[MaidenMary]

Hello! I bought, enjoyed and finished Grotesque 1 and when Grotesque 2 was released on Steam I immediately bought it. The problem is that the game never lauched, even now that a steam patch was released! I sent like 20 error reports while trying to launch the game.

The starting window appears briefly and immediately close. I tried fiddling with microsoft C++ tool, tried by reinstalling the 2008 version, 2010, removing everything, nothing works.
I'm on Windows XP SP2 Intel Core Duo E4500 2.20GHZ 2G Ram. The game never launched once. I also tried the game on another computer, it didn't work either! I'm baffled.


I rarely buy any games as they're pretty expensive to me so please help.

[DeadPoet]

hi, do you still have the problem?
So you send us the error message , could you add some information to the error message, so we know, that is your pc?

So the game never start, or is there a loading screen oder something else? Another computer with the same monitor?

[MaidenMary]

Finally an answer!

Additional infos: my video card is an ATI X 1950 Pro, forgot to say it. My windows system is 32 bits and set in french language. My desktop is in 1280*1024 resolution, my monitor is pretty basic (i.e.: not 16/9). I bought the game through Steam during their sales. I "checked the local files" in the Steam manager but it came out clean.

When I double click the game shortcut a windows appears and quickly closes then the error message windows appears saying 'gathering informations' then I click the 'Send report' button. I must have already sent like 20 error logs now.

The other computer where I tested the game and had the same exact results - a window briefly appears then crash window appears with the error log to send - is an Athlon 3GH Simple CORE with an ATI 9800 pro, Windows XP SP2 32 bits.

I don't see what more infos I could give you, would a directX diagnosis be helpful?
It's very odd since Grotesque 1 works perfectly, as well as 'huge resources' games like Sims 3, Dragon Age Origin, etc.

[DeadPoet]

Okay maybe its the monitor.

Can you check, if you have a config.xml here:
C:\Users\Username\Documents\Grotesque-Tactics2\Settings
if not edit the default.xml
But if you have a config.xml the game use this this file.

Now check line 558 (with a xml editor like notepad ++)

here you see this: <Resolution Width="1280" Height="800" Hz="60" VSync="true" FullScreen="false" IsWideScreen ="false" Format="(5:4)" Adapter="0"/>

Change to <Resolution Width="1280" Height="1024"
maybe also the hz? if something different?
Fullscreen to "True"

With line 574 <Game FirstStart="true" to "false" , the game wont start in another resolutation after an error appears.

Hope that helsp, but we will check your error message in the end of the week.

[MaidenMary]

I installed notepad++ to be sure to do it correctly. I don't know if it matters but on french system grotesque 2 config files are located at a different path than the one you've said; they're at: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrateur.USERNAME.000\Mes documents\Grotesque-Tactics2\Settings.

I modified what you said, even changed german language to english (just in case) but nope, no difference at all. The game still crashes on loading! The launching window crashes after a second, only its size is bigger since it's now fullscreen. I sent like 5 more error reports.

[Grauwolf]

Two points:
- Are you aware that there are two files you can use to start GT2? There is GrotesqueTactics.exe and GrotesqueTacticsAdmin.exe. Try the first one - the second one might be buggy.
- What's your game version? It's probably 1.6.3. You may wish to check the version.xml file (it's where the settings file is, too). Does it say 1.6.3? If yes, then that's ok. Otherwise change it to 1.6.3 manually and try again.
If you edit the version.xml file, be careful: I think you have to do it in two places, and, worse, there are two different version.xml files in two different folders, and I'm afraid you have to edit both.

This goes back to an issue I had when I installed GT2 on my PC. It may not work for you, but I wanted to let you know. I myself can play GT2 v1.6.3 now, after changing the version number in the two version.xml files.

Here is the post I wrote on the Impulse forum (I don't have the Steam version of GT2):

"I downladed and installed GT2 yesterday via Impulse. Then I launched the game using the GrotesqueTactics.exe. It downloaded and installed the 1.6.3 patch (looked like a successful patching process, nothing unusual). After that I was back on the desktop.
I started the exe again. It produced, immediately, an error message saying "there was a problem during updating (hd full or patch installation running?)", and I was back on my desktop again. Well, my disk is definitely not full, and there was no patch installation running (according to my Task Manager, Vista 32b).
And I started the exe once again. This time, there was a message saying that there is a patch 1.6.3 available and requesting my confirmation for the installation. At "yes", the patch installs and the application exits (see above). At "no" (which I tried later), the application simply stops, with other words, this automated patch installation process is mandatory.
I could repeat the last two steps as often as I wanted. Then I started the GrotesqueTacticsAdmin.exe, which produced a different error message: "?ReOpen@Config@@QAEXXZ in SilentEnginePlugin.vPlugin not found" (translated from German). There was the same error message when I ran GT2 from within Impulse.
Now I went to the GT2 Forum. In the German section I found an entry which sounded similar to my experiences, but it referred to an older release, and the reply was "wait for the 1.6.0 patch". The rest of the thread is, more or less, about the 1.6.0 patch.
Then I had a look at the GT2 files and came across the version.xml file. It said the game is on release 1.6.2, which I changed manually to 1.6.3 (I leave out the technical details - be aware that there are two version.xml files in two different folders, which I edited both). After that GT2 started successfully, no further autopatching and error messages, and showing version number 1.6.3 on the main menu. I played a little, everything appears to be ok (but I'm not familiar enough with the game to say that 1.6.3 changes were really there).
Looks like I found a workaround. But the GrotesqueTacticsAdmin.exe still produces the error message I quoted above, and there is the uncertainty what version I'm playing and if I might have produced other issues by my manual editing the version.xml files."

[DeadPoet]

Patch will come next week, should repair those problems.

[MaidenMary]

Grauwolf, I already knew of the 2 exes in the x86_installer folder, both give the same result with a launching window that promptly closes, followed by the crash log window.
Concerning the patch, steam finally updated the game to 1.63 but I still have the same result (yes, with both exes too). This is totally nut, nothing works at all. Fiddling with the setup files or patches give the same crash result.

Okay Deadpoet, I will wait for the next patch, crossing my fingers 'til it comes out!

[MaidenMary]

Update news! I tested the last patch on steam yesterday and it didn't work either. But I finally solved the problem!

I managed to grab a new video card at a third of its price, a nice ATI HD 4850 and now Grotesque 2 launches!! I tested 'til I was in the beginning tutorial with his semidivine tutoring me, it now runs perfectly! The graphics are pretty nice BTW and the voices are really good.

So mystery solved and issue closed, Grotesque 2 is in fact totally incompatible with legacy drivers like the catalyst 9.3 that I had no other choice but to use with my old ATI 1950 pro. With my new video card I'm rediscovering a lot of games that had horribles graphic glitches and will be able to enjoy Grotesque 2 (and waste many many hours ^^)

[DeadPoet]

Ok fine. We had some crash messages with a video card that didnt's support the shader effect "Rim Lighting" maybe that was the problem.