Error initializing D3D9 device

Intergalactical · April 2014

I was playing the game, which then crashed, upon reopening the launcher and clicking play I get the following error:

Error initializing D3D9 device: Shader Model 3.0 is required.

And now I cannot play. I have tried restarting but it didnt help.

ZOS_ChesterN · April 2014

Hail Defiler of Molag Bal!

The "Error initializing D3D9 device: Shader Model 3.0 is required." is mainly due to your Direct X being corrupt or not installed properly.

Here is a link with instructions on how to download it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179113

Intergalactical · April 2014

Thanks for the quick response. I tried downloading the latest update, however all it said was "This update is already on your computer".

Any other options?

ZOS_ChesterN · April 2014

Hail Defiler of Molag Bal!

What we can try to resolve this specific issue is to have you delete the ShaderCache.cooked file which can be found in the game documents folder. The default location for the file is C:\Users\*USERNAME*\My Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live. After that file is deleted, run the game as administrator, and it will recompile that file.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

I have this same problem. I have deleted the file and ran game as administrator but the same error occurs. Also, the file isn't recompiled.

Intergalactical · April 2014

@watermallon628_ESO I ended up uninstalling my graphics card drivers completely and then reinstalled them. It fixed the problem for me.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

@Intergalactical‌ I tried that already. The interesting thing was when I uninstalled my drivers the game worked. But when I reupdated my drivers, the error came back.

Paks_ESO · April 2014

watermallon628_ESO wrote: »

@Intergalactical‌ I tried that already. The interesting thing was when I uninstalled my drivers the game worked. But when I reupdated my drivers, the error came back.

Did you try a different version of your driver? Perhaps that will work for a temp fix.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

Ok, so I think everything is working now.

What I did was uninstall my drivers again and ran the game. When it started it made me determine the brightness before I could start. This seemed to have generated the shadercache.cooked file that wasn't recompiling becuase when I exited the game I found the file again in the live folder. Anyway, I reupdated my drivers again and now I can get on.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

Well, the problem is back. Just tried to launch the game and the "Error initializing D3D9 device: Shader Model 3.0 is required." is back. Has anyone found a permanent solution yet?

Kaspar · April 2014

What kind of graphics card do you have?

I have a theory but I can't really test it since I am not experiencing these issues concerning shaders but, perhaps your graphics card doesn't have shader model 3 and your INI settings are set too high.

There is an official thread that suggests copying/pasting the INI to your Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\Live folder however in that INI the line SET Simple_Shader is set to "0" which corresponds to a default setting of Medium or above.

For Low and Minimal pre-sets this line is set to "1". Perhaps you could make a back-up of your existing INI and then change that line to "1" to see if it resolves the shader problem you are having.

Just a theory though...

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

@Kaspar My graphics card is a Radeon HD 6850. It was working fine during the beta all the way up to the last session before release, with all the settings as high as they could be.

What is an INI? Could you link that official thread please?

Kaspar · April 2014

An HD6850 should be ok, I would think. I have the game running on both an HD5870 and an R7870 DD (both are XFX branded) but maybe the 50's have an issue with the shaders?

The official thread is stickied second from the top of this forum but linked here.

You need to scroll down to the section that lists the suggested INI under the Spoiler button. Your INI should be viewable in your Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\Live folder.

Did you re-install the client or did you just patch-up from the Beta? Sure sounds like you are having a GPU driver issue though. Did you do a complete wipe of your GPU drivers before installing the new ones?

Just an added thought as it's not clear from your posts: Did you re-install the drivers from the disk that came with your GPU or did you DL/Install the most recent drivers from the AMD site?

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

@Kaspar‌ I can't do much, cause I'm not home right now. But, I will look into this later in detail.

I did a complete wipe of my drivers using the AMD software that uninstalls the drivers. This allowed the game to work.

However, when I installed the most recent drivers from the AMD site, the error came back. But not right away. I was able to play for a day.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

before I did the uninstall, I was told by ESO support, to try deleting the ShaderCache.cooked file. The file would recompile when I tried to launch the game as administrator.....the file did not recompile though.

After the uninstall/reinstall of my drivers, when the game worked temporarily...when it first launch, the game asked me to determine the brightness by altering the visibility of the three rings. (I checked the live folder after this and saw that the ShaderCache.cooked file was back). I played for about 4 hours that day with no problems.

I tried to launch the game yesterday, and the error came back.

Kaspar · April 2014

Weird man. Maybe though if you patched up from beta you might consider doing an ESO wipe and re-installing the newest client from your account page. I never rely on a Beta build as a standard practice.

I did a quick Google and the 6850's are supposed to support shader model 5.0 so I dunno why you'd be having a shader model 3 issue. Sounds like the directX9 support might be borked somehow. What brand is your card?

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

@Kaspar‌ I have an Asus card.

I know I tried uninstall and reinstalling the game once, but I haven't switched clients. I guess, I might as well try that.

Kaspar · April 2014

Hmmm... un-installing the game should be the same as un-installing the client. I'd only consider this if you had patched up from Beta and not un-installed the beta completely from your computer and then downloaded the most recent launcher and build through your account page shortly before, on, or after launch day. I'm not certain what you mean when you say "switched clients".

Eylith · April 2014

A french user has been able to fix this in his computer : http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/71522/mon-jeu-ne-se-lance-pas#latest

In "C:\Users\*USERNAME*\My Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live" OR/AND "C:\Users\*USERNAME*\My Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\liveeu":
- open UserSettings.txt
- modify the field RequestedNumThreads "X" --> RequestedNumThreads "0"

Please note that is you have played the beta, you probably have a folder "live" and a folder "liveeu". I presume "liveeu" is the one for the release but I'm not sure. Make sure to apply every changes in both directory.

watermallon628_ESO · April 2014

Thanks for trying to help you guys. For now the game seems to be working. All I did was update to the newest beta drivers for my graphics card instead of the stable drivers. Hopefully this resolves the issue, but the problem came back before. I'll keep my fingers crossed.