Installed giveaway version on GOG galaxy and it work fine for 20 minutes, i exited and when i tried get back in i got this message. Tried to run as admin, copy physx dll to venetic\bin\release folder and nothing works. Finally downloaded it to install offline and got same message again, any ideas?

UPDATE: Windows 10 64 bit
Ryzen 5 1600x
16 GB RAM
RX 580X 8GB

When i first started game i switched to 1980x1080 and it worked ok first 20 minutes until i quit, when i tried to launch game again this happened

Try updating your Visual C++ Runtime, that usually fixes these kinds of things.

32 bit (most likely the one you need): https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
64 bit (just in case): https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

Unfortunately, neither one works, but thanks for help anyway. Will try install it through GOG Galaxy one more time, just in case, shame really liked it at first

I have exactly same problem as you

Ok, I think I've fixed it.

1. Set the desired resolution and options (if you cannot do it because it already crash, ignore this step)

2. Go to your Documents/Venetica folder, and search for the "settings-user.ini" file. Open it and search for "max_light_count"

3. In my computer it was "max_light_count = " without a number. I edited the line and changed it to "max_light_count = 0". I saved the file and now the game runs. It seems when you save the options, this variable isn't saved correctly, so when the game reads this file it crash.

Odd. My game has the same exact missing variable and runs fine. Do you have an AMD graphics card like the OP? My rig and game configuration are similar to the OPs, except I have an Nvidia card. This could be a case of Nvidia handling a game flaw better than AMD.

EDIT - I can find shockingly little information online on what should be in that file and none at all about the specific light count setting. That doesn't appear to be a setting that is accessible through the in-game settings. I tried manually editing numbers from 0 all the way to 128 in that setting (by doubling: 2, 4, 8, 16, etc) and even commented the setting out of the file entirely, none made any noticeable visual difference in-game.

EDIT2 - I also noticed that the file comments indicate that FSAA can go as high as 8X, but the in-game settings only go as high as 4X. Manually setting it to 8X makes the game unstable and even looking at the settings menu in-game makes it lock up. They really messed up the settings options in this game.

No, I'm using Nvidia. But anyway I noticed something: even with my "fix" I need to run the game twice, the first time it never runs. The second time, it works as expected. And, I didn't notice nothing either while changing the light count line. In my case I tested few numbers from 0-10.

What I can 100% confirm is that if I remove that number, my game doesn't run :S

I have the same error, but it seems there is a problem with an autosave file. If it exists, the game crushes. And I have no idea how to disable creating this file.

Edit: It doesn´t start even if the autosave is deleted and only a normal save is there. I will have to finish it in one go without saving and turning off thet game. Any idea how to fix this please?