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GenesisIV Tutorial: Startup issues

GenesisIV makes use of advanced OpenGL graphics functions which can cause problems with older cards, unusual graphics configurations, or buggy drivers. GenesisIV should automatically configure itself for many of these issues on first running, but if problems do arise the following should be helpful. You may also like to ask any questions on our support forum.

GenesisIV stores all landscape information in a relational database, which means that the database must be available when GenesisIV is running. In previous versions of the program this ran as a separate server, but from version 6.0.5 onwards this is integrated into GenesisIV. The instructions to check the database server are retained below, but should be ignored for all current downloads.
     
Graphics Card Issues

GenesisIV uses OpenGL to produce all it's 3D images, and depends upon shaders, a recent addition to the OpenGL specification to process much of the lighting effects. Shaders are new to OpenGL, being added in version 1.4 and later.

We keep a list of card which GenesisIV can work with, but effectively any reasonably recent card by nVidia, or 3DLabs should be ok. ATi support for OpenGL has tended to be less reliable and for these it is often essential that the latest drivers are loaded. Lower range ATi cards may also produce rendering artifacts.

Occassionally on some systems, nearly always with ATi cards, even with a the latest drivers and a correct database installation the program crashes on startup - usually silently after displaying the splash screen but sometimes displaying error 216 or similar. In these cases running GenesisIV without shader support should solve the problem. To run without shaders click on the Genesis IV (no shaders) icon. When running in this mode all functions other than the photorealistic renderer will work as normal. The photorealistic renderer itself will be somewhat slower, will not render vegetation or 3D models correctly shaded, and there may be some minor differences in atmospheric effects. We are working on a set of reduced shaders that will reliably work with ATi cards.

A useful check in these cases to confirm the problem is graphics hardware/drivers related is to run GenesisIV as normal (with shaders) but reducing the DirectX hardware acceleration level. Right click on your desktop, choose properties, then the settings tab, followed by the advanced button and finally the troubleshoot tab to display a dialog similar to the below.

Moving the hardware acceleration slider down from full to the position shown stops DirectX crashing the OpenGL rendering system. If the program now runs without a crash on startup, this confirms that the problem lies with the graphics card and/or drivers.

Further information may be available on our support forums.

  
 
Note that the instructions below relate to GenesisIV version 6.0.4 and earlier only. They should be ignored for version 6.0.5 onwards, which includes all versions of the program currently available for download.  
Database Issues

These usually manifest themselves as GenesisIV either failing to start or crashing after startup. The following steps usually correct any problem.

1. If not following the specialized procedures below, ensure that you started GenesisIV using the g4server program (this the the program the GenesisIV shortcut points to). The g4server program checks to ensure that the Flash Filer database is running before starting GenesisIV, and carries out basic database maintenance tasks when GenesisIV is run for the first time.
2. If the above fails to start GenesisIV correctly check out if the Flash Filer server is running, if present there will be a blue circular icon in the windows system tray on your menu bar. If present double click to open the server window and proceed to step 4.
3. If the blue Flash Filer icon is not present open Windows Explorer and navigate to the GenesisIV install directory (by default C:\Program Files\Genesis4). Double click ffserver.exe to run the program and open the server window by double clicking on the Flash Filer icon in the system tray. If Flash Filer fails to start please report the error to us on our forums or directly at support@geomantics.com
4.

The Flash Filer window should look like this..

The database, named Genesis2, should be present and started. If so go to step 7. If the database is not present (i.e. the Genesis2 line is missing) go to step 5. If the database is present, but not started, go to step 6.
5.

Check the database alias and add/correct as necessary. To do this click on the Config menu item and select Aliases... The following window will open

If the alias line is present as above, with the correct path, then the alias is correct. If the alias line is not present, or the Path box is red, then the alias is incorrect.

To add a new alias simply type in the details in an empty line, or click on the Path box to edit and existing alias. The alias name must be 'Genesis2' and the path the db directory in the GenesisIV install directory ('c:\Program Files\Genesis4\db' by default)
6. Attempt to start the database by highlighting the Genesis2 alias and clicking the green arrow in the menu bar. If Flash Filer reports an alias error go back to step 5 and check the database alias. In the event of a different error please check our forums or email us directly at support@geomantics.com
7. Finally with the database running attempt to start GenesisIV again. Restarting the g4server program should be ok as this checks the database is running before starting GenesisIV itself, but you may wish to just open the GenesisIV program directly by clicking on the genesis4.exe program in the GenesisIV directory. In the event of GenesisIV still failing to start please check the section on Graphics Card Issues below.