This error can sometimes happen if the game can't compile the DirectX 9 shaders. (Some DirectX 10 and 11 installations don't seem to be fully backwards compatible with DirectX 9.) You can fix that by installing the DirectX 9.0c end user runtimes found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 (It will install the missing bits for DirectX 9).