SOLUTION: AC games won't launch when installed on Windows Storage Spaces

[Creamy Jordy]

Hey all. I did a lot of research on this problem and couldn't find any answers, so I did some experiments and wanted to share the results with the community.

A cursory examination of Internet forums indicates that quite a large number of people have had problems with games from the Assassin’s Creed series not launching when they are installed to pools managed by Windows Storage Spaces, a feature that was introduced in Windows 8. The proposed solutions have always involved reinstalling the affected game on a non-Storage Spaces drive. These are untenable for a couple reasons, most notably that many people often have their OS installed on a small, fast SSD, which lacks the space for entire game installations (Assassin’s Creed Unity, for example, is over 50 GB), and have their large data drives transparently managed by Storage Spaces. After some trial and error, I’ve determined that the cause of the problem is the games’ sound files; apparently, they really don’t like living on Storage Spaces. Fortunately, there’s a relatively simple workaround: we can store the sound files on drives not managed by Windows Storage Spaces, then use junctions and/or symbolic links to point to those files. If everything is done correctly, the games will launch and there won’t be any issues, since as far as the game logic is concerned, all the file paths are correct.

I’ll be using Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut, Assassin’s Creed Unity and AC Origins as examples of the procedure. All Assassin’s Creed games except for the original use the same procedure as Unity/Origins.

In Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut, there are a total of six (6) files, totalling 1.03 GB, that need to be moved. They are .FORGE files located in the Assassin’s Creed\ directory, all of which contain DataPC_StreamedSounds in their filenames. The .FORGE extension is also shared with map files and other game logic, so care must be taken to ensure that only the sound files are relocated.

In Assassin’s Creed Unity, there are a total of 54 files, totalling 6.78 GB, that need to be moved. They are .PCK files, all of which are located the Assassin’s Creed Unity\sounddata\ directory (the entire directory can be moved). In addition, the Dead Kings DLC requires moving ten (10) files, totalling 374 MB. They are .PCK files located in the directories Assassin’s Creed Unity\dlc_10\ and Assassin’s Creed Unity\dlc_11\. Unlike Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut, no other file types appear to share the sound files’ extension, .PCK.

In Assassin's Creed Origins the only sound files of the game (at this moment) are in the sounddata folder *in the future sound files may be added to dlc folders* but at this moment, all you have to do for Origins is junction the whole sounddata folder and you'll be good to go.

While all the necessary tasks can be performed with cmd or PowerShell, I highly recommend the use of the Link Shell Extension, a program which integrates symbolic link creation into File Explorer, which can greatly reduce the time and complexity involved for users who aren’t overly familiar with the command line. The download website covers all of the operations needed to perform this fix. TL;DR: use junctions to link to entire folders, and use symbolic links to link to individual files.

For additional space savings, you can remove all language files (eg: eng, bra, ger, fre, ita, spa) except for your preferred language. This will save around 3 GB on Unity, for example.

So the basic procedure is:
1. Copy the sound files over to a drive that isn’t managed by Storage Spaces( aka your C: drive)
2. Drop symlinks/junctions to the sound files in the game installation folder

This will take about 6-10 gigs of space on your C drive depending on which AC it is. Unity being the heaviest so far.

There you have it. I can’t think of a logical reason as to why the games should fail to launch while their sound files are contained on Windows Storage Space drives, so this is definitely something Ubisoft needs to look into, but the solution is pretty straightforward. Thankfully, all of the sound files are clearly labeled as such( .PCK) , so there’s no guesswork involved.

Hope this helps, as I've noticed a TON of mentions of this problem with no solutions. Get your♥♥♥♥♥♥together Ubisoft.

[Victoria Raverna]

I'm surprised that a lot of people are using windows storage spaces.

[Creamy Jordy]

Originally posted by Victoria Raverna:

I'm surprised that a lot of people are using windows storage spaces.

For most it's just an automatic thing that they can't change. Either way how Ubisoft never addressed this is beyond me.

[Creamy Jordy]

Bumping this as people still having trouble with the game loading. This solution still works and it's not hard at all once you understand the steps.

[Hooman]

Bro my game also wont launch it appears on Task manager for some time and disappear

[Salvurion]

It worked!!!!!!!! idk how much i can tank you. thanks thanks thanks tanks
Edit: nvm it stoped working when it says "checking for additional content
Edit2: there where some soud files in dlc_29 i have it fixed now :D

[Benoire]

Hi sorry to bring this back from the dead, I bought AC Origins some time ago including the Season Pass but have only just started to try and play it. I use Windows Storage Spaces to give larger drives that works for all types of installation (MS Store games won't work with other drive spanning software) and I came across the issue with AC Origins not loading.

I've installed link extensions and I can now get the game to load up but it crashes when looking for extra content. Does anybody know which DLC files are sound files so I can transfer them to my C drive and symlink them? I tried DLC_29 but it still not working and the remaining two DLC folders are quite large.

Thanks,

Chris

[Drimizi]

Wow thats... just how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ is Ubisofts programmers? Thanks for your work and all, and while I can do this to fix it, I'd rather just get a refund. Holy ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Creamy Jordy]

BUMP. Ubisoft mods need to pin this post. As for me, won't be buying any Ubi titles for PC anymore. It's sad they refuse to acknowledge this issue which pops up literally everyday in the forums.

[Kidm0bius]

Originally posted by Benoire:

Hi sorry to bring this back from the dead, I bought AC Origins some time ago including the Season Pass but have only just started to try and play it. I use Windows Storage Spaces to give larger drives that works for all types of installation (MS Store games won't work with other drive spanning software) and I came across the issue with AC Origins not loading.

I've installed link extensions and I can now get the game to load up but it crashes when looking for extra content. Does anybody know which DLC files are sound files so I can transfer them to my C drive and symlink them? I tried DLC_29 but it still not working and the remaining two DLC folders are quite large.

Thanks,

Chris

dlc_21
dlc_22
dlc_25
dlc_26
dlc_29
dlc_30
sounddata

you only need to move the sound files not the forge files.

im doing it atm and just got done moving them all. hope it helps

[Benoire]

I ended up using a spare 120GB SSD and moving the entire installation to it from the storage spaces managed drives; works fine now.

[Valtrex]

I'm still having this issue and have tried everything. I don't believe the game is on a drive managed by windows storage spaces, it's on a RAID that I setup manually. Any advice?

[Lhosson]

Originally posted by 2.FJgValtrex-MP:

I'm still having this issue and have tried everything. I don't believe the game is on a drive managed by windows storage spaces, it's on a RAID that I setup manually. Any advice?

I just tried moving the game from my SSD RAID that was setup with Windows Drive Spaces, to my M.2 single drive, and it's working. Perhaps it's not just MS Drive Spaces, but RAID in general.

Amazing that Ubisoft could let this slip through development testing.

[Snip]

Originally posted by Herbaceous:

Originally posted by 2.FJgValtrex-MP:

I'm still having this issue and have tried everything. I don't believe the game is on a drive managed by windows storage spaces, it's on a RAID that I setup manually. Any advice?

I just tried moving the game from my SSD RAID that was setup with Windows Drive Spaces, to my M.2 single drive, and it's working. Perhaps it's not just MS Drive Spaces, but RAID in general.

Amazing that Ubisoft could let this slip through development testing.

How developers could know that you will be using MS Drive Spaces or what ever that is ?!
The game suppose to be installed on one partition and better if on the same drive there Uplay Steam client are .
I have only OS and essential programs on C drive, all games and game clients are on separate partition drives D,E
Never had any issues like that in the thread.

[Lhosson]

Originally posted by Snip:

Originally posted by Herbaceous:

I just tried moving the game from my SSD RAID that was setup with Windows Drive Spaces, to my M.2 single drive, and it's working. Perhaps it's not just MS Drive Spaces, but RAID in general.

Amazing that Ubisoft could let this slip through development testing.

How developers could know that you will be using MS Drive Spaces or what ever that is ?!
The game suppose to be installed on one partition and better if on the same drive there Uplay Steam client are .
I have only OS and essential programs on C drive, all games and game clients are on separate partition drives D,E
Never had any issues like that in the thread.

MS Drive Spaces is just a software version of RAID. RAID has been around for more than a decade (maybe even two decades) and is very commonly used on decent gaming computers because it significantly increased performance with disk drives. It's just harder to find a motherboard with hardware RAID these days, so using MS Drive Spaces is simply a convenient solution as it comes built into Windows 8 and 10.

MS Drive Spaces is not as complicated as it sounds.

I'm confident Ubisoft employ programmers that have even a simple understanding of RAID/Drive Spaces.

[Valtrex]

Originally posted by Snip:

Originally posted by Herbaceous:

I just tried moving the game from my SSD RAID that was setup with Windows Drive Spaces, to my M.2 single drive, and it's working. Perhaps it's not just MS Drive Spaces, but RAID in general.

Amazing that Ubisoft could let this slip through development testing.

How developers could know that you will be using MS Drive Spaces or what ever that is ?!
The game suppose to be installed on one partition and better if on the same drive there Uplay Steam client are .
I have only OS and essential programs on C drive, all games and game clients are on separate partition drives D,E
Never had any issues like that in the thread.

Mine is on a single partition on my RAID array which is also where Uplay is. As the previous comment stated. RAID is very common and has been around since at least the early 2000s. It's still pretty common to find motherboards that support at least a few levels of RAID, I have a brand new motherboard that supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. I'm sure Ubisoft uses RAID themselves.