Grimrock

The following error occurred while starting up the game:
D3DError - CreateDevice failed: D3DERR_DEVICELOST

Please check that your system meets the minimum system requirements and that your graphics card and sound card drivers are up to date.

Ok, not a hw issue, this is the same I7-3770, Win 8.1, nvidia 650ti I've used for a year or more.

What did change was an update to the nvidia drivers to (horrors) beta 344.67.

Any ideas other than rolling back the nvidia drivers? any chance this is another directx problem? If I recall, I had to load an old version of directx to get this game to work once upon a time?

re-installed the directx and c++ kits in the grimrock games directory. That seems to fix grimrock, but I have to wonder what it might have broken that came with the nvidia kit?

installing the versions of directx and c+ in the Grimrock directory has disabled the Shadowcopy (video capture) feature being bundled with nvidia cards.

I need a resolution to this conflict

Is relinking Grimrock with the latest libraries a possibility?

You installed beta drivers which then caused issues with grimrock, and as resolution you want the developers to build a new version for you? =)

steyrhahn wrote:What did change was an update to the nvidia drivers to (horrors) beta 344.67.

Well then, change it back. Beta drivers are named "Beta" for a reason.
FYI: updating nVidia drivers requires a great deal of caution and thoroughness. NEVER EVER simply overinstall nVidia drivers; this is a guarantied way to screw your system up. Uninstall any nVidia driver related software package with their uninstall routine, then use a tool like DDU to remove any driver remains in windows save mode before you install a new driver.

Also this nVidia capture feature "ShadowPlay" you use is still Beta up til today, so before calling out for others to make their software work again you'd better knock on nVidia's door and give them some encouragement to get their stuff right. IMO nVidia has done a poor software-job during the last year, something that naturally happens when trying to do too much too fast.

let me say simply that the problem appears to be that grimrock is using old c+ libraries and directx code. time marches on. libraries need to either be the ones used accross the system, or they need to be embedded locally in the application where it doesn't matter.

using old code that declares system globals with grimrock will merely insure that there are more and more conflicts between this game and other software.

steyrhahn wrote:let me say simply that the problem appears to be that grimrock is using old c+ libraries and directx code. time marches on.

It does not matter how old the libraries used in any software are when new systems become available. I can and do still run games once made for Win95 with DirectX 5 on my Win7 DirectX 11 system due to the fact that either current libraries (i.e. DirectX) are backward-compatible or the system is offering compatibility options. All i might have to do is to supply needed non-available libraries to the system i.e. if an old game wants a C++ 2005 redistributable i install it.

The error you run into has two possible reasons: a more likely grafics driver failure or a less likely grafics hardware failure. You can run "DXDiag" to see what kind of errors are present in your system.