I played SW3 with Win7 in 2017 and upgraded to Win10 but tried to play SW3 again now and it crashed.

(00:27:16) (ERROR) D3D9_RenderKernel::Init: cant create Direct3DDevice9
(00:27:16) (ERROR) DX Error (0x8876086C): Unknown error: #2156

DXdiag tells: Feature Levels: 12_1,12_0,11_1,11_0,10_1,10_0,9_3,9_2,9_1

so i think DX9 support should be in the drivers?

The gog help suggest for dx*.dll not found errors to re-install dx9 but this is not a file not found error.
My system is running fine atm and i'd like to follow never touch a running system and want to avoid trial and error.

Does anybody know the solution for this crash?


Oh, i can't attach logfiles... so in reduced detail:


SW3.log:
Engine version: 1.12 build 284.2331

(00:27:15) (INFO) Root::InitObjects()
(00:27:15) (INFO) Init texture manager
(00:27:15) (INFO) Init Mesh manager
(00:27:15) (INFO) Init material manager
(00:27:15) (INFO) Root::InitObjects() OK
(00:27:15) (INFO) Game::InitApplication()
(00:27:15) (INFO) STARTED 3D system INIT
(00:27:15) (INFO) <Used HAL device>
(00:27:15) (INFO) D3D9_RenderKernel::Init: MultiSampleType = NONE
(00:27:15) (WARN) D3D9_RenderKernel::Init: probably Hardware or Mixed VertexProcessing is not supported, using Software emulation...
(00:27:16) (ERROR) D3D9_RenderKernel::Init: cant create Direct3DDevice9
(00:27:16) (ERROR) DX Error (0x8876086C): Unknown error: #2156
(00:27:29) (INFO) STARTED 3D System RELEASE
(00:27:29) (INFO) COMPLETE 3D System RELEASE

(00:27:29) (INFO) Root::ReleaseObjects()

[EXCEPTION] 0x00495607 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (The thread attempted to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.)
[EXCEPTION] [INFO] Memory Usage = 38.121094 Mb
[EXCEPTION] [INFO] heapchk return = -2 HEAP Ok


dxdiag.txt:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics (8 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DirectX Database Version: 1.0.8
DxDiag Version: 10.00.19041.0928 64bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) RX Vega 11 Graphics
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x15D8)
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_15D8&SUBSYS_15D81002&REV_C8
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
Driver Version: 27.20.1034.6
DDI Version: 12
Feature Levels: 12_1,12_0,11_1,11_0,10_1,10_0,9_3,9_2,9_1
Driver Model: WDDM 2.7
Hardware Scheduling: Supported:False Enabled:False
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported
Detachable GPU: No
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Integrated
Power P-states: Not Supported
Virtualization: Paravirtualization
Block List: DISABLE_HWSCH
Catalog Attributes: Universal:False Declarative:True
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 21.08.2020 01:00:00, 1959168 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: Unknown
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-5698-11CF-B473-D23173C2D635}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x15D8
SubSys ID: 0x15D81002
Revision ID: 0x00C8
Driver Strong Name: oem8.inf:cb0ae4141d06d1c3:ati2mtag_PicassoAM4:27.20.1034.6:PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_15D8&REV_C8
Rank Of Driver: 00CF2000
Video Accel: Unknown
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Not Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
MPO MaxPlanes: 2
MPO Caps: ROTATION,VERTICAL_FLIP,HORIZONTAL_FLIP,YUV,BILINEAR,STRETCH_YUV,HDR (MPO3)
MPO Stretch: 16.000X - 0.250X
MPO Media Hints: rotation, resizing, colorspace Conversion
MPO Formats: NV12,420_OPAQUE
PanelFitter Caps: ROTATION,VERTICAL_FLIP,HORIZONTAL_FLIP,YUV,BILINEAR,STRETCH_YUV,HDR (MPO3)
PanelFitter Stretch: 16.000X - 0.250X
Component Drivers:
Driver Name: Unknown
Driver Version: Unknown
Driver Date: Unknown
Driver Provider: Unknown
Catalog Attributes: N/A

Analysesymbol:
Es wird erneut nach einer Lösung gesucht: 0
Berichtstatus: 268435456
CAB-Datei-Guid: 0
+++ WER9 +++:
Fehlerbucket , Typ 0
Ereignisname: APPCRASH
Antwort: Nicht verfügbar
CAB-Datei-ID: 0

Problemsignatur:
P1: sw3cw.exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: 4b9bc98d
P4: sw3cw.exe
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 4b9bc98d
P7: c0000005
P8: 00095607
P9:
P10:

I vaguely seem to remember it could be solved by using Win XP or another compatiblity for the executable.

Alternatively you could also try dgVoodoo 2.

http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/

Thanks. I tried all compat modes, no help. Same for the settings below the compat modes.
I cued dgvoodoo2 for next year. I'll try to restore my old Win7 backup to compare the settings before.

Meanwhile i re-install DX9 as per Support Pages without any changes. The DX feature level list is the same and the cant create D3Ddevice9 is still there.



edit 21.12.2021:
I bought Star Wolves 1 because it was on sale now and SW1 does run with this log information:
(INFO) Root::InitObjects()
(INFO) Init texture manager
Init Mesh manager
Init material manager
(INFO) Root::InitObjects() OK
(INFO) Game::InitApplication()
(INFO) STARTED 3D system INIT
(INFO) <Used HAL device>
(INFO) Primary surface format: PIXELFORMAT_XRGB_8888
(INFO) Primary surface dimension: 1280 x 1024
(INFO) Set texture default format to: PIXELFORMAT_RGB_888, PIXELFORMAT_ARGB_8888
(INFO) Z-Buffer with PIXELFORMAT_Z24X8 created
(INFO) Direct3DDevice9->SetViewport ok.
(INFO) Alpha-Testing State enabled
(INFO) Hard MaxActiveLights = 10
(INFO) Used MaxActiveLights = 10
(INFO) ALPHABLEND= source: 0x3FFF, dest: 0x3FFF
(INFO) TEXTUREFILTER= 0x7030700

(INFO) COMPLETE 3D System INIT

added 06.02.2022:
as i said i did install the dx jun2010 from the gog support site and i followed the next step with the dx web installer. This did not help in mid dec 2021.

Meanwhile i received other hints that didn't (no offence, thanks for the try) work. The latest hint went to the ms page of
https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=8109 which does look like the same dx jun2010 package that i already installed from the gog support page. And yeah, SW3 does run now! But i don't know why. I have no idea if all steps i did are required or if the ms dx jun2010 is responsible alone.

I can tell for sure that the gog version differs from the ms version:
100273008 Feb 6 21:37 Directx_Jun2010_redist_gog.exe
100275120 Feb 6 20:55 directx_Jun2010_redist_ms.exe

I can tell for sure that the file is not static because i found an old one on of my WinXP basics CD:
100271992 Apr 18 2011 directx_Jun2010_redist_old.exe