It should be noted, that DX Diag only shows my Intel HD 4000 integrated card. But I also in fact have a AMD Radeon HD 8730M, which is what the #2 is referring in the above screenshots for drivers.
And I've went to another driver, and still the same thing....
It's not showing up as an option to optimize and change to high performance in my Radeon settings or my AMD Gaming Evolved panel, probably because it's never loaded up.
I was using an outdated version of AMD graphics because I liked the way it ran Ark Survival Evolved, but it didn't come with Crimson/Raptr. It installed that after updating in an attempt to play this when I updated my drivers. The Catalyst Control Center (bottom left on my task bar next to my task manager) stopped working after the Windows 8.1 update and I never bothered to fix it because Ark was running great with that version of drivers (I had updated, but it was causing crashes, so I went back to my tried and true version).
So, I went to my device manager and disabled my Intel HD 4000 integrated card. When doing that, it no longer gives me the error message when loading the game, but it still gives me the "crash" msg that is posted in the original post stating that something quit working properly.
Ok, I've gotten it to the point to where it opens (disabled Intel card, run as Admin), to where the first screen is on, then it starts the EA logo/animation (the video will then show, sans sounds), but it's in a windowed version of the game, as soon as I click it, it attempts to expand and go full scree, when it does this, it gives me the above crash msg every time.
Is there a way, without being in game, to make it to where it stays in the windowed version? Hopefully that will stop the crashing.
You needed to reset your Windows primary video device to be the Radeon, right from the get-go, or the game wasn't going to work. The quality of Intel hardware is too poor to rely on, and the error message about any driver problem for Intel's IGP is a red herring. The launcher couldn't see your Radeon working, that's why the silly business about the driver appears.
Meanwhile, to try to use that very low quality mobile Radeon (I actually was surprised by how poor it is), you have to set the very lowest screen resolution, and most of graphics settings all the way down to the bottom. It likely won't be highly satisfactory, though.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-8730M-vs-Radeon-HD-5750
If the game still doesn't run, after that, you need the official customer support:
I've disabled the Intel, the Radeon (my laptop) has worked like a champ in a LOT of newer games. The problem now is that I can't get it past the video screen. As soon as I click on it, it resizes, and crashes. I've now uninstalled and have reinstalled, and am on about my 6 iteration of drivers for my AMD.
So, with that problem, I can't get in game long enough to change any settings, to even make it stay windowed instead of going full screen.
My computer will be able to play this well enough for my 3 year old to enjoy it. It runs Ark on high at 50 FPS, it's got this.
The problem however is that it crashes with now about 11 different AMD drivers. It now never makes it past the "Connecting to EA Servers..." in the upper right hand corner, the overwhelming majority of the time as soon as I click it, it crashes. I appreciate you guys being worried about my performance once I get in game, but I need help making it to that point, and while you both may feel that my rig may struggle, and that could possibly be true, those thoughts aren't helping me get any closer to actually being able to even attempt to play.
In essence, I need some constructive help here.
@Gorath_the_Elder wrote:
{Snip!) . . .
Meanwhile, to try to use that low quality mobile Radeon (I actually was surprised by the ratings for how poor it apparently is), you probably have to set the very lowest screen resolution, and most of graphics settings all the way down to the bottom. If those benchmarks are right it likely won't be particularly satisfactory, though.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-8730M-vs-Radeon-HD-5750
If the game still doesn't run, after that, you need the official customer support:
You should check with the real experts now.
Well, I eventually got it to work. I went up to windows 10, to no avail, and the graphics drivers in win 10 was killing my Ark performance. So, I went down to Windows 8 and did a factory reset. In windows 8, (not 8.1), with Intel driver 9.17.10.2867 and AMD Radeon HD 8730m Driver 9.0.12.0 I can now get the game to load all the way through and connect to the servers.
The problem now arises that it's not normally recognizing my keyboard/mouse. I've gotten it to recognize them twice now by following the nvidia steps from another thread, but it's finicky about taking and only actually works some of the time, then when the game is closed I have to start it all over again. This seems like such a wide spread and prolific problem that it's seeming like a glaring hole in the coding rather than just a few isolated incidences.
UPDATE: Keyboard/Mouse fix: After posting the above, I discovered that with those drivers, I could get it to recognize my mouse/keyboard by alt tabing out, and going to my device manager. at that point I double click my AMD Radeon under the Display Adapters tab. For some reason, that works, the game then recognizes my mouse/keyboard from then on. Problem solved, it is a SOFTWARE problem.
After posting the above, I discovered that with those drivers, I could get it to recognize my mouse/keyboard by alt tabing out, and going to my device manager. at that point I double click my AMD Radeon under the Display Adapters tab. For some reason, that works, the game then recognizes my mouse/keyboard from then on. Problem solved, it is a SOFTWARE problem.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! The device Manager trick worked. I can finely play PvZ.
