I've been playing EU4 and other Paradox games for a few years now, and have never had this issue up until today.
The first error came up when I tried to open EU4, as normal. An error came up saying "the graphics card detected does not support shader model 3.0". After hanging for a bit, this was followed by another error message that said "Failed to create graphics device. Exiting eu4".
I stopped EU4 using Task Manager and restarted my computer.
I then tried opening EU4 up again. Now no error appeared, but I couldn't open the program. It shows up on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, and I can hear music, but when I click on the icon on the taskbar or try to alt-tab into the program, the game doesn't show. Occasionally, the custom cursor that EU4 has appears instead of the standard Windows cursor. It shows up as "Not responding" on Task Manager.
I tried using Windowless Fullscreen. This allowed me to open the game. However, when I'm in the nation selection section, and move around the map, it's really jagged and lags a lot - to the extent that the game is unplayable. This issue continues when I'm in the game itself. This suggests to me that the issue isn't related to the simulation engine (because the issue occurs even before the game starts).
I thought that it might be trying to use the integrated graphics, rather than the GPU. However, in Task Manager, it shows up as using GPU at ~35% usage.
I next updated the GPU driver, going directly to the Nvidia website. This didn't fix the issue.
I next tried a clean re-install of EU4. This didn't fix the issue.
I also tried using HOI4. There was some lag when I moved the screen around, but it looked pretty normal to me.
I'm on a Windows 10 Asus Tuf laptop, with an NVidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU.
What diagnostics should I run to try to figure out the cause of the problem? I've attached the DxDiag.txt file.
Also, I have a hunch that the issue is related to a potential update on my computer. Before any of this, when I opened my computer, I noticed that the icons on my computer had been re-scaled from my preferred settings, suggesting that the graphics/monitor settings had been reset in the background by some update. Because of the timing, I think that this might be related.
One other thing that's unusual is that EU4 is showing up with a generic icon in the Taskbar, rather than showing with the normal icon (screenshot attached)
Note that I replicated the problem on a brand new game save on the most recent update, with no mods installed.
Finally, I actually tried to record the screen using OBS. While the issue did clearly appear to me when I was moving the screen around, the video that the OBS software captured didn't show the artifacts. I found this super weird - suggesting that the problem is something to do with my monitor...
The first error came up when I tried to open EU4, as normal. An error came up saying "the graphics card detected does not support shader model 3.0". After hanging for a bit, this was followed by another error message that said "Failed to create graphics device. Exiting eu4".
I stopped EU4 using Task Manager and restarted my computer.
I then tried opening EU4 up again. Now no error appeared, but I couldn't open the program. It shows up on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, and I can hear music, but when I click on the icon on the taskbar or try to alt-tab into the program, the game doesn't show. Occasionally, the custom cursor that EU4 has appears instead of the standard Windows cursor. It shows up as "Not responding" on Task Manager.
I tried using Windowless Fullscreen. This allowed me to open the game. However, when I'm in the nation selection section, and move around the map, it's really jagged and lags a lot - to the extent that the game is unplayable. This issue continues when I'm in the game itself. This suggests to me that the issue isn't related to the simulation engine (because the issue occurs even before the game starts).
I thought that it might be trying to use the integrated graphics, rather than the GPU. However, in Task Manager, it shows up as using GPU at ~35% usage.
I next updated the GPU driver, going directly to the Nvidia website. This didn't fix the issue.
I next tried a clean re-install of EU4. This didn't fix the issue.
I also tried using HOI4. There was some lag when I moved the screen around, but it looked pretty normal to me.
I'm on a Windows 10 Asus Tuf laptop, with an NVidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU.
What diagnostics should I run to try to figure out the cause of the problem? I've attached the DxDiag.txt file.
Also, I have a hunch that the issue is related to a potential update on my computer. Before any of this, when I opened my computer, I noticed that the icons on my computer had been re-scaled from my preferred settings, suggesting that the graphics/monitor settings had been reset in the background by some update. Because of the timing, I think that this might be related.
One other thing that's unusual is that EU4 is showing up with a generic icon in the Taskbar, rather than showing with the normal icon (screenshot attached)
Note that I replicated the problem on a brand new game save on the most recent update, with no mods installed.
Finally, I actually tried to record the screen using OBS. While the issue did clearly appear to me when I was moving the screen around, the video that the OBS software captured didn't show the artifacts. I found this super weird - suggesting that the problem is something to do with my monitor...
