Fallout 1 - Get It For Free... Happy 20th Birthday! [Notification]

Just a quick notification that, in celebration of the Fallout's series debut, exactly 20 years ago to this very day, it is Totally Free on Steam, right now, from Bethesda - but only for today... Grab it before the end of the day and play one of the most RPG-Genre-Expanding, Post-Apocalyptic-Exploring Classics of PC gaming. Have fun (and thank you, Beth)!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/38400/Fallout_A_Post_Nuclear_Role_Playing_Game/

Addendum:

After trying the game out (not playing it since I had the CD version way back when!), at first, all I got was a Black Screen, but I could hear the audio of the game playing in the background... After doing some light troubleshooting, including re-installing DirectX and other steps, the easiest 'solution' that I eventually found was to simply choose the "Classic Version" from the Steam Launch Options. Here is what that looks like, below (these options did not show up if I used the Desktop Shortcut or clicked on the .EXE file to start the game, but they appeared consistently if I used the PLAY button in the Steam Client):

Tutorial Screenshot of simply choosing the alternate version of the game to run, if you encounter a 'black screen', where you can hear the audio of the game, but not see anything else concerned with the game
(Click to see Full Size)

After choosing that version, above, the game repeatedly ran fine with audio and video together in harmony, on my system (currently an AMD FX-8350 CPU and NVIDIA GTX 1060 GPU running Windows 10). I hope it works for you dear reader, as it did for me, if you run into that little initial problem... Enjoy!

[Note: It is unclear at the time of this posting, if the game it completely free 'forever', or if it is just 'free to play' for the day - UPDATE, it indeed seems to be permanently part of my Steam account - a nice 'gift' from Bethesda!]

Battlefield 1 - DirectX Error "GetDeviceRemovedReason" [Workaround]

At first, because of the phrasing of the error, I thought it might be Hardware, namely my GPU (Graphics Processing Unit, the Videocard); but since that was working fine with literally, all other games - playing in longer gaming sessions even [and I know for sure that I wasn't actually physically pulling out my videocard while playing ...I think] - I omitted that possibility (for now) and focused on a potential Software approach, which meant checking configuration...

Looking at the Settings for the game then, I tried reducing everything down to the Lowest Possible Settings; to reduce the load on the GPU and the load in the processing of the game itself. (With lowered settings, there would be less data being streamed from the game, less being extracted from the compressed/encrypted files of the game, less being calculated and drawn, less everything). If there was a problem with how game data was being handled, this might being it to light [note: an issue with integrity of the files would not be detected this way, this is more of a data handling troubleshooting step; integrity of the game files can usually be checked/verified with a Repair/Verify through the game client or if that doesn't help, a Reinstall of the game usually assures accurate game files (barring Drive/RAM file handling (Hardware) issues - which is another tangent/issue altogether, heh) - screenshot of where to run a Repair/Verify of the game files for BF1, below].

Example of the Location of where to Repair the game files in the Origin Game Client, showing Battlefield 1 in 2017
(Click to see Full Size)

Nope. Crash. Error [which I lost the clean Screenshot of, of course - but a version of it is in the Header for this posting - I will add a clear Screenshot of the error window to this post when I can capture it again, if it occurs]. Hmmm.... Since it was a DirectX error (and I am 93.33-repeating-percent-sure that I did not "remove the video card" while playing..), I tried one last thing. Instead of swapping out the GPU to try with something else (a GPU from a friend's PC, for example), which is approaching a Hardware type issue; I tried something else: I changed the DirectX level in the game from DirectX 12 to DirectX11 [this may not have been solely 'my idea' - although I am sure I would have eventually arrived at it as a troubleshooting step, I looked up this error and found many, many locations and sources of others stating they have this issue and encountered this error and I may have read it somewhere, for it to have come up - merely mentioning because I just don't want to take sole credit for something I may not have come up with entirely by myself...].

Example of where to 'Disable DirectX 12' and 'Enable DirectX 11' in the Video Settings, in Battlefield 1
[Hmm, this is more of a Workaround than a 'Fix' for this issue...]
(Click to see Full Size)

Success! I played a good couple of hours this way, with no crashing, closing, freezing, or errors at all - great! After trying it after re-opening the game, rebooting and playing some more, testing it the next day or two after as well, it seemed 'solidified'; changing the DirectX level/version from 12 to 11 seemed to 'solve' the issue [for me, for now].

I think this is more of a 'Workaround' than a 'Fix', since it doesn't solve the issue permanently... there is still something in the game engine or how it communicates with DirectX/Windows/theGPU, which is causing something that is not 'fixed' by this step; but, since it does work to get past the issue, I thought I would share, to help others that may be running into this seemingly-popular problem ('popular' judging from the queries I found about this issue on both the Battlelog forum and EA Support Forums, spanning a few years now..). I hope this works for you, dear reader, as it seems to have done, for me.


[Since this is not a true 'fix' (I do not know if this is permanent nor do I know the actual source/nature of the issue, therefore I cannot say this is a 'fix', imo); I will post this with the title "workaround"...]

Addendum:

Other helpful tips/steps that can possibly help, if the above step does not work (and some additional information), can be found in multiple places on the Battlefield and EA forums, such as this list by a helpful poster named STEEiL:

https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/54605/directx-function-error-amd-getdeviceremovedreason-error-in-battlefield-1

Good Luck - I hope it gets working for you soon - and See You In The Game!

Raptr - Closing Down This September 30th, The Blog Here Says 'Goodbye Old Friend' To The Once-Useful Program

Just a notification that the 'Graphic-Configurator, Game-Installer, Gameplay-Recorder and
Social Media client that tried to tie it all together' - Raptr - will be no more, as of September 30th, 2017

A few days ago, I received an email stating that Raptr was ending the program/client which at one time was tied-in with AMD's Graphic Drivers as "AMD Gaming Evolved". Now that both NVIDIA and AMD have their own 'game configuration utilities' and 'game recording capabilities' (via Crimson for AMD and GeForce Experience for NVIDIA), "there is no need for such a separate utility", as Raptr's 'Farewell Letter' basically states:

"We are sad to announce that we will be closing Raptr on September 30th, 2017. We want to start by thanking you for your support over the past 10 years.

The world is different today than when we first launched Raptr. Many companies offer game optimization tools. Having an independent platform to do this is no longer necessary.

On September 30, we will start the process of shutting off access to your Raptr account and disabling features. If you'd like to export your tracked game play history, you can do so immediately using the instructions below:

• Go to Raptr.com
• Sign in to your Raptr account
• Click to get your gameplay data

If you have any other questions, please send us feedback.

We are proud of the service we built and the community who helped grow Raptr.  Thank you, once again, for your support.

Dennis “Thresh” Fong
Co-founder and CEO"

Mr. Fong Qin, known worldwide as "'Thresh' Fong" for his 1990's Quake and Doom tournament career, was also the co-founder of Xfire (which itself was acquired by Viacom in 2006). While the Raptr/Gaming Evolved client was useful, it seemed to have challenges from close to the start [or at least, noticeable in hindsight, from when I first started using it].

The Press Release - the notification that Raptr was closing down - as it looked on the Raptr website, September 2017
(Click to see Full Size)

At one time, Raptr offered Rewards for playing (and letting it track your Hours or Record your Gameplay); 'Reward Points' that you could collect, every time you Optimized a Game (let the utility auto-configure your in-game options/settings for you), or viewed/contributed to a game Forum (similar to Steam's Game Forums [forii?]). You could also earn Raptr Reward Points just by playing a game and having it running (it gave a running total of your Hours Played).

The Raptr/Gaming Evolved Client, as it looked in 2014, showing the Reward Points collected at one time
(from the Gaming Evolved/Raptr Press Kit, Click to see Full Size)

Prizes to spend your Points on were Draws for, or outright purchases of, Full Games and game tie-in material, such as Character Costumes or Vehicles (Mounts). Just before it was taken away, I even saw some Computer Hardware in there (some dated GPUs mind you, but still, it was neat to see some computer parts you could earn 'with time played' only). I never did win a Draw for a Retail Game, but I heard from a couple of people who did. There were many, many upset users, who had been saving for years (literally), at the loss of the points system. Some noted at the time that perhaps it was an early bell, tolling for the end of Raptr, even then...

The Raptr/Gaming Evolved Client, as it looked in 2015, showing Plays.Tv in its 'built-in' Beta phase and Graphic Drivers being kept up-to-date [I owned an AMD/ATi GPU at the time], the client still showing Reward Points being tabulated, and the Twitch Broadcast implementation
(Click to see Full Size)

There was a Forum interface built-in to the Raptr client (directly-accessible within it) that was similar to Steam's Game Forums [too similar?], where people could discuss games, talk about upcoming releases, and share Screenshots; but there wasn't too much going on in them [that I could see, personally]. There were some helpful and contributive posts, but they were always few in number:

Example of Raptr/Gaming Evolved Game Forums, showing Guild Wars 2, circa 2016
(Click to see Full Size)

As 'the end' neared, the Forums became overrun slowly by Spammers and non-English posts talking about other websites (not that there's anything wrong with speaking other languages, I know a bit of a handful of languages myself, but it was an English forum and much of these posts were clearly Spam of one sort or another). People started asking why things weren't getting 'cleaned up', near the end.

The Raptr/Gaming Evolved Official Raptr Forum, shown in the client, displaying the number of users of the forum
(Click to see Full Size)

While many felt it was 'just like Steam' or 'not needed' even back then, it still boasted over 100 Million registered users at one point (as evidenced by the number of users within the main Raptr discussion group, above) - and it was even 'targeted by hackers' in 2015 - infiltrated in an attempt to gain access to the many users' data and potentially personal information. A notice went out in January of that year, notifying users to change their password, as a result of the recent security breach:

Raptr Forum Notification, urging users to change their Passwords, after a recent security breach, circa January 2015
(Click to see Full Size)

Personally, I feel sorry that I couldn't spend more time with Raptr/GamingEvolved, as I only discovered it a couple of years ago.. Over the entire time, my own illness prevented me from posting more, sharing Screenshots more, and talking more about Releases and Reviews [as it does here in this blog!]. I feel like it could have been 'the next Steam with bonus game configuration' perhaps - but alas, it simply had too many challenges going against it... People started asking for Chat interface (a la Skype) and Voice Chat, but the Voice part never came. People wanted a GVR (Game Video Recorder) and while that arrived, in the form of Plays.tv - first in the app itself and as a stand-alone utility - perhaps it was too late to save Raptr, as both NVIDIA then AMD, came out with their own 'built-in' gameplay recording capabilities about the same time. For example, in 2013, NVIDIA's Shadowplay became part of their Settings Optimization client, GeForce Experience, which allowed high-performance gameplay recording. Eventually, AMD's ReLive, part of their Crimson GPU Driver update, also allowed high-quality gameplay recording as well. Both of these essentially negated the game recording aspect of Raptr (Plays.tv, which continues onward today as its' own stand-alone recorder):

Information Panel about Plays.TV, the gameplay recording utility that was once included with Raptr/Gaming Evolved
(Click to see Full Size)

Although many didn't use Raptr, or even like it, there were those that used the client to at least keep track of their Hours Played, used it a light social-media app, or just enjoyed the semi-automated Graphic Configuration within. As a former user - that wished he used it more - I myself say a sad 'Goodbye' to Raptr. So long, old friend, I wish I got to know you better...