Demo startup error + solution for AMD 64 CPUs

[vovan]

Well, so I just came back from about a six-month absence from this site, and discovered the demo. :D Yay, thought I, as it was downloading, but when I got it, the game didn't start. Hrmph. I looked around here, did the register dll thing, and it didn't help.

Now, mind you, I was starting the game from the shortcut that was automatically created on the desktop, and it gave me the regular "your app has crashed" dialog. I even tried debugging it with VS2k5, but all that gave me was an access violation exception, so that wasn't very useful. I also tried the launch analysis deal, but the file generated wasn't terribly exciting either. I had hoped for some human-readable text. ;)

Any way, by then, I was about to post here asking what's up, when I decided to give it one last try and capture a screenie of the dialog. This time, I started the executable directly from the folder, and lo, instead there is the dialog in displayed in the first picture attached. So I clicked "Change Settings", and made it as per the second picture attached. After that, the demo started up and played fine. (Impressions later. ;))

For devs' info, dxdiag is attached as well.

I believe this should do it for folks with CPUs like mine (as such problems only started surfacing for me when I got this new processor).

Vovan

[Ryster]

Hmm isn't Data Execution Protection (DEP) supposed to stop virus like behavoir of programs trying to execute themselves from non executable parts of ram? Sounds like some dodgy programming if you ask me... perhaps TM (or failing that, Keith :p ) would care to comment?

[Keith]

I did see mention of DEP during some of my online research of various error messages. Usually it was mentioned in developer threads for other applications that people were writing. Not having a 64 bit processor I couldn't relate to the problem. I seem to recall that certain functions called for in the programs being talked about triggered the DEP function. Beyond that, its over my head for now.

Here is Microsoft's explanation of the DEP function:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

And their support page on the problem and resolution:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875351/

[vovan]

Hmm isn't Data Execution Protection (DEP) supposed to stop virus like behavoir of programs trying to execute themselves from non executable parts of ram? Sounds like some dodgy programming if you ask me... perhaps TM (or failing that, Keith :p ) would care to comment?

Well, like I said, I have had this 'problem' with many applications, including things like WinAmp, Quake3, and even the Windows Movie Maker, so even some of the other big guys are having similar problems...

After looking around a bit, my first instinct was that it must be the scripting causing this. However, upon further consideration, that's probably not it, because I got this error just at startup, so unless some scripts are compiled and run when the game is starting up, that's probably not the problem.

Vovan