1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

No.

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

N/A

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

After the cinematic, annd sometimes at the loading screen. Then the computer just restarts.

4. Do you have an error message?

No

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

No

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

Can't remeber have to check

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

I am playing the DVD, CE version

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

No

1. No

2.N/A

3+4.When I click on shortcut an error message comes:
"Dark Messiah-No Gore"

5.yes

6.AMD Athlon XP 2500 / 1,25 GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT / 512mb

7. I have the DVD version

8. The listed produce doesn't change anything

1. yes saw the menu once

2.set the graphics levels to medium I think.

3. after the speech thing with text I briefly see a splashscreen title. then I get the MM.exe error message

4.see above

5.Not the latest perhaps, but they are fairly recent, but then alot of fixes are saying use old drivers

6.Athlon 64 3000,1024mb,ATI 9800pro,128mb

7.bought DVD but now have Steam version download too

8.No, no change.

Hi again, i have just found probably the coolest thing since patch 1.01 you can vote for the game (out of ten) on arkane's website.

I'm voting 1/10 as many times as i can in one afternoon and may take this up as a fulltime hobby - join me in showing our appreciation for such an intersitingly crafted game.

1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

No.

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

N/A

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

I see the Ubi and Arkane videos, then it goes black for a few seconds, then to a blue screen and either freezes or restarts

4. Do you have an error message?

No

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

yes

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

2.8Ghz CPU, 1GB RAM, Ati RADEON x300 HyperMemory 128MB Video card

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

I bought the DVD version, that didnt work, so i uninstalled it and installed the steam version, getting the same error every time

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

No

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jaste07,

I was able to play the fine game a few weeks ago but now I get the "unhandled win32 exception..." error when I run it. If I remove the patch I get no error but it doesn't run.

----
1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

Yes. In fact I have played the game from start to finish twice.

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

Yes.
-Updated my Etrust antivirus firewall which is actually now the CA Security Center.
-Installed Gothic III
-Update video forceware drivers from 84.21 to 93.71
-Performed a Windows Update for critical patches.
-Installed Visual Studio 2005.
-Installed FireBird 1.5.3 database and the .net client and DDEX dlls.
-Changed the memory on my machine from 1GB of dual channel DDR to 2GB of dual channel DDR.
-Installed the dark_messiah_1.01_us_uk_fr_it_sp.exe patch.

In that order I think. This happened over the course of about 2 weeks. Only Dark Messiah is having problems.

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

After clicking on the icon/shortcut I see the "Shield" program for CD protection run if it wasn't already running and then I get the CD loading cursor and then the error message. No in-game screens or logo videos or anything run. Without the patch installed it just runs for about 2 to 3 seconds in the process list in windows and then disappears.

4. Do you have an error message?

Yes. "An unhandled win32 exception occurred in mm.exe".

If I debug it in Visual Studio i get the following: "Unhandled exception at 0x20235d70 in mm.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0x20235d70." I believe from the call stack the 0x20235d70 location is in the engine.dll. I can trace the error to the line of assembly code in the DLL if it helps.

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

YES. I also tried returning the driver version that last worked for me but it makes no difference.

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

AMD Ahtlon 64 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2Ghz,
2048MB Dual Channel DDR1 RAM
DirectX 9.0c(4.09.0000.0904)
NVidia GeForce 7800 GS 256MB

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

DVD Version. I have never used steam for anything.

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

NO. Same error occurs.
----

-The list of steps I did between it working and not working is rather long unfortunately. Much of those I'm not willing to undo.
-I removed the dark_messiah_1.01_us_uk_fr_it_sp.exe patch and reverted back to the 84.21 forceware drivers but it didn't help. I also deinstalled the game and reinstalled and made sure my firewall and realtime virus scanners were disabled.
-When I reinstalled I was not asked to enter my CD key. Not sure if thats because the registry is not properly cleaned up from the first install or perhaps this is part of the problem.

Just installed it, (now working see below)
1) no never got the menu
4) no - well yes, I can trap an error in my visual studio 2005 debugger. This is after the cd is verified by your copy protection.
(unhandled win32 exception in mm.exe #3528)
5)Current Nvidia and also tried the nvo version.
6)HP dv9000 - 1.83 core 2, 1 gig, nvidia 7600, 256

The nzone.com site activex app says this computer is better than the min. and passed all tests for min and all but one test for reccemended.
7) dvd
8) no

Update 1 - just tried the "No CD" \ "No DVD" (found about on this forum) and got the first movie to play! This was with the 1024x768 run line prams also.

Update 2...
I got to the menu now! I think its your copy protection.

I playing the tutoral and its smooth. Again it seem like the protection. I do own the game.

I changed the ingame rez to 1280 and its working fine. Now quiting and restarting to test. Its fine.

So to summerize, I was one of the many that could not get to the menu. I think I'm the first to get it to work. I also tried 1600x900 rez and it seemed to run smooth but looks like my 7600 will run hot so backing down.

Got past the prologe and Chapter 1 loaded fine.

I hope this info helped you all.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: craigism,

quote:

"No CD" \ "No DVD"

What do you mean by this? Is this another thread in the forum. Having trouble finding it.

I decided to test removing my virus scanner/firewall last night.

It's the CA Security Center. It has the ability to disable most of the check temporarily but it doesn't seem to help.

Completely deinstalling it however fixed the problem. I doubt the virus scanner is having problems with Dark Messiah itself. It's most likely a conflict between it and securom.

Of course removing it is not acceptable so I reinstalled it and again I can' run the game. It seems I have no choice but to research which games and companies are using CD/DVD security that causes problems like this and just not buy anymore .

okay... now I don't understand a thing... is it good for Ubisoft to ban people who criticise them?

because I got banned being called a pirate o.0 (Karlozkiller) anyhow I dunno how anyone can call me a pirate for buying a great game from a store and coming home... it won't start... and then waiting for patches in like... 2 months and no actual help...

Ubisoft wtf are u doing?... banning people from the forum won't solve this problem... we bought this game 100% legally so don't come here and call us pirates 'cause we're pissed at you for this ****...

we have all rights to be angry... if you don't like it then say it to us... don't just try to silence us!!

So last night I decided to try removing the DVD version and installing steam instead. Since it seems my problem is securom and my virus scanner. I figure steam eliminates the securom part of the problem.

I've never used steam before and overall I wasn't that impressed. I installed steam using the setup that came in the installed directory of Dark Messiah. I ran that install to setup steam and then deinstalled Dark Messiah. I then created my steam account, registered Dark Messiah and proceeded to install it.

Not sure I understand what steam was doing. I was getting 700Kb/s download (which is good) but it down took about 3+ hours. However I was able to launch the game when the download was only 35% complete - huh?. I then noticed that all the Dark Messiah contents files where in the root of the SteamApps folder in steam not in the Dark Messiah game folder and they were already there. In fact the "download" didn't even modify any files except for the steam.log file during the entire 3+ hrs.

-Steam does not allow me to install games where I want them. They must be installed under the steam directory.
-Its hard to tell what its doing sometimes. I assume it wasn't downloading at all. Most likely the files were collected from the DVD install and it was doing a verification but thats just a guess.
-The game files were stored in the wrong place. They should be under steamapps/<accountName>/DarkMessiah, not under steamapps.
-In the end the game didn't work anyway. It still crashed immediately after lauching it with the same memory read error.

So now I not sure what the problem is. Is Dark Messiah conflicting with my virus scanner not securom. Is securom still running because I installed the DVD first and we all know how well most programs like that clean themselves up during deinstall.

This is really getting anoying. I was able to play before and I really liked Dark Messiah. It was bit short with a few minor quirks but all in all it was one of the most fun games I've played in a while. I would love to see more games like this even if they are short. But i just want to play not debug my computer and deinstall/reinstall 50 times.

Dear Marco,

1.)Yes.

2.)First level. i kicked the leg of the dock then it froze never to run again.(note for a week it wouldn't work then i reinstalled it and it was really laggie adn it froze and never to run again.

3.)crashes theses ways:
A.)By running it from steam.
B.)running it from Desktop shortcut.

4.)mm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.

5.)Yes, i just got a new computer and installed it a few weeks after i got my new computer put in.

6.)My
A.)Cpu = 2459m( i think that 2 gb right? )
B.)Amd =AMD 64 Atholon( isn't that the ram? )
C.)Gfx Card = Ati redmon 800
D.)video card mem = I don't know sorry.

7.)Steps i put it in.
A.)bought it from bestbuy.
b.)came home and installed it.
C.)went to steam and click on the game.
D.)error message came up.

8.)No.

1. Did you ever managed to reach the in game menu / play the game?

Never once. Multiplayer works great, the shortcut from multi menu to switch to single does not work either.

2. If you ever managed to get to the Menu/play the game, did you remember what was the last thing you did before everything went broken?

N/A

3. Where/How does the program crashes? (Just by clicking on the shortcut / During the first cinematic / After the intro cinematic & during the loading screen to the Menu)

Clicking on the shortcut

4. Do you have an error message?

Nope, Steam says it's launching, and then the box goes away with nothing happening. Get the hourglass and hear the harddrive spinning though.

5. Did you update your video drivers with the last one available from NVIDIA / ATI Sites?

Yes.

6. What is your CPU / RAM / Video Card / Video Card Memory?

Pentium 4 3.0ghz
1 gig DDR2 Ram
Vid card: ATI Radeon X1600 Pro (512mb)

7. Are you playing Steam or DVD Version? If you're playing Steam do you ALSO have the DVD Version?

Steam, do not own dvd version.

8. If you follow the procedure below, does it change anything?

Made no difference for me at all. I have tried doing the Steam file verification, and have deleted local files to reinstall 3 times. Each time it is the same.

after 1.02 I still get my error message

</EXE>
<EXE NAME="shaderapidx9.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="shaderapidx9.dll" SIZE="598016" CHECKSUM="0xC9D1D78E" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" LINK_DATE="11/28/2006 15:52:15" UPTO_LINK_DATE="11/28/2006 15:52:15" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="997888" CHECKSUM="0x182FEB99" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Klient-DLL fö Windows NT BASE API" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Operativsystemet Microsoft® Windows®" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.060704-2349)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. Med ensamrätt." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF97D6" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" UPTO_LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" VER_LANGUAGE="Svenska [0x41d]" />
</EXE>
</DATABASE>

1.yes, but only after the fix at the end of this post.
2.yes, half-way into loading the prelude
3/4.it crashes to the desktop with a DX9 error and the known memory error.
5.yes. ATI drivers.
6. AMD Athlon 64 3500+ with no changes to the clock, 1 Gig of Dual Channel OCZ, Radeon X800XT , 512MB of VRAM
7. DVD
8.No.

I managed to get the game to run, without FPS issues, but there is still a number of noticable flaws. I put the -dxlevel 81 parameter on my mm.exe shortcut, dropping the Direct X back ot 8 instead of 9. I can play the game fine now. No Crashes so far. However, Water textures are still bad (they don't move) and things don't blend well as well as all the other things that would have come with DX9. The lighting has some issues but in all technicality of function, it's fine. After setting my water reflection settings up, the water is atleast translucent instead of just a blue texture.

Basicaly, I recommend anyone to give this parameter a shot.
"C:\{Fill in the blank}\mm.exe" -dxlevel 81

I've managed to play up until the loading of Chapter 5. At that point I get a generic vague windows error with mm.exe and it is forced to close. Just thought I should update that also I've switched back to Direct X 9 and it worked fine for atleast one loading of the game. I think it mostly has to do with the prelude having the major issue with DX9 and not so much the following levels.

1=No
2=refer to 1.
3=I get all the sounds during the intros but only a white screen.Then at the menus I get a black screen before the error report: Can`t find background image `materials/console/background01.vtf`
4=refer to 3.
5=Yes
6=Dual Core 2.44,2000Ram,Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT 512mb
7=Dvd version is the only one I got.
8=No.The same error keeps popping up.

When i enter the game, i can only see the cinematics then my computer restart... what should i do ? I have a Nvidia 6200... i tried to do many things but no one worked... can you help me ?

Oh i forgot to tell i have the dvd version... and if i want to play using the normal icon i only see a white screen then the game just crahs