Game Startup Troubleshooting

[torcht]

If you're having trouble when starting up Distance, here are a few things you should try before reporting your issue on our bug reporting page[refract.uservoice.com].

Validate the Integrity of Your Game Cache

Important: After making any of changes below, be sure to verify the integrity of the game cache in Steam:

• Open Steam
  
• Select Library tab
  
• Right-Click on Distance
  
• Select Properties
  
• Select the Local Files tab
  
• Click the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache…" button
  
• Allow the validation process to complete

Update Your GPU Drivers

Before running Distance you need to be sure that your PC has the current graphics drivers. Here are links for obtaining the most up-to-date drivers for each manufacturer:

• Intel - https://downloadcenter.intel.com/
  
• NVIDIA - http://nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
  
• AMD - http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Update your Operating System

• Since many drivers require the lastest version of an operating system to run optimally, be sure to update your Windows, Mac, or Linux installation. For example, on Windows you can use "Windows Update." In our recent tests, Distance runs on the latest versions of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, OS X El Capitan, and Ubuntu 16.04.

Download/Install Microsoft C++ Packages

On Windows, Distance requires components from the following C++ packages to run properly. If upon starting Distance gets stuck on a black screen or won't load the main menu, it's very possible that you don't have the latest x86 versions installed.

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999
  
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (x86) - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3179560/update-for-visual-c-2013-and-visual-c-redistributable-package

Reinstalling/Repairing DirectX 11.0

On Windows, Distance uses DirectX 11.0 by default. Be sure your DirectX install is up to date.

• DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

Force Distance to run in DirectX 9.0c

On Windows, Distance will run in DirectX 11 by default. If you've tried everything above, you can attempt to force Distance to run in DirectX 9.

• Open Steam
  
• Select the Library tab
  
• Right-Click on Distance
  
• Select Properties
  
• Select the General tab (usually open by default)
  
• Click the "Set Launch Options..." button
  
• Enter "-force-d3d9" to use DirectX 9
  
• Click OK

Setting Steam to Run as Administrator

• Navigate to your Steam folder, right-click Steam.exe, click Properties
  
• Select the Compatibility tab
  
• Under Privilege Level, check "Run this program as an administrator"
  
• Click Apply/OK

Setting Distance to Run as Administrator

• Navigate to the Steam Library folder
  
• Navigate to the path: \steamapps\common\Distance\
  
• Right-click Distance.exe
  
• Select Properties
  
• Click Compatibility tab
  
• Check "Run this program as an administrator"
  
• Click Apply/OK

If after all of that Distance still doesn't run, please report your issue along with your system specs and an output log on our bug reporting page. Also be sure to mention that you tried everything on this page. We'll respond as soon as possible.

https://refract.uservoice.com/forums/217549-bug-reports

[Californ1a]

The above-listed Uservoice site has been closed. To get help now, either make a new Discussion thread with your output log uploaded somewhere and linked to, or join the community Discord server[discord.gg] for a faster response.

Output log location:

• Windows: "[SteamFolder]/steamapps/common/Distance/Distance_Data/output_log.txt"
  
• Mac: "/Users/[username]/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log"
  
• Linux: "/home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Refract/Distance/Player.log"

Make sure the issue happened the last time you opened the game, since the log clears itself when you reopen it. Upload it anywhere you can (pastebin, google drive, etc.) and link to it in your thread, or upload it directly in the Discord server.

Remove Documents folder from OneDrive

Adding on to this the OneDrive issue, which seems to be common in newer Windows installs, with OneDrive enabled by default:

If you look in the output log, located at:
"[SteamFolder]/steamapps/common/Distance/Distance_Data/output_log.txt"

And see a line similar to:
"IOException: Win32 IO returned 362. Path: C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\Distance\Profiles\NAME.xml"

Then your Documents folder is being managed by OneDrive and the game can't read from its save folder. To remove your Documents folder from OneDrive, either:

1. Change OneDrive "set where your files are saved" settings to "this pc" instead of onedrive: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/files-save-to-onedrive-by-default-in-windows-10-33da0077-770c-4bda-b61e-8c8e8ca70ac7
   
2. Manual solution if #1 doesn't work: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2936105/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows