Exit Code 204

Last modified by Daniel Turner on 2023/07/17 16:04

You have landed on this page because the game detected an error while attempting to start.

The game determined that your hardware does not meet the minimum requirements (see technical background below).

In most cases the reason for this would be outdated drivers, since most devices which support Vulkan also meet the minimum requirements to run the game. However, some older drivers are known to set limits too strictly and therefore prevent the game from starting.

We recommend that you have the latest graphics card drivers installed or at least the minimum required ones as follows. For NVIDIA graphics cards, upgrade drivers to 385.41 or later. For AMD graphics cards, upgrade drivers to 17.9.1 or later.

NOTE: On Windows 8.1 the 17.9.1 drivers are not officially supported by AMD. If you run Windows 8.1 you should use the AMD drivers 17.7.1 instead.

NOTE: On Windows 8 the 17.7.1 drivers are not supported either. We recommend upgrading to Windows 8.1 instead (which is free for all Windows 8 installations). It may also be worth trying out the latest optional drivers, if the current stable/recommended version doesn't work for you.

If you have ended up on this page and are certain that you have at least the minimum graphics driver versions installed, please send a mail to prioritysupport@egosoft.com (Subject: Exitcode 204) with a screenshot of the popup error and your dxdiag and vulkaninfo attached. This Wiki entry explains how to create this information.

Technical background

The limit the game checks for is the maximum number of descriptor sets supported by the device. The game requires at least 5 sets which practically every device on the market which supports Vulkan should provide (for more details please refer to the maxBoundDescriptorSets VkPhysicalDeviceLimits in the Vulkan developer documentation). Some early device drivers apparently limit this one to a very small (unreasonable) value. The issue can therefore occur with very old outdated drivers.

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