3D Vision driver hack causing D3D Device error in Unreal Engine 4 games

[lohan]

Recently I encountered the "Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost" in several UE4 2K games when trying to launch the games.
Since this error is well known and still remains as a PITA for years now, there is a myriad of things you can do that try to tackle the problem.
I tried all of the possible cures but couldn't get rid of the issue.

Then I found out that the problem exclusively occurs for me when 3D Vision is enabled in Nvidia Control Panel. So when it's deactivated, these
games launch without any problem. Someone on helixmod's Call of Cthulhu page mentioned the problem and Bob answered that this UE4 issue
is caused by Nvidia drivers on Win10 1909/1903 which are set-up for 3D Vision via our beloved "3D Vision driver hack".

It seems that's the case here, although I was definitely able to play these games in glorious 3D Vision without any problems using Win10 1903/1909
with various 3D Vision hacked drivers. I am also pretty sure that these games even worked in 3D with Win10 Version 2004 without any issues.

Now with Version 20H2 it's a guaranteed "Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost" in these UE4 2K games.

Is there anything I could do to get
rid of the problem?

Specs:
Win10 Version 20H2
RTX 2080Ti
32GB Ram
3D Vision hacked driver 452.06 (works flawlessly for all games aside from 2K Unreal Engine 4 games)

[Lysander]

Damn, I was getting that with 1909 but somehow it went away at some point. Then I upgraded to 20H2 and yesterday I tried Ghostrunner and Little Nightmares 2 demos and I got the same message as you

Other games work fine, I'll see if I can try some other UE games.

[Losti]

I am using windows 10, 20H2, installed 452.06 with the 3D vision driver changer, GTX 1080ti and have no Problems. Not even with little nightmares 2.

[lohan]

Is there any difference between the two known ways of applying the 3D Vision hack (3D Fix Manager & Losti's method) in terms of compatibility
that could be the solution here?

I used to install new drivers via Losti's method but when the whole process became a streamlined feature of 3DFM I used that way instead. Could it be
Losti's method gives you better compatibility or doesn't it matter at all?

[Losti]

Is there any difference between the two known ways of applying the 3D Vision hack (3D Fix Manager & Losti's method) in terms of compatibility
that could be the solution here?

I used to install new drivers via Losti's method but when the whole process became a streamlined feature of 3DFM I used that way instead. Could it be
Losti's method gives you better compatibility or doesn't it matter at all?

It could because it clean up old driver with DDU. Other white i dont expect any difference but you can give it a try ?

[Lysander]

I am using windows 10, 20H2, installed 452.06 with the 3D vision driver changer, GTX 1080ti and have no Problems. Not even with little nightmares 2.

good to know, at least it's not the Windows version so something on our side - hopefully it'll go away after a while

[Pauldusler]

Just to clarify: The local driver hack gets only applied via 3DFM if you hit the "Play 3D" button. Would not be the first time that people install 3D fixes via 3DFM but ignore the "Play 3D" button which is weird but some people do.

[lohan]

I already used DDU (even when updating via 3DFM), so I guess it will be no difference!? Thanks anyway, Losti!

Also, it seems that the RTX-GPUs are especially prone to the UE4 "D3D device being lost"-error.

[lohan]

good to know, at least it's not the Windows version so something on our side - hopefully it'll go away after a while

I would say it has definitely something to do with the Windows version. I used to play the 2K WWE games in 3D Vision without any issues over the last 5 years
(they always performed quite well out of the box). Since around October/November 2020 every single WWE 2K game gives me that "D3D device being lost" error at startup.
The only significant thing that changed for my system around that time was the Windows version (as far as I remember).

[Lysander]

good to know, at least it's not the Windows version so something on our side - hopefully it'll go away after a while

I would say it has definitely something to do with the Windows version. I used to play the 2K WWE games in 3D Vision without any issues over the last 5 years
(they always performed quite well out of the box). Since around October/November 2020 every single WWE 2K game gives me that "D3D device being lost" error at startup.
The only significant thing that changed for my system around that time was the Windows version (as far as I remember).

Yeah, but if Losti says he's able to run it on 20H2, we have a working frame of reference. I mean, yeah, I guess it could also be one of the minor patches, but unlikely. I experienced similar crashes with Resident Evil demos on 1909 - different error, but similar - device lost. And they went away somehow lol

[Losti]

Yeah i also think this may be an issue with the RTX-GPUs because for me everything is ok.

[Chtiblue]

What is your screen Lohan?

Workaround for me is to put scaling to 100% (instead of 150%) in Windows desktop settings

[Lysander]

oh! I simply applied the driver modification via the toggle in 3DFM and - voila!

things that 3DFM does for us autmatically...SMH

Ghostrunner looks amazing and runs @60 pretty much at max settings at 1080p for me, thx for the fix Losti. I will definitely be getting the full game at some point. The only thing that looks a bit off are the light "blooms" (aureoles around light sources), not sure if anything can be done about them but it's a minor thing - amazing 3D!

Same with Little Nightmares 2. I can't believe we're still getting the latest games in glorious 3D! F*** DX12! LOL

[lohan]

What is your screen Lohan?

Workaround for me is to put scaling to 100% (instead of 150%) in Windows desktop settings

I use an LG 4K OLED via EDID hack. But it's always set to 100% scaling. Even when I try to launch the affected games on my 60Hz 2D monitor
I get the same error for as long as 3D Vision is enabled in Nvidia Control Panel. With 3D Vision deactivated all these 2K UE4 games are running
smoothly.

Also interesting: the error gradually manifested itself. First, the error only showed up from time to time. So I could play an affected game for like 5-6 days.
Then, all of a sudden I got the error. The next 5-6 days that error wouldn't let me launch the game. Then, after this period, the game was running fine again
in 3D for 5-6 days. This was the situation for weeks before the error then became a permanent problem.

[Lysander]

Yeah, that really sounds like what was happening to me with res evil. But I didn't fix it, it just suddenly started working.
Wish I could help but at least we know it's not RTX or 20H2.

[lohan]

Yeah, that really sounds like what was happening to me with res evil.

At the time when you encountered the error, did Resident Evil also work for you with 3D Vision disabled in Nvidia Control Panel?
This is driving me nuts. I pinpointed the reason for the error (3D Vision enabled in NVCP) and still this doesn't help me at all as
I logically need 3D Vision activated so I can play these games in glorious 3D Vision.

[Lysander]

Yeah, that really sounds like what was happening to me with res evil.

At the time when you encountered the error, did Resident Evil also work for you with 3D Vision disabled in Nvidia Control Panel?
This is driving me nuts. I pinpointed the reason for the error (3D Vision enabled in NVCP) and still this doesn't help me at all as
I logically need 3D Vision activated so I can play these games in glorious 3D Vision.

Yes, it worked fine without 3DV.



This is my situation now:

1. When 3DV is enabled but driver hack DISABLED (lower toggle in 3DFM), I get the "Unreal Engine device lost" error when launching Ghostrunner demo.
2. I turn on the driver hack in 3DFM.
3. The game now works - no more error

Can you try the same demo, so we match our steps as close as possible? We know our Windows is on the same version, same with driver version - so lets match the game as well.
Are you sure you followed the steps for fix installation? In the case of Ghostrunner, I just executed the config CMD after unzipping the fix into the folder and then launch the game via the exe.

[lohan]

All the games that I mentioned (WWE 2K games and WWE 2K Battlegrounds) even don't have a proper fix.
As I mentioned, they work quite well out of the box in 3D Vision. For WWE Battlegrounds I installed the UE4 Universal Fix
(which basically made the game 3D Vision ready) but it's definitely not the fix that causes the problem. Even without the
Universal Fix, WWE 2K Battlegrounds gets the "D3D Device Lost" error at launch as long as 3D Vision is enabled.

The same with all the WWE 2K games. I never installed any fix for any of those games and they worked like a charm in 3D.
Now they all crash at launch with "D3D device being lost" (if 3D Vision is active in NVCP). So while I use the 3DFM for all
other 3D Vision games, I don't use it for these 2K games.

I would really like to know what you mean by the "lower toggle" in 3DFM? I guess you don't mean the 3D Vision ON/OFF toggle in the top right
corner as this one just enables/disables 3D Vision in NVCP (given 3D Vision is already installed).

Good idea with the Ghostrunner demo. I will give that one a try tomorrow...

[lohan]

Sorry for the late answer! I just tried the Ghostrunner demo and I can confirm it's exactly the same error pattern! When I launch the demo
with 3D Vision enabled it's an instant launch error (lowlevelfatalerror due to D3D device being lost) - exactly the same that I get with all the
2K WWE games. If 3D vision is disabled the game launches without any issues.

What's driving me nuts is the fact that I was able to play all of those games in 3D Vision without any issues up to the 1st of October. I can pinpoint
the date exactly as I instantly reported the error here in the dedicated WWE Battlegrounds thread when it first showed up. From that point on,
WWE Battlegrounds still launched in proper 3D Vision from time to time. When it did, it worked for a couple of days. Then, when the error showed up again, it
didn't work, also for a couple of days.

This was the situation for a couple of weeks (5 days working, 5 days launch error, 5 days working, ...). Around the beginning
of December, the launch error became a permanent issue (only with 3D Vision enabled in NVCP of course).

I am absolutely sure that I already used driver 452.06 with my 2080ti when the 2K WWE games were still working. So the only major thing that changed around the time when
the launch issue appeared (starting from the 1st of October) was the Windows October update (20H2).

[Pauldusler]

I'm on RTX 2080S and Win10 20H2 + 452.06 - Ghostrunner working here + all other UE 4 games I tried.

It seems like the driver hack isn't applied properly for you anymore. Assuming you are using the default local driver hack via 3DFM you should see a "nvwgf2umx.dll" in the game folder (.\Ghostrunner\Binaries\Win64). If this file does not exist we got the reason for the crash.

Another thing you can try is to use the global hack. The difference here is that nvwgf2umx.dll is directly modified in the Windows driver store, affecting all games. 3DFM should give you an error message if the global driver hack couldn't be applied. To enable global driver hack feature in 3DFM go to "Settings" tab -> "Nvidia 3D Settings" tab. Enable "Show global driver hack toggle". Now you see an additional toggle below the 3D toggle. This one gets automatically turned on when you hit the "Play 3D" button or you can toggle it manually to on.

[lohan]

Markus, you are a god among men!

I enabled the global hack and the issue that plagued me for more than 3 months now is gone! Huge thanks!
Have a look at your PayPal, just left you a little gratification...

[RobertBash]

I had this issue with Assetto Corsa Competizione. Somehow it got resolved when (in 2D mode) I changed the in-game resolution to something lower than 1440p. Then I was able to go back to 1440p and it worked fine!

[Losti]

Markus, you are a god among men!

I enabled the global hack and the issue that plagued me for more than 3 months now is gone! Huge thanks!
Have a look at your PayPal, just left you a little gratification...

You should try this to check the things if something is not cool. It tell you about the things you need!
viewtopic.php?f=105&t=25361

3DFM is a cool tool but if you press a wrong button and than run games without you may go without the driver hack but you may do not notice. So you can use my tool to check if the driver hack is enabled or not and enable and disable it on demand if you start games without 3DFM.

[Pauldusler]

Markus, you are a god among men!

I enabled the global hack and the issue that plagued me for more than 3 months now is gone! Huge thanks!
Have a look at your PayPal, just left you a little gratification...

You should try this to check the things if something is not cool. It tell you about the things you need!
viewtopic.php?f=105&t=25361

3DFM is a cool tool but if you press a wrong button and than run games without you may go without the driver hack but you may do not notice. So you can use my tool to check if the driver hack is enabled or not and enable and disable it on demand if you start games without 3DFM.

@Losti: There is no "wrong" button in 3DFM. What people are doing wrong with 3DFM is that they refuse to hit the "Play in 3D" button - only this one installs the local driver hack. What people do is that in best case they click on the "Install 3D fix" in 3DFM, then close the application and launch the game via Steam --> crash! What a surprise! . Funny isn't it? Actually there are a few hundred lines of code when the "Play 3D" button is pressed which does a lot of things, e.g. validates the local driver hack and reinstalls if necessary. Why checking? Because the local driver hack will not work any more if you install another Geforce driver version. If people don't click the button- it's their own fault. The only thing I could improve is to add an information text on first launch that people have to press the "Play 3D" button if they intend to play in 3D (wtf - really?). Not the "Play" button in Steam, nor in Origin, Uplay... etc xD. But actually that's super silly to tell them because telling such trivial things is like treating people like idiots or little children. But seems to be necessary?!

3DFM also has an option for global driver hack - which is disabled by default. If enabled an additional toggle is visible below the "3D" toggle. It tells whether the global hack is enabled or not and you can enable / disable the global hack with it. It basically does the same like your bat tool, Losti. Your bat tool will not help such people losti. They will always strand because they think the "Play" button in Steam will work - as if Steam had native support for stereo 3D and Nvidia never broke the driver ^^

[Losti]

@Losti: There is no "wrong" button in 3DFM. What people are doing wrong with 3DFM is that they refuse to hit the "Play in 3D" button - only this one installs the local driver hack. What people do is that in best case they click on the "Install 3D fix" in 3DFM, then close the application and launch the game via Steam --> crash! What a surprise! . Funny isn't it? Actually there are a few hundred lines of code when the "Play 3D" button is pressed which does a lot of things, e.g. validates the local driver hack and reinstalls if necessary. Why checking? Because the local driver hack will not work any more if you install another Geforce driver version. If people don't click the button- it's their own fault. The only thing I could improve is to add an information text on first launch that people have to press the "Play 3D" button if they intend to play in 3D (wtf - really?). Not the "Play" button in Steam, nor in Origin, Uplay... etc xD. But actually that's super silly to tell them because telling such trivial things is like treating people like idiots or little children. But seems to be necessary?!

3DFM also has an option for global driver hack - which is disabled by default. If enabled an additional toggle is visible below the "3D" toggle. It tells whether the global hack is enabled or not and you can enable / disable the global hack with it. It basically does the same like your bat tool, Losti. Your bat tool will not help such people losti. They will always strand because they think the "Play" button in Steam will work - as if Steam had native support for stereo 3D and Nvidia never broke the driver ^^

"Play in 3D" button - only this one installs the local driver hack. What people do is that in best case they click on the "Install 3D fix" in 3DFM, then close the application and launch the game via Steam"

==> REALLY?????????? Why should i do this? For install the fix? Using 3DFM only for installation? And than not press the button to play, open another launcher/software/lokation to start the game?

But actually that's super silly to tell them because telling such trivial things is like treating people like idiots or little childre

Indeed!

It tells whether the global hack is enabled or not and you can enable / disable the global hack with it. It basically does the same like your bat tool, Losti. Your bat tool will not help such people losti.

Seems so

I have some suggestions made here, may you consider or not ^^:

viewtopic.php?p=176090#p176090

[BazzaLB]

3DFM also has an option for global driver hack - which is disabled by default. If enabled an additional toggle is visible below the "3D" toggle. It tells whether the global hack is enabled or not and you can enable / disable the global hack with it. It basically does the same like your bat tool, Losti. Your bat tool will not help such people losti. They will always strand because they think the "Play" button in Steam will work - as if Steam had native support for stereo 3D and Nvidia never broke the driver ^^

I find this is actually really useful so I am not sure why you hide it by default. Sometimes you dont want to setup a profile for a game but you need the "hack" for the game to not throw an error. So, simply click this option and hit play in steam. Its brilliant. In fact your tool is really the only thing anyone should really need. Its all I ever use because of the sheer convenience of it all. Any games that error but I dont want to setup a 3DFM profile for, I just use the global option instead. It gives you the ultimate flexibility. Enable hack globally whenever you want. Disable it globally if you want. Only use the hack for specific games etc. Its got the best flexibility and ease of use once all the options are available (unhidden).

[derdaist]

I'm on RTX 2080S and Win10 20H2 + 452.06 - Ghostrunner working here + all other UE 4 games I tried.

It seems like the driver hack isn't applied properly for you anymore. Assuming you are using the default local driver hack via 3DFM you should see a "nvwgf2umx.dll" in the game folder (.\Ghostrunner\Binaries\Win64). If this file does not exist we got the reason for the crash.

Another thing you can try is to use the global hack. The difference here is that nvwgf2umx.dll is directly modified in the Windows driver store, affecting all games. 3DFM should give you an error message if the global driver hack couldn't be applied. To enable global driver hack feature in 3DFM go to "Settings" tab -> "Nvidia 3D Settings" tab. Enable "Show global driver hack toggle". Now you see an additional toggle below the 3D toggle. This one gets automatically turned on when you hit the "Play 3D" button or you can toggle it manually to on.

Yeah!!! Thanks!!! This is the little(big) thing im looking for, it works!!!