Project Zomboid, the popular open-world survival game, has recently released updates that have caused some players to experience crashes on start-up. The issue appears to affect users on both Windows 10 and 7 and can be frustrating for players who are unable to play the game they have purchased. The cause of the crashes is not yet clear, but several workarounds have been found to help players start the game.
One workaround is to start the game through the .bat file in the installation folder. To do this, players should right-click on the game in their library, click “Properties”, go to the “Local Files” tab, and then click “Browse local files”. From there, players can launch the game using the .bat file. This workaround has been found to be successful for some players, but not all.
Another workaround is to disable all mods, verify game files on Steam, and update your GPU driver or the Visual C++. If you have two Steam directories, make sure Steam recognizes both. You can also try running the 32 bit .exe instead of the 64 bit. This can help to fix the issue for some players, but again, not all.
In more extreme cases, players have found that deleting the Users<YourUser>\Zomboid folder or completely uninstalling and reinstalling the game can solve the issue. This is a more drastic measure and should only be attempted if the previous workarounds have not been successful.
Another possible solution is to turn on 3D corpses and 3D models in the options menu. This can be done by navigating to the options menu in the game and turning on the settings for 3D corpses and 3D models. Gamers with Intel HD Graphics can try allocating 6 GB.
Some players have reported that recent Windows updates may be causing the crashes on start-up. In order to uninstall recent Windows updates, players should go to the Start menu and search for Settings. Once they have located the Settings option, they should select it and then navigate to Update & Security. Within the Update & Security option, there will be a View Update History option – select this. If there are any updates listed that players wish to uninstall, they should simply select the Uninstall Update option next to it. The process of uninstalling a recent Windows update may take some time to complete and the system may automatically restart. If not, players can manually reboot their Windows PC. After the update is uninstalled, players should remove the temporary files that are left over. To do this, they should press the Windows key + R on their keyboard and type in “%temp%”. This will open up the temporary files folder and they can delete all of the files that are inside.
In conclusion, the recent updates to Project Zomboid have caused some players to experience crashes on start-up. The cause of the crashes is not yet known, but several workarounds have been found to help players start the game. These include starting the game through the .bat file in the installation folder, disabling all mods, verifying game files on Steam, updating GPU driver or the Visual C++, and uninstalling recent Windows updates. If none of these workarounds solve the issue, players are advised to contact the game developers for further assistance.