XNA problems

[lusc]

I've been following your work on and off for years. I managed to run earlier versions of Supremacy on Win10 x64. But for a while now, I cannot even start a game.
Today I installed everything fresh using the SupremacyTest_20210113 with the September patches, says version 0.6.7938.41092 on the main menu. But as soon as I try to start a new game it crashes on the "Loading" screen with an unhandled exception. The error log is attached.
I have XNA 3.1 and 4.0 installed and checked. Regarding .NET, the 4.5.1 installer says it's installed:

Currently installed "classic" .NET Versions in the system:
2.0.50727.4927 Service Pack 2
3.0.30729.4926 Service Pack 2
3.5.30729.4926 Service Pack 1
4.0.0.0
4.8.04084

sfc -scannow returns no errors.

So, as usual with older games/frameworks the likely culprit is a Windows DLL. Microsoft.XNA.Framework.dll has the following dependencies:
ADVAPI32.dll
d3d9.dll
d3dx9_31.dll
KERNEL32.dll
mscoree.dll
msvcm90.dll
MSVCP90.dll
MSVCR90.dll
ole32.dll
OLEAUT32.dll
USER32.dll
X3DAudio1_6.dll
Now the Visual Studio/C++ 2008 runtimes msvc?90.dll don't show up in Windows/SysWOW64 or system32, unless manually copied there. But that doesn't fix the crash either. There are also multiple version of those DLLs in WinSxS, but none of them seem to work. Also not putting them into the Supremacy folder.

Does anyone have any ideas which DLL might be the culprit? And which version would work with Supremacy?
I'd love to play the game again, especially as it seems a lot more playable than last time I checked. Any help is appreciated, thanks.


EDIT:
While testing various DLL versions, I noticed that I can actually start a game as Dominion. Apparently the problem is with stars, as the nebula start works but as soon as I fly to a normal star system it appears empty and crashes on the next turn.

[Iceman]

I've been following your work on and off for years.

Hi lusc, and thanks for joining the forums!

I managed to run earlier versions of Supremacy on Win10 x64. But for a while now, I cannot even start a game.
Today I installed everything fresh using the SupremacyTest_20210113 with the September patches, says version 0.6.7938.41092 on the main menu. But as soon as I try to start a new game it crashes on the "Loading" screen with an unhandled exception. The error log is attached.
I have XNA 3.1 and 4.0 installed and checked. Regarding .NET, the 4.5.1 installer says it's installed: Currently installed "classic" .NET Versions in the system:

My guess is your issue is having both XNA versions installed. The game requires 3.1, not 4.0 - the latter may be overriding 3.1. This is definitely an XNA issue. Could you try uninstalling 4.0 and see if that works?

Now the Visual Studio/C++ 2008 runtimes msvc?90.dll don't show up in Windows/SysWOW64 or system32, unless manually copied there. But that doesn't fix the crash either. There are also multiple version of those DLLs in WinSxS, but none of them seem to work. Also not putting them into the Supremacy folder.

Those are not needed anymore, we got rid of them

I'd love to play the game again, especially as it seems a lot more playable than last time I checked.

When was the last time you played, if I may ask? Just curious.

While testing various DLL versions, I noticed that I can actually start a game as Dominion. Apparently the problem is with stars, as the nebula start works but as soon as I fly to a normal star system it appears empty and crashes on the next turn.

Yep, that's an XNA issue.

[lusc]

My guess is your issue is having both XNA versions installed. The game requires 3.1, not 4.0 - the latter may be overriding 3.1. This is definitely an XNA issue. Could you try uninstalling 4.0 and see if that works?

Ok, I uninstalled 4.0 (and 4.0 Refresh). I also uninstalled 3.1, then the game wouldn't start with a prompt to install it. Installed 3.1 fresh again, also restarted Windows just to make sure, and the error persists. Crash when starting the game or when playing Dominion it crashes upon visiting an actual star.
Or as I just found out, it also crashes when trying to build a ship in Omarion, see different error log attached.
...
And after trying some more, for some reason the latest Dominion start didn't crash when visiting another star (but there are no stars or planets visible). I could even terraform a planet, but then it crashed after colonizing, see second error log. The other civs seem to be doing fine judging by the log file, also attached.

Don't know what to do. Are there different XNA 3.1 versions? Mine says 3.1.10527.0

When was the last time you played, if I may ask? Just curious.

I don't quite recall which year it was. In that version, everything seemed to work except that the AI didn't expand and found new colonies. So it was kind of really single-player.
In that or a later version, I also vaguely remember getting a crash on trying to invade with troop ships.

So it seems you certainly came a long way since then, just wish I could play it now.

[Iceman]

Split this from the Win10 thread, as it is not related to Win10 proper, but to XNA.

The problem is with
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll
Both crashes are XNA-related, as it is used for both displaying the 3D planet views in the Star System panel, and the 3D ship models in the shipyard.
Please check if that dll is in the game's main folder. If not, I recommend trying to unpack the game again.
The problem is fixable, don't worry

[lusc]

Yes, the framework DLL is there and has been there.

Capture.PNG (38.94 KiB) Viewed 2404 times

EDIT:
I've copied/installed the same files to my old laptop, which is also running Win10 x64 but version 2004. The game runs fine (a bit slow) there, stars and planets showing up nicely.

[Iceman]

Don't know what to do. Are there different XNA 3.1 versions? Mine says 3.1.10527.0

That's correct. I don't think there are different versions of 3.1, no.

I've been trying to think of solutions to the problem, but I'm running out of ideas.
I assume you have all the pre-reqs, as you sound like a savvy type of person.

I seem to recall a similar issue a long time ago, where the star images were missing from their folder, for some reason.
Can you check if you have these in \Resources\Textures ?

[Iceman]

Not sure if this may help, but I think it's worth a try:

I had .net v4 already installed but xna would not detect that I have a .net framework installed until I removed the v4 and installed v3. On top of which I installed v4

edit:

I've copied/installed the same files to my old laptop, which is also running Win10 x64 but version 2004. The game runs fine (a bit slow) there, stars and planets showing up nicely.

I'm also running 2004.
And your desktop?

[lusc]

The textures are all there.
I am fairly certain I have the pre-reqs. As mentioned in the first post, both .NET 3.5 and 4.0 are installed and detected.
Not sure how I would remove 4.0 (and 4.8?) as they are core-Windows components and not apps. I can toggle 3.5 on and off in Windows features, I'll try that. EDIT: No, that didn't change anything. Same error with .NET 3.5 enabled or disabled.

I have now updated both laptop and desktop to the exact same Win10 version (only the installation dates differ).

Code: Select all

Edition		Windows 10 Pro
Version		21H1
Installed on	‎15/‎07/‎2020
OS build	19043.1266
Experience	Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

It runs fine on laptop, not on desktop.

[Iceman]

And you have the 5 star images inside the FrameFreeze folder, correct?
(these were moved a couple of years ago)

[lusc]

... ooooo .... kay

Somehow the problem is fixed now. But don't ask me exactly how.

Since the issue kept bugging me, I tried fixing it again today. I am aware that it's most likely a general XNA or .NET issue, i.e. some kind of missing, faulty, or wrong x86/x64 DLL. Googling the issue and specific error:
"Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll' or one of its dependencies. is not a valid Win32 application. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700C1)"
shows the problem in various games with various XNA and/or .NET versions associated with it. So what I did today was NOT trying to repair/reinstall XNA or .NET yet again but actually search for the culprit DLL file(s). The order of things I tried today:

1. Tested Supremacy -> crash
2. Ran DISM restore and sfc again, didn't restart
3. Tested Supremacy -> crash
4. Checked if all DLLs and dependencies were x86 (32-bit) versions -> yes
5. Found an issue with X3DAudio1_6.dll -> not recognized as valid DLL by multiple programs (CFF Explorer, Dependencies)
6. Replaced X3DAudio1_6.dll from corresponding .CAB file in \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v3.1\Redist\DX Redist\ and put directly into Supremacy folder
7. Tested Supremacy -> crash
8. Used Dependencies crawler to look deeper at each DLL and compared between laptop (Supremacy working) and desktop (crashing)
9. Differences were valid/invalid X3DAudio1_6.dll in \Windows\SysWOW64\ so I replaced the DLL there instead of Supremacy folder
I also manually reran the DirectX setup in \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v3.1\Redist\DX Redist\
10. Other difference was that Dependencies indicated that the msvc?90.dll were loaded from different places when we compare directly Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll and Supremacy.Xna.dll and the framework dependency within (see attached). For some reason the dependency doesn't find any msvc?90.dll (marked with red ?) on the desktop, on the laptop it found them in different places than WinSxS.
11. Manually copied different sets of msvc?90.dll into Supremacy folder.
12. Tested Supremacy -> crash
...
13. Manually copied EXACTLY the same set of msvc?90.dll from laptop to desktop into Supremacy folder.
14. Tested Supremacy -> IT WORKS!!
15. Deleted the set of msvc?90.dll from Supremacy folder (to check).
16. Tested Supremacy -> Still works!
17. Restarted computer
18. Tested Supremacy -> Still works!

So yeah. Basically ... not sure what fixed it.

As far as I can tell, the only real difference from before and after is the replacement of the X3DAudio1_6.dll in the \Windows\SysWOW64\.
The issue with the set of msvc?90.dll not being loaded in the dependency persists ... but the game works.
I guess I should just be happy that *SOMETHING* fixed it. Maybe the DISM repair took some time to re-register fixed DLLs? Maybe the X3DAudio had to be in the WoW64 folder? Maybe the manual DirectX setup took some time to come into effect?

Who knows. Just happy I get to play the game now (I hope).

[Iceman]

Excellent news!

I hope you have a lot of fun playing the game. After all this trouble.