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So I was wondering why changing to DX11 fixes the start up crash. I don't know exactly why but I wanted to dig in a bit more. I took a look at the directory where the crash logs are stored. In that directory there is also a config folder. I copied the existing "Madness" folder somewhere else and deleted the original. I was able to start Outriders again, and it didn't crash. I got all the way into the game and then I exited to desktop. When I compare the two folders I noticed that in GameUserSettings.ini there was a line that was different in the good folder vs the bad folder:
```
// Bad
[ShaderPipelineCache.CacheFile]
LastOpened=
...
// Good
[ShaderPipelineCache.CacheFile]
LastOpened=Madness
```
Then I went a bit further, I restored the bad folder back and edited the .ini file to match the good one. I started Outriders again and it worked. Then I edited the .ini again and deleted the Madness value. I tried starting Outriders again and it crashed. Interesting, as for why DX11 works.. I tried starting Outriders again and it worked. I checked the .ini file and the `LastOpened=Madness` value was restored.
So my observation is that when a value is missing from `LastOpened=` starting Outriders in DX11 sets the value to `Madness`. When the value is missing, trying to start in DX12 will crash.
Some things to note, I'm not entirely sure how I got into this state, but I suspect it is because when the game froze, I hard rebooted my machine. Another thing is whenever I got the crash client UI, I did not send the crash report at any point. (I have a feeling that sending the crash report might have different behavior.)
TLDR; if you're experiencing consistent crashes on start up, while starting the game with DX12. Check this file,
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Madness\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\GameUserSettings.ini`
(should be able to paste this in a file explorer and open it up in notepad)
Scroll all the way to the bottom and see if it looks like this:
```
[ShaderPipelineCache.CacheFile]
LastOpened=Madness
```
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