Dark Souls won't launch? Game slows down? Flies out? Glitchy? Solving the most common problems. Dark souls crashes

The game Dark Souls 3 was one of the most anticipated for players around the world. Gamers were looking forward to the moment of its appearance on the shelves of online stores. However, some were disappointed Dark Souls 3 won't launch. Many owners of weak computers faced this problem. However, it can be solved. There are several ways to fix the problem.

Software update

If Dark Souls 3 crashes on startup, you need to update your video card drivers. If the latest released drivers are already installed on the user's computer, then it is necessary to roll back to the version that worked stably. Owners of Nvidia video cards should install version 314 of the drivers. It was released to optimize the performance of Bioshock. Many players note that after installing the 314 version, the crashes stop and the application starts to work stably. Installing these drivers will also protect you from lags that may occur in the process of exploring the world of Dark Souls 3 with owners of weak machines.

Freeing up RAM

Before starting Dark Souls 3, you should close all applications that consume RAM. The game must be run as administrator in compatibility mode.

Change from full screen to windowed

If a player sees a black screen at startup, then most likely his system does not meet the minimum requirements. However, switching from full screen to windowed mode can help resolve this issue.

Checking the integrity of the application installation

Why won't Dark Souls 3 launch? One of the reasons may be the lack of system files. The fact is that during installation, the antivirus can take the game files for malware and block them. This will cause an error to appear on startup. Reinstalling the game may solve the problem. However, before starting it, you must temporarily disable the computer's security system.

Updating the Directx library to the latest version

After thinking about how to run the game, the first thing a gamer should do is update the Directx library. Missing one or more files can cause launch problems. For normal operation of the application, at least version 11 of Directx must be installed on the user's computer. Updating the library will help solve the problem and understand what to do if it crashes.

Purchasing a new product for a PC platform is only half the battle. After purchasing the game, many users faced the problem of Dark Souls 3 won't launch. Let's take a look at the most common problems and how to solve them.

Weak computer

If Dark Souls 3 crashes on startup with a white or black screen, you need to check the minimum system requirements. Inconsistency with the basic parameters necessary for the application to work makes it impossible to launch Dark Souls 3.

Invalid file name

There are versions of the product that treat Cyrillic as invalid characters. Make sure that there are no Russian letters on the path to the game directory, the full location address consists only of English words.

Outdated Software

An error at startup may occur when the computer software is obsolete and an upgrade is required. It is recommended to pay attention to the following utilities:

1. DirectX.
2. Visual C++ 2010.
3. netframework.
4. Graphics adapter drivers (nvidia or AtiRadeon).
5. sound devices.
6. Network adapters.

All these utilities are best downloaded from the official Microsoft website and device manufacturers. Installing the latest software will help solve the question of why Dark Souls 3 does not start.

Working with the operating system

Sometimes launch problems are solved without the help of the Internet. To do this, right-click on the game shortcut, selecting "Properties". In the menu that opens, we find the line "compatibility mode", where we put a tick in front of the WinXP (service pack 3) or windows 7 values. It is also recommended to run the application as an administrator. Compliance with this algorithm will help the user forget about what to do if their favorite game crashes.

Use of unlicensed products

Developers of computer video games are interested in getting the maximum profit, so they create viruses that prevent the comfortable use of free content. Then how to launch a pirated version of the game? The solution is obvious - look for a better repack or expect a complete hack.

Cleaning up the PC environment

There are cases when junk components clog up the PC so much that Dark Souls 3 does not start. With the support of specialized software, we suggest checking the following system partitions:

• Fragmentation of the disk and registries.
• cache integrity.
• The presence of viruses.
• Traces of misuse of programs.

Dark and Light has become available in Steam Early Access and players have already begun to complain about a bunch of various errors and bugs that literally make the project unplayable. The game is currently rather poorly optimized, and on the very first day of release it managed to collect about a thousand negative reviews, all thanks to numerous technical problems.

This massive sandbox RPG has been in development for several years and was released on July 20 in Early Access. This was done so that developers could directly interact with the players and improve their project according to their preferences.

Players claim that the most common problem in Dark and Light is terrible performance, which is expressed in low frame rates and image jerks, which, of course, is all about disgusting optimization. Another common problem is a load-time bug where players try to join a server and have to wait a huge amount of time to get into it. Here is a list of the most common problems:

• Performance Issues
• Load stuck bug
• Game won't start
• Bug when creating a character

If you are facing one of the above problems, then you have come to the right place, as this Dark and Light guide will show you how to solve all these problems. However, before we move on to the solutions, let's take a look at the system requirements for Dark and Light, as your problems may be due to not meeting them.

• Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K
• RAM: 8 GB RAM
• Video Card: GeForce GTX 960 or higher
• DirectX: version 10

• OS: 64-Bit Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8 or Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i7-5820k 6x 3.3 GHz
• RAM: 16 GB RAM
• Video Card: GeForce GTX 1070 or higher
• DirectX: version 10
• Free space: 50 GB disk space

Problem Solving Methods for Dark and Light

If your computer meets the system requirements, then let's move on to the most important thing in this article - methods for solving the above problems.

It appears that some players are experiencing an infinite loading screen while trying to join a server or trying to play single player.

Here is what one of the players on the Steam forums had to say about this issue:

I tried to play this game, after menu, server selection or single player, Dark and Light starts to load, which shows a dragon moving its wings. This download takes quite a long time and doesn't seem to finish.

Solution: some players indicated that this problem is based on the high occupancy of the game servers. Simply put, they are full of people and there is no more space, so the loading screen is something like a queue. However, you can still do something - close Dark and Light and Steam, and then enter the game again. It also became clear that the developers themselves do not yet know the maximum capacity of their server:

What is the maximum server capacity? Due to the fact that we have not done any stress tests yet, we have not been able to determine the exact figure. We'll be targeting 100 players on the official server, but we'll be using the Early Access period to determine our ideal server capacity and build on that.

Low FPS in Dark and Light

The developers said that to play their MMO project, you have to have a really powerful system. However, system builds such as i5 + 960 GTX + 8GB RAM can handle Dark and Light at low or medium settings.

We must still understand that the game is still at the Early Access stage and some problems with optimization are quite expected problems. Unfortunately, if you are faced with some FPS drawdowns, then this is treated only by brute force, i.e. increase in system power.

However, you can still do this - write a line in the launch options of the game on Steam, which should slightly increase the performance of Dark and Light. To write this command, do the following:

• Open the Steam client.
• Go to your game library.
• Find Dark and Light there.
• Right click on it and go to "Properties".
• Go to the "General" tab.
• Click the "Set Launch Options..." button.
• Enter in line USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 –novsync and save your changes.

Dark and Light won't start

For some players, Dark and Light may not start at all. The process with the game starts, which can be observed through the Task Manager, but nothing happens. It's hard to believe, but the solution is to simply wait for Dark and Light to launch.

Some players have to wait literally ten minutes, which is of course unacceptable, but what you can do is Early Access and such things are not unusual. Try launching Dark and Light and give it time as it is most likely in the process of launching.

Bug when creating a character in Dark and Light

In addition to all the above problems, Dark and Light also has a bug when creating a character. No matter how much you turn the various sliders in the character settings, the model you need will not appear. Various graphical artifacts may also appear on the character creation screen.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this problem, at least at the moment. Developers will definitely have to fix the character creation bug pretty quickly, since this part of the game is a very important stage in an MMO.

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Unfortunately, there are flaws in games: brakes, low FPS, crashes, freezes, bugs and other minor and not very errors. Often problems begin before the game even starts, when it won't install, won't load, or won't even download. Yes, and the computer itself is sometimes weird, and then in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, instead of a picture, a black screen, control does not work, no sound is heard or anything else.

What to do first

1. Download and run the world famous CCleaner(download from a direct link) is a program that will clean your computer of unnecessary garbage, as a result of which the system will work faster after the first reboot;
2. Update all drivers in the system using the program Driver Updater(download via direct link) - it will scan your computer and update all drivers to the latest version in 5 minutes;
3. Install Advanced System Optimizer(download from a direct link) and turn on the game mode in it, which will end useless background processes during game launch and increase performance in the game.

The second thing to do if you encounter any problems with Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition is to check the system requirements. In a good way, you need to do this even before the purchase, so as not to regret the money spent.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition minimum system requirements:

Windows XP, Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM, 4 Gb HDD, Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video memory: 512 Mb

Every gamer should at least have a little understanding of the components, to know why a video card, processor and other things are needed in the system unit.

Files, drivers and libraries

Almost every device in a computer requires a set of special software. These are drivers, libraries and other files that ensure the correct operation of the computer.

It's worth starting with the drivers for the video card. Modern graphics cards are produced by only two large companies - Nvidia and AMD. Having found out which product spins the coolers in the system unit, we go to the official website and download the package of fresh drivers:

A prerequisite for the successful functioning of Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition is the availability of the latest drivers for all devices in the system. Download the utility Driver Updater to easily and quickly download the latest drivers and install them with one click:

If Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition does not start, we recommend that you try disabling your antivirus or put the game in the antivirus exceptions, and also check the system requirements again and if something from your build does not match, then improve your PC if possible by purchasing more powerful components.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition has black screen, white screen, color screen. Solution

Problems with screens of different colors can be roughly divided into 2 categories.

Firstly, they are often associated with the use of two video cards at once. For example, if your motherboard has a built-in video card, but you play on a discrete one, then Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition may run on the built-in one for the first time, while you will not see the game itself, because the monitor is connected to a discrete video card.

Secondly, color screens happen when there are problems with displaying the image on the screen. This can happen for various reasons. For example, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition cannot work through an outdated driver or does not support a video card. Also, a black / white screen may be displayed when working at resolutions that are not supported by the game.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition crashes. At a certain or random moment. Solution

You play for yourself, play and here - bam! - everything goes out, and now you have a desktop without any hint of the game. Why is this happening? To solve the problem, it is worth trying to figure out what the nature of the problem is.

If the crash occurs at a random point in time without any pattern, then with a probability of 99% we can say that this is a mistake of the game itself. In this case, it is very difficult to fix something, and it is best to just put Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition aside and wait for the patch.

However, if you know exactly at what moments the crash occurs, then you can continue the game, avoiding situations that provoke a crash.

However, if you know exactly at what moments the crash occurs, then you can continue the game, avoiding situations that provoke a crash. Alternatively, you can download a Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition save and bypass the departure point.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition freezes. The picture freezes. Solution

The situation is about the same as with crashes: many freezes are directly related to the game itself, or rather, to the developer's mistake when creating it. However, a frozen picture can often become a starting point for investigating the deplorable state of a video card or processor.

So if the picture in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition freezes, then use the programs to display statistics on the loading of components. Perhaps your video card has long exhausted its working life or the processor is heating up to dangerous temperatures?

The easiest way to check the loading and temperatures for the video card and processors is in the MSI Afterburner program. If desired, you can even display these and many other parameters on top of the Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition image.

What temperatures are dangerous? Processors and video cards have different operating temperatures. For video cards, they are usually 60-80 degrees Celsius. The processors are slightly lower - 40-70 degrees. If the processor temperature is higher, then you should check the condition of the thermal paste. It may have dried out and needs to be replaced.

If the video card is heating up, then you should use the driver or the official utility from the manufacturer. You need to increase the number of revolutions of the coolers and see if the operating temperature drops.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition slows down. Low FPS. Frame rate drops. Solution

With slowdowns and low frame rates in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, the first step is to lower the graphics settings. Of course, there are a lot of them, so before reducing everything in a row, you should find out exactly how certain settings affect performance.

Screen resolution. In short, this is the number of points that make up the picture of the game. The higher the resolution, the higher the load on the video card. However, the increase in load is negligible, so reducing the screen resolution should only be the last resort, when everything else does not help.

Texture quality. Typically, this setting determines the resolution of texture files. Decrease the quality of textures if the video card has a small amount of video memory (less than 4 GB) or if you are using a very old hard drive with a spindle speed of less than 7200.

Model quality(sometimes just details). This setting determines which set of 3D models will be used in the game. The higher the quality, the more polygons. Accordingly, high-poly models require more processing power of the video card (not to be confused with the amount of video memory!), which means that this parameter should be reduced on video cards with a low core or memory frequency.

Shadows. They are implemented in different ways. In some games, shadows are created dynamically, that is, they are calculated in real time every second of the game. Such dynamic shadows load both the processor and the video card. In order to optimize, developers often abandon the full rendering and add a pre-render of shadows to the game. They are static, because in fact they are just textures that are superimposed on top of the main textures, which means they load memory, and not the core of the video card.

Often, developers add additional settings related to shadows:

• Shadow Resolution - determines how detailed the shadow cast by the object will be. If the game has dynamic shadows, then it loads the core of the video card, and if a pre-created render is used, then it “eats” the video memory.
• Soft shadows - smoothing out bumps on the shadows themselves, usually this option is given along with dynamic shadows. Regardless of the type of shadows, it loads the video card in real time.

Smoothing. Allows you to get rid of ugly corners at the edges of objects by using a special algorithm, the essence of which is usually to generate several images at once and compare them, calculating the most “smooth” image. There are many different anti-aliasing algorithms that differ in their level of impact on the performance of Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition.

For example, MSAA works head-on, creating 2, 4, or 8 renders at once, so the frame rate is reduced by 2, 4, or 8 times, respectively. Algorithms such as FXAA and TAA operate a little differently, achieving a smooth image by calculating only the edges and using some other tricks. Because of this, they do not reduce performance as much.

Lighting. As in the case of anti-aliasing, there are different algorithms for lighting effects: SSAO, HBAO, HDAO. All of them use the resources of the video card, but they do it differently depending on the video card itself. The fact is that the HBAO algorithm was promoted mainly on video cards from Nvidia (GeForce line), so it works best on the “green” ones. HDAO, on the other hand, is optimized for AMD graphics cards. SSAO is the simplest type of lighting, it consumes the least resources, so in case of slowdowns in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, it is worth switching to it.

What should be lowered first? Shadows, anti-aliasing, and lighting effects are usually the most stressful, so it's best to start with them.

Often gamers themselves have to deal with the optimization of Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition. For almost all major releases, there are various related and forums where users share their ways to improve productivity.

One of them is a special program called Advanced System Optimizer. It is made specifically for those who do not want to manually clean up the computer from various temporary files, delete unnecessary registry entries and edit the startup list. Advanced System Optimizer will do this on its own and will also analyze your computer to find out how you can improve performance in applications and games.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition lags. Big game delay. Solution

Many people confuse "lag" with "lag", but these problems have completely different causes. Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition slows down when the frame rate at which the image is displayed on the monitor decreases, and lags when the delay when accessing the server or any other host is too high.

That is why "lags" can only be in network games. The reasons are different: bad network code, physical distance from servers, network congestion, incorrectly configured router, low Internet connection speed.

However, the latter is the least common. In online games, communication between the client and the server occurs by exchanging relatively short messages, so even 10 MB per second should be enough for the eyes.

There is no sound in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition. I can not hear anything. Solution

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition works, but for some reason it doesn't sound - this is another problem that gamers face. Of course, you can play like that, but it's still better to figure out what's the matter.

First you need to determine the scope of the problem. Where exactly is there no sound - only in the game or in general on the computer? If only in the game, then perhaps this is due to the fact that the sound card is very old and does not support DirectX.

If there is no sound at all, then the matter is definitely in the computer settings. Perhaps the sound card drivers are not installed correctly, or maybe there is no sound due to some specific error of our favorite Windows OS.

Controls not working in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition. Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition does not recognize the mouse, keyboard or gamepad. Solution

How to play if it is impossible to control the process? The problems of supporting specific devices are out of place here, because we are talking about familiar devices - keyboard, mouse and controller.

Thus, errors in the game itself are practically excluded, almost always the problem is on the user's side. You can solve it in different ways, but, one way or another, you will have to turn to the driver. Usually, when you connect a new device, the operating system immediately tries to use one of the standard drivers, but some models of keyboards, mice, and gamepads are not compatible with them.

Thus, you need to find out the exact model of the device and try to find exactly its driver. Often, devices from well-known gaming brands come with their own software kits, since the standard Windows driver simply cannot ensure the correct operation of all the functions of a particular device.

If you don’t want to look for drivers for all devices separately, you can use the program Driver Updater. It is designed to automatically search for drivers, so you only need to wait for the scan results and download the necessary drivers in the program interface.

Often the brakes in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition can be caused by viruses. In this case, there is no difference how powerful the video card is in the system unit. You can check your computer and clean it of viruses and other unwanted software using special programs. For example NOD32 . The antivirus has proven itself from the best side and has received the approval of millions of users around the world.

Suitable for both personal use and small businesses, ZoneAlarm is able to protect a computer running Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP from any attack: phishing, viruses, malware, spyware and other cyber threats . New users are given a 30-day free trial.

Nod32 is an antivirus from ESET, which has received many awards for its contribution to the development of security. Versions of anti-virus programs for both PC and mobile devices are available on the developer's website, a 30-day trial version is provided. There are special conditions for business.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition downloaded from torrent does not work. Solution

If the distribution kit of the game was downloaded via a torrent, then in principle there can be no guarantees of work. Torrents and repacks are almost never updated through official applications and do not work over the network, because in the course of hacking, hackers cut out all network functions from games, which are often used to check the license.

Using such versions of games is not only inconvenient, but even dangerous, because very often many files have been changed in them. For example, to bypass protection, pirates modify an EXE file. However, no one knows what else they do with it. Maybe they embed self-executing software. For example, which, when the game is first launched, will be integrated into the system and will use its resources to ensure the well-being of hackers. Or, giving access to the computer to third parties. There are no guarantees, and there cannot be.

In addition, the use of pirated versions is, according to our publication, theft. The developers have spent a lot of time creating the game, investing their own money in the hope that their offspring will pay off. And every work must be paid.

Therefore, if you encounter any problems with games downloaded from torrents or hacked with the help of various means, you should immediately remove the “pirate”, clean your computer with an antivirus and a licensed copy of the game. This will not only save you from dubious software, but also allow you to download updates for the game and receive official support from its creators.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition gives an error about a missing DLL file. Solution

As a rule, problems associated with the absence of DLLs arise when starting Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, however, sometimes the game can access certain DLLs in the process and, without finding them, crash in the most brazen manner.

To fix this error, you need to find the required DLL and install it on the system. The easiest way to do this is with a program. DLL fixer, which scans the system and helps you quickly find missing libraries.

If your problem turned out to be more specific, or if the method described in this article did not help, then you can ask other users in our "" section. They will promptly help you!

We thank you for your attention!