PC Demo problems HERE!

[vrap]

There have been a million new threads of people posting their problems with the PC demo. If you have a technical issue with the demo, please post here and hopefully a dev will see it. Please don't spam the thread with useless posts, if you use it sensibly then the devs can take it seriously. If you have a wqorking solution to someone's problem, by all means post it.

Please don't get mad at me closing the other threads, it's just getting really messy with all the threads with differing and sometimes identical problems; I'll give a redirect link to this thread so everyone can come here.

[sajber]

Hi guys, I have a problem with the demo. I have missing textures in game.. they eather turn up single colored or very low rez. The demo also crashes when I choose "Quit to windows" or "Quit to main menu"

I have uppdated to the latest nvidia drivers. I have a Geforce 7800GT card..running on XP.

Anyhelp?

[X800XTuser]

Ok, I'm not going to complain about it anymore, but since your a moderater, I assume you can give me a strait up answer. (As I'm sure you've seen my spam).

Is Shader Model 2.0 supported? Because according to this article:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=602522

It is.

Thank you.

[mitor]

Hi, I have the same problems with untextured surfaces as the above poster (only with the new drivers though!).

My main problem though is during any loading section the game simply crashes with a black screen and constantly looping music. I can get past these in windowed mode only.


C2D 3.6GHz
8800GTS (bioshock beta drivers)
Onboard sound
32bit Vista


Game runs fine once you get into it and I can then put back into full screen mode.

[Devoluti0n]

Hi.

1st of all, sorry for my english, I'll try to be as clear as possible.

I've downloaded official demonstration release of the game.
But when I try to launch the game, after all the introduction annimation (NVIDIA, Unreal etc...) I've got a black screen and I can hear that there is an error but I can't see it.

I've tried to use the key print screen, to see the error, and here it is :
http://img143.imageshack.[...]343/bioshockjb0.jpg .
Translated it means something like :
"The address of the instruction "0x10b92a70" use the memory address "0x00000000".The memory can't be "read".
Clic ok to close the program.
Clic cancel to debug the program.(doesn't work)

If I understand correctly that message, it should mean that the game can't read the first ASM instruction.

Anyone knows from what this issue provide please ?
Thx in advance.

Ah, and, my drivers are all up to date.

[Epik]

Anyone not getting the video when you pick up the Incendiary Plasmid, I saw it in the 360 demo, is this just me?

[Maxor127]

Vista Business 32-bit
Core 2 Duo E6750
2x1GB Patriot Extreme DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB w/ beta drivers
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Mobo
Onboard HD Audio

I can't get the demo to launch at all. Brand new computer. Latest drivers. Reinstalled demo and drivers. Basically spent all night trying to figure this out or find anyone who has a solution. Downloading the NVIDIA beta drivers, latest DirectX, and Microsoft Visual C++ didn't help. I get the BioShock splash screen and then I get a message saying "Bioshock.exe has stopped working." DX9 shortcut does the same thing.

[fish99]

Demo crashes here. This is with the 162.18 WHQL drivers and with the new 163.44 betas. Full system specs-

C2D E6750 (@ stock)
ABIT IP35-E mobo
2 GB Corsair DDR2
8800 GTS 320 mb (@ stock)
Corsair HX 520W PSU
Audigy 2 ZS
Win XP Pro SP2
1680*1050
Graphics settings on full

This is a fresh install of XP too, only about a month old. I also used Driver Cleaner Pro in safe mode after uninstalling the 162.18 drivers to make sure I had a proper driver install. Nothing is overclocked, system is 100% stable with everything else. I even played R6Vegas (same UE3 engine) all the way through with it last week without a single problem.

Just preying it's the demo and the problem is absent in the full game.

Btw I can finish the demo if I set 'High Detail Shaders' to off to get past the troublesome area. The crashes have been either during the sphere ride, just after it on the loading screen, or just after the loading screen before the sphere door opens. The game just freezes.

[sajber]

When you unzipped the setup did you make sure that the files was put in the right maps (the original map setting), becouse I made that misstake and had to unzip the whole thing again...so the files would be put in the right maps..

[harl3quin]

hi,Bioshock uses a modified version of the UNREAL ENGINE 3.0 so they can change preety much the entire system requirements for the final game.But i think they have made a good decision about SM 3.0 and not support any more 2.0.The game wouldn't look so good on 2.0 for you to have that feeling that they are trying to give us.The x800 users should think that a card so old is not meant to last forever,in this growing market of GPU's u should now that x800 won't last more then 1-2 years,the graphics cards are just keeping evolving too fast and to powerful.Even thought on the majority of the gamers they have 6600GT and a procesor of 2800+,why ? nobody knows

The games are evolving with splendid engines and gameplay but in order to keep playing them is to buy hardware mainstream or high-end to be in pace at least 2 years.This is the curse of PC GAMERS.

Remember this before being angry on devs

[timjbart]

Framerate drops to 3fps when loading new areas behind doors

I am having the same problem as a few people

When I approach a door, the game then obviously loads the new room before the door opens, but as it does this I get about a a couple of seconds pause before the door actually opens.

Whenever anything new is loading in (monsters,scripted scene, new room) I go down to about 3 fps the same way as you.

I will tonight update my nvidia card to the new drivers, but I am above the minimum spec so I think it should run smoothly, it doesn't feel like a graphics card issue, more like hard disk or CPU.

Can anyone shed any light on the framedrop while loading issue?

Thanks

AMD 64 3800+
2 Gig RAM
Nvidia 7900GS
SATAII hard disk
Win XP
On board nvidia audio

[Dud]

hi @ all

q6600
radeon2900XT (cat 7.8)
2gig ram

my problem:
it seems that i have no textures on the ground. The ground seems solid black. Everything else is looking fine like fire & water effects at the beginning scene

[Freddo]

Is Shader Model 2.0 supported? Because according to this article:
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=602522

It is.

Sorry, but no. Shader Model 2.0 isn't supported.

Oh, and nothing in that article is about Bioshock. Sure, it's about the Unreal 3 engine, which Bioshock uses, but more specifically about Unreal Tournament 3. A game that doesn't have water effects like Bioshock, just to mention something. Different games, different requirements.

[Musedmark]

Intel Cored 2 Duo e6320
4gb Ram DDR2 pc5400
Nvidia 8800GTX (installed bioshock display drivers as per 'readme' instructions)
Sigmatel On-Board 7.1 sound
Dell XPS710 pc, but i believe the motherboard to be a dell variant of the Nvidia Nforce 590Sli
Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit)

A few problems, but only really one nagging one;

Sound: I can get sound to work, but i only hear background noise (ie water, ambience etc) i hear no voices or sound effects. I have played the demo upto the start of the game proper when the lift opens and your asked to leave. I have a 5.1 speaker set up and have tried to run the game with all different audio options it presents me chosen, with each selection (and subsequent re-srtart) the best ive managed sound wise is just the back ground sounds as mentioned above (when i chose 5.1 and enabled EaX)

To the best of my knowledge, my sound drivers are up to date as of today.

My 2nd problem, tho not as stressfull lies with the texture tearing / flickering when strobe lighting is used. (when the evil woman dude jumps on the lift and starts to try and get in) the screen seems to tear. But the demo runs smooth (and may i add, looks frackin awesome) in other areas and after the lift opens. Im running with the settings the game was confifgured for when i installed it.

Sorry if my descriptions of these problems are not fantastic, but its worded as best i could.

[masterjaxom]

I must also inquire about the shader issue. If the team feels that backwards support would significantly hinder the game than so be it. That would be disappointing but a difinitive answear is a must. Will the game now or with a patch support shader 2 based cards? If a patch is coming when will it be here?

[Tomeron]

1 GB ram,
nVidia GeForce 7300 GS
3.40GHz...

My game crashes when I open it... I open it and it does the "Send error report" thing.. Please help

-Tomeron

[fish99]

In addition to my post about the demo crashing on my system I though I may as well list the things I tried to stop it crashing (which haven't worked).

Firstly tried the new beta nvidia drivers (after using driver cleaner pro). 2nd I tried running the demo on default settings. Next I tried setting everything in the nvidia control panel back to default. Then I uninstalled the demo and downloaded it again (this time from steam) and reinstalled it. I've also tried it in windowed mode.

None of this stopped it crashing. Only thing that has was turning High Detail Shaders off, but then it looks a lot worse.

[fish99]

My 2nd problem, tho not as stressfull lies with the texture tearing / flickering when strobe lighting is used. (when the evil woman dude jumps on the lift and starts to try and get in) the screen seems to tear. But the demo runs smooth (and may i add, looks frackin awesome) in other areas and after the lift opens. Im running with the settings the game was confifgured for when i installed it.

That's just plain old tearing and is always bad when there's strobe lighting or atmospheric effects like smoke. Only thing you can do about that is turn v-sync on.

[benito78]

Hi, first time I installed the demo, and played it, the game worked. Set the screen resolution to 1650x1080, and then restarted, and it no longer worked.

I went to install the new NVidia drivers, AMD dual core timing fix, direct-x and restarted the computer. Didn't bring it back again.

When I start the program, the splash screen comes up, the computer goes into full screen mode, pauses a bit and then returns to Windows. Bioshock is still on the taskbar.

If I click on the task, it will go full screen and then return. If I right-click and close it, I get a crash:

AppName: bioshock.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.0 ModName: bioshock.exe
ModVer: 1.0.0.0 Offset: 00012447

Rolled back all installation (using System Restore) to pre-Bioshock, reinstalled again, and it still doesn't work.

So 1

1) Any ideas?

2) How do I adjust the video settings if I can't start the game - so that the high-resolution that I set returns to normal?

Thanks,

Ben
AMD Dual Core
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA 7600GS

[BiJay]

BioShock Demo (Steam) won't start, same as Maxor127.

Vista 32bit (up-to-date)
Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB (tested both latest stable and beta drivers)
Core2Duo E6600
2GB DDR2 Ram

I also tested in window mode but everything I try it doesn't help.

[jimmy5150]

I have the issue where the game crashes to a black screen after the bioshock logo appears. the cutscene before that plays fine.

I am running a toshiba satellite x205 laptop with
core 2 duo 2 ghz
2 gb ram
512mb nvidia geforce 8700m GT

I was able to do the -dx9 command prompt fix to get the game to run, but i still see a lot of tearing and glitches with fog and lighting effects (this is regardless of vsync being on or off, as well as any of the other "bells and whistles"). I also can't get any of these modded bioshock specific drivers to work, will there be any support for these laptop-specific cards in a patch soon? All of my friends playing this on laptops are having trouble simply because they cannot get these drivers that are essential. thanks for your time.

[L80OUS]

Pleased to say everything runs great on my rig other than one problem.
Flashing/Strobe effects in game courses blocky/line break ups in the graphics with V-Sync disable. Enable this setting and everything is fine though it does hammer my frame rate quite a lot.

With V-Sync on I get between 30/60FPS mainly running at 60FPS the whole time but at the beginning it gets stuck @30 till you come out of the bubble. I can still feel the slow down though with V-Sync enabled.
I have just brought a new monitor is that partly to blame? its a Samsung SyncMaster 205BW. Dont the word "Syncmaster" mean anything?

Doubt I'll fine a fix, Should I run it and have prefect graphics or not and have prefect frames?

My Specs
Asus 8800GTX (stock)
C2D E6600@3.2
4GB OZC Gold 800MHZ 4-4-4-12
Vista 64 Premium

[neildittmar]

I've already linked to this in a few threads, but now that the game is officially released I figured I'd create a separate post for greater visibility.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been putting together a common questions, problems, and solutions guide for BioShock. Although there is a lot of general "best practices" information included, many of the issues I've been reading about BioShock are common to PC games in general. In addition, I'll be updating the guide with more BioShock specific problems/resolutions as they begin to come in.

Topics that are covered now include:

Evaluating your system for BioShock (minimum and recommended specs)
Installation issues and errors
Performance problems such as hitching and skipping
Crash to desktop, black screen, and other system freezing problems
Poor performance and how to get the most out of your system
... and more

Hopefully this guide will help get some of you having difficulties running the game up and playing.

http://rapture.planets.gamespy.com/f...php?topic=39.0

[BiJay]

2) How do I adjust the video settings if I can't start the game - so that the high-resolution that I set returns to normal?

Go to BioShock Demo\builds\release and open deafult.ini. Search for [WinDrv.WindowsClient]. There it shows:

WindowedViewportX=1024
WindowedViewportY=768
FullscreenViewportX=1024
FullscreenViewportY=768

You can change it if you want to.

[sajber]

Hi, first time I installed the demo, and played it, the game worked. Set the screen resolution to 1650x1080, and then restarted, and it no longer worked.

I went to install the new NVidia drivers, AMD dual core timing fix, direct-x and restarted the computer. Didn't bring it back again.

When I start the program, the splash screen comes up, the computer goes into full screen mode, pauses a bit and then returns to Windows. Bioshock is still on the taskbar.

If I click on the task, it will go full screen and then return. If I right-click and close it, I get a crash:

AppName: bioshock.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.0 ModName: bioshock.exe
ModVer: 1.0.0.0 Offset: 00012447

Rolled back all installation (using System Restore) to pre-Bioshock, reinstalled again, and it still doesn't work.

So 1

1) Any ideas?

2) How do I adjust the video settings if I can't start the game - so that the high-resolution that I set returns to normal?

Thanks,

Ben
AMD Dual Core
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA 7600GS

change this in the file Default.ini (2K Games\BioShock Demo\Builds\Release)

FullscreenViewportX=1650
FullscreenViewportY=1080

change it to something better like...1280x1024 or lower.

[framerate]

MacBook Pro using latest BootCamp driver
Vista Home Professional
2.4ghz Core 2 Duo
2gb RAM
GeForce 8600M GT (Laptop chip)
15gb disk space free

At the start of the demo there's a scene inside a plane and when the plane crashes, just after the Bioshock logo appears, the game crashes. I get the standard Vista application has crashed message, something like "Bioshock.exe has stopped working."

I've tried running in a window and I've tried turning all the detail options to low, but I always get the same result.

I'm running the game with administrator privileges.

From the Vista report:
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0048c4a4

[Tobe1701]

I can start and play the Demo (downloaded via Steam) in XP, but under Vista64 the screen goes black (before the menu, right after splash screen) and task manager is reporting a crash. Tried older and the new 163.44 drivers.

C2D 6850
Vista64 Ultimate
Audigy 2
Gainward 8800 GTS no/oc
4 GB RAM

[Satoru]

The game loads fine and I can see the main menu, but I don't have any mouse cursor. I have to randomly wave the mouse around hoping it will highlight what I need. Anyone else having the same issue?

Running a single core AMD 3200+ with an ATI X850XT PE

[Gabsau]

I have slow loading times (which are not normal for my system) and my computer locks up every time it tried to load the second half of the demo (where your submarine reaches rapture).

The first half of the demo (where the plane crashes) works like a charm. Not sure why the second half is broken.

My specs:
WIN XP SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 2.21ghz (4ghz combined)
1GB RAM
SLI configuration with two Geforce 7900GS graphic cards
250GB Hard Drive

Note: I have been playing on high graphics settings, and the introductory sequence worked perfectly. It was beautiful.

I have found a workaround for those in the same situation - if I play the game on medium settings the level 'Welcome to rapture' loads (albeit slowly). Then once the level has loaded boost your graphics settings to high again. It seems that my system doesn't like loading levels on high for some reason, yet my computer can handle it. puzzling to say the least. Hopefully a fix could be worked on shortly

[Dphunk]

I can load the game but when the into screen comes up it skips and the music replays, this only happens in the main menu and the haking mini game.
Is it just my computer?

AMD 2.4 ghz
2 gb ram
ati radeo x1650 pro 512 ram
windows xp media center sp2

thanks.

[bumrar]

What i can see looks amaxing but it seems that MOST of the floor is missing and a few others things 1 guys was completly black but things like the flames on the sea looked amazing while the sea and the land you need to walk on next to it are completly black also.

My system specs are
Vista Ultimate
AMD 5600+ X2
2 gig RAM
ATI 2900HD XT
X-fi soundcard


Any ideas guys?

[OTURSoldier]

I have FPS dropin to 5, i wont be getting the game now becasue teh demo runs sooo horrible on my computer, the new nvidia drivers didnt fix anything, ppl saying my graphics card is ☺☺☺☺,

My rig:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2GB DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 256MB

it was running ☺☺☺☺ even on low settings wot should i do man!

i was told that geting a nvidia 7950gt or 7900gs would solve my problem, wot do u guys think?

[Haloboy!]

The demo loads up fine, but as soon as I get anywhere near (or if I'm very lucky inside) the pod before it descends into rapture itself, the demo freezes on me every single time. No matter which settings I play around with, and even in windowed mode. I shall be completely gutted if it happens in the full release too as it's due to arrive tomorrow.

System Specs:
Athlon FX55 2.6 Ghz (ClawHammer)
Gigabyte nForce 4 NF-CK804 PCI-E Mobo
2GB PC 3200 DDR (200mhz) Corsair RAM
Sapphire HD 2600 XT 256mb PCI-E x16 Video Card GDDR4 (800/2200)
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2
Windows Vista Home Basic (Updated) Vista Rating 4.3
DX10 SM4.0
ATi Bioshock Hotfix Drivers

[BiJay]

OK, for those who can't load the game at all: Start the Bioshock.exe with "-dx9" in the command line. For me it works!

[Lighthouse]

Problem -> Bioshock shows its picture logo (assumed for loading) and then after a few seconds quits, with Vista showing "Bioshock.exe has stopped working."

Basically I don't get into the game at all - no menu screen, no introduction video, nothing.

This is a brand new PC:

e6750 core 2 duo
8800GTS 640MB
2GB ram
Gigabyte P35-S3
WD 500 GB
Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Monitor running at resolution 1680x1050

I have tried my old nvidia drivers, I have tried the new 163.44 drivers and its the same result. All other software drivers are up to date, Vista, onboard sound, the whole lot and yes including directx.

Pretty disappointed to be honest.

After the 360 vs PC demo release dates which was more than a tad annoying to us PC only users, now this. I cannot completely blame the developers for this one, as this is one of the problems with PC gaming, there is no set standard to write for, but its pretty crappy being on the "not working on my pc end".

I was one that ordered the Collector's Edition of the game, and by the looks of it, I am going to have a game that will not run on my machine, yet one which theoretically meets all said requirements.

I guess I am pretty tired of there being all sorts of problems related to PC gaming - be it operating system conflicts, graphics card drivers, sound card drivers, the whole lot. Even worse is when you have done everything in your power, tweaking, reinstalling, uninstalling drivers, searching the web for solutions, you come up empty handed.

Don't know who to blame to be honest - Nvidia? Microsoft? Irrational?
Probably no single party is to blame, but here I sit disappointed at the one game I have actually been the most hyped to get and one of the new games I have been dying to play, considering my old PC could not meet any newish game requirements - now even my new one cannot.

In all honesty, this looks like its going to be my last ever PC orientated towards gaming - funnily enough, at one stage I never thought I would say this.

I actually now envy all you console owners that are free from experiences such as mine.

[fish99]

Right, by switching from my Audigy 2 ZS to onboard (realtek) I was able to get into Rapture with all graphics settings on full. However it then crashed just after the flying sentry thing kills the first splicer, but with a regular 'this program has caused an exception' crashbox, rather than just locking up.

[Dphunk]

I have a problem with the main menu and the hacking mini game, where the game and music get choppy and i cant move well if at all. although the game runs great.
is it my computer?

AMD 2.4 ghz proccesor
windows xp media center sp2
ati radeon x1650 pro 512mb ram
2 gb ram
90gb of free hd space
sound blast x-fi soundcard

thanks

[bioshocklove]

Hi all.

I got a big problem with the pc demo.

I wont start

When I click on the exe it says: blabla Side-by-side Config incorrect or something like that

hard to translate ^^

plz help

[PureVanadium]

Hello !

"I´ve installed the demo version of BioShock but it doesn´t work.

Here is the error message :

"path to bioshock.exe

this application can´t be launched because the program´s configuration isn´t correct. Reinstalling this application may solve this issue."

I´ve reinstalled the game 5 times, but I always got this message.

Thanks for your help !"

[OneOfTwo]

Same crap as lighthouse says, the game won't start even after updating drivers and installing the GPU specific hotfixes(ATI in my case).
I'm a AMD 64X2, ATI X1900X, 2GB ram(on WinXPPro32bits) owner and I can't even get the demo to start.
I don't honestly give a damn about whose fault is, the hell that i'm going to pay for such a crap and for such a slow or non existent support.
Thanks god I downloaded the demo before actually buying the game itself.