Upon completing the prologue, the game crashes and gives me this error when attempting to load the first level. Note that it occurs approximately when the loading bar is 3/4th full every time. I downloaded the game directly from Steam.

"failed to lock vertex buffer in CMESHDX8::LockVertexBuffer"

Here are my specs.

Yeah I'm getting the same error. But...


First I got the NPC no voices deal, (when I was able to load Chapter 1). So I fixed that with the 'verify' deal. And now my game Locks up my computer when loading Chapter 2.

Out of curiosity, I started a new game a completed through the Prologue again. This is where I encountered the "Failed to lock vertex buffer in CMeshDX8::LockVertexBuffer" error. So now I can't even get back into Chapter 1. But I can load my auto save that exists after I talked to the chick in front of the gate. Strange.

This is the Steam version I own. Can you return Steam purchases? I might have to and just buy the retail version..

Specs:
Nforce4 Board
500W PSU
AMD 3400+
2GB PC3200
80GB and 120GB HDD's
ATI X1900 XT PCI-E 256MB

I do believe this problem is not restricted to steam owners.

As a matter of fact, it was up to Ubisoft to make sure the steam content was and is identical to the retail...

Ubisoft really really dropped the ball with DM, I've never heard of a game so glitchy... I just spent 15 miuntes staring at a multiplayer loading screen before bring up taskmanager and ending the process.

Maybe loading multiplayer maps in under a day, or loading the gaming without it crashing will make it into my life within a year or so. I also love the lack of response from Ubisoft.

110% behind you Kalabalanca. The fact that this is so messed up is one thing, the fact that ubisoft hasn't made ANY respnses is just apalling and disgusting.

I cant believe I spend $50 dollars for a god dam unfinished game. I really do hope some one sues UBI for false advertisement, pieces of sh!@

I am happy to report that this issue has been resolved. Ubisoft may not be saying anything but they are working on our problems, and despite the initial trouble I am glad they actually fixed the problem.

This is a stark contrast to SiN: Emergence, which immediately responded to everyones problems but never actually fixed any of them. I would much rather have solved problems than a forum moderator telling us that they are working on it.

Wait, how was it resolved? I was somehow able to get through Chapter 2, but upon loading for Chapter 3.. I got the error message again!

Well, the game updated itself and after that I was able to get into Chapter One without trouble. Except then I missed a jump and died, and decided that was a good time to alt+tab and post my happiness. Except the game uses way too many resources to accept me alt+tabbing.. between that and other (non-DM) things delaying me from playing, I'm still in chapter one. Thus I cannot say whether or not this problem is coming up after chapter two. We'll see when I get there.

Exact same error and timing. Always crashes when loading Chapter 1. As a side note, the demo worked perfectly for me.

I have the latest video drivers and DirectX.

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800
2 GB RAM
140 GB HD
ATI X800 XL PCI-E 256MB

I'm sensing an ATI issue here, since all the cards listed so far are ATI. Feel free to disprove.

And cool it on the dev attacks guys. It's not going to make them patch it any faster. If anything its the QA people who dropped the ball.

It is quite likely an ATI-only thing. The buffer lock, regardless of whose fault it is, is a problem with the software talking to the videocard.

I have an ATI x1650Pro. They haven't been out long enough to be included in the x64 version of the Catalyst driver, so I'm using the 6.8s that came with the card. That means that we may have to wait until the issue is patched by Ubisoft, over Steam, or until ATI comes out with Cat 7 (or 6.10, whatever they want to call it).

Here's a quick solution, though - start the game, and turn all of the pixel shader-intensive options down. Turn the shadow quality down, the GFX level to 'Low', HDR off, water to 'Simple Reflections', color correction off, and when you've done all of that stuff, load the part of the game you're at. Once it's loaded, you should be able to change all of your settings back, as well.

I'm going to do some trial and error, to see exactly what shader option is the culprit, or if it's just DX9 settings in general, but that's for another day. For now, see if that doesn't work for you.

Same here. Crashes while loading Chapter 1 (3/4 bar). Where the hell's the patch Ubisoft?!!!!!

It's not exclusively ATI.. my co-worker runs a evga 7950gt 512mb and it crashes while loading Chapter 4. :/

There are plenty of reasons for something to crash. This crash has to do with the HDR lighting.

Try turning your HDR off, and then loading the game - once it's loaded, turn the HDR back on. See if that doesn't work.

It's definitely worked for me. Of course, if you die, and you need to restart, the game may mess up again, and it'll crash. ...in which case, turn it off, load it, and turn it back on again.

My game wouldn't let me get past chapter 2, and now I'm going to take a nap, shortly after getting it to work, and hitting up chapter 6.

Thanks Norguard!
Turning down the graphics did let me get by the error, and turning them back up didn't crash it either (although it took extremely long to do so).

However, it did crash with the same error at the same loading bar spot for Chapter 2, so I'm guessing I should just play with the graphics down for now. <sigh>

To save you a little bit of time, and a little bit of self-esteem about your rig, until a patch, or a new driver set comes along, just turn HDR off, and leave everything else up.

That should suffice. If you want to add it back, it won't take as long as changing everything - it'll still take quite a while, but not as long as changing everything around. ...and if not, you'll still be able to enjoy the hi-res textures and such.

This one gives people problems in different places. I made it from chapter three to chapter six without error, and then I died in a stupid fashion, and it crashed on me, again.

It seemed to be the pixel shading option that was the main culprit for me. Turning that down as well as HDR has let me load every time.

I get this error as well, and turning HDR off was the ONLY thing I had to do to stop the crashes. I also crash almost always after dying and reloading unless I do this.

System Specs:
Intel P4 2.6 ~ 3.0
ATI 9800 pro 256MB
4 x 512MB Corsair ValueSelect
74GB Raptor 10,000RPM

With my computer, even though it is old, I can max everything but reflections pretty much, and still run good frames.

This game is very buggy

I turned of HDR but I'm still getting the crash bug,

System specs

AMD athlon 64 3200+
RAM 1.75 GB kingston
HD 250GB western digital
GFX card Asus ATI AX800 extreme 256 mb

got the same problem, also reported it on the ubisoft website, told me i would get a answer on a buisness day.. So my Dark messiah weekend have just been spoiled?

I dont get the releasings.. worked hard on getting battlefield 2142 to work, now i have to get this 1 to work too. just hope i can do it today or tommorrow..

I'm also experiencing this problem. Very annoying, this definitely puts a dent in my impression of both Ubisoft and Valve. I had no issues with the demo and expected a similar experience with the full game, no such luck. What I get is level load times of approximately two decades and a crash before loading is even completed.

And the intro ran so smoothly as well... They really know how to time these crashes for maximum annoyance value don't they!

EDIT: Specs:
Athlon 64 3500+
3GB RAM
ATI X1800
Windows x64