Launcher Crash

[Luzilyo]

When trying to start the game via steam, the launcher immediately crashes. There will be like half a second of sound and then nothing more, no picture or other visual representation that the game is running, other than on steam. After the sound from the launcher is gone, it takes about a second for steam to update at which point it will no longer say that the game is running.

The game itself still works, I was able to open and play it successfully via the .exe file, this problem only affects the launcher.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled, verified files, started the game without mods, updated graphics drivers (using the nvidia studio version), set both game and launcher to run as administrator, and disabled the steam overlay. Problem persists.

The only logfiles I have found is one from when I last played the game (sometime during 2023) and one from today, presumably from when I started the game successfully via the .exe, cicumventing the launcher. The launcher crashes themselves seem to not have produced any kind of log file. I'll include the logs I have here anyway, despite them being most likely irrelevant.

output_log (previous).txt - 2023-08-13:
Engine version: 2019.4.40f1
System version: Windows 10 (10.0.19045) 64bit
System memory: 16383 MB
Direct3D:
Version: Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
Vendor: NVIDIA
VRAM: 5980 MB
Driver: 531.79
Game version: 2022.1 Patch 21
Loading save file: La Rochelle - 1941.3 - 1.
Couldn't find object with id 158770 during deserialization. Object of type Transform was expected.

output_log.txt - 2025-04-01:
Initialized Injection Framework in 58927 ms.
Engine version: 2021.3.33f1
System version: Windows 10 (10.0.19045) 64bit
System memory: 16383 MB
Direct3D:
Version: Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER
Vendor: NVIDIA
VRAM: 5966 MB
Driver: 572.83
There can be only one active Event System.
Game version: 2025.1.1

[LVRS95]

Totally a big problem since numerous years (never a fix about will be out).
They are able to do a great game but not to do a launcher working. Never their launcher was working for me, never.

The only way is to be very quick when launcher appears and click on 'play' button (it must be done on one second or launcher would crashes). If you are very quick, game would be starting very well. You can prepare your mouse on bottom-right before launcher appears and click quickly. Sadly, it is the only way.

[Luzilyo]

Originally posted by LVRS95:

Totally a big problem since numerous years (never a fix about will be out).
They are able to do a great game but not to do a launcher working. Never their launcher was working for me, never.

The only way is to be very quick when launcher appears and click on 'play' button (it must be done on one second or launcher would crashes). If you are very quick, game would be starting very well. You can prepare your mouse on bottom-right before launcher appears and click quickly. Sadly, it is the only way.

It is different for me, launcher does not appear at all. It already crashes before I can see anything, only hear the launcher music for a little bit and then it's already gone. Nothing there to click.

[9erRed]

Greetings,

There should be a crash report showing what or why the game crashed.

- That should be more specific as to what went wrong.

[DECAFBAD]

The launher has its own logs, it's in a separate directory.

[LVRS95]

Originally posted by Luzilyo:

Originally posted by LVRS95:

Totally a big problem since numerous years (never a fix about will be out).
They are able to do a great game but not to do a launcher working. Never their launcher was working for me, never.

The only way is to be very quick when launcher appears and click on 'play' button (it must be done on one second or launcher would crashes). If you are very quick, game would be starting very well. You can prepare your mouse on bottom-right before launcher appears and click quickly. Sadly, it is the only way.

It is different for me, launcher does not appear at all. It already crashes before I can see anything, only hear the launcher music for a little bit and then it's already gone. Nothing there to click.

It is strange that no launcher appears in one or two seconds if you hear music 'tadada tadada'. This music is the time for to be very quick with your mouse for to LMB 'play' button inside launcher, before it crashes.

By experience, when I want play this game I hide all the programs at screen on Windows 11. Only my wallpaper and icons are at screen, launcher appears with its music and I LMB 'play' in less than two seconds when launcher appears.

There are numerous topics there about their launcher, since a long time, lol.

[DECAFBAD]

If the launcher crashes, UBOAT autmatically starts. It's a fail safe that allowed UBOAT to be played on Linux before the launcher worked on Proton at all.

[Luzilyo]

Originally posted by DECAFBAD:

If the launcher crashes, UBOAT autmatically starts.

Not true. If the launcher crashes, nothing happens, and steam reports that I am no longer playing the game. The game only starts if I completely bypass the launcher and start the game directly via the .exe file in the install directory. Which isn't really a huge issue, but still kinda sad cuz this prevents me from playing with mods, so, would be glad if there could be a fix. Also, if you know where the launcher logs are located, would you be willing to share that path with me so that I can post them here for further troubleshooting?

[Luzilyo]

Originally posted by 9erRed:

Greetings,

There should be a crash report showing what or why the game crashed.

- That should be more specific as to what went wrong.

Unfortunately I was not able to locate any crash reports related to the launcher. If you know where they are stored, I'd be grateful to know the location and will post them here once I found them.
To reiterate, the game itself runs perfectly fine and without any issues at all, but only if I start it directly via the .exe file. If I try to start it the normal way, the launcher immediately crashes and the game will not start.

[[Z] EMKP]

Whenever I run the application file, the game gets about 5-7 seconds past the PlayWay logo before crashing (the screen was black for the entire 5-7 seconds). Di y'all have this problem? If so did, you overcome it, and if so, how?

[Luzilyo]

Originally posted by Z EMKP:

Whenever I run the application file, the game gets about 5-7 seconds past the PlayWay logo before crashing (the screen was black for the entire 5-7 seconds). Di y'all have this problem? If so did, you overcome it, and if so, how?

No, that issue is completely unrelated to what I was reporting. For me, the game runs perfectly fine and without any issues, it's only the launcher that crashes. If you have a different issue, please make a new thread for that.

[9erRed]

Greetings,

The "launcher" is through Steam, so validate those files to see if there's any steam problems.
- Running the game from it's own exe file operates correctly, so, not a game file issue.

PS: new Nvidia version download avail. as of 16 May.

[[Z] EMKP]

I don't have an Nvidia graphics card

[Luzilyo]

Originally posted by 9erRed:

Greetings,

The "launcher" is through Steam, so validate those files to see if there's any steam problems.
- Running the game from it's own exe file operates correctly, so, not a game file issue.

PS: new Nvidia version download avail. as of 16 May.

I've already validated the files multiple times, as well as doing a complete reinstall of the game, which both didn't help, but I'll try that again. Thanks for the info about the driver updates, I'll check in my nvidia control center thing to see if they've already been downloaded and installed or not.

[Luzilyo]

Update:

Just checked the drivers, according to nvidia app, the drivers that I have installed are from 16th April. When checking for updates, it says that there aren't any. It is worth to note that I am using the studio drivers, as recommended by one of the pinned troubleshooting posts. According to Nvidia those are lagging behind in updates but are more stable, so maybe that's the reason why 16th April are the newest drivers that are available to me. It is also worth noting that this issue was already present long before the 16th april.

I verified the game files via Steam again, which did not solve the issue.

[link]

With issues regarding the launcher

I would recommend trying to start the launcher letting it crash

Then observing the windows event viewer in regards to launcher crashing.

Oftentimes the launcher fails for the following reasons.

.net framework issues on your machine,
Windows, security or third-party security blocking the launcher
The launcher fails to connect to the steam client. However, I don't think this one caused the crash, but I can't be certain for all the cases.