hi hi, i though universe sandbox looked like fun, so i bought it. imagine my surprise when it opened to a black screen, paused for several seconds, then died without a sound. minutes later, dw20 (ms' stupid error reporting tool, usually just for ms office) popped up and informed me that i could send a report to microsoft. no error dialogs were shown, nothing but black and a spinning 8-pronged mouse cursor appeared inside the window while it was present, and the issue was not resolved by following the startup problem checklist.
found the following in engline log.txt:
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | RESOURCE MANAGER : Reset failed ! DX Error : -2005530516
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't recreate the render texture after it has been reset. DirectX error : -2005530516
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXT MANAGER : Failed to create vertex buffer for text rendering 3D
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't load the texture file l:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\universe sandbox\graphics\Calibri 8.dds. Unknown error : -2005530518
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't load the texture file l:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\universe sandbox\graphics\Calibri 13.dds. Unknown error : -2005530518
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't load the texture file l:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\universe sandbox\graphics\Calibri 14.dds. Unknown error : -2005530518
05-14-2011 16:19:05 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't load the texture file l:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\universe sandbox\graphics\Calibri 15.dds. Unknown error : -2005530518
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | SHADER MANAGER : Shader technique 'FirstPass' couldn't be validated
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | SHADER MANAGER : Shader technique 'NextPass' couldn't be validated
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | SHADER MANAGER : Shader 'lighting' successfully created from string.
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Couldn't create the render surface texture target, DirectX error -2005530516
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | SCENE MANAGER : CreateRenderSurface failed
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Format of alpha texture changed to DXT1.
05-14-2011 16:19:06 | TEXTURE MANAGER : Format of non-alpha texture changed to DXT1.
im using windows server 2003 on a core2 quad, with a radeon 5770. all drivers are up to date per respective manufacturers' websites.
edit: should probably mention this is the steam version
edit again: guess that doesn't even need mentioning, since the exact same thing happens with the standalone version