Me and my friend tried to install Planetary Annihilation on his laptop, we are not sure his computer reaches the minimum requirements, but we want to see how far we can get. We manage to update the Launcher once, but after that it starts, but never shows up. We have tried to update his graphic cards drivers, and downloading DirectX, but it still won't work.
Did you used DXSETUP.exe or not? If not try to fix it this way: Download this package: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 Then run it, extract to accessible directory. Open this directory, find and run "DXSETUP.exe" installer. After installation finished try to run launcher once again. Also keep in mind this PC have 32-bit OS: Code: Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_ldr.140303-2307) Memory: 4096MB RAM Available OS Memory: 3036MB RAM So game will likely crash because of 32-bit OS memory limitations. For more information and workaround check this topic: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/648816742979172000/
Also : Those drivers are quite old. If no newer are available / won't install, it may be because the graphic card is too old / is considered by the manufacturer as "legacy". This may be a problem since PA launcher reports some GPU crash. I personally have the same kind of issue on my parents old computer
You can likely make the launcher show up if you run the launcher by using the --software-ui flag. So modify the short cut and modify "Target" so that is reads: Code: "C:\.....\UberLauncher.exe" --software-ui (I.e., just add --software-ui to what's already in the Target field, but outside the quotes if there are any.) You will probably need to launch PA in the same way.