Installation and Getting Started FAQ

Visual3D won't run!  It crashes on World Selector, or on starting Tech Demos.

Potential Cause #1:  You might not have all the Visual3D.NET dependencies installed.

Solution:

1. Uninstall Visual3D.NET from the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs (or Programs & Features on Vista).
2. Re-install using the Web Installer, and click the "Advanced" button and then click the top 3 check boxes.
3. Then Install.  This will ensure that all dependencies are installed correctly.

 
Potential Cause #2: You system specs are below the minimum requirements, shown on the download page.
http://game-engine.visual3d.net/download#requirements

Solution:
If you specs are below the minimum specs, you will need to upgrade your PC or get a new PC that meets the specs.  We apologize for the inconvenience might cause you!
 

Admin Installation without using Web Installer

The web installer should be run to ensure that the required (very specific) versions of dependencies / prerequisites (.NET 3.5 SP1, specific DirectX build, etc.) are installed.

Also, currently, internet connection needs to be present at some point to activate a license, once purchased. And internet connection is suggested in general to allow for auto-updating, one-click web publishing, and in-toolset help docs - all features which are coming soon.

In most cases, the web installer will not redownload the Visual3D SDK (if had already downloaded recently) if you need to run the web installer again.

However, if you are interested in "Advanced Admin Installation" or installing on multiple machines without having to redownload each time, you could do the following:

1. Download the web installer once, then wait until you see the "#% Extracting" progress window (after Visual3D has been downloaded first time), then, before this Extracting window closes
2. Find the temporary download folder for the full Visual3D installer, which you can distribute to other machines to avoid having to redownload for them.
   
   1. While the "#% Extracting" window is showing (before it finishes), go to window (Task) with that title, then right click on it > select "Go to Process" then right click again and select "Open File Location"
   2. If wasn't able to do this before extracting finished, you can start over (web installer shouldn't redownload anything), or just find the most recent folder at a path such as the following on Vista: C:\Users\{Your User Name}\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD{***}.tmp
   3. the web installer (shouldn't need to redownload),
3. Distribute this folder (and all files in it) to your other machine(s) and run the setup.exe file found in it.

If you are just interested in full installer for other reasons, then you could do the following for this release (though not suggested):

1. Run the web installer to install prerequisites (unless positive specific versions are already installed), then exit while Visual3D is downloading.
2. Then you could download and run the admin installation package found here (for this release, though the URL differs for each release version):
   http://webinstall.visual3d.net/Prere...e-v0.9.6.3.exe

Also, if an organization is interested in a different deployment model for many machines beyond web installer or admin installation described here, then they can email sales@visual3d.net to discuss further options.