for...the-first-intro-scene?p=10452792#post10452792

 

[Saminim]

The game crashes when I launch a new game, with or without simulating a witcher 2 save. The first intro scene goes on normally, announces some good time playing, then the loading page appears, with a hint, and during the loading the PC crashes. It happens at the very beginning of the loading bar, or even before it has time to appear. I tried with an extension only, and it crashes after the loading scene. I could briefly see Geralt but was not able to do anything before the crash. Btw there is no blue screen of death.

I will try to answer your questions as well as I can.

1) Recreating the crash is quite simple, I can crash by launching the game anytime (tried 7 times with a successful crash each time), but I don't think I will be able to crash it with another game / program.

2) It always happens at the same time of the loading screen. The fact that I skip it or not has no incidence. The two last times were faster, I couldn't even reach the hint (just the small icon in the low right corner).

3) The Microsoft Redistributables are reinstalled. The game is on aa specific folder on the hard disc, not on the SSD where W7 is installed. It is authorized for the anti-virus (avast!) and the firewall. I launched it as admin without gog platform, with low settings, it didn't help. I admit I don't know how to roll back to an older version for the GPU, I supposed it is on the Nvidia Control panel ? Do I have to specify special settings only for TW3 ?

 

[SigilFey]

Alllrighty...

I'm going to recommend you take this up with CDPR Support directly:

http://en.cdprojektred.com/contact-support/

Be sure to include a dxdiag run with the 64-bit option.

Not quite sure where to begin. Seems like you have everything installed efficiently. Anti-virus should not be an issue with your setup. GOG Galaxy should not be interfering. I can only guess that it's a Windows issue or really obscure driver thing.

For the interim, it wouldn't hurt to try the older drivers.

1.) Uninstall everything related to Nvidia drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller.

2.) Then, clean your drive with CCleaner. Simply run the Registry cleaner to remove empty keys repeatedly. When the program reports "No conflicts detected", restart the PC and run it repeatedly again. Keep this process up until the program reports "No conflicts" immediately following a restart.

3.) Download and install the Nvidia Reference Drivers v381.65 using the CLEAN installation option. Include all the files for Nvidia Control Panel, Audio, PhysX, etc. These are the drivers I'm still using now, so I know they're pretty solid.

Basically, step 3 above is the only thing that's needed. I would recommend doing this the long way the first time, though. It's obvious that something on your system is not cooperating with the game.

 

[Saminim]

I uninstalled everything with DDU. CCleaner corrected a lot of conflicts, but there are still 3 errors related to avast. Cleaning the drive doesn't delete these 3 errors, they always reappear. I also reinstalled the driver you mentionned, with the appropriate specs (almost installed the one for W10...). Then I tried launching a new game, on lowest settings, with no witcher 2 simulation, but I only got the same failure.

I will contact CDPR support. What do you mean by including a dxdiag run with the 64-bit option ?

Anyway, many thanks for the help !

 

[SigilFey]

I uninstalled everything with DDU. CCleaner corrected a lot of conflicts, but there are still 3 errors related to avast. Cleaning the drive doesn't delete these 3 errors, they always reappear.

I doubt the Avast! errors have anything to do with it. That may be simply to ensure a safe quarantine location for infected files...worth keeping in mind, though. The Registry sweep was to ensure there were no lingering display files wreaking havoc with the Nvidia drivers. (Sometimes multiple installs / updates can create "leftovers" that bork new versions.) If the new drivers installed correctly and the game is still giving you an issue, it's likely not the drivers.

I'm guessing that it may be something with the Windows installation. Upgrading from one version to another can and does cause weird issues. (Plus, I'm not giving up Windows 7. Not for nuthin'! Not never -- now way -- no how!!! Not for Windows 10, at least. )