Game crashes my computer on launch

[Galactic Cactus]

Integrity​

I have verified my game files (on Steam)​

Yes

I have disabled all mods​

Yes

Required​

Summary​

Game crashes my computer on launch

Description​

Launching Victoria 3 crashes my computer. The main loading screen appears corrupted, and after a few minutes my computer freezes and then shuts down before reaching the main menu screen. On two attempts there was no crash, and I could hear from the audio that the game had reached the main menu, but the screen remained frozen.

I think this started happening after downloading 1.8.3, as I was previously able to run 1.8 without issue (I think had only played 1.8.1 before this). However, bizarrely, the crashing still happened when I tried rolling back to 1.8.0 and even 1.7.7. This issue is occurring on Mac with Intel processor on Sequoia 15.1.1, but I have not had any kind of issue like this when testing on another Mac (M2 with Sonoma 14.7.1).

I know there is a thread and a mention on the known issues page of a crash on launch problem in 1.8, but I'm not sure if I'm experiencing the same issue. I do not have any utf-8 characters in my file paths, and this doesn't just crash to desktop but crashes my entire computer. Because the issue persisted even when rolling back the game version, I wasn’t sure if this was an issue with Victoria 3 or something on my computer, but other Steam games seem to run fine, and neither a full reinstall of Victoria 3 nor a full reinstall of Steam has had any effect.

I am attaching my game logs from after a launch attempt, and a screenshot of the corrupted loading screen.

Steps to reproduce​

Click 'Play' from launcher

Game Version​

1.8.3 (but also previous versions somehow?)

OS​

Mac

Additional​

Bug Type​

Crash to Desktop

Save Game​

Attachments​

View attachment items.zip

Player Pain​

10

 

[PDX_Sosanna]

Moving to Tech Support! (MacOS / hardware issue)

 

[AndrewT]

This issue is occurring on Mac with Intel processor on Sequoia 15.1.1,

The key question is what video setup does this Mac have? if it is an Intel video, not AMD, that is the cause of your problem - this game is not supported on any Intel video hardware on Macs I'm afraid!

 

[Galactic Cactus]

This computer uses Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB.
I have played Victoria 3 on this computer since version 1.2 without issue and did not realize I was using unsupported hardware! It seems bizarre that Intel graphics still worked fine until one of the 1.8 hotfixes. Do you know why this would be the case, and why it would still be the case even after rolling back to older versions?
Most importantly, does this mean I cannot expect Victoria 3 to ever run again on this machine?

 

[Galactic Cactus]

I also mentioned that I could run the game on a Mac with Apple M2 chip without anything like this happening, but I see now that Apple Silicon is not mentioned in the Steam system requirements for the game at all. Is Apple Silicon also unsupported?

 

[AndrewT]

I have played Victoria 3 on this computer since version 1.2 without issue and did not realize I was using unsupported hardware! It seems bizarre that Intel graphics still worked fine until one of the 1.8 hotfixes. Do you know why this would be the case, and why it would still be the case even after rolling back to older versions?
Most importantly, does this mean I cannot expect Victoria 3 to ever run again on this machine?

This game now only uses Vulkan as a renderer, not openGL any longer. And Vulkan does not run well or in some cases at all on Intel video Macs. FYI this game has never been supported on that hardware platform since release, so really it's a matter of luck that it ever worked!

All you can do is play on any other machine you have access to with supported hardware. OR if you have Apple Bootcamp installed, play in Windows there.

Other options include using an eGPU, or a hosting service such as GeForce Now.

I also mentioned that I could run the game on a Mac with Apple M2 chip without anything like this happening, but I see now that Apple Silicon is not mentioned in the Steam system requirements for the game at all. Is Apple Silicon also unsupported?

Strictly speaking it is not, but is powerful enough to run the game just fine, in general.

I'm sorry for the bad news!