BATTLETECH - Game will not launch

[DarkCircuit]

One line summary of your issue
Game will not launch

What platform are you running the game on?
Steam

What operating system do you use?
Windows 11

Which version of the game are you running?
Latest

What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, Shadowhawk Pack, Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
I have recently installed the game for the first time and purchased the Season pass. The game gets to the Unity "advert" and then crashes to desktop. The error logs statet that it is trying to call an invalid memory address:

C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\dbghelp.dll:dbghelp.dll (00007FF85E940000), size: 2232320 (result: 0), SymType: '-deferred-', PDB: '', fileVersion: 10.0.22000.1

========== OUTPUTTING STACK TRACE ==================

ERROR: SymGetSymFromAddr64, GetLastError: 'Attempt to access invalid address.' (Address: 00007FFF8AB50E61)
0x00007FFF8AB50E61 (UnityPlayer) (function-name not available)
0x00007FFF8BBA5C8A (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BBFA291 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BBF7B50 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BBDDA00 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B542A5B (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC0E3F1 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC0DC67 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC11E0C (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC20BF7 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC0C54E (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8BC0B28E (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B56634B (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B2AE9DE (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B2AFA6C (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B2AEAF7 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B2AED5B (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B2AFF7B (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FFF8B352561 (UnityPlayer) UnityMain
0x00007FF8634755A0 (KERNEL32) BaseThreadInitThunk
0x00007FF864B0485B (ntdll) RtlUserThreadStart

========== END OF STACKTRACE ===========

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Launce the game

Attach DxDiag (PC), System Info log (Mac), or run sudo lshw -html > specs.html and uploaded specs.html (Linux)
File(s) attached

Attach Output Log
Windows: \Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\output_log.txt
Mac OS: Users >{name} > Library > Logs > Unity > Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/Player.log
File(s) attached

If the game crashed, please attach the crash file with the time stamp closest to the crash.
Windows: [Steam library folder]\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\DumpBox
For v.17 and beyond try here: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
OSX: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps > common > BattleTech > DumpBox
Linux: [Steam library folder]/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/DumpBox
File(s) attached

If a save game was loaded at the start of the game session, upload it. Please make sure to upload the save game with the timestamp closest to when you loaded it.
Windows:
Steam: [Steam installation folder]\userdata[SteamID]\637090\remote\C0\SGS1
GOG: 'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\50593543263669699\Storage\Shared\Files\C#\SGS#'
Vanilla:'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BattleTech\C#\SGS#'
OSX:
Steam: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > userdata > [SteamID] > 637090 > remote > C#> SGS#
GOG: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > GOG.com > Galaxy > Applications > 50593543263669699 > Storage > Shared > Files > C# > SGS#
Vanilla: Macintosh HD > Users > [username]> Library > Application Support > unity.Harebrained Schemes.BattleTech > C# > SGG#
Linux:
Steam: /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[steamID]/637090/remote/C#/SGS#
GOG: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
Vanilla: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
File(s) attached

Attach screenshot / video
File(s) attached

 

[AndrewT]

There's no clear cause for this crash in that log. Dxdiag shows the game crashing in a few different places, which is not good - that tends to point to something outside the game!

If you run a Steam Verify operation against the game, does it find anything to fix?

You could try this Windows repair tool:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

And update that nVidia driver to the 2023 one.


If they all don't help, it's probably time to seek a refund from where you bought the game, sorry!

 

[DarkCircuit]

I fail to see why this wont run on a brand new, state of the art laptop. Its really quite strange! Is there another level of support where I can submit a ticket? There has to be a reason as to why it wont launch and its really frustrating that it wont.

 

[AndrewT]

I fail to see why this wont run on a brand new, state of the art laptop. Its really quite strange! Is there another level of support where I can submit a ticket? There has to be a reason as to why it wont launch and its really frustrating that it wont.

I'm the most experienced person still working on this game, I've been supporting it since release. I'm familiar with the common and known issues with the game.

Just because it is a new laptop does not mean it doesn't have problems, whether hardware or in Windows. As I say, it does not even have the latest nVidia driver installed.

Did you run the Verify operation I suggested? And the Windows repair tool?

 

[DarkCircuit]

I'm the most experienced person still working on this game, I've been supporting it since release. I'm familiar with the common and known issues with the game.

Just because it is a new laptop does not mean it doesn't have problems, whether hardware or in Windows. As I say, it does not even have the latest nVidia driver installed.

Did you run the Verify operation I suggested? And the Windows repair tool?

It now does have the latest driver installed. The driver should't effect how the game launches post boot. The game was running on everyone elses' devices with the "old driver" up until release day.

I have verified the integrity of the game. I have run a disk checker and verified the OS via the windows repair tool.

The laptop runs every other game I launch, from RimWorld through to COD:MW2. Im not sure the laptops hardware is the issue this time round... But, the way in which the game interacts with the laptops hardware and OS... probably.

Its strange, it hangs just after the Unity advert and then drops to desktop. I have tried running the binary as admin, no dice. I might try it in compatibiltiy mode. Any other thoughts? Is there an advanced de bugging mode I can launch? Something that will give you more information about the moment it crashes?

Thanks for your help so far!

 

[DarkCircuit]

This pops up now... just before the crash. Whilst running in compatibility mode, Windows 8.

 

[AndrewT]

The game was developed under Windows 10, it really should not need to be run in any compatibility mode!

I'm not aware of any advanced debugging mode or launch options, I'm afraid.

Can I see new copies of the game log and dxdiag please?

If you make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that, does the game run then?


If not, please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

 

[BTNomad]

This pops up now... just before the crash. Whilst running in compatibility mode, Windows 8.

View attachment 941618

Are you running EU version of windows? believe it's called windows N

 

[DarkCircuit]

I HAVE FIXED ITTT!!!

The issue is a bug with Unreal Engine 4's OpenSSL. You need to update to Unreal Engine 4.22 or later or you will have issues on newer Intel processors.

A temp fix is to drop this into an admin cmd prompt:

setx OPENSSL_ia32cap ~0x20000000

 

[AndrewT]

The game was written on the Unity game engine, not Unreal ... ?!? Perhaps the same issue occurs there and has the same fix ...

In any case the game ceased development nearly 3 years ago now, so it can't be updated I'm afraid! Well done on finding that fix though.

 

[BTNomad]

I HAVE FIXED ITTT!!!

The issue is a bug with Unreal Engine 4's OpenSSL. You need to update to Unreal Engine 4.22 or later or you will have issues on newer Intel processors.

A temp fix is to drop this into an admin cmd prompt:

setx OPENSSL_ia32cap ~0x20000000

The issue is how newer Intel Chips process OpenSSL has nothing to do with unity or Unreal as OpenSSL is a library used by millions of developers. The blame rests on Intel as they are removing support for instruction sets that are 5 years or older. It's a first because pretty soon they won't support 32bit and everything from that time will be gone forever without older hardware.


Technical Info
The actual failure going on here on 64-bit is happening in a DLL called MctsInterface.dll, and it's occurring during a pointer dereference to a floating-point number that tries to access memory that's outside the bounds of what's actually available to the application. The function this is a part of does a whole bunch of sha1sum operations in cpu-space using the Intel SHA Extensions.

OPENSSL_ia32cap is an Environment Variable that you can set that tells OpenSSL to ignore some amount of the autodetection of what your CPU is capable of. In this case, we specifically want the extended section, so we prefix it with a :. Then, we want to clear a value, so we use a ~. And lastly, the value we want to clear is bit 29, or 0x20000000, which represents the Intel SHA Extensions. All together, that string becomes :~0x20000000.

 

[DarkCircuit]

The issue is how newer Intel Chips process OpenSSL has nothing to do with unity or Unreal as OpenSSL is a library used by millions of developers. The blame rests on Intel as they are removing support for instruction sets that are 5 years or older. It's a first because pretty soon they won't support 32bit and everything from that time will be gone forever without older hardware.


Technical Info
The actual failure going on here on 64-bit is happening in a DLL called MctsInterface.dll, and it's occurring during a pointer dereference to a floating-point number that tries to access memory that's outside the bounds of what's actually available to the application. The function this is a part of does a whole bunch of sha1sum operations in cpu-space using the Intel SHA Extensions.

OPENSSL_ia32cap is an Environment Variable that you can set that tells OpenSSL to ignore some amount of the autodetection of what your CPU is capable of. In this case, we specifically want the extended section, so we prefix it with a :. Then, we want to clear a value, so we use a ~. And lastly, the value we want to clear is bit 29, or 0x20000000, which represents the Intel SHA Extensions. All together, that string becomes :~0x20000000.

Thanks for the insight, super interesting.

I was wondering if the change would have had an adverse effect on anything else im runnning, but it sounds like itll be fine.

 

[AndrewT]

The issue is how newer Intel Chips process OpenSSL has nothing to do with unity or Unreal as OpenSSL is a library used by millions of developers. The blame rests on Intel as they are removing support for instruction sets that are 5 years or older. It's a first because pretty soon they won't support 32bit and everything from that time will be gone forever without older hardware.


Technical Info
The actual failure going on here on 64-bit is happening in a DLL called MctsInterface.dll, and it's occurring during a pointer dereference to a floating-point number that tries to access memory that's outside the bounds of what's actually available to the application. The function this is a part of does a whole bunch of sha1sum operations in cpu-space using the Intel SHA Extensions.

OPENSSL_ia32cap is an Environment Variable that you can set that tells OpenSSL to ignore some amount of the autodetection of what your CPU is capable of. In this case, we specifically want the extended section, so we prefix it with a :. Then, we want to clear a value, so we use a ~. And lastly, the value we want to clear is bit 29, or 0x20000000, which represents the Intel SHA Extensions. All together, that string becomes :~0x20000000.

Do you think this would be possible to address this in Steam by passing that string on at game launch time? Or would it need a game update?