game crashes in a very mysterious way upon launch

[Mute]

every time i open the game and sit through the loading screen the game freezes and crashes after the "logging into (ubisoft username)"
however when i launch the game and i alt tab (basically not looking at it) it fully loads up to the main menu where it crashes when i press continue for the campaign however if i press on continue and then alt tab the game fully loads up and works flawlessly

i'm on a laptop with RTX 3060 6 vram and Intel i5 12500H
windows 11, launching with -dx11 does not help, deleting the settings file in c:user\documents\my games\watch dogs legion helped only once but no longer helps with crashes
the game usually runs at 110+ fps on high settings and only 5 vram is being taken
i have ram to spare, cpu doesn't hit 100% nor does the gpu hit 100%
im stunned

[KenTWOu]

Wow! I have a feeling that it might be Ubisoft Connect related issue, because its overlay starts right after the game starts.

Try to disable Ubisoft Connect overlay, Steam overlay. Xbox overlay, basically any overlay you have on your system. Try to launch Ubisoft Connect with admin rights at least once, try to launch it in offline mode and see what happens, or try to reinstall it downloading it from Ubi site[www.ubisoft.com].

[Mute]

Originally posted by KenTWOu:

Wow! I have a feeling that it might be Ubisoft Connect related issue, because its overlay starts right after the game starts.

Try to disable Ubisoft Connect overlay, Steam overlay. Xbox overlay, basically any overlay you have on your system. Try to launch Ubisoft Connect with admin rights at least once, try to launch it in offline mode and see what happens, or try to reinstall it downloading it from Ubi site[www.ubisoft.com].

I'm really trying to avoid reinstalling it because its 110gb, launching the game with admin perms didn't work, and at first after disabling the overlay it seemed to work and booted up (even giving me a boost in fps surprisingly) however the game crashed in about 5 minutes of game time which I spent customizing my character, I have been previously able to get in the game and it randomly crashes, mainly when using fast travel to the dedsec hideout, but it has also happened when I'm doing literally anything.
I have contacted ubisoft support and I'm waiting for a reply, if all fails I'll resort to reinstalling and if that still fails, I hope I can get a refund.
I was actually enjoying the game too, can't believe watch dogs 1 runs better than legions

[KenTWOu]

Originally posted by Mute:

I'm really trying to avoid reinstalling it because its 110gb,

First of all, I'm talking about downloading and reinstalling Ubisoft Connect only. There is no need to redownload the entire game, just verifying the game files is enough to force its reinstalling, including all software it needs like DirectX, VC redistributable.
Second, you can manually delete ultra textures and all language packs you don't need and the game will take about 58 Gb of your drive after that.

Originally posted by Mute:

launching the game with admin perms didn't work,

You need to launch Ubisoft Connect with admin rights or better launch Steam, Ubi Connect and the game with admin rights at least once.

Originally posted by Mute:

however the game crashed in about 5 minutes of game time which I spent customizing my character, I have been previously able to get in the game and it randomly crashes, mainly when using fast travel to the dedsec hideout, but it has also happened when I'm doing literally anything.

Make sure you don't have those infamous ray tracing related crashes on Nvidia cards. At least temporarily disable Ray Traced Reflections in video/quality options or switch to DX11 until you fix your launch crashes. Use -dx11 or -dx12 via Steam to switch between renderers faster.

Originally posted by Mute:

can't believe watch dogs 1 runs better than legions

Legion is way more demanding and less polished.

[Mute]

Originally posted by KenTWOu:

Originally posted by Mute:

I'm really trying to avoid reinstalling it because its 110gb,

First of all, I'm talking about downloading and reinstalling Ubisoft Connect only. There is no need to redownload the entire game, just verifying the game files is enough to force its reinstalling, including all software it needs like DirectX, VC redistributable.
Second, you can manually delete ultra textures and all language packs you don't need and the game will take about 58 Gb of your drive after that.

Originally posted by Mute:

launching the game with admin perms didn't work,

You need to launch Ubisoft Connect with admin rights or better launch Steam, Ubi Connect and the game with admin rights at least once.

Originally posted by Mute:

however the game crashed in about 5 minutes of game time which I spent customizing my character, I have been previously able to get in the game and it randomly crashes, mainly when using fast travel to the dedsec hideout, but it has also happened when I'm doing literally anything.

Make sure you don't have those infamous ray tracing related crashes on Nvidia cards. At least temporarily disable Ray Traced Reflections in video/quality options or switch to DX11 until you fix your launch crashes. Use -dx11 or -dx12 via Steam to switch between renderers faster.

Originally posted by Mute:

can't believe watch dogs 1 runs better than legions

Legion is way more demanding and less polished.

First off, I want to thank you for trying to help me and second, I did have ray tracing on, and after disabling it and switching to dx11, the game is still crashing on the loading screen where it says "logging into (ubisoft username)" however that happens only when the game is focused, while the window isn't focused the game does load into the main menu, but then crashes when I try to press on continue

[KenTWOu]

Originally posted by Mute:

the game is still crashing on the loading screen where it says "logging into (ubisoft username)" however that happens only when the game is focused, while the window isn't focused the game does load into the main menu, but then crashes when I try to press on continue

I think that it's very important for you to reinstall Ubisoft Connect launcher. Download it from Ubisoft site[www.ubisoft.com] and install it. Don't do anything else during installation, because there should be one or two pop ups when you have to confirm admin rights for installation. And then just launch Ubisoft Connect alone without the game, and see if everything in it works properly.

I have a feeling that your issues are related to Ubisoft Connect and its overlay or conflicts with other overlays, that's why disabling the overlay helped. That's just a theory, but when you launch the game it writes/reads your savegame information from this folder:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames\...\7017\
1.save is your main profile save.
2.save is the 1st savegame slot, etc, etc.

So when the game says "logging into (ubisoft username)", it reads and syncs 1.save file, when you try to press continue, it tries to read 2.save file or another slot you're using. And it sounds like the game can't read those files properly, because Ubisoft Connect doesn't have necessary rights or something.

Originally posted by Mute:

deleting the settings file in c:user\documents\my games\watch dogs legion helped only once

Try to delete pipelinecache folder there, it might also help with some crashes.

Originally posted by Mute:

however that happens only when the game is focused, while the window isn't focused the game does load into the main menu, but then crashes when I try to press on continue

No idea why it behaves like that.

Originally posted by Mute:

I did have ray tracing on, and after disabling it and switching to dx11, the game is still crashing...

Just in case, Nvidia changed something in their drivers more than a year ago, and the game started to crash each time you destroy a riot drone in the game or when you change specific clothes. It's like it can't render some materials, I don't know. I have an AMD card. Disabling Ray Traced Reflections usually helped to fix that issue. Besides that DX11 is just more stable in this game.

[Mute]

turns out it was the game booster my pc recommended me to install, after disabling the boost for watch dogs legion it stopped crashing when it reaches "logging as (ubisoft username)" however it now crashes when I press on continue (however it doesn't crash when the game is out of focus), but then I get constant stutter rendering the game unplayable

[KenTWOu]

Originally posted by Mute:

it was the game booster my pc recommended me to install, after disabling the boost... I get constant stutter rendering the game unplayable

You're on a laptop, so you have to do everything manually, turn on high performance power plan, make sure that the game is using RTX 3060 and not an Integrated GPU, limit in-game fps (48 - 75 range) to not overheat it, turn on Vsync, use lower settings, etc.

Originally posted by Mute:

it now crashes when I press on continue (however it doesn't crash when the game is out of focus)

You probably have a common issue someone else has but with other games. I would recommend you to google that. No idea what to do next, other than to try to change the game window mode like windowed, borderless or fullscreen.

[Mute]

Originally posted by KenTWOu:

Originally posted by Mute:

it was the game booster my pc recommended me to install, after disabling the boost... I get constant stutter rendering the game unplayable

You're on a laptop, so you have to do everything manually, turn on high performance power plan, make sure that the game is using RTX 3060 and not an Integrated GPU, limit in-game fps (48 - 75 range) to not overheat it, turn on Vsync, use lower settings, etc.

Originally posted by Mute:

it now crashes when I press on continue (however it doesn't crash when the game is out of focus)

You probably have a common issue someone else has but with other games. I would recommend you to google that. No idea what to do next, other than to try to change the game window mode like windowed, borderless or fullscreen.

thanks for helping me along man, turns out it was my anti virus screwing things up (i don't know why) after I closed it, the game just magically ran even on dx12 with ray tracing