PA.exe has stopped working/Directx 12/Windows 10

Let's get right to business.

I launch Planetary Annihilation: Titans through steam and all that happens is it pops with a white screen and kapow, "PA.exe has stopped working".

Let's get you the necessary information to see if you can help me out. This is a new laptop roughly a month old, running windows 10 with Directx 12.

Here is the dxdiag: ("sendspace/file/" in front I cannot post links as a new user)

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I am reasonably adept at fixing issues such as these so I hope I can be slightly more helpful than the average Joe. As you can see I recently updated as many drivers as I could think of.

Here are the game logs:

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I have installed this game to four different machines and all have worked no problem except this one.... which happens to be the only one running Directx 12. One has Windows 7 running Directx 11, another has Windows 8.1 running Directx 11, and another has Windows 10 running Directx 11.2. The machine that has the problem is running Windows 10 with Directx 12.

List for simplification (I'm rather unclear with my wording, I apologize)

-Windows 7 Machine (Laptop): Directx 11 - Runs (Although it barely meets minimum requirements)
-Windows 8.1 Machine (Desktop): Directx 11 - Runs (Easily runs at maximum graphics)
-Windows 10 Machine (Desktop): Directx 11.2 - Runs (Can run medium settings easily)
-Windows 10 Machine (Laptop): Directx 12 - Cannot Start (Marginally faster than the other laptop)

This lead me to believe that it was Directx causing the problem, so I looked into the Windows Event manager. Here is what I got:

Faulting application name: pa.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5626c8a1
Faulting module name: igc64.dll, version: 20.19.15.4300, time stamp: 0x560d77bf
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000031c328
Faulting process id: 0x18d8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d166ce71177751
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Planetary Annihilation Titans\bin_x64\pa.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\igc64.dll
Report Id: 1304e180-257a-44b3-89af-5ef58245f0a8
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

However, after googling some I found a couple people that have said PA:T uses OpenGL rather than Directx. Which confused me and lead me here. I have read almost all steam support pages written by SXX. I feel as though I am overlooking something stupid, please let me know if you require any additional files that could be helpful.

My apologies if this issue has already been addressed, I did a fair amount of searching for this issue but I am only human.

Upload your dxdiag and some logs:

• https://forums.uberent.com/threads/how-to-find-the-pa-logs-and-game-lobby-ids.69151/

Yeah, so from you DxDiag.txt, it says the Intel drivers are a year old, so you should try to update. Especially since the crash you mention occurred in igc64.dll, which is part of those drivers. The rest of you DxDiag.txt looks ok, so I'm hopeful the crashing will stop after updating those.

The drivers you need are here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...cs-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-6th-Gen-

I installed the drivers you gave me and the problem persists. Driver version now 20.19.15.4352, here is an updated DxDiag:

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New logs:

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While restarting to complete the installation the computer bluescreened with the error: "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE"

Before I forget I also tried starting with elevated permissions in both the x86 and x64 folders in the installation directory as well as editing the launch parameters to --nomods. Before I came here I reinstalled the game thrice and verified integrity of game cache twice.

I don't know exactly how drivers work and am confused as to how (or why) a month old laptop would have year old drivers. I assume this is the manufacturer purposefully installing an older version (or it was the result of a failed attempt at getting the latest drivers by me, which is probable).

Hmm, the installation of the new drivers seems to have worked as you now have drivers from December 2015. Though the blue screen is kind of disconcerting... Yet the PA log you uploaded still shows that the crash occurred inside a DLL that is part of the Intel drivers.

When you get the white screen and the crash, is that already before you get in the main menu of PA or only after you start a battle? If you can still get to the main menu, can you try turning off HDR in the graphics settings?

You launch the game and it is a white screen the entire time, never goes black or anything and sits there and after rougly 2-7 seconds will say "PA.exe has stopped working"

Is there a way to change that setting via launch parameters or a settings txt file?

Not easily, I'm afraid. But it likely wouldn't help anyway because HDR only affects in-game effects and shouldn't be active during the main menu.

I went back to your logs and noticed that the crash actually occurs when the shaders are being compiled. As a test, could you replace the content of the file <PA Install Dir>/media/shaders/post.json and <PA Install Dir>/media/shaders/content.json with just:

Code:

{
  "effects": [
  ]
}

?

That will disable those shaders being compiled. I am wondering if that will allow you to get any further without a crash occurring. Can you upload a new PA log after you've done that?

By the way, you can use the "Upload a File" button on this forum to upload those logs. You won't be able to post links until you've made at least five posts.

I am having a similar issue with Windows 10 and DirectX 11.2 with the game purchased through Steam. I am running an Intel i5 quad core with 16GB of DDR4 ram and no dedicated graphics card. Does it need one to run? System requirements tend to be vague on that subject. DxDiag document attached for further specs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Yeah, looks like the same problem. Can you upload a PA log too, just to be sure? You can find those in "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\log". You can copy-paste that in the address bar of File Explorer.

You should definitely be able to run PA with those specs by the way.

If you'd like to help diagnosing the problem, can you try replacing the JSON files I mentioned the post above? I'd like to figure out which shader causes the crash in the driver.

i am having the exact same problum
win 10, dx12
worked fine on my old win 7 dx11 laptop till the laptop died... now nothing works on it lol
but my new desktop running win 10 dx12 just white screens and crashes.. my files are attached

Applying this fix worked out, thanks a bunch let you know if anything bad happens

Do you still want the new PA log or are you satisfied?

I would if I knew how to reach that file. I'm wondering if this may be part of the issue or if I'm not searching for the file correctly. I tried pasting the <PA Install Dir>/media/shaders/post.json and <PA Install Dir>/media/shaders/content.json (separately, of course) in the address bar and through the "Cortana" search bar, selecting to search my computer, and it either says "Didn't find anything" or it redirects me to a web search. Attached is the latest PA log. Thanks for the response.

Never mind, I found it. Steam world problems. lol
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Planetary Annihilation Titans\media\shaders and the file was set to open in a web browser. I opened the files with Notepad, replaced everything with the content specified, saved them and it ran for the first time. Had to hit Alt+Tab when it initially started to get past a black screen but it worked... all the way up until I tried starting a game and crashed with the same message as before. :/ I accidentally attached the first PA log in my last message but I have the most recent with the new crash data here.

It appears I spoke too soon, the game crashes when I load into a game, same error: it goes white then unresponsive (I wait for awhile to make sure its a crash)

What I mean by 'loading into a game':

Titlescreen -> Singleplayer -> AI Skirmish -> Play... crash while loading

Here's the new log.

(The reason why I didn't know about this issue immediately is because I'm not the one having the issue. I'm actually Odell48's cousin (Odell00) writing this ticket under his name in an attempt to fix his computer/game. So all of these files I have to pull off of him via remote control (teamviewer) because he doesn't know how to do it himself)

@odell48 , @ghostfox13 : Sorry that I wasn't clear. This wasn't meant as a fix, but purely as a test to figure out which shader causes the problem. Crashing during the start of the game is normal as it's simply missing stuff.

So two things now. Since you can now access the main menu in PA, can you go to Settings -> Graphics and set everything to "LOW" or "OFF"? Then verify the game cache in Steam to reset the shaders again. Then try again. It will probably still crash though...

If it still crashes, can you then only replace the contents of post.json and leave content.json intact?

It's all good. I wasn't specific in my order of troubleshooting. I replaced their contents individually and the issue is partially resolved when I only replace the post.json file. The content.json file seems to have no effect either way. The log I posted was with the log replacing only the post.json file. Do you need a copy of both?

Ah, no that's great actually. So the trouble is in post.json. Can you try replacing post.json with the one I've attached to this post?

Binary search?

Maaaaaybe?

Thanks, bro! Is it safe to consider it fixed ?