Game is unplayable

[kdx7214]

I've done a standard installation. No mods. Nothing special. I have a high end rig (16-core/32-thread cpu, 32gb ram, rtx-2080, 4k monitor). If I'm able to get into the game at all there is horrible lag. As in it waits over a second between frames in animations. I've lowered the settings down as low as they will go and same result. I've verified files through Steam. I've installed the newest NVidia drivers.

After a while of lagging, the game just randomly crashes and I send the debug report to Paradox. I've tried everything I can think of and some stuff from the forums and nothing has helped.

So what am I supposed to do to get this working?

 

[AndrewT]

Our similar game crusader Kings 2 is free to play on Steam now. Does it have the same problem?


Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user_empire_designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, before installing again.


If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log .

 

[kdx7214]

Windows Defender is completely disabled. There is no anti-virus installed. I've done clean reinstalls three different times to no avail. I tried both the DX9 and DX11 (beta) video settings with no detectable different. The shadercache folder in Documents/Paradox.../Stellaris is causing problems. If I remove that directory I can at least get in and play for a little while.

I've not yet had the chance to try CK install. Not sure what good that will do since it's a completely different game, but will try when I can.

Edit: I set the version back to 2.8.1 and it works just fine. Something in the newer releases is bugged.

 

[AndrewT]

The shadercache folder in Documents/Paradox.../Stellaris is causing problems. If I remove that directory I can at least get in and play for a little while.

Between this and what we see in that error.log I am sure this is a video/graphics issue, but why you are seeing it and others are not I cannot see just yet.

In that dxdiag we see several hangs and crashes in stellaris.exe , and also several LiveKernelEvent entries. They happen when the machine or Windows is forced down or rebooted. Are you seeing those? Are they associated with this game or something else?

Are there any entries in the Windows Event Viewer around the time of those LiveKernelEvent ?

 

[kdx7214]

I found a "solution" for this. If you install the NVidia drivers (newest right now) without GeForce Experience then the game does this. However, if you install GeForce Experience and tell it to optimize the game settings, it suddenly works. So basically to make the game work you have to rely on someone else's utility to fix it.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm sure most nVidia users run the game with GeForce Experience loaded. Whether that means it is actively optimising its settings for this game, or that is something you'd need to enable somewhere, I don't know enough about nVidia stuff to say.

But I'm pretty sure that is not a normal requirement to get decent performance from this game! Can you see what actual changes GeForce Experience is making to the settings for this game?