Failed to create D3D Device while launching the game

mayplay · November 25, 2018, 2:18am

Hi,

I’m not sure this a is a Black Mesa problem or a Steam problem, but whatever, here is what happenned.

First launch yesterday, everything went well, the game started on a lower resolution in 4 : 3.

Then I went to set up everything in the video option, resolution (1366x768, instead of my native which is 1920x1080), played the game a moment, and still, everything went well.

When I came back today to play another round, I could not start the game because of this error : Failed to create D3D Device.

I’ve found out that if I wanted to start the game, I needed to start it with my native resolution (1920x1080) otherwise it gives me the same error.

The fix I’ve found it’s to set launch options with my native resolution : -w 1920 -h 1080

With that, it works.

Then, if I try to change the resolution back (in-game), then leave the game immediatly (without playing), then removing the launch option, I can start the game again without problem.

But if I play a little bit, then leave the game, then removing launch option, I won’t be able to start the game because of “Failed to create D3D Device”.

Well, I hope it’ll help some people while waiting on a fix. Oh ! And btw, this game ROCKS !!!

lexa2 · November 25, 2018, 2:19am

Specifying your hardware configuration (GPU, CPU, RAM) and software components versions (Wine or Windows XP/Vista/7/8, GPU driver version, data storage type - HDD or SSD) is a key point if you want somebody to give any viable advice on your problem.

From the info you had posted so far it seems that it is either (most probably) a GPU driver bug or a (less probable) bug in the Source engine. What’s about HL2, HL2:EP1, Portal, Portal 2, HL2:LC, L4D, L4D2 or TF2 - do they behave the same or not? You should at least try to test with HL2:LC, Portal, HL2:EP1, HL2:EP2 and Portal 2 as they all use slightly different version of the Source game engine (HL2:Lost Coast being oldest one and Portal 2 or TF2 being newest).

rony · November 25, 2018, 2:23am

i have the same error…

i have a Lenovo Thinkpad x220 with am SSD, 12GiB RAM.
My OS ist Windows 8.
The driver for the GPU ist up-to-date (the latest beta Driver)
DirectX ist the latest version

i have an second monitor via an USB-GPU on my notebook.

lexa2 · November 25, 2018, 2:23am

Next time try posting the exact vendor of the GPU you have inside your notebook to free people from having to google for your model to actually get all the required details. So, it seems that GPU is Intel GMA HD 3000 - which most probably is the cause of the problem. I.e. not the GPU per se (while it’s definitely too slow to provide a normal FPS level for BMS) but the GPU drivers failing to work properly. Most lilkely you’d get the same problems with other source-based games. Blame Intel for that (or, which is better, send them a bug-report).

rony · November 25, 2018, 2:23am

sorry for that…

no, all other source-engine games works perfectly…

i play Day of Defeat Source in 2560x1600@~50FPS - the HD3000 is quite powerfull

lexa2 · November 25, 2018, 2:23am

Depends on the definition of the “powerful”. It’s definitely better than Intel chips were at GMA9xx age but it is still way to slow to have a decent framerate in any of full-blown D3D9 SM2.0/3.0 based games. DoD is not a representative thing really - it’s optimized to be simple but quick WRT gfx. Same stands to TF2, CS: S and Co - developers of those games spend a lot of time making sure that there are no places in-game where FPS would drop down 2-3x due to some reasons. If you want to really get a peak on HD 3000 “powers” - try playing latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with settings maxed or Metro 2034 or Batman in DX10 mode :-).

Back to a “all other source-engine games works perfectly”: yet again be more specific. Which game exactly had you tried with the software/hardware config you have NOW (and not some time ago). Which steps had you took to make BMS misbehave not able to create a D3D device? Had you tried the same exact steps with “other source-based games”? If so - name those games, please (hint: there are a lot of different source-engine versions out in the wild, and this problem might only occur with 2007 SDK engine version). Next, had you tried the “-width -height” workaround? Had it worked for you?

rony · November 25, 2018, 2:26am

with “all other games” i mean - HL2, HL1 - Source, Counter Strike Source, Day of Defeat Source, Portal, Portal 2…

i click only on the play button, and the game starts - no workaround… just play

the same think with other steams games, but no source-engine.

i´ve treid the workaround with the resolution, dx level 8.1 etc…

u are right, when i try to play Metro or games like that, the GPU is unterpowerd, but i did not try to play one of these games , i try to play BMS

lexa2 · November 25, 2018, 2:26am

What about HL2: EP1, HL2:EP2 or TF2? HL: S, CS: S, DoD: S and Portal all use slightly older version of the engine compared to what is used in BMS. Reworked HL2 and especially Portal 2 use slightly fresher version of the engine. Even EP1 and EP2 use a bit different version of the engine compared to what is available in Source 2007 SDK but they are most closes to it so it’d be interesting to check how does they behave on your PC.

Am I right that your problem is like one OP had - the game started once and then it refuses to start displaying and D3D Device Creation Failed error?

You’re on a laptop, right? What about the fullscreen resolutions that are available to chose from in some idTech3-based game? Q3 or RtCW or OpenArena would be OK to check this. Then, had you tried to add “-window” or “-windowed” to the command line parameters of the BMS?
If not - try it. Then, here are other command line parameters sets you might want to try in order to get the game start:

-fullscreen -width <your native resolution width> -height <your native resolution height> 
-window -width 800 -height 600

Also you could try navigating to \steamapps\sourcemods\BMS\cfg and moving config.cfg out of that folder somewhere. Then, if you had ever tried “-dxlevel 81” or “-dxlevel 80” - add “-dxlevel 90” to the command line of the BMS and try starting up the game. If it would start - keep the resolution as is, quit it, remove “-dxlevel 90” and start it up once again. Report back your findings here so other people could benefit from the shared knowledge on this problem.