(6.20) Game not starting - Nvidia overlay issue.

[Wolfwaffe]

Greetings.
As the title says, the game does not start. It is there in the process list, but the window never opens. It used to start normally a couple months ago, but now it does not.

Here is my DXDiag.

Unfortunately I am unable to provide vulkaninfo because whenever I am using the command, the command line just stops reacting and just hangs there.
(I have tried reinstalling the graphic card drivers several times, including using the DDU software, and it seems that vulkan drivers have been installed each and every time, but the result is always the same.)

[Alan Phipps]

Hello. Always start with verifying your X4 game installation after an update. Also, is your game or save modded or edited?

Almost all of the Windows Error Reports in your DxDiag are update failures and at least one is attributed to Windows Defender causing the problem with the update attempt. See if updating device drivers and the game using specific exemptions from any real-time AV checking can help at all. Maybe exempt the game and save folders from checking too.

[Wolfwaffe]

Verified. Verification was successful.

I have installed drivers using safe mode.

Still no reaction.

[gbjbaanb]

IIRC there's a known bug where the game simply doesn't load from Crucial SSDs.
I had this, started the game and nothing but blank screen. There's a thread that mentions this. Moved to a different drive and everything started working. So if you've upgraded your drive in the meantime, could be this.

[Daemonjax]

Try checking the windows event log... maybe it'll have a clue in there.

[Alan Phipps]

Alan Phipps wrote ^ : "Also, is your game or save modded or edited?"

[Wolfwaffe]

IIRC there's a known bug where the game simply doesn't load from Crucial SSDs.
I had this, started the game and nothing but blank screen. There's a thread that mentions this. Moved to a different drive and everything started working. So if you've upgraded your drive in the meantime, could be this.

I don't even have black screen. It just has the executive file hang in the processes and does nothing. No window, nothing.
Also, it's not on an SSD.

Try checking the windows event log... maybe it'll have a clue in there.

I tried. It's a mess to sort out and lacks the search feature.

Alan Phipps wrote ^ : "Also, is your game or save modded or edited?"

No, vanilla +all 4 dlcs

[Wolfwaffe]

Okay, update:

Got it to work, and gosh, am I peeved off.

Apparently, the vulkan API was being consumed, in its entirety, by Nvidia overlay. I only found it out because when updating my caption software it complained that one of vulkan dlls was occupied by nvidia share process, which promptly led me to try and shut it off. Lo and bee hold, it worked.

Funnily enough, even when I reinstalled drivers without Nvidia overlay app, it still was not working. I had to go out of my way to disable that overlay, because somehow even without being installed it still was consuming all of vulkan resources.

[Alan Phipps]

Thanks for explaining what you found through further testing. It does confirm a long-standing suspicion that all sorts of game overlays and profilers (not just Nvidia's) can cause issues with X4. I would guess that the game is complex enough that even small intrusions by 3rd party apps can cause X4 start up and graphics issues.

[Wolfwaffe]

Thanks for explaining what you found through further testing. It does confirm a long-standing suspicion that all sorts of game overlays and profilers (not just Nvidia's) can cause issues with X4. I would guess that the game is complex enough that even small intrusions by 3rd party apps can cause X4 start up and graphics issues.

Apologies, as this is not exactly related to the subject, but I should notice that it was not just X4 that I had problems with. I could not get the vulkainfo command to run (the command line window would just freeze forever), and neither the vulkan configuration software works, with same symptoms as X4 (the .exe was showing in task manager but no window ever appeared). So I think it's safe to say that Nvidia messed something up with their software as well.

[Daemonjax]

You're talking about Geforce Experience, right?

So... you reinstalled the drivers without Geforce Experience, but that alone wasn't enough... How did you "disable the overlay" without Geforce Experience installed?

As a sidenote... I wonder if just disabling the Nvidia service would have fixed the problem as well... I usually just have the Nvidia Service disabled -- it's only needed for the nvidia control panel, and shadowplay. It also does the telemetry, which is why I usually have it disabled. When I manually enable it for whatever reason... I have it blocked in my firewall, but it still tries to phone home.

[alt3rn1ty]

When you use the NVidia installer, always use just the "NVidia Driver" option, and not the one chosen by default to also install Geforce Experience.
Also use the custom options so you get chance to ..

a) Tick the Clean uninstall option. And do a restart with the new drivers installed.
b) Ensure Geforce Experience is not going to be installed.

Its a PITA these days everyone wants to install an overlay.
You need PhysX, and if you use HDMI output to a TV instead of a monitor you also need the Audio option (but dont install it if you dont need it, see the topic linked below).

Geforce Experience is also bad if you are on a laptop. The optimal game settings it uses are crowd sourced from the public, they are not necessarily ideal for your machine, even if you have a desktop they were originally tweaked for .. If you have a laptop these settings most likely are going to help melt the solder on your chips.

TLDR; imho GE is rubbish you don't need.

See the third "Common Technical issue" in this topic
Or the 4th suggestion in "General Suggestions".
Imperial Good has very sound knowledge.