It just won't start on Windows 11

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

I can't get teh game to start on Windows 11. What am I doing wrong?

[LDSO]

You'll have to provide more details about what's going on. Are you getting any kind of error message? What's your setup? Do you have a laptop with Intel Xe graphics, by any chance?

Also – and I'm not saying it's what's happening here, but just mentioning it for everyone reading – sometimes the TRON 2.0 game launcher will appear behind the Steam window and be hidden. Making it look like nothing is happening after you press play. Something everyone should keep an eye out for.

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Oh sorry... really...

There's no message at all. I start it on Steam (using the button in the game page, it reads "start"), then the button changes to a different colour (then it reads "running"). After a few seconds (2 or 3), the button goes back to its original colour (and reads "start" again), like nothing had happened. No screen opens (either in foreground or background).

I have a PC with Windows 11, Core i7, 16GB RAM, RTX3060. All drivers and OS fully up-to-date.

Thanks. Any help is welcome.

[LDSO]

When you clicked Play for the very first time in Steam: Did a window appear that said "Performing first time setup", and at some point another window appeared mentioning .NET Framework 3.5 and asked you to "download and install this feature"?

If you right-click TRON 2.0 in your Steam game library > Click Properties > Click Local Files > Click the Browse buttton . . . when the Windows File Explorer window opens, do you see a bunch of files in the TRON 2.0 folder? Like autoexec.cfg, Game.rez, Game2.rez, installScript.vdf, Lithtech.exe, registry.bat, TRON.exe, TronLauncher.exe, and so on?

Have you used any mods yet, or is this the unmodified version of TRON 2.0?

[The Lab Cat]

Ou, sorry about that. Did this ever get resolved (I cant tell if this is two days or one year old)?

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Originally posted by LDSO:

When you clicked Play for the very first time in Steam: Did a window appear that said "Performing first time setup", and at some point another window appeared mentioning .NET Framework 3.5 and asked you to "download and install this feature"?

If you right-click TRON 2.0 in your Steam game library > Click Properties > Click Local Files > Click the Browse buttton . . . when the Windows File Explorer window opens, do you see a bunch of files in the TRON 2.0 folder? Like autoexec.cfg, Game.rez, Game2.rez, installScript.vdf, Lithtech.exe, registry.bat, TRON.exe, TronLauncher.exe, and so on?

Have you used any mods yet, or is this the unmodified version of TRON 2.0?

Thanks.

No. The windows that popped up were basically PC admin authorizations (which I granted). Nothing about .NET Framework. (I'm getting worried here).

There are some files on the folder, yes. I see all those files mentioned.

No mods, no patches. Unmodified version.

[LDSO]

Originally posted by ANGELICA ZAPATA:

No. The windows that popped up were basically PC admin authorizations (which I granted). Nothing about .NET Framework. (I'm getting worried here).

Sounds like you've gotten past the installation phase. That would be good news.

As it turns out, during "Performing first time setup" aka the installation phase, there's no longer a window appearing about .NET Framework 3.5. It installs silently now. At least, it did that on Windows 11 when I tried it yesterday. (It wasn't like that in the past, though.)

There are some files on the folder, yes. I see all those files mentioned.

Also good to hear.

So after covering the basics of the simplest things that could be wrong (the game didn't install correctly, or maybe there was a problem with your local Steam content delivery server at the time for some reason), I'll make an educated guess about what's going on.

Since you have an Intel CPU, there's a good chance it has integrated graphics. (Though a few Intel CPUs don't, like the ones that have "F" in their part numbers.)

And there's a chance TRON 2.0 is trying to use your Intel integrated graphics when you start it. If so, we want to get it to use your Nvidia RTX 3060 instead.

Go to the Start Menu > Settings > System > Display > Scroll down and select Graphics.

Now scroll down and check if there's an entry named "Client" and it has an icon that says "Lithtech" on it, among the apps listed.

If it's not there, you'll have to add it. Scroll back up and select "Desktop app" under "Add an app" and then click the Browse button. The default location for Lithtech.exe would be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tron 2.0\Lithtech.exe".

After adding it to the list of apps, click the Options button that's part of the Client/Lithtech app entry. You will most likely see two GPUs that can be selected. You want to click the circle beside "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060" and then click the Save button.

Now try playing TRON 2.0 again, and see if the game will start.

You didn't mention which particular Intel Core i7 CPU you have, but if it's a 12th Gen "Alder Lake" or 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" CPU then the integrated graphics will be based on the new Xe architecture.

Intel Xe integrated graphics currently doesn't work well, or at all, with a number of older games. I go into more details about it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/327740/discussions/0/3722819643265314905/#c3722819643265460737

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Originally posted by LDSO:

Originally posted by ANGELICA ZAPATA:

No. The windows that popped up were basically PC admin authorizations (which I granted). Nothing about .NET Framework. (I'm getting worried here).

Sounds like you've gotten past the installation phase. That would be good news.

As it turns out, during "Performing first time setup" aka the installation phase, there's no longer a window appearing about .NET Framework 3.5. It installs silently now. At least, it did that on Windows 11 when I tried it yesterday. (It wasn't like that in the past, though.)

There are some files on the folder, yes. I see all those files mentioned.

Also good to hear.

So after covering the basics of the simplest things that could be wrong (the game didn't install correctly, or maybe there was a problem with your local Steam content delivery server at the time for some reason), I'll make an educated guess about what's going on.

Since you have an Intel CPU, there's a good chance it has integrated graphics. (Though a few Intel CPUs don't, like the ones that have "F" in their part numbers.)

And there's a chance TRON 2.0 is trying to use your Intel integrated graphics when you start it. If so, we want to get it to use your Nvidia RTX 3060 instead.

Go to the Start Menu > Settings > System > Display > Scroll down and select Graphics.

Now scroll down and check if there's an entry named "Client" and it has an icon that says "Lithtech" on it, among the apps listed.

If it's not there, you'll have to add it. Scroll back up and select "Desktop app" under "Add an app" and then click the Browse button. The default location for Lithtech.exe would be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tron 2.0\Lithtech.exe".

After adding it to the list of apps, click the Options button that's part of the Client/Lithtech app entry. You will most likely see two GPUs that can be selected. You want to click the circle beside "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060" and then click the Save button.

Now try playing TRON 2.0 again, and see if the game will start.

You didn't mention which particular Intel Core i7 CPU you have, but if it's a 12th Gen "Alder Lake" or 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" CPU then the integrated graphics will be based on the new Xe architecture.

Intel Xe integrated graphics currently doesn't work well, or at all, with a number of older games. I go into more details about it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/327740/discussions/0/3722819643265314905/#c3722819643265460737

Too bad... mine is Core i7-10700F...

Tried to do that... Managed to add LithTech.exe to the list and choose the dedicated GPU...

Tried to run again... nothing happened...

Gonna give some more details ahead...

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Let me describe exactly what happens:

- I run the game;
-It shows a pop up screen asking for admin authorization (which I grant) to run this: "... \steamservice.exe" /installscript "...\Tron 2.0\runasadmin.vdf" 327740
-It closes pop up
-It shows a second pop up asking for admin authorization (which I grant) to run "...\Tron 2.0\TronLauncher.exe"
-It closes pop up

-Then it repeats the whole process, 1st pop up, 2nd pop up, 1st, 2nd, ... endlessly...

[LDSO]

Yeah . . . with those additional details I know now that you don't have integrated graphics, so unfortunately none of the previous advice applies in this situation. (But the game not starting – particularly if you have Intel Xe integrated graphics, or a dedicated Intel Arc GPU – is something that's been happening more and more lately, as people upgrade.)

What you're describing is rather weird. There was actually an issue with TRON 2.0 on Steam in the past, where lots of people experienced something very similar. But, it was fixed some time ago. As a test, in the past couple of days I downloaded, installed, and played TRON 2.0 from Steam on a laptop I have access to with Windows 11 on it, and it worked fine there. At least, in my case it did.

It almost sounds like the setup process and the TronLauncher executable aren't actually getting the permissions they need, to do what they need to do, even when you grant permission. So they fail, and then you end up in an endless loop.

Have you downloaded, set up, and played any other games on Steam for the first time, lately? If so, how did the process go there?

Do you have any anti-virus/anti-malware/firewall software installed? Like Avast, Avira, Norton, etc. I could see something like that possibly interfering with Steam's attempts to set up TRON 2.0. If so, you might need to temporarily disable that software, or add exceptions to allow Steam to do everything it needs to do.

Also, I wonder if the new Smart App Control feature in Windows 11 has anything to do with this, if it's turned on in your case. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/what-is-smart-app-control-285ea03d-fa88-4d56-882e-6698afdb7003

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Thanks, again.

I install and play games at Steam all the time.No problems at all. I've been an active user for more than a decade.

I temporarely desabled Avast and Malwarebytes. Still the same pattern.

About the Smart App Control... I tried to find it in my PC but can't find anything like it.

Well... I'll just give it up. Too much trouble.

Thank you very very much for all help and tips. @LDSO

[LDSO]

If you can't find anything about Smart App Control, then you must have an earlier version of Windows 11 and we can cross that off the list of potential issues.

One more thing you can try.

Download this replacement TronLauncher.exe: http://tronfaq.blogspot.com/2006/02/all-tron-20-files-in-one-place.html#tronlauncher

Rename the existing TronLauncher.exe to something else in your Tron 2.0 folder, and then copy the TronLauncher.exe you downloaded in its place.

Try playing the game again, and see if this makes any difference.

Beyond that, I'm running out of ideas as to what the problem could be.

I can't really see it being an issue with the game files somehow being corrupt, though I suppose that's still within the realm of possibility. Using Steam's "Clear Download Cache" and "Verify integrity of game files" features might also be worth trying. Also quitting and restarting Steam, in case it's been running for a long time without a restart. (e.g. You put your computer into sleep or hibernation rather than shutting down, and leave Steam running all the time.)

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

About Windows, my version 22H2. I believe it's up-to-date.

I downloaded and replaced TronLauncher.exe. I also read in the blog that it refers to a loop issue. I was so hopeful because it resembled my own issue.

But again the problem remained.

I've checked the files for corruption. Nothing.

During the last few days, I've probably installed and uninstalled Tron 2.0 6 times...

That's ok. These things happen and many can't be explained.

Thnaks so much for all the help!

[LDSO]

I have one last idea about what the problem might be.

At any point, did you play the TRON 2.0 demo before getting the full game?

The demo can leave behind entries in the Windows registry, even after it's been uninstalled. Unfortunately, it uses the exact same registry keys as the full game does.

There's a possibility that one of the entries still points to the install location of the demo, rather than the full game. So every time you try to play TRON 2.0 now, everything Steam does gets directed to the old demo install location. And nothing gets accomplished.

Even if you didn't try the TRON 2.0 demo, I'll still explain how to fix this for anyone else reading.

• Press the Windows key and R simultaneously
  
• In the window that appears, type regedit and press Enter
  
• Copy and paste this into the Registry Editor address bar and press Enter, or navigate to this location:
  

  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Monolith Productions\Tron 2.0\1.0

• Once at this location in the registry, right-click on the installdir registry key and select Delete.
  
• Click Yes to confirm you want to delete the key.

Now try playing TRON 2.0 from Steam again.

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

I've always had the full game. I believe I've never played the demo. Not on this machine. Anyway, I don't have such a key identified as "installdir". I have two keys. Both type "REG_SZ". I have already uninstalled the game and these were left behind. I can't delete any of those two.
I'll install the game again and see which keys show up...
Thank you so much!

[ANGELICA ZAPATA]

Well... reinstalled and checked the registry. The installation path is ok. But the endless loop is here to stay, looks like.

@LDSO, thank you so much for the effort and help. Tron 2.0 community is great!