Master Troubleshooting Guide

[Cloaked]

I went through the homeworld remastered tech support threads on Gearbox forums from 2015-2019, and combined the solutions into one guide. I've listed all the known solutions to crashing, graphic issues, audio issues, and multiplayer syncing - so look no further!

Crashing (Launcher, Remastered, and Classics)

- Verify game cache: Steam Library->Right Click on the game->Properties->Local Files->Verify Integrity of game cache
- Uninstall and re-install homeworld: Steam Libary->Right Click on the game->Properties->Local Files->Delete local game content, then install again. Ensure your anti-virus software is disabled during installation.
- Restart your PC after installing the game
- Restart your steam client
- Enable compatibility settings on each game's exe, for example:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe
right click->Properties->Compatibility->Run this program as an administrator and Run this program in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows.
- Exclude the games in your anti-virus, and optionally temporarily disable anti-virus for testing.
- Disable any overclocking software, especially GPU overclocking software.
- Uninstall your graphic drivers, restart, then install the latest graphic drivers clean
- In your graphics software, ensure the game uses your graphics card rather than your integrated graphics.
- Reinstall your audio drivers and software
- Update your Microsoft .NET framework
- Update your Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables
- As a last resort reinstall windows fresh, old drivers could be corrupted due to a bad shutdown, bad windows upgrade, etc. Additionally you may have a hardware issue like a bad power supply.
- See the other sections below.

Crashing (Launcher)

When you start the Homeworld Remastered Collection, the Launcher opens first. If the launcher is crashing:
- Enable compatibility settings on the launcher located here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HWLauncher\Launcher.exe
right click->Properties->Compatibility->Run this program as an administrator and Run this program in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows.
- If your subscribed to a lot of mods, the mod menu may not work correctly. Try unsubscribing from all the mods you don't use very often.
- If the launcher application wont start, you can create shortcuts to run the games directly:
- - HW Remastered Multiplayer:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe"
- - HW 1 Remastered Campaign:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe" -dlccampaign HW1Campaign.big -campaign HomeworldClassic -moviepath DataHW1Campaign
- - HW 2 Remastered Campaign:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe" -dlccampaign HW2Campaign.big -campaign Ascension -moviepath DataHW2Campaign
- - HW 2 Classic:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\Homeworld2Classic\Bin\Release\homeworld2.exe"
- - HW 1 Classic:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\Homeworld1Classic\exe\Homeworld.exe"

Crashing (Remastered)

- Remastered often crashes with an "Access Violation" error. This is a generic crash that can be caused by tones of issues.
- Player profile can get corrupted, delete it from:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Profiles\Profile#"
- Delete left-over files from old patches:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\DATAUPDATES\"
This folder should only contain 'DataMP.big' as of HWR v2.1
- Be sure the DLC campaigns downloaded from steam
- Debugging clues: Go to your Steam Library and right click on Homeworld Remastered Collection. Click Properties, click Set Launch Options, and type in the following without the quotes "-luatrace". Play the game until you crash. Go to:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HwRM.log"
Open the log file in notepad and review the bottom of the log for any clues. Be sure to save a copy of the log, as its over-written the next time you start the game.

Graphic Issues (Remastered, Homeworld 2 Classic)

- Set all graphic options to their lowest settings, and slowly turn things back on. Especially the texture size! (most people should use 1024 or 2048)
- Depth of Field can cause low FPS while focusing on ships.
- Change frame sync/v-sync graphic options.
- For multi-monitor setups, press Ctrl+F11 to bind/unbind the mouse to HWR
- If your mouse clicks aren't registering on certain areas of the screen/menus, try pressing Alt+Tab or restarting the game. This is likely caused by overlay software.
- Disable any graphic overlay software: MSI afterburner, ATI afterburner, Raptr, Overwolf, AMD gaming evolved, GeForce Experience, Windows game bar, Steam Overlay, etc. These can cause mouse click issues, FPS issues, and memory leaks.
- To fix very low FPS issues go to your Steam Library and right click on Homeworld Remastered Collection. Click Properties, click Set Launch Options, and type in the following without the quotes "-onethread". Then open Windows Task Manager->Details->Right click HWR->Set Affinity->Select only one core. Note HWR is a single core game.
- If FPS significantly drops after 10+mins of gameplay, lower your mouse polling rate from 1000 to 125.
- Try an older graphic driver that may be more stable. (Note: for Windows 7 64-bit with RX470: use AMD driver version 17, NOT earlier ones.) (Note: HWR runs OpenGL 3.3 not DirectX)
- You can also mess with your ATI/Nvidia control panel application specific settings.
- In the NVIDIA control panel, make sure the game is using the NVidia card, and not an integrated graphics card on the motherboard. Go to Manage 3D settings > Global Settings > Preferred Graphics Processor and select Nvidia processor.
- Right click on the following file, click properties, and click compatibility. Disable display scaling for high DPI settings.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Release\HomeworldRM.exe

Audio Issues (Remastered)

- Disable sound for testing: Go to your Steam Library and right click on Homeworld Remastered Collection. Click Properties, click Set Launch Options, and type in the following without the quotes "-nosound". This will disable sound completely and can help narrow down a crash to an audio issue.
- Reinstall your audio drivers and any extra audio software. Some audio drivers and software do not work with HWR, so you may need to try different versions/alternatives. Many people have reported some sounds not working, while other sounds do work, and crashing when certain audio is triggered.
- Go here:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Profiles\Profile1\PLAYERCFG.LUA"
Open the file in notepad and change sfxChannels to 1. I use 16, but apparently that resets to 0 for some people and causes issues.
-Switch to a different audio port/speaker. Try line out if you're having issues with HDMI audio.

Syncing in Skirmish/Multiplayer (Remastered)

- Wifi drops packets and can cause syncs and disconnects in HWR. If at all possible, connect your PC to the internet via an ethernet cable for a stable connection.
- Your FPS should never dip below 20fps or you risk syncing out of multiplayer games. HWR needs to run 20fps or more for MP, because that's the rate used for the world-sim. (To enable FPS display, go to Steam Settings->In-Game->FPS counter). 3v3's can make even the best PC's cry. All CPU's struggle when there's a lot of ships in the game (HWR is still a single core game), and most video cards can't handle HWR when textures from all 4 races are loaded.
- If keeping your current hardware, you may need to set all the graphic options to the lowest settings and even lower your resolution.
- Upgrade your PC. This is a single core game, so you want a great cpu for single threaded applications. This list ranks them: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html Graphics cards aren't as important if you set all your graphics low, but if you want to set them high you'll need a good card with 4GB of memory to handle textures from all 4 races. Also the game only uses 2GB of RAM, so that's not very important. This is the setup I run, and big 3v3 battles can still take it down to 25fps at 1080p with all graphic options near their lowest settings: i5-4690 3.5 ghz quad core, 8 GB RAM, Radeon R9 380.

Crashing (Homeworld 2 Classic)

- Add -nopbuffer to the command line arguments by going to Steam Library->Right Click on the game->Properties->Set Launch options. Or create a shortcut:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\Homeworld2Classic\Bin\Release\homeworld2.exe" -nopbuffer
- If -nopbuffer doesn't work, then remove that command line and download an older version of atioglxx.dll instead from here:
http://www.moddb.com/games/homeworld-remastered/addons/homeworld-2-classic-crash-fix-atioglxx-fixzip
- - Place the driver here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\Homeworld2Classic\Bin\Release\
- If you have invisible or blocky ships, try the -noVBO command line
- For other graphic issues or camera/movement lag try: enabling Vsync, turn detail geometry off, set hyperspace quality to low, and enable wait for vertical refresh.
- Player profile can get corrupted, delete it from:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Homeworld\Homeworld2Classic\Bin\Profiles\Profile#"

Gearbox Support

- Help articles: https://support.gearboxsoftware.com/hc/en-us/categories/200330450-Homeworld-Remastered-Collection
- Create a ticket: https://gearboxsoftware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Game Bugs

- Check out the community created 2.3 Players Patch which addresses many HWR bugs.

[Cloaked]

Just updated this to include some additional tips.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Homeworld 2 dll link is broken.

[Cloaked]

@Commisar - Couldn't find another easy download location, so I just uploaded the dll to ModDB. I also fixed the link to the download from AMD.

[ibnuiwan]

can I put a bookmark on certain discussion thread ?
Hard to find which I needed, because cannot save the thread,

[Cloaked]

@Nuhas - I don't think steam has that feature. But the thread pinned in the HWR Technical Support forum, has a link to this thread.

[Powall]

Sudden extreme framedrop in Homeworld Remastered fixed!!

Tried to find a solution to this problem for months and finally I solved it!!!! The trick below fixed it for me:

- Try setting the game's affinity to one core in the Windows Task Manager process list. You can do this by adding “-onethread” to the Launch Options in the Properties for Homeworld Remastered inside Steam.

Found the solution in this thread: https://gearboxsoftware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205282200-General-PC-Troubleshooting-

Please PIN THIS!
/ XTC

[Cloaked]

@Powall - Good find.

[W1SE 9UY]

Anyone experienced a glitch in Mission 11 (Homeworld 2 Remastered single-player campaign) where the wreckage, mission items, and enemies won't spawn? Sent ships and probes all over the nebula, but there is nothing there but me. Looking at videos online I can see that the bulk of the wreckage of the Bentusi ship is supposed to be there, but it disappears as soon as the mission starts. I also keep hearing enemy hyperspace notifications, but there are none present on the entire map. Can't seem to progress further in the campaign as a result...

[Cloaked]

@W1SE 9UY - In Steam, verify integrity of the game files. Restart mission ten from the start and play through it, and then hopefully mission eleven will load correctly.

[CPU8]

Good stuff

[VALOR]

My game keeps crashing every time I start a player vs CPU match

[Cloaked]

@VALOR - What steps from this guide have you tried to fix it?

[Echo]

It's been ages, but I recall having an identical issue. Check that you have a player profile and that it is not corrupted, then, uh... visit the setting menu, maybe change something there, orplay a single mission, I don't recall if all of them or just one or two creates a new player profile. You should be able to play skirmishes then.

[Planewalker]

Today i found a permanent fix for the borderline ancient "intermittent/lagging sound" issue:
(something wonky w the sound codecs/compression most likely)

Switched the sound from HDMI to line out/audio connector on the rear of the PC.
-both sfx and music now plays without pause/breaks.

cheers

[Cloaked]

@Planewalker - Great tip, I just added it to the guide.