[2023] Game closes on Initializing Game screen

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

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-CK3
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/CK3 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders - In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK3 or Documents CK3 locations, before installing again.
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add CK3.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.

THEN Right click on ck3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don'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/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log  

AndrewT said: Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.

You don't seem to have done this, from that settings file. Please try it!

AND delete that empty system.log file - does it make a new one with stuff in it?

If still a problem, run ck3.exe directly from File Explorer - if it fails then do you get a Windows error shown?

AND install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool www.ccleaner.com  

I should have said before - please unload GeForce Experience while we work on this, if it is running or loading automatically.

The framerate cap still shows as Off there - are you setting it to 60 but that is not 'taking' or what's happening there? What actual fps are you seeing before the game crashes?

That error log shows some serious DirectX 11 and video memory errors, not sure why with your hardware. Go into the nVidia Control Panel, Manage 3D settings. Force ck3.exe to use the AMD Radeon graphics option instead of the nVidia card, does the game start up then?  

Misk Wisk said: I'm not sure how to check the FPS for the game.

It's an option in Steam-Preferences-In Game.

Misk Wisk said: I'm also not 100% sure on how to force the game to run using AMD. I selected Manage 3D settings -> Program Settings, selected Crusader Kings III and set it to use the Integrated Graphics option under the second drop down menu (Select the preferred graphics processor for this program).

I would have thought that would have worked, but that settings file still shows the nVidia in use.

However the error log no longer shows the DX11 or Vram errors. This is weird!

What if you make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that - any different?


If still a problem, install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool www.ccleaner.com  

I see you have Mcafee AV - while not known to be a problem, make sure ck3.exe is in all its exceptions lists.

If that doesn't help, try this Windows repair tool:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista. support.microsoft.com
If still no good, go into the Windows Startup settings and disable everything you can, and reboot.

I hope one of those helps!  

And, we're back to getting the DX11 and Vram errors again. This is weird!

In our launcher, game settings, set the renderer to Vulkan rather than DX11 - does the game get any further then?  

Now we get:

[17:24:34][include_vulkan.h:50]: Gfx error: ResultValue.result returned: ErrorOutOfHostMemory
[17:24:34][pdx_assert.cpp:619]: Assertion failed: ResultValue.result returned:
ErrorOutOfHostMemory

Which I guess is effectively the same problem, so your issue is not DX11.

I'm running out of ideas for this one! Let's try some memory things now;
expand your Windows paging file maximum size to 32gb

Optional: Increasing the paging file size on Windows computers

On computers that have 8 GB of RAM, the suggested paging file size is 16 GB. www.ibm.com
THEN unload every other app and process you can before starting the game. Is that any better?

Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 15790MB RAM
Page File: 12483MB used, 6175MB available

Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics
Display Memory: 8390 MB
Dedicated Memory: 495 MB
Shared Memory: 7894 MB

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design
Display Memory: 13862 MB
Dedicated Memory: 5968 MB
Shared Memory: 7894 MB

My thinking here is that those two video systems could conceivably take 16gb away from your system, leaving effectively nothing for Windows or the game! Now that should not be the case of course, but let's see what comes of that.  

Great! Why that was necessary now I do not know, perhaps CK3 or Clausewitz or Jomini has changed how they work with Vram.

Next test would be to leave other apps running but keep the larger swap file; IMO 16gb is too small regardless of system memory size, 32gb ought to be the standard.