I believe the PC version of Darktide running on the Xbox app is missing the file “start_protected_game.exe”
There used to be a file named “start_protected_game.exe”, which seems to be vital for modding and has helped those with various compatibility issues play the game in the past. At the very least, without the file Vortex cannot manage DarkTide mods and manually installed mods result in a crash upon launch.
After the June 25th update, this file is no longer within the game folders. All attempts at modding, managed and unmanaged, have thus far have caused an immediate crash when the game itself tries to load. The launcher opens fine and tries to launch the game, but after a split second of black screen the application crashes and a bug report is requested.
Steps to Reproduce (Required):
Download and install Darktide Mod Loader and Darktide Mod Framework
Enable Mods using the “toggle_darktide_mods.bat” file
Launch Game
I managed to pull the missing file from the last version of the game on my laptop. It fixes the problem with vortex, but the game still crashes when launched. I spent some time testing, and it seems to crash regardless of any mods being run, which seemingly indicates problems with the toggle_darktide_mods.bat batch file. I’m really not sure at this point.
To troubleshoot further I’d have to start going through the data file hex values to see exactly what the batch file changes and comparing those values with the values from the last patch to even get started. I started to go down this road, but I’ll let the programmers who created it all fix it. I don’t feel like reverse-engineering something that will likely be fixed in short order just to maybe have my mods back a bit sooner for a game I don’t get to play enough as it is lol.
