What to do if Dark Souls does not start. Dark Souls won't launch? Is the game slow? Crashes? Buggy? Solving the most common problems. Running Dark Souls as Administrator

The game Dark Souls 3 was one of the most anticipated for players all over the world. Gamers were looking forward to its appearance on the shelves of online stores. However, some were disappointed - Dark Souls 3 won't start. Many owners have encountered this problem. weak computers. 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 a version that worked stably. Owners of Nvidia video cards should install version 314 of drivers. It was released to optimize the performance of the Bioshock game. Many players note that after installing version 314, crashes stop and the application begins to work stably. Installing these drivers will also protect you from lags that may occur while exploring the world of Dark Souls 3 for owners of weak machines.

Freeing up RAM

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

Changing full screen mode to windowed mode

If a player sees a black screen upon startup, then most likely their system does not comply minimum requirements. However, going from full screen to windowed mode may help solve this problem.

Verifying the integrity of the application installation

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

Updating the Directx library to the latest version

When thinking about how to launch a game, the first thing a gamer should do is update the Directx library. Missing one or more files may cause startup problems. For the application to work properly, it is necessary that at least version 11 of Directx 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 encountered the problem of Dark Souls 3 won't launch. Next, we propose to consider the most common problems and ways 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. Failure to meet the basic parameters required for the application to work will make it impossible to launch Dark Souls 3.

Invalid file name

There are versions of the product that treat the Cyrillic alphabet 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

A startup error may occur when software The computer is outdated and requires an upgrade. 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.

It is best to download all of these utilities from the official website of Microsoft and device manufacturers. Installing the latest software will help solve the problem of why Dark Souls 3 does not start.

Working with the operating system

Sometimes startup problems can be solved without the help of the Internet. To do this you need to click right click mouse on the game shortcut by selecting “Properties”. In the menu that opens, find the line “compatibility mode”, where we put a checkmark next to the WinXP (service pack 3) or windows 7 values. It is also recommended to run the application as an administrator. Following this algorithm will help the user forget about what to do if their favorite game crashes.

Use of unlicensed products

Developers computer video games interested in receiving maximum profit, so they create viruses and interfere with the comfortable use of free content. Then how to run a pirated version of the game? The solution is obvious - look for a better repack or wait for a complete hack.

Cleaning up your 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:

• Disk and registry fragmentation.
• Cache integrity.
• Presence of viruses.
• Traces of improper use of programs.

Dark and Light became available in Early Steam access and players have already begun to complain about a bunch of various errors and bugs that literally make the project unplayable. Game of this moment is 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 20th into Early Access. This was done so that developers could directly interact with players and improve their project according to their preferences.

Players claim that the most common problem with Dark and Light is terrible performance, which manifests itself in low frame rates and image stuttering, which, of course, is entirely due to terrible optimization. Another one common problem is a loading-time bug where players try to join a server and have to wait a huge amount of time to join it. Here is a list of common problems:

• Performance issues
• Stuck loading bug
• The game won't start
• Bug when creating a character

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

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

• 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: 10 version
• Free space: 50 GB disk space

Problem Solving Techniques 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 problems described above.

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

Here's what one player on the Steam forums said about this issue:

Tried to play this game, after the menu, selecting a server or single player, Dark and Light begins to load, which depicts a dragon moving its wings. This download takes quite a long time and it looks like it won't finish.

Solution: some players indicated that this problem is based on high employment game servers. Simply put, they are packed with people and there is no more room, so the loading screen is something of a queue. However, there is still something you can do - close Dark and Light and Steam, and then log into 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 yet performed any stress tests, we were not able to determine the exact figure. We will count on a hundred players per official server, but we will use the Early Access period to determine the ideal server capacity and build from there.

Low FPS in Dark and Light

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

You 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 encounter any FPS drops, this can only be treated with brute force, i.e. increasing system power.

However, you can still do this - add a line to the game launch parameters 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 on the “Set launch options...” button.
• Write in line USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 –novsync and save the changes.

Dark and Light won't start

For some players, Dark and Light may not launch at all. The game process 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 of course is unacceptable, but what you can do is Early Access and such things are not unusual. Try running Dark and Light and give it time, as it is most likely in the process of starting up.

Bug when creating a character in Dark and Light

In addition to all the above problems, Dark and Light also has a character creation bug. 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. The developers will definitely have to fix the character creation bug quite quickly, since this part of the game is a very important stage in the MMO.

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Materials

As you know, Dark souls was ported a little crookedly from consoles and the PC version of the game is not particularly pleasing. Mainly the game has problems with controls and stability. For some players, the game crashes and does not start. Let's look at why this happens and how to deal with it.

Why does Dark souls crash or not start?

1. One of possible reasons The reason why Dark souls does not start or crashes is the incompatibility of the game at the software level. Some people find it helpful to restore the game’s functionality by installing fan-made Dark Souls patches and fixes. It may be hard to believe, but with them the game works much better, + many different features and settings have been added that are not in the original PC release of the game.

2. Your video card and DirectX drivers may be outdated. Or perhaps not. There are games that use certain DirectX libraries, which are usually included in the set of additional software for the game that comes on the disk with the game, or should come with the build. It's trivial, but you can update the drivers for your video card and DirectX. Maybe this will help you.

3. The problem with many games, not only this one, is that some of their assemblies do not support the Russian language on the path to the folder where the game is installed. Check how you are doing with this. For example, it is undesirable for the game to be in the folder C:/Games/Dark Souls, it would be much better in this version: C:/Games/Dark Souls

If none of the above methods help, then the problem lies in the compatibility of the game build with your PC, you can try running the game in compatibility mode, or as an administrator.

The Dark Souls game crashes into the menu, namely when entering the settings

Due to problems with graphics transmission, it’s not strange that such a crash occurs. Try changing the screen frequency in the settings Windows screen. Some people experienced this when they lost several files from the game folder. Check their integrity.

Dark Souls game crashes when connecting a gamepad

Again, the conflict between the game and the game controller is resolved by installing and using the Xbox 360 program. This problem occurs if you are using a PS-like gamepad.

Dark Souls game crashes immediately upon launch on the start screen

The reason for this is mainly the simultaneous operation of programs of different bit sizes: 32 and 64. Accordingly, this problem arises on 64-bit operating systems. Close all unnecessary programs and try again.

Can't create a character in Dark Souls

This item occurs due to the inattention of players when creating a character, check, most likely you have not filled in all the data about the character.

Dark Souls game freezes when loading game level

This often happens to those who run the game either from a flash drive or from an external hard drive, or from a hard drive with a low data transfer speed. If you are running not from a flash drive or an external hard drive, but from a regular internal HDD, defragment it, and then start again.

Unfortunately, games have flaws: stutters, low FPS, crashes, freezes, bugs and other minor and not so minor errors. Often problems begin even before the game starts, when it does not install, does not load, or does not even download. And the computer itself sometimes does weird things, and then in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition Instead of a picture there is a black screen, the controls do not work, there is no sound or anything else.

What to do first

1. Download and run the world famous CCleaner(download via direct link) - this 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 on 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 via direct link) and include it in it Game Mode, which will end useless background processes while running games and improve in-game performance.

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 before purchasing, so as not to regret the money spent.

Minimum system Dark requirements Souls: Prepare To Die Edition:

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 have at least a little understanding of components, 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.

You should start with the drivers for your video card. Modern graphic cards are produced only by two large companies - Nvidia and AMD. Having found out which product drives the coolers in the system unit, we go to the official website and download the latest driver package:

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 download easily and quickly latest versions 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 putting the game in antivirus exceptions, and also check compliance again system requirements and if something from your assembly does not correspond, then, if possible, improve your PC 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 divided into 2 categories.

Firstly, they often involve using 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 launch for the first time on the built-in one, but you will not see the game itself, because the monitor is connected to a discrete video card.

Secondly, color screens occur when there are problems with displaying images 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 the video card. Also black/ White screen may be displayed when running at resolutions that are not supported by the game.

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

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

If the departure occurs in random moment time without any pattern, then with a 99% probability we can say that this is a mistake in the game itself. In this case, it is very difficult to fix something, and the best thing to do is 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. In addition, you can download the Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition save and bypass the departure location.

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

The situation is approximately 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, often a frozen picture can 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 programs to display statistics on component loading. 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 load and temperatures for the video card and processors is in the MSI Afterburner program. If you wish, you can even display these and many other parameters on top of the Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition picture.

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

If the video card is heating up, then you should use a driver or an official utility from the manufacturer. It is necessary to increase the number of revolutions of the coolers and check whether the operating temperature decreases.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition is slow. Low FPS. Frame rate drops. Solution

If there are slowdowns and low frame rates in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, the first thing to do is lower the graphics settings. Of course, there are many of them, so before reducing everything, it’s worth finding out exactly how certain settings affect performance.

Screen resolution. In short, this is the number of points that make up the game picture. The higher the resolution, the higher the load on the video card. However, the increase in load is insignificant, so you should reduce the screen resolution only as a last resort, when everything else no longer helps.

Texture quality. Typically, this setting determines the resolution of texture files. The texture quality should be reduced 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 detailing). 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 from the video card (not to be confused with the amount of video memory!), which means this parameter should be reduced on video cards with low core or memory frequencies.

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

Often developers add additional settings related to shadows:

• Shadow Resolution - Determines how detailed the shadow cast by an object will be. If the game has dynamic shadows, it loads the video card core, and if a pre-created render is used, then it “eats” the video memory.
• Soft shadows - smoothing out unevenness in 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 on the edges of objects through the use of a special algorithm, the essence of which usually comes down to generating several images at once and comparing them, calculating the most “smooth” picture. 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 like FXAA and TAA work a little differently, achieving a smooth image by calculating only the edges and using some other tricks. Thanks to this, they do not reduce performance as much.

Lighting. As with anti-aliasing, there are different algorithms for lighting effects: SSAO, HBAO, HDAO. They all use video card resources, 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 “green” ones. HDAO, on the contrary, is optimized for video cards from AMD. SSAO is the simplest type of lighting; it consumes the least resources, so if it's slow in Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, it's worth switching to it.

What to reduce first? Shadows, anti-aliasing and lighting effects tend to take the most work, so these are the best places to start.

Gamers often have to optimize Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition themselves. Almost all major releases have various related 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 their computer of various temporary files, delete unnecessary registry entries and edit the startup list. Advanced System Optimizer does this for you and also analyzes your computer to find ways to improve performance in apps and games.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition lags. Large delay when playing. Solution

Many people confuse “brakes” with “lags,” 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 occur 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 happens least often. In online games, communication between client and server occurs through the exchange of relatively short messages, so even 10 MB per second should be enough.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition has no sound. 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 this, but it’s still better to figure out what’s going on.

First you need to determine the scale of the problem. Where exactly is there no sound - only in the game or even on the computer? If only in a 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 problem is definitely in the computer settings. Drivers may not be installed correctly sound card, or maybe there is no sound due to some specific error in our beloved Windows OS.

Controls are 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? Problems with supporting specific devices are inappropriate here, because we are talking about familiar devices - a keyboard, mouse and controller.

Thus, errors in the game itself are practically excluded; the problem is almost always on the user's side. You can solve it in different ways, but, one way or another, you will have to contact 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 incompatible with them.

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

If you don’t want to search 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, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition brakes can be caused by viruses. In this case, it makes no difference how powerful the video card is in the system unit. You can scan your computer and clean it of viruses and other unwanted software using special programs. For example NOD32. The antivirus has proven itself to be the best and has been approved by millions of users around the world.

ZoneAlarm is suitable for both personal use and small businesses, capable of protecting your computer with operating system Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP from any attacks: 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 security development. Versions of anti-virus programs are available on the developer’s website for both PCs and mobile devices; a 30-day trial version is provided. There are special conditions for business.

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

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

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

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

Therefore, if any problems arise with games downloaded from torrents or hacked using one or another means, you should immediately remove the pirated version, clean your computer with an antivirus and a licensed copy of the game. This will not only protect you from dubious software, but will 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 missing DLLs arise when launching Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, but sometimes the game can access certain DLLs during the process and, not finding them, crash in the most blatant 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 using the program DLL-fixer, which scans the system and helps quickly find missing libraries.

If your problem turns out to be more specific or the method outlined in this article did not help, then you can ask other users in our “” section. They will help you quickly!

Thank you for your attention!