Thief 3 Crashes with "flesh failed"...but my card does pixel shading! Help!

DCU on 22/1/2006 at 01:33

So, I finally get around to trying Thief 3. I get through the tutorial OK, and am looking forward to playing the actual game, when the thing locks up on me with a "flesh failed to initialize" error. To add insult to injury, the game won't even start again unless I reboot (it gives the same error on startup).

So I tromp off to Google and the Eidos site and other places (including here), and the answer I constantly see is that that error means your card doesn't support pixel shaders, and thus Thief 3 does not support your card.

But, thing is, I have a Radeon X800 XL. It DOES support pixel shaders. The X800 family is explicitly listed as supported. And yes, I have all the latest drivers, etc, and yes, I meet all the other system requirements.

I've opened a ticket with Eidos tech support, but I usually find better answers here, so....can anyone help? Any ideas on how to fix this?

Goldmoon Dawn on 22/1/2006 at 01:50

I really don't know, but I'm sure someone will be by with an answer.

The reason I posted is because I noticed this is your first post.

:wot:

PopcornPrincess on 22/1/2006 at 02:01

Hmm.....
Never heard this before. Um... Maybe look at the options in-game? Maybe fiddle with the screen res.?
Other than that, I have no ideas.

Komag on 22/1/2006 at 03:27

Quote Posted by DCU

So, I finally get around to trying Thief 3. I get through the tutorial OK, and am looking forward to playing the actual game...

This is what I don't get. The tutorial is the first "mission" of the game, where you follow the blue footsteps and rob the inn, etc. If that runs, then the game works, and you're just having some odd bug for the game not to progress to the next map. If you mean something else by "tutorial" please explain

DCU on 22/1/2006 at 05:19

Nope, that's exactly what I meant: the tutorial where you rob the inn. It worked just fine, glowie blue footprints and all (my ony issue there was my own incompetence in figuring out the new lockpicking scheme).

Then as the second level loads, the game crashes, and it won't restart unless I reboot the PC (and then, I can only go through the tutorial). And in both cases (the crash after the tutorial, and trying to start the game thereafter without a reboot), I get the same "flesh failed" error box.

I've tried this on a straight install and patched to 1.1.

And yeah, first post, though I've been around here a good long while. I'm more of a reader than a poster, I guess. :)

ZeroFlight on 22/1/2006 at 07:04

Sounds to me like a corrupted level file.

OrbWeaver on 23/1/2006 at 14:57

Yeah, try re-installing the game.

If it was a graphics card issue you wouldn't be able to play any mission at all.

DCU on 30/1/2006 at 01:45

Well, tried re-installing...and now it won't play at all. Same error message.

Also, on the litle autoplay menu that pops up there's a "check video card" button, and it reports that my system should work.

Briareos H on 30/1/2006 at 10:23

Try looking at the background processes. I'd try the following steps if I were you :

1. Uninstall completely the game, remove the directory. Reboot.
2. I know you have the latest drivers, but re-downloading and installing can't be bad.
3. Same thing with DirectX9. Uninstall (if you can) and re-install.
4. CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill processes to the point where there is nothing but vital programs (I can't exactly tell which ones as I don't use Windows XP).
5. Install, patch and launch the game.