Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 (353270): Steam fails to install DirectX

[mat8913]

Upon first launching the game, while Steam is "Performing first time setup", an error message is produced: "Unable to find dsetup.dll". Further, once the game launches, the intro screen loops.

In my opinion, the core issue is that Steam fails to install DirectX into the wine prefix. The intro screen looping is merely a symptom of this. Thus, I have renamed this issue accordingly.

Until this is fixed, here's a workaround for the core issue:

1. Open the game folder (Right click > Properties > LOCAL FILES > BROWSE LOCAL FILES)
2. Browse to _CommonRedist/DirectX/Jun2010/ and copy all of the files in this folder
3. Browse back to the game folder and paste
4. Now launch the game again through Steam, and it should work

---

BEFORE THE EDIT:

Here are a couple of relevant comments from issue #189.

nstgc says:

My testing with Neptunia RB3 was less than Stella (pun). It is, in fact, unplayable. The intro loops. As soon as you hit the title screen it starts again.

Lolihunter1337 says:

iirc the intro bug is arround since mid 2015 however easy to work arround with just keep moving in the menu or enter the game and changing stuff afterwards. No idea what’s causing it

As for me, Lolihunter's workaround is effective, but then I don't have sound except in cutscenes. However, it is possible to fix both of these problems just by running winetricks xact_jun2010 in the game's prefix. (related: #54)

[nstgc]

If I recall, Lolihunter's fix requires that you use a 32b bottle, and for that to work you need to force 32b on all bottles.

[mat8913]

@nstgc My fix works without a 32bit prefix, but just an FYI: you don't need to force 32bit on all prefixes to use a 32bit prefix. If you apply this patch to proton, it will still create 64bit prefixes by default, but now it will also run any 32bit prefixes you make manually:

diff --git a/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/proton b/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/proton
index fbb5f87..b9bb661 100755
--- a/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/proton 
+++ b/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/proton 
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ basedir = os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])
 bindir = basedir + "/dist/bin/"
 libdir = basedir + "/dist/lib"
 lib64dir = basedir + "/dist/lib64"
-wine_path = bindir + "/wine64"
+wine_path = bindir + "/wine"
 
 #extract if needed
 dist_lock = FileLock(basedir + "/dist.lock", timeout=-1)

[nstgc]

@mat8913 I'm not interested in building my Proton. Not for one game that I already have running elsewhere. By the way, is there a pull request for that patch?

[mat8913]

@nstgc You don't have to build your own Proton, the patch can be directly applied to "$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 3.7/proton".

[UPDATE: I've just created a pull request containing this patch]

[mat8913]

Another workaround (requires Re;Birth 1):

1. Install Re;Birth 1 and run it once via Steam Play (so that it installs vcredist, DirectX, etc.)
2. If you have ran Re;Birth 3 at some point, move its prefix out of the way (eg. mv ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/353270/pfx ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/353270/pfx.bak)
3. Copy Re;Birth 1's prefix to where Re;Birth 3's prefix should be (eg. cp -r ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/282900/pfx ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/353270/pfx)
4. Now run Re;Birth 3 via Steam Play and it should work!

[mat8913]

I just realized something important! In Windows, PATH is semicolon-separated. So, if you were to put "[path to steam]\Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010" into PATH, it would be interpreted as "[path to steam]\Hyperdimension Neptunia Re" and "Birth3_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010", which is why it can't find dsetup.dll. This also explains why the error does not occur with the first two games, their folder names are "Neptunia Rebirth1" and "Neptunia Rebirth2", this is the only one with a semicolon in the folder name.

[Elmapul]

@mat8913
can you try to run this game again?
many people were able to run it flawless, so the issue that were affecting you may already be fixed.
if so, you can close the issue and open an whitelist request.

[mat8913]

Sorry, I don't have access to Steam right now. A question for the people who are able to run it flawlessly: did you have to use any workarounds, or does it just work? If it just works, then I'll close this issue and you can open a whitelist request.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @Elmapul, @mat8913, in general, you don't need to open a new issue report once a game is working well enough to recommend whitelisting. We just need the current system information, Proton version used to test, and it made explicitly clear that you'd like it whitelisted on this issue report (or you could grab the whitelist request template, copy into the comment box on this issue report, and fill it out).

[CygnusTerminal]

Checking back in, i am having a black screen issue with this game now.
steam-353270.log