GC4 Errors \ Crashes

The image below is what one will see if the game crashes. When we see something we want to investigate further, we will often reach out to the one that submitted it to get more information or to work on possible solutions with them. For this to be possible, it is vital that we ask users to please include an email address with crash submissions in the field provided:

The email address provided will only ever be used for this purpose and will never be used for any other.

If you have already checked the box to not have the crash reporter show, you can click here for how to re-enable it.

Crash: The game crashes on the very 1st run

We have seen some crashes of the game on 1st run because the game was not given permissions when presented by the Epic client via a browser pop-up (Edge, Chrome, etc):

If you did not notice the pop-up initially, running the game again should present it again where you can click 'Allow'.

Error: ‘Failed to initialize display’

No doubt, you have this somewhere in your debug:

\Documents\My Games\GalCiv4\debug.err

Debug Message: InitializeGalCiv4DrawManager FAILED to initialize the device.
Debug Message: InitializeD3DDrawManager FAILED
Debug Message: InitializeDirect3D Failed second attempt. Aborting.

Try the following in order:

Window the Game:

Go to:

\Documents\My Games\GalCiv4

Open the prefs.ini file in notepad. Change

Fullscreen=1

to:

Fullscreen=0

Save and try to run the game.

If that fails, open prefs.ini and change:

DisplayResolution=-1 x -1

to:

DisplayResolution=1920 x 1080

Save and try to run the game again.

If that fails, change your desktop resolution to something other than: 1920 x 1080

Also change the prefs.ini file to match what you changed it to.

Save and try again.

If that fails, try updating your drivers.

Reboot and try to run the game again.

Error: Could not create your Galactic Civilizations IV user data folder.

On Windows, go to your 'Windows Defender Settings' --> 'Virus and threat protection --> Ransomware protection --> Turn off 'Controlled folder access':

Allow an app to access controlled folders - Microsoft Support

'Disk write error' or cannot save game or settings

Often this is the result of the game not having permissions to write to your \Documents\MyGames folder. Try disabling your AV app and trying agin.

If that fails, try disabling 'Windows Controlled Folder Access' or whitelisting the game there:

Allow an app to access controlled folders - Microsoft Support

How do I get the in-game crash reporter to show again?

If you clicked the option to not have the in-game crash reporter show any longer, to get it to appear again, go here in the registry:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Crashlog

And delete the 'DoNotPromptAboutCrashes' key: