However, what's the most common
reason for Howler, and how to fix it? Read
on...
When you try to launch PD Howler (or other Project
Dogwaffle software), if it fails with this error:
Unknown Error: Quitting
Then that may indicate that you need to have the
program re-register to Windows. This does not
registration as in a license key thing. It's for
some dll's or other components to be registered in
the Windows system. These components usually get
automagically registered when you first install
the program AND run it straight out of the
installer. This works because the installer has
the power and is enabled to elevate the first
execution of the program as Administrator.
Normally, that's enough, and you won't need to run
it as Administrator anymore. On occasion, however,
it may be necessary to re-register its components,
i.e. to run it as Administrator once again.
That can happen if you install a new version and
keep the old one, such as in a different
installation folder.
It can also happen if you install a version of PD
Artist and a version, same or different, of PD
Howler.
Finally, it can also happen if you install the
same version of Howler, but in different folders.
That'swhat happens when you had installed PD
Howler as purchased from TheBest3D.com or
Squirreldome.com (or Daz3D.com), and then
proceeded with an installation under Steam. The
version installed and run through Steam is
installed in a different location. Thus, both
versions can exist. But only one (the latest one
run as Administrator) will work.
If you've been running the old version and now
installed the Steam version, that Steam version
has the upper hand. It will run fine. If you want
to run the old, non-Steam version, you still can,
but you just have to run it once as Administrator.
From then on, that old version has the upper hand.
That means that you can't run it from Steam
anymore - it will sow the "Unknown Error" upon
launch from Steam.
You just need to run the Steam version as
Administrator once to regain control of the Steam
version. However, You can do that from within the
Steam app.
So, how do ou do it? Simple: you find the
dogwaffle.exe file from the Howler installation
under Steam, and run it manually, as
Administrator.
Here's how:
Uh-Oh - Steam won't launch
PD Howler no more, what gives? It worked a few
days ago.
Find where PD Howler is
installed in Steam
Most likely, your Steam
installation on Windows lives in the 32-bit tree
of Program Files: Program Files
(x86)\Steam
Inside of the Steam folder, find
the steamapps sub-folder:
Digging deeper, open
the common sub-folder:
Keep digging, we're not
done yet: You may have many games here, we
had just Howler. It shows as a folder named
Howler 9.5, but that's probably a typo.
You should have 9.6 if you got it on Steam.
So here we are in the Howler
installation folder under Steam. You'll want to
look for the file named dogwaffle.exe
See the tooltip? It shows the version as 9.6,
Told you so, didn't I?
Ok, so what now? What
next? Well, try to run it the usual way,
double-clicking dogwaffle.exe or right-clicking
it and selecting Open. You will get the same
unexpected error. (I guess you could say that
you can expect the unexpected error.)
So, try right-clicking, and
use Run as Administrator.
This will set things
straight, by re-registering the components that
this installation of Howler needs. You can then
Quit the program the usual way, wait a few
seconds, and launch PD Howler again out of
the Steam app - all good again.
Happy howling! and
thanks for waffling.
Ok, ready to try making clouds? Try this tutorial:
