[2020] Stuck at splash screen

Ernie D said: I just bought Stellaris, I have yet to play it on my desktop game rig, because it hangs up right here every time, I've done every suggested idea so far. It however works on my gaming laptop without issue, specs are nearly identical between the two, except my antivirus, which Ive added exceptions on my desktop and still doesnt help

Your problem is unrelated to the one in this thread as that is caused by mods, and you presumably have none in use as yet. In future please make your own thread rather than "me too" someone else's . Thanks.

In the game launcher please set Display mode to Borderless.

IF that doesn't help, Install ALL these Microsoft modules:

Download Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) from Official Microsoft Download Center

www.microsoft.com

Download Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) from Official Microsoft Download Center

www.microsoft.com

Download Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3 RC from Official Microsoft Download Center

www.microsoft.com

Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from Official Microsoft Download Center

www.microsoft.com (run dxsetup.exe after extracting from this download)

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.

Also if you have FRAPS or the MSI Gaming App or Rivatuner installed, disable it as it clashes with this game.

If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). 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 your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log .  

Fungineer said: when launching with mods enabled, it just hangs at the splash screen and doesn't do anything.

Observations:
loads with no mods enabled
enabling even one causes the hang

attempted fixes
All display modes attempted.
installed latest drivers.
adjusted settings.txt
adjusted load order and cleared cache.
reinstalled game and launcher

Have these mods all been updated to work with the 2.8 game patch?

What launcher version do you see?  

How long did you leave it? I have a couple of other reports that when more than a small number of mods are enabled this game can take a long time to load now.  

STORMgalaxy said: I don't know why these methods sometimes work and completely stop working, but I have ruled out that it is not a mod issue but rather an issue with the game.

I can see this might be the game or the launcher, which are separate apps with different development teams. Do you have a feel for which of those might be the issue?

Essentially launcher 2020.14 came out ~2 weeks ago, game patch 2.8 a week ago - which of those did the onset of the problem coincide with, do you know?  

Thank you for your thoughts! I believe it is now time to report this in the Bug Reports forum, as those loading times and experience are IMO unacceptable.

Very odd that the same game version that drastically reduced loading times when unmodded, caused mods to load slower!  

Bhruic said: I've been having the same problem. It turns out that it was missing ugc_.mod descriptors for some of the mods I had installed in the c:\users\\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod\ folder. I know that with previous versions of the game/launcher it would re-download/re-create those files if they didn't exist, but it doesn't seem to do so now... Or at least for all mods. I deleted all of mine, and it recreated 4 out of 12 of them. But the remaining 8 it didn't recreate were listed in the game log file as "[19:33:38][dlc.cpp:1859]: Could not find files for mod: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\\". At this point I manually recreated all of the ugc_.mod files, and the game launched without any issues, with all of the mods (as far as I tested) properly enabled.

I further tested renaming some of the ugc_.mod files to see if it was a specific one causing the issue, and the game still launched with some of them renamed, however, the mod(s) corresponding to the did not load properly. I'm not sure why the launcher isn't properly downloading/creating the ugc_.mod files for all the mods I have enabled, but if it were to do so, I suspect the problem would be solved.

Are these mods from Steam, or Paradox mod site, or manually installed?

If Steam for instance, it is Steam that downloads the mods including the descriptor files, to a Steam folder. When the launcher runs it should copy them across.  

I just unsubscribed from all mods in the Steam workshop, and deleted my /mod/ folder and launcher-v2.sqlite file. Then I subscribed to one mod which immediately downloaded in Steam. Then I ran the Stellaris launcher and that mod was immediately available in the launcher, and the ugc_xxxx.mod file appeared in the /mod/ folder too.

I don't know why that doesn't happen for you! Are you on launcher 2020.14 ? Are the mods you were trying all updated for the 2.8 game version?  

I wasn't, no. I'm trying to help that user diagnose why his ugc files are not appearing, when they are for me and presumably everyone else.