The PC Version of Dark Souls 3 is Having Crash Issues

[ffronw]

The PC Version of Dark Souls 3 is Having Crash Issues

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1311/1311580.jpgA crash issue is stopping PC Dark Souls 3 players from getting past the first bonfire.

It's an unfortunate reality of PC gaming that sometimes games just crash. The latest game succumbing to this is Dark Souls 3. As you can see if you check out the Dark Souls 3 subreddit [http://store.steampowered.com/app/374320/#app_reviews_hash].

The most commonly reported crash appears to be happening at the first bonfire. Another crash has been reported by players arriving at the Firelink Shrine. There's no common fix, but for some, choosing the class of Knight will result in no crashes. Another suggestion is turning the game's lighting settings to low.

If their official Twitter is any indicator, Bandai Namco is aware of the issue.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/BandaiNamcoUS/status/719689267652333568]

If any official statement is made on the issues, we'll update this post with it.

For you Escapists playing Dark Souls 3, have you encountered these crashes yet? If so, how did you fix them? Let us know in the forums!

Permalink

 

[Lightknight]

I'm pretty sure that's just part of the game. You just keep reloading after your game dies until you make it through... [/joke]

 

[thewatergamer]

And this ladies and gentlemen is why I never pre-order or buy games at launch day, I love the dark souls franchise but I'm just going to wait for the issues to get ironed out

 

[Weaver]

That sucks . I played 4 hours straight yesterday with no issues at all. The game even handled alt tabbing well.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

So far all crashes for me have happened by bonfires, but I have been able to progress.

Some people say the Knight is the only class to not have this issue, but it's not quite getting to the point. I had a crash playing as a knight with the helmet off. Helmet on, same place after coming back after prior crash, the game doesn't crash. Take off helmet, instant crash.

But, when in the area after Firelink I took out the torch by a bonfire and it crashed there, with helmet on.

The issue seems to be tied to lighting effects. This is reinforced by reports that lowering the games lighting settings seems to reduce, if not stop, crashes. I've also found playing in windows mode has the same effect (lighting still high), but I haven't played for long enough in window mode to be sure of it.

It's been a little frustrating so I haven't explored it more, but I wonder if crashes can happen outside of bonfire areas when using torches or other light creating abilities/items?

EDIT: as an aside, I keep getting a crash report from my graphics driver. I did a fresh install but it still happens. It could be a driver issue...

That sucks . I played 4 hours straight yesterday with no issues at all. The game even handled alt tabbing well.

Just curious, what graphics card do you use and are you using the latest drivers?

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

It's funny I'm reading this article because I just crashed out of DS3 seconds ago. Although for the most part lowering the lighting settings for me has fixed the crashing problem, since i crashed every time I was in Firelink shrine before that.

 

[Aerosteam]

I played for over 6 hours, it crashed when I equipped a sword (which I already did previously) and twice while summoned. Not too bad, actually. But still, the ideal number crashes to be had is zero.

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

Oops

 

[Worgen]

I've got over 10 hours into it and the closest thing Ive had to a crash was the game minimizing and telling me my system was running out of memory somehow. It was more of an os thing than game thing, and the worst it did to me was the game counted me as still running forward and I ran off a cliff.

 

[Weaver]

So far all crashes for me have happened by bonfires, but I have been able to progress.

Some people say the Knight is the only class to not have this issue, but it's not quite getting to the point. I had a crash playing as a knight with the helmet off. Helmet on, same place after coming back after prior crash, the game doesn't crash. Take off helmet, instant crash.

But, when in the area after Firelink I took out the torch by a bonfire and it crashed there, with helmet on.

The issue seems to be tied to lighting effects. This is reinforced by reports that lowering the games lighting settings seems to reduce, if not stop, crashes. I've also found playing in windows mode has the same effect (lighting still high), but I haven't played for long enough in window mode to be sure of it.

It's been a little frustrating so I haven't explored it more, but I wonder if crashes can happen outside of bonfire areas when using torches or other light creating abilities/items?

EDIT: as an aside, I keep getting a crash report from my graphics driver. I did a fresh install but it still happens. It could be a driver issue...

That sucks . I played 4 hours straight yesterday with no issues at all. The game even handled alt tabbing well.

Just curious, what graphics card do you use and are you using the latest drivers?

I use a GTX 780 and I think my drivers are *probably* up to date, maybe 3 weeks max out of date if they're out of date. I'm at work ATM so I'll check when I'm home.

I'm also curious if the people having these issues are in the client beta for steam. I remember with Disgaea PC the game ran fine, but tons of people were having issues who were using the steam beta client. Once they turned off beta participation the game ran totally fine. It was the weirdest thing in the world, but something to try since it's pretty easy to do.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Nah nah nah, its not a bug. Its part of the game. You just have to Git Gud, freaking casuals.

Only REAL Dark Souls players have what it takes to reload the game a hundred times to get past the first bonfire. The rest of you just don't get it, because you're not smart enough to know to reload another 10 times.

Because Dark Souls is literally the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity since sexual reproduction.

 

[Fox12]

Nah nah nah, its not a bug. Its part of the game. You just have to Git Gud, freaking casuals.

Only REAL Dark Souls players have what it takes to reload the game a hundred times to get past the first bonfire. The rest of you just don't get it, because you're not smart enough to know to reload another 10 times.

Because Dark Souls is literally the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity since sexual reproduction.

Obviously the bonfire is there to mock you. If you die, you get returned to the beginning of the game. It's the only way to make it hardcore enough for true Soul's fans.

 

[Raggedstar]

Only crashed for me during the character selection screen of all things (and I'm playing with a below minimum requirements GPU). A few jitters here and there, but nothing game breaking. However, I did start the game offline for everything before Firelink, so not sure if that changes things. Not even any issues at bonfires.

 

[Alienmen1]

I had multiple crash around the first and the Firelink bonfire.

Very annoying. I had to stop playing because progressing was impossible

 

[Weresquirrel]

A friend of mine had the crashing at the first bonfire issue, and he said turning the lighting to Low fixed it. I turned my lighting to low before starting and I've had no issues so far.

 

[karkashan]

This sounds suspiciously like the issue people were having on consoles who either had the Japanese version or had obtained the English version early and were playing on version 1.00 or 1.01. I thought they'd managed to fix most of the crashing issues after patches 1.02 and 1.03 (as I didn't run into anymore after those came out) but I suppose whatever fix they made for consoles doesn't seem to work 100% for PC's.

 

[the_maestro_sartori]

14 hours in so far, no crashes, no performance drops or anything negative to report.
Only issues I've had are that I'm getting stuck on every boss, but, that's just normal for a DS game.

 

[CaitSeith]

One would had thought that after have been played for weeks by the rest of the world, this would had been already fixed by the western launch day. I'm going to change my motto to "Day-one: avoid it as hell!"

 

[K12]

Really glad I haven't had this issue, I'm fucking loving this game!

The only issue I've had is the Character creator freezing on me like 3 times. (though I did have to make a second character because my Mercenary is hard as balls to play as!)

[edit]... actually scratch that it did crash once whilst I was helping a tree deal with its genital warts...

 

[Ragsnstitches]

So far all crashes for me have happened by bonfires, but I have been able to progress.

Some people say the Knight is the only class to not have this issue, but it's not quite getting to the point. I had a crash playing as a knight with the helmet off. Helmet on, same place after coming back after prior crash, the game doesn't crash. Take off helmet, instant crash.

But, when in the area after Firelink I took out the torch by a bonfire and it crashed there, with helmet on.

The issue seems to be tied to lighting effects. This is reinforced by reports that lowering the games lighting settings seems to reduce, if not stop, crashes. I've also found playing in windows mode has the same effect (lighting still high), but I haven't played for long enough in window mode to be sure of it.

It's been a little frustrating so I haven't explored it more, but I wonder if crashes can happen outside of bonfire areas when using torches or other light creating abilities/items?

EDIT: as an aside, I keep getting a crash report from my graphics driver. I did a fresh install but it still happens. It could be a driver issue...

That sucks . I played 4 hours straight yesterday with no issues at all. The game even handled alt tabbing well.

Just curious, what graphics card do you use and are you using the latest drivers?

I use a GTX 780 and I think my drivers are *probably* up to date, maybe 3 weeks max out of date if they're out of date. I'm at work ATM so I'll check when I'm home.

I'm also curious if the people having these issues are in the client beta for steam. I remember with Disgaea PC the game ran fine, but tons of people were having issues who were using the steam beta client. Once they turned off beta participation the game ran totally fine. It was the weirdest thing in the world, but something to try since it's pretty easy to do.

Strangely enough, I also have a 780 (latest drivers, which I think yours is too) and I'm not on the beta client. So the issue might not be GPU related. But the game has frequently disconnected from steam itself (steam is still online when I check, but the game boots me back to the main menu).

I haven't got back to playing yet, but I'm going to try window mode a bit more and if that doesn't work, lower the lighting settings. I wonder if it's CPU related.

One would had thought that after have been played for weeks by the rest of the world, this would had been already fixed by the western launch day. I'm going to change my motto to "Day-one: avoid it as hell!"

Is that common sense you are speaking? I'm afraid that's banned around these parts.