I've been having trouble getting Anno 1404 Gold to run. I can run it fine up until the main menu, but attempting to start a game immediately closes it with no error message or anything. If I try to run Venice, the game doesn't even start, a window appears and disappears almost immediately. I bought the whole collection and ironically, the older games run without any problems. I'm running the game on Windows 10, my PC has an Intel Core i7 6700 and an AMD Radeon R9 390.

Maybe it's connected to a by default missing DirectX specification in the game's config file.

Go to C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Ubisoft\Anno1404\Config

The AppData folder is hidden by default, but you get easily to "C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\" by using the Windows Run dialog (press Windows-Key+R): Simply type %Appdata% and hit Enter

Within \Ubisoft\Anno1404\Config you'll find a file named Engine.ini which you can open with the Windows Editor (or any other text editor).

Change the line
<directXversion>0</directXversion>
to
<directXversion>9</directXversion>

Save the file and restart Anno1404; Maybe that fixes the issue.

Also make sure that all components of DirectX 9 are properly installed:
Download and save this file to a separate folder:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
Extract it by starting it and then run DXSETUP.EXE

Tried it, didn't work! The problem persists.

Hi. I've got the exact same issue. Neither editing the Engine.ini file nor troubleshoot compatibility work. My specs:

- Windows 10, up to date
- i5 2500k, 8gb RAM, gtx 970
- directX 12

As OP said, the game starts normally and I am able to navigate and change preferences at the main menu. It's when starting a proper match the crashing occurs, no message errors reported.

Help please.

I don't have an engine. ini file, only a FXO folder with 93fxo files inside. How do I fix it when I dont' have an engine.ini file

I usually gets a bit longer though. I can play for about 2-5 min before it crashes.

I have been playing for about 30 hours in this continous game and it has become completely unplayable due to the crashes.
It seems to coincide with the auto save interval (I have set it to 15min), because I lose about that much progress each time. 1-2 auto saves work, then it crashes (so about 30-45 minutes into each game)

I have tried the changes to the .ini file and the large address awareness patch, but neither helped.
Has anyone found another solution?

On my laptop the game tends to overheat my graphics card, causing complete shutdown. I have found that using Afterburner utility to downclock my card, the game becomes stable.

I also have crashing issues on Quickstart.
Anyone found a fix yet? Tried to downgrade to DX9 via Engine.ini, didn't work.

- Windows 10
- i5 660k, 16GB RAM
- GTX1070

The game is also installed on a secondary drive, if it can help pin point an issue.

Hi,
I also can't start (not even get to the menu) 'can no initialise Direct x'. Tried the recommendations from GOG, plus those mentioned here, nothing at all.

Same Here:

can run it fine up until the main menu, but attempting to start a game immediately closes it.
I do get a crushfile:
Das Kommando [/game/storegroup(0)] wurde an Tastenkombination [CONTROL 0] gebunden

7576DB52 (KERNELBASE): (filename not available): RaiseException
00E01897 (Anno4): (filename not available): CMenuManager::LoadDialogs
00DCA526 (Anno4): (filename not available): CMenuManager::LoadDialogs

I'm running the game on Windows 10, my PC has an Intel Core i5, 16GB RAM, SSD Drive and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

running it via a virtual machine on same computer with windows 7, working just fine (but slower and less efective graphics)

the DX change from "0" to "9" didn't work for me
not running as admin
not setting UAC to lowest.

anyone found a solution for this?

You can also set Graphics to medium or low and boost your graphics setting in the GPU Control Panel. When you use high or ultra Graphics, Anno 1404 uses up all the available memory quickly on long continuous games and crashes trying to write to out of memory addresses . You can get the same effect as in-game Ultra and High settings without running into memory problems with this trick and there is no FPS performance hit either. I also use the 4gb patch, and have edited my Engine.ini file per the Anno 1404 Wiki Engine.Ini page. While these tweaks had some effect the gamechanger was when I discovered the Graphics Settings, no crashes since I did that.

THIS WORKS!!!

I had bought the game 2 years ago and could not play it on my desktop no matter what I tried. But, this fixed it. I had my location set to US and format to English (Europe). As soon as I changed the format to English (US) the game worked. I tried a lot of combinations and the game works when both location and format match.

Knutblub, THANK YOU so much!!!

Confirming.

I adjusted using Windows 10 1903's new, 'modern UI' settings panel. It was set to country 'Ireland' and regional format 'English (Europe)'.

Changing to 'Ireland' + 'English (Ireland)' fixed the issue for me. The game no longer crashes when I click on Quickstart.

The control panel is accessed by pressing the windows key and "r" and taping control.
I am not sure how did I solved the problem because I tried multiple things at the same time, I did not have to change the language and date because it was the same. Because my problem was appearing at the end of the end scene between two scenarios I pressed escape to go to the next phase... and it worked... I also tryed to stop the antivirus.