Forum Discussion

6 years ago

Solved

C&C generals directx error

command and conquer generals and C & C generals zero hour, having difficulty running the game as its coming up with an error for Directx 8.1 required. I haven't got any issues running red alert 3 or other in the series. I have re downloaded latest directx but not having much luck. has anyone else had a similar experience?

thanks for your time

Andy

1Marduc1
2 years ago

This is how i fixed the Direct X error on my PC.

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz, 2419 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 16,0 GB

I have this game for a long, long time, and i had 4 or 5 times this directX error. I had solved all the other times, and since this isn't frequent, i forget everytime how i solved it. 🙂
so, this is also to put a reminder for me and to share to others my solution to my PC.

I've tried to re-install the directX with no success, and also made all the suggestions in this post, all with no success.
Then i tried to recall the last thing that i did on the game before this error poped up (i was trying some AI bots...) then i recalled i changed the resolution settings of the game, and that made me a click, a "dejá vu" thing... 🙂

Problem: where to find the config file with the resolution settings...

There are two files "options.ini".
One, in the game installation path (mine is: C:\Jogos\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour) -> this one didn't wok
The other one, is where the games are saved (mine is: C:\Users\XXX\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data) -> this one worked

Solution:
What you need to do, is edit the options.ini file and change the resolution to a lower screen size.

I lowered mine to:
Resolution = 1400 1050

After that, the game runs without any problems, and you can change in the game the screen settings again to a better resolution for your PC.

31 Replies

Nyerguds
Hero+
6 years ago
@hullk86

The problem is that the "or higher" refers to higher versions of DirectX 8/9, not higher versions of DirectX beyond 9. The game can't actually use the DirectX 10/11/12 that is installed on windows machines by default nowadays, so updating to the latest DirectX will not help you.

~~The solution is simple; install DirectX 9:~~

~~Download the DirectX Redistributables package from June 2010. Be sure to uncheck any other junk they want to add to it. It should be a file called "directx_Jun2010_redist.exe".~~

~~Run the downloaded file. It'll ask for a folder to unpack in. Make a new folder somewhere on your disk and unpack it there. It doesn't matter where you unpack it; it can be deleted afterwards anyway.~~

~~Go to the folder where you told it to extract.~~

~~Find "DXSETUP.exe", and run that to install the missing components.~~

~~After the installation finished, delete the folder you unpacked everything in.~~

~~Since this is a completely separate thing, it will not interfere with your installed higher-version DirectX.~~

[-EDIT-]

It seems Generals, specifically, has an issue with DirectX that is caused by a malfunctioning dll in the game folder that was actually left there from testing. If you go into the game folder, and delete the file "dbghelp.dll" there, this problem should be resolved.