The game refuses to load

[Pelasgian]

What the title says. It was working great until February, when I installed a new GPU (2080 Super). New drivers etc.

Steps I tried:
- Uninstall and perform a fresh install, after having removed all residual folders from Documents and Steam.
- Removed MSI Afterburner that causes conflicts, plus residual files, registry entries etc.
- Re-installed DirectX and Visual C++, service packs, updates etc.
- Opened settings.txt and edited lines fullscreen=no and borderless=yes
- Set the game in the exceptions of Defender

The best I can get, once I have a fresh, clean reinstall, it loads the launcher, the loading art while preparing the game, and it gets me to the menu to start a single player game, at which point it crashes, with no message.

 

[AndrewT]

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

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-CK2
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/CK2 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK2 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add ck2game.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 make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK2 or Documents CK2 locations, before installing again.

Also if you have installed RivaTuner, RadeonPro, or a gaming VPN app called Evolve, or the MSI Gaming App, or Duet, disable it as it clashes with this game.

 

[Pelasgian]

Yes, I already did those. Still nothing.

 

[AndrewT]

The Windows error in that dxdiag is commonly an antivirus app getting in the way. Which one do you use?

A test of that is to place the attached userdir.txt file in the Steam folder where ck2game.exe is. It tells the game to write its user files right there instead of under the Windows User Documents folder. Once the file is there, exit the Steam app entirely the run ck2game.exe manually from File Explorer. Does the game start okay? If it fails is there an error message shown then?

 

[Pelasgian]

I use Windows Defender. And ck2game.exe is in every list of exceptions that it has.

I tried with userdir.txt, nothing changed, it still doesn't start, and it still doesn't give any error codes.

 

[AndrewT]

I use Windows Defender. And ck2game.exe is in every list of exceptions that it has.

Specifically the Ransomware - Apps Allowed Through list?

With userdir.txt in place did the game make a new logs folder in that same place? If so can I get the exceptions.log , error.log and system.log from it please.

 

[Pelasgian]

Yes, it is on the ransomware - apps allowed through list.

It finally worked, after restarting my system. For some reason, it doesn't see my saves, but at least it is working. But maybe you should make it so it isn't necessary to bypass Windows Defender for it.

 

[AndrewT]

For some reason, it doesn't see my saves

If you still have the userdir.txt there, that will cause that - rename or delete it.