NOTE : The latest update of 400kb 12th of November 2013 has fixed this issue by providing two new .bat files, one for 64 bit and one for 32 bit. These both launch using compatibility mode and use 1GB memory by default (64-bit) or 3/4GB (for 32-bit). Personally I would increase the maximum memory for the 64-bit version to a higher value (I use 3GB to be safe) if you have the RAM, as 1GB induces to much stuttering on my system
Hello
Purchased and downloaded PROJECT ZOMBOID from Steam about 6 hours ago on STEAM.
So far I have been unable to play the game at all. At the moment I have 2 problems.
1. Have been unable to start the game through either STEAM, STEAM Compatibility Mode or either of the two executable (32bit or 64bit). Upon trying any of these a DOS CMD Window spawns and then closes before posting a single error msg to the console : "Could Not Load Main Client".
SOLUTIONS TRIED : a). Full Clean Re-Install after deleting local content. Performed 3 times. 2). Download latest 32-BIT and 64-BIT JAVA RUNTIME. Performed twice. c). Run the ProjectZomboid.bat batch file that launches java directly. This allowed me to get far enough into the game to actually begin a new "campaign".
So great we have a workaround for 1, but this leads to problem 2.
2. Having launched PZ, and begun a new game I am presented with a screen that seems to render the UI perfectly (can read the tutorial hints, get into inventory, stuff like that) but cannot see anything of the in game area. In other words I cannot see my avatar, the houses, zombies, grass etc etc; its ALL black.
SOLUTION TRIED : a). Installed the latest NVidia video driver 331.65 (had the 327.?? driver previously). 2). Tried moving around the scene for 5 - 10 minutes at a time, as some threads mentioned that time fixed the problem. c). Tried saving and then reloading, and then moving/waiting. d). Altered the .bat file to allow for more memory being made available to PZ, as per one of the threads on this/steam forums. e). Altered the .bat file to spawn using SAFEMODE (ie prefixed with -D) which is supposedly meant to fix issues with the BLACK SCREEN by forcing compatibility mode which uses compressed textures. f) Reduced in-game GRAPHICS SETTING from HIGHEST and then incrementally down to LOW (as VERY LOW is meant to be broken according to the forums).
So now I am completely out of options.
Now here are my system specs.
Now I realise my processor is currently BELOW what is listed in the STORE page, but consider this to be an extremely unlikely cause for issues, especially considering my FPS is decent and the problem appears to be graphical in nature.
DUAL CORE 2.97GHZ NVidia GTX 280 * 2 SLI (have tried single GPU and SLI mode, fiddled with various SLI rendering modes, even created my own using NVidia inspector). 6GB DDR3 Mem Windows 7 64-BIT
So any ideas, as I have exhausted all of the internet's advice that I could find ? I would appreciate some Indie Stone support here if possible (especially as it seems I am not the only one having this issue), but anyone is welcome to assist where they can.
Also is there a list somewhere of the video cards that currently are supported for the shader's setting in the video options? Yes extremely optimistic asking about that given I cannot even run the game, but still while I'm here and all that
Thanks Everyone
BTW If you need more info, please just ask as I will be online for another few hours, lamenting all the zombies I could have been slaying (errrr hiding from).
SOLUTION (AS PROVIDED BY ENIGMA GREY)
Problem (1). No solution is available right now, the .BAT file is the only workaround.
Just copy the above code (depending on what bit-width of JAVA you have) into the file :
ProjectZomboid.bat
Located at (NOTE : If you are using Windows XP, 32-BIT VISTA, etc, then this will be "Program Files" not "Program FIles (x86)", also if you installed STEAM to a non-default location then my file location will NOT match yours.) :
NOTE : (Depending on your OS and settings the .bat extension may or may not be shown by your FileExplorer/Command Line Window. There is only one file called "ProjectZomboid" in that directory, the only similar ones that could confuse you are ProjectZomboid32 and ProjectZomboid64 (these you can ignore).
This will then hopefully allow you to play the game if you were having the same problem as I was in (2).
CAVEAT : As this file has been greatly simplified it has no memory qualifiers included which could (and probably will) mean you will get fairly bad stuttering in game. This can be rectified by adding the appropriate -Xms and -Xmx qualifiers to the file. I have provided two examples of this below, the first uses the memory settings of the original .bat file, and the second uses a modified version for people with more then 4GB of memory.
For more information regarding JAVA Command Line Arguments and Memory, see the following links :
FYR : -Xms sets the minimum amount of RAM that JAVA/PZ will use and -Xmx sets the maximum that it is allowed to use. Do not set your maximum too high or your system will not have any spare memory for anything else and you will get reduced performance as a result. The settings I use work well for the 6GB system I have and got rid of stuttering that was occurring due to memory issues. NOTE : The "m" on the end qualifies the units as being in MB.
Original Memory Settings That Shipped with the game (3/4 - 1GB) :
-Xms768m -Xmx1024m
So for example the BATCH file would look like this for a 32-BIT version :
You can set the memory settings to whatever you want, but setting too high probably wont gain you much, and going over say 2GB max for a 32-BIT system is probably not a good idea. If it does not work or causes issues you can always change it back.
Anyway hope that helps, now if I could only work out how to set a post to ANSWERED on these forums <sigh>
Question
Dichotomy
Hello
Purchased and downloaded PROJECT ZOMBOID from Steam about 6 hours ago on STEAM.
So far I have been unable to play the game at all. At the moment I have 2 problems.
1. Have been unable to start the game through either STEAM, STEAM Compatibility Mode or either of the two executable (32bit or 64bit). Upon trying any of these a DOS CMD Window spawns and then closes before posting a single error msg to the console : "Could Not Load Main Client".
SOLUTIONS TRIED :
a). Full Clean Re-Install after deleting local content. Performed 3 times.
2). Download latest 32-BIT and 64-BIT JAVA RUNTIME. Performed twice.
c). Run the ProjectZomboid.bat batch file that launches java directly. This allowed me to get far enough into the game to actually begin a new "campaign".
So great we have a workaround for 1, but this leads to problem 2.
2. Having launched PZ, and begun a new game I am presented with a screen that seems to render the UI perfectly (can read the tutorial hints, get into inventory, stuff like that) but cannot see anything of the in game area. In other words I cannot see my avatar, the houses, zombies, grass etc etc; its ALL black.
SOLUTION TRIED :
a). Installed the latest NVidia video driver 331.65 (had the 327.?? driver previously).
2). Tried moving around the scene for 5 - 10 minutes at a time, as some threads mentioned that time fixed the problem.
c). Tried saving and then reloading, and then moving/waiting.
d). Altered the .bat file to allow for more memory being made available to PZ, as per one of the threads on this/steam forums.
e). Altered the .bat file to spawn using SAFEMODE (ie prefixed with -D) which is supposedly meant to fix issues with the BLACK SCREEN by forcing compatibility mode which uses compressed textures.
f) Reduced in-game GRAPHICS SETTING from HIGHEST and then incrementally down to LOW (as VERY LOW is meant to be broken according to the forums).
So now I am completely out of options.
Now here are my system specs.
Now I realise my processor is currently BELOW what is listed in the STORE page, but consider this to be an extremely unlikely cause for issues, especially considering my FPS is decent and the problem appears to be graphical in nature.
DUAL CORE 2.97GHZ
NVidia GTX 280 * 2 SLI (have tried single GPU and SLI mode, fiddled with various SLI rendering modes, even created my own using NVidia inspector).
6GB DDR3 Mem
Windows 7 64-BIT
So any ideas, as I have exhausted all of the internet's advice that I could find ? I would appreciate some Indie Stone support here if possible (especially as it seems I am not the only one having this issue), but anyone is welcome to assist where they can.
Also is there a list somewhere of the video cards that currently are supported for the shader's setting in the video options? Yes extremely optimistic asking about that given I cannot even run the game, but still while I'm here and all that
Thanks Everyone
BTW If you need more info, please just ask as I will be online for another few hours, lamenting all the zombies I could have been slaying (errrr hiding from).
SOLUTION (AS PROVIDED BY ENIGMA GREY)
Problem (1). No solution is available right now, the .BAT file is the only workaround.
Problem (2). The games .bat file is a little "outdated" and has issues, the solution was to replace the original file with a simple one provided by Enigma Grey that would still enforce the safemode/compatibility mode (Respone #45 of this THREAD : http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/2891-black-screen-upon-new-game-dsafemode-does-not-fix/?p=40771 . The code for which I have copied below :
64-BIT JRE
32-BIT JRE
Just copy the above code (depending on what bit-width of JAVA you have) into the file :
Located at (NOTE : If you are using Windows XP, 32-BIT VISTA, etc, then this will be "Program Files" not "Program FIles (x86)", also if you installed STEAM to a non-default location then my file location will NOT match yours.) :
NOTE : (Depending on your OS and settings the .bat extension may or may not be shown by your FileExplorer/Command Line Window. There is only one file called "ProjectZomboid" in that directory, the only similar ones that could confuse you are ProjectZomboid32 and ProjectZomboid64 (these you can ignore).
This will then hopefully allow you to play the game if you were having the same problem as I was in (2).
CAVEAT : As this file has been greatly simplified it has no memory qualifiers included which could (and probably will) mean you will get fairly bad stuttering in game. This can be rectified by adding the appropriate -Xms and -Xmx qualifiers to the file. I have provided two examples of this below, the first uses the memory settings of the original .bat file, and the second uses a modified version for people with more then 4GB of memory.
For more information regarding JAVA Command Line Arguments and Memory, see the following links :
JAVA Command Line Arguments
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/java.html
JAVA Memory
http://www.vogella.com/articles/JavaPerformance/article.html
FYR : -Xms sets the minimum amount of RAM that JAVA/PZ will use and -Xmx sets the maximum that it is allowed to use. Do not set your maximum too high or your system will not have any spare memory for anything else and you will get reduced performance as a result. The settings I use work well for the 6GB system I have and got rid of stuttering that was occurring due to memory issues. NOTE : The "m" on the end qualifies the units as being in MB.
Original Memory Settings That Shipped with the game (3/4 - 1GB) :
So for example the BATCH file would look like this for a 32-BIT version :
The settings to use more memory, as I do in mine (1-3GB) :
So for example the BATCH file would look like this for a 64-BIT version, with my ALTERED memory settings :
You can set the memory settings to whatever you want, but setting too high probably wont gain you much, and going over say 2GB max for a 32-BIT system is probably not a good idea. If it does not work or causes issues you can always change it back.
Anyway hope that helps, now if I could only work out how to set a post to ANSWERED on these forums <sigh>
Thanks again Enigma Grey for your help.
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