Game crashes on start-up

no-mans-sky

I'm running an AMD R9 280x and Phenom II X4 965 which from what I can tell meets the minimum specs to run this title. Windows and my video card are up to date. But, my game still crashes on start-up every single time, before it ever makes it to the title screen. I have an error in the event log with the following text if that helps at all:

Faulting application name: NMS.exe, version: 0.1.0.0, time stamp: 0x57ade3e9
Faulting module name: NMS.exe, version: 0.1.0.0, time stamp: 0x57ade3e9
Exception code: 0xc000001d
Fault offset: 0x00000000000010b6
Faulting process id: 0x1424
Faulting application start time: 0x01d1f513bc1202f7
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\NMS.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\NMS.exe
Report Id: 9bacc1f2-db6e-4ac4-a598-ee8e7965bf9b
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Can anyone shed some light on this problem?

Solution 1:

Make sure you meet minimum specifications to run the game

As per Sean Murray's tweets, if you are experiencing crashing, please do the following first:

Many players are missing Visual C++ Redist 2010. Make sure your game is updated, as as of August 12, 2016, they've issued a patch to address this problem.
Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers installed for your video card
Make sure your graphics card is above the minimum specifications because OpenGL 4.5 is required. Many older cards do not support OpenGL 4.5.

If, despite not meeting minimum specifications, you still want to try to run the game, you can try the following. Please note some of this is at your own risk, as some of it is player created workarounds rather than official developer support

Use the experimental build to work around the SSE 4.1 specification

You have the same processor as I do, so you're likely suffering from the same crash, where I'm presuming it shows the "Hello Games" screen and crashes there.

Apparently older CPUs, especially AMD ones, do not support SSE 4.1 CPU instructions, and they are required for the game, which was confirmed on reddit via emulation. Currently, the only solution is to use the experimental branch they created to resolve this.

The experimental branch of the game is now live

In order to access it, do the following:

Navigate to the game in the Library menu and right click to access Properties
Click on the Betas tab
You'll see a field which says "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas", enter 3xperimental
In the "Select the beta you would like to op into" dropdown, you should see the Experimental field now available, click it
Start the game

This fixed my crash on startup problem and I was able to successfully get past the Hello Games splash screen. I was able to get to a screen where I was in colorful space with what I assumed were planets flying by, which a friend informed me was the loading screen. However, I experienced a crash to desktop without error upon what I assume would have been the game properly loading.

Work around the OpenGL 4.5 requirement for graphics cards with the GLIntercept program

Using instructions I found on this reddit thread, by redditor slyther55, I found the GLIntercept program with another fix attempt. If you want to try this, do the following:

Install the 64 bit version of GLIntercept, which you can download here
Copy the file OpenGL32.dll from installation folder for GLIntercept, which is located by default at C:\Program Files\GLInterceptx64_1_3_3 to the Binaries folder for No Man's Sky. My folder is located at D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries, as I have the Steam version. If you have a DRM free version you installed elsewhere, adjust the path accordingly.
Download this custom gliconfig.ini created by the user here (Rightclick -> Save Link As... is easiest)
Copy gliconfig.ini to the same No Man's Sky Binaries folder

IMPORTANT: If you install GLIntercept somewhere besides C:\Program Files\GLInterceptx64_1_3_3\, you will need to edit gliconfig.ini by hand in order to make sure it's pointing at the right path. There are 3 locations in the file you will have to change.

The user hand edited the .ini file to disable logging, add all OpenGL extensions, and ovveride the OpenGL and Shader version languages to 4.5.

I attempted this, and apparently it has allowed many people with my same video card (AMD Radeon HD 6970) to play the game. However, I was still experiencing crashing, did more research and found that I missed that AMD Phenom chipsets donot support "Supplemental SSE 3", which is required for the Havok physics engine. Thus:

Workaround for AMD Phenom chipsets for SSSE3 requirements

Remember the emulation I mentioned earlier? Apparently, using the experimental build combined with the emulation allowed this redditor to run the game successfully. Said user has the same CPU as we do, stated here:

I'm running on a Phenom II x4 965 black edition 3400Mhz processor in Win10 with 16GB RAM using an AMD Radeon R7 370 series graphics card.

Said problem was also posted about here on Steam.

So now we need to run the emulator, going back to this post. Make sure you're already running the experimental build.

Download the emulator here. Choose the one for Windows, accept the Terms and Conditions, and download the file called sde-external-7.49.0-2016-07-07-win.tar.bz2, size 13.91MB.
Extract it (it's packaged 3 times, so you'll have to extract 3 times) and copy all files and folders to the NMS Binaries folder
Create a shortcut of sde.exe within the same folder
Rightclick the shortcut (not the original) and go to Properties
In the Target: field, you'll see the path in quotation marks. For example, mine is "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\sde.exe". At the end, outside of the quotation marks, insert a space, then append -- NMS.exe. The resulting target should look like "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\sde.exe" -- NMS.exe
Click on the Compatibility tab. Check the box near the bottom that says Run this program as an administrator
Run the newly edited sde.exe - Shortcut, which should theoretically now allow you to run the game

NOTE You may receive an error that says the following:

Either Steam isn't running or you don't have a suitable licence If this happens, follow these steps:

In the NMS Binaries folder once again, create a text file named steam_appid.txt
Type 275850 inside and Save and close the file
Try again. If it doesn't work, remove the .txt after steam_appid and try again, in case hidden extensions in Windows are making it so the file is called steam_appid.txt.txt.

I started the emulator, and it got to the loading screen and was there for about 5 minutes, then the white screen came, and finally, the game started up with Initializing showing. Make sure you hold down E, not just tap it.

I had previously experienced a problem with the Radeon 16.2 beta drivers where I had a black background instead of terrain. Rolling back to the 15.7 drivers fixed this for me.

As of the August 18th, 2016 patch, the game is now running for me and I am successfully playing it, using the experimental build and the OpenGL 4.5 workaround. I don't appear to need the emulation anymore, which vastly improves game performance!

Solution 2:

Experimental branch has gone live, see https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/7/360672304897578119/ for info.

I've the same problem as you, except I'm running a Phenom 2 x6 1055T.

Before trying Experimental I'd get the HelloGames logo then a crash and nearly the same event log.

After enabling Experimental, I'll get past the logo and into an intro movie, followed by immediately dropping back to Steam/Windows desktop with no errors in the Event Viewer.