Game not responding on launch.

[nil4t]

When I try to start the game from the launch menu a large black box appears at the top left of the screen the taskbar starts flickering. When I open task manager it says PIKEANDSHOT is not responding and I am unable to end the process and have to restart my computer.

I own the game on steam
I have the latest drivers for my video card
my video card is a geforce gt 430
all the system requirements listed on steam are met

error.log

VER:10001
PLATFORM: WINDOWS
CPU String: GenuineIntel
Stepping ID = 10
Model = 7
Family = 6
Extended model = 1
CLFLUSH cache line size = 64
CPU Brand String: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz
Cache Size = 2048K
UNKNOWN TAGS IN: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
Unknown Tag: MOVIEMODE
Unknown Tag: DYNAMICENV
END: CONFIG/SYSTEM.TXT
Found DirectX Version Number: 4.09.00.0904
Creating Device.....
MonkeyInitStart
MIS: Found DD
MIS: IsHW
MIS: SetCoop
MIS: Setting Disp Mode
Failed HW VP - trying SW
The method call is invalid. For example, a method's parameter may have an invalid value.(this part repeats)

[pipfromslitherine]

Try opening the OPTIONS.TXT file in My Documents/My Games/PIKEANDSHOT. Check the Rezx and rezy values to ensure they are valid for your monitor.

Also, it looks like it is failing to correctly start up DirectX, which could be a problem with your video card drivers. A GT430 should have hardware processing, but this could also be a symptom of a bad screen rez.

Cheers

Pip

[nil4t]

There is no OPTIONS.TXT in that directory. It only contains the error.log, USERS.TXT and a number of directories, all of which are empty except for one called AUTODOCS, which contained a TWEAKS.TXT that did contain some resolution information. I edited TWEAKS.TXT to match my monitors resolution and made it read-only because it was undoing the change when I ran the game, but I still have the same issue. I also verified the integrity of game cache in steam and all files were successfully validated.

[VPaulus]

Are you login to your Windows as administrator?

[pipfromslitherine]

Try creating an OPTIONS.TXT file in that folder (the tweaks.txt file doesn't affect anything, it is just documentation). Enter the following lines in the options file you create.

FIRSTRUN 1
fullscreen 0
rezx 1024
rezy 768

save and then run the game. Out of interest, what screen desktop resolution are you running in?

Cheers

Pip

[nil4t]

Creating the OPTIONS.TXT did the trick. Although, I set resx to 1920 and resy to 1080, as that is my monitors native resolution. Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it.

I thought I should point out that I am using a samsung LCD television as my monitor and while it says its native resolution is 1920x1080 I have to resize my desktop slightly with my video cards software to get the image to fit properly on the screen. I have no idea if that could be the cause of an issue like this, I just thought it may be worth mentioning.

[pipfromslitherine]

Glad you are up and running. We switched to using a Windows system call to get the desktop size and it looks like it fails sometimes. But are you saying your desktop resolution is strange, or that you resized the image using the video card control panel?

Cheers

Pip

[nil4t]

It is both I guess. Although the native resolution is supposed to be 1920x1080, it does not fit the screen. I have to use my video card control panel to reduce the resolution to 1842x1026. However, when I play games at 1920x1080 everything seems to fit just fine.

[pipfromslitherine]

Ah - well that would do it! That isn't a valid fullscreen resolution, so the card would probably throw a fit. Bloody custom gfx controls! Thanks for the info, I shall add in some code to try and handle those situations...

Cheers

Pip

[nil4t]

I realize that this issue is relatively uncommon. I searched this forum and Steams before posting about my problem and I could not find anyone experiencing similar issues. It is good to know that the devs at Slitherine are willing to put in the extra time and effort to make their games support ALL of its users. Thanks again.

[pantherboy]

I've been plagued with this issue too. I use a 50 inch Bravia LCD as my monitor. Sometimes when I attempt to load up the game it doesn't respond and just flashes. I reboot and experience the same issue. Then I try the following day and it works. It seems to happen at random for me

PS: I just tried editing the text file you mentioned and now the game works fine