Maintenance for the week of March 25:
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – March 28, 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)

New Surface Pro 4, game crashes shortly after logging in, d3d9 mode works

ningauble_7b14_ESO
ningauble_7b14_ESO
✭✭✭
I was testing the game out on a new core m3 surface pro 4, a few seconds after entering password the client crashed every time with an "eso has stopped working" popup. I tried installing newer video drivers, got the first day firmware update from microsoft, updated visual c++ runtimes, ran launcher repair, nothing helped. I went into user settings.txt and switched the client to d3d9 mode from d3d11, and I can now log into the game. There are visual issues if I try to run fullscreen mode at higher resolutions, a shimmering psychedelic border surrounds the right hand side and bottom of the screen at 1080p or higher, but at lower resolutions like 1366x768 the game seems to run fine. At any rate it seems there is an issue with ESO and the skylake IGP drivers.
  • Intervein
    Intervein
    There may be a few things working against you here. The Core m3 is meant for ultra-portability and battery life. There is no active cooling for the core m3 in the new surface pro 4--so that comes to my first concern: overheating. The little dual core m3 in there could simply be overheating. Secondly, this comes with the integrated 515 chip for graphics processing. So you're running an integrated GPU ontop of a 4.5 watt TDP CPU that is passively cooled (no fan) with a very CPU intensive game that is well known for maxing out a single core to 100 percent due to inefficiencies.

    If you are managing to get it running @ningauble_7b14_ESO I would like to know your fps and video settings just out of general curiosity. And furthermore, how does it handle populated areas like Deshaan for EP?
    Usually found in Tech Support somewhere.
  • blueparrotb14_ESO
    The Surface Pro line use the Intel HD Graphics which are quite famously the worst graphic chip set in the industry.

    That has a lot to do with why the higher end Surface Books have an NVidia graphics core. The Intel HD Graphics are horrible and only support Golf and Candy Crush style gaming.
  • ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ✭✭✭
    I didn't buy the surface for running eso, I was just curious to see how it runs. The Intel integrated graphics have come a long way performance wise, and eso scales down pretty well, I've been able to run it on minimal graphics on an atom z3770 tablet which has a fraction of the capability of the HD 515 in the surface. On the other hand driver support is a mixed bag. Benchmark wise, the HD 515 is similar to the HD 5000 in the Haswell surface pro 3/2013 MacBook air and is only a little behind the iris 6100 (without edram) in my MacBook pro in wndows. I'm actually quite impressed with how capable even the lowest end skylake gpu is. The high end surface pro 4 should run eso pretty well at medium resolutions with its edram. Anyway in d3d 9 mode at medium settings at 1366x768 I was getting about 30-35fps in craglorn, i'll try stormhaven later.
  • dillon_newellb16_ESO
    dillon_newellb16_ESO
    Soul Shriven
    Same issue with SP4 i5, HD 520 graphics. Pretty bummed as this is one of the few games the SP4 is actually able to play, it blows away the minimum system requirements so the responses saying it's not enough are incorrect. Not saying it will get 60fps 1080p, but using the integrated HD 4600 (much less powerful than HD 520) on another laptop works perfectly fine at 720p. This is clearly a software issue, since this GPU is brand new and ZOS/Intel have not had time to make it work perfectly.

    If you need more proof, the SP3 (less powerful version) is advertised running ESO microsoft.com/surface/en-ca/why-surface/for-gaming. This may go by faster if we make a ticket with them so they can get the proper troubleshooting info etc.
  • ZOS_MollyH
    Greetings,

    At this time, ESO is not supported on Surface Pro tablets. We apologize for the inconvenience!
    The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - ZeniMax Online Studios
    Forum Rules | Code of Conduct | Terms of Service | Home Page | Help Site
    Staff Post
  • ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ✭✭✭
    For the time being, if you go to your documents folder, in the elder scrolls online folder/live is a file called usersettings.txt. search for the string "D3D11" and change it to "D3D9". I did run into issues at high resolutions but at lower resolutions it seems to run ok.
  • tunepunk
    tunepunk
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Had the same problem. Can confirm that with changing to D3D9 i could start it on my Surface pro 4. So far no other issues.

    Even my first Surface Pro (first gen) is running it quite nicely.
    Edited by tunepunk on January 27, 2016 8:58AM
  • ed_carnby
    ed_carnby
    Soul Shriven
    How is the performance on you surface pro 4? Which settings/fps? I'm a bit disappointed about the performance. Maybe the performance will increase if we could use "D3D11". As I found out you can also play with "OPENGL" on the SP4.
  • ed_carnby
    ed_carnby
    Soul Shriven
    Noone here playing on Surface Pro 4 anymore?
  • ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ningauble_7b14_ESO
    ✭✭✭
    I installed the latest drivers from Intel's web site (you have to go to the device manager and update the driver from there the installer will refuse to work), and switched to D3D11 mode and had no crashes. With Medium Preset Settings, I was getting about 25-30 fps at 1280x1024 in stormhaven, when I kicked the res up to 1680x1050 I was getting 20ish. This is on the m3 model with 515 graphics, the 520 should be a smidge better and the i7 version should be substantially so. On the m3 initial load times to get to the character select screen and zone in the first time are brutally slow, the game itself is pretty playable.
  • ed_carnby
    ed_carnby
    Soul Shriven
    Thanks for the tip:) I'll give it a try tomorrow. I have an i5 and with d3d9 Im only able to play settings everything low or off and subsampling medium 1680x1050. Does your medium settings mean subsampling medium, too? Did you have an improvement in performance since you are able to play with d3d11?
Sign In or Register to comment.