AndrewT

The game did not change overnight so it's hard to see what could have caused this to you! Most likely something outside the game.

Was there a video driver or Windows update perhaps?


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 that doesn't help, try Vulkan instead of DX11 as the renderer - any better?


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 Interactiv... Read more

Do these games start from ck3.exe and stellaris.exe okay? If not is there an error shown?  

I missed something before - that systems.log shows you are on an old game version 1.4.4

Royal Court was released alongside patch 1.5 and cannot work on any version before that.

If you've chosen to stay on 1.4.4 for some reason, perhaps mod compatibility, you'll need to disable Royal Court before you run it.

Otherwise you'll need to opt into a later version, or opt out of all betas to get into the current version.

All the best!  

Do these games start from ck3.exe and stellaris.exe okay? If not is there an error shown?


In the cpatch log we see:

2023-03-02 01:47:17 [repository] [WARNING] failed to make metadata path repository.json world writable: failed to chmod C:\Users\Mr\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\.cpatch\launcher-v2-bootstrapper\repository.json: No mapping between account names and security IDs was done.

Are you sure you ran steam.exe as the Windows Admin user?  

Has the launcher ever worked for you?


Can you please do the following

1. Right click the game you're having issues with in your Steam library and add this in the "Launch Options" window:

--pdxlDebug


2. Start the launcher and the debug log will be automatically generated and located in one of the below locations

• $XDG_DATA_HOME/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/logs/ (if $XDG_DATA_HOME is set)
• ~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/logs/ (if $XDG_DATA_HOME is not set)

Please attach here ALL .log files from that folder, thanks.  

Still this, I see:

2023-03-01T17:26:01.021Z (pid:12704) error [SteamService]: Failed to initialize Steam API: Error: Steam initialization failed. Steam is running,but steam_appid.txt is missing. Expected to find it in: ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2023.2.1\steam_appid.txt
at EventEmitter.r.exports.d.init (~\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2023.2.1\resources\app.asar\dist\main\main.js:5:2307469)
at ~\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2023.2.1\resources\app.asar\dist\main\main.js:5:2307188

I'll ping Paradox about this now.  

its.chloe567 said: Whilst testing the frame limiter to make sure it had worked, i enabled some more statistics and saw that my fps lows were awful.
1% lows were 32fps
0.1% lows were a measly 5fps

the framerate dips massively whenever an in-game day passes, and it dips even more when an in-game month passes.

That seems to imply that the game's regular calculations, which of course are done by the CPU, are affecting your GPU somehow. It is hard to imagine what could possible cause this in modern hardware!

Please install and run the free ... Read more

xixixi said: I`m pretty sure the AI does not work well with specific generated empires and produces errors by itself (in the decision-making stuff) which later then result in game crashes.
These access violation exceptions could also happen through mutlithreading in the AI, ThreadA is calculating some stuff while ThreadB is alread trying to access and use is (before the calculation and final decleration is finished)

If that is the problem, then you and I will not be able to fix this for you here, it would need a game patch.

But let's see how the clean... Read more

A saved game from several years ago will not work properly under the current game version, there have been too many major changes since.

To continue it you'd need to revert to the game version you last played it under. You can see what game version was released when here:

Patches - Stellaris Wiki

stellaris.paradoxwikis.com
To revert you go into the Steam Betas ta... Read more

I see. For diagnostic purposes can you please make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that?

If you still get this problem please attach new copies of all those files; I particularly want to see if you get those same errors in that log. Thank you.  

I see, so when you said "the game will start in the launcher" and "Now everything works as usual.", you meant it was not working?

Do these games start from ck3.exe and stellaris.exe okay? If not is there an error shown?


In this folder are some .log files:
C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.  

Can you test your copy of the game on any other computer you might have access to, whether MacOS or Windows?  

We don't have a direct link to the Paradox Achievements page, indeed so far as I know there is no such thing. I've certainly never heard of it in 20 years of working with Paradox. But I know you are going to disagree with me on that, so let's drop it.

If you can get the in-game browser working that is bypass the whole issue, so I still suggest you lodge that as a bug.  

I open .zip files here every day; .7z not so commonly but I don't recall having such issues before.

As you can see in those log files you're getting corrupted saved games, and other errors that I'm not seeing elsewhere. Are you 100% sure no mods are in use here?


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 - 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.
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if... Read more

its.chloe567 said: I also experienced some crazy coil whine from my gpu which I've never had before (along with framerates in the 800+ range)

Okay, we definitely have a refresh rate problem here. Why this is affecting your particular setup so badly I do not know, but please go ahead and report the failure to cap it as a bug, thank you.

Then you'd want to limit the refresh rate/fps by some other means, to prevent possible damage to your GPU. I'm not sure if GeForce Experience or the MSI apps have a way of doing that?  

Atumaj said: Now the launcher will be automatically installed again and the game will start in the launcher where everything is displayed with the DLC, settings and news from Paradox.

So launcher and games work okay under 2022.12 ?

...

Read more

Still shows as empty, and when I try to open a folder it says I don't have permission.

There should be no problem attaching .txt or .log files here though ... ?  

its.chloe567 said: Is the problem that I shouldn't be seeing fps above 60 with those settings?

Yes; with vsync off, fullScreen and RR cap of 60 you should never get fps over 60.

I'm not clear if you are saying running stellaris.exe directly had any effect on the stuttering issue though?

I am puzzled by your valious video/graphics anomalies though. I can only guess they are connected with the game problem, yes. Does galaxy size make a difference?


If you make a new Windows user and log into Windows as that, and start a new unmodde... Read more

Was that log taken just after this crash/hang? Because it doesn't show the game even completely loading, let alone running ...

In any case that happened to me too with that save, and I see it is at the 50mb mark that we've seen with some previous cases. I've added that save to that bug reports, hopefully that will raise the priority of the problem.

Sorry about that!  

Well, if it's not unique to you but also not ubiquitous, there must be some other factor in play. Hard to guess what it might be!

Was that example above also on MacOS, BTW?