The game crashes upon the shader compilation window disappearing after reaching 100%.
I was able to launch the game and play the current ongoing event without any issues. Then this behavior started seemingly unprompted. I did not have any major windows updates, nor did I update any drivers.
I have tried the following in no particular order:
Disabling / removing my mods entirely
Uninstalling and reinstalling the game completely
Deleting all Darktide related data manually in AppData/Roaming/Fatshark/Darktide and in steamapps/common/Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE
Clearing my shader cache
Repairing my Visual C++ 2019 Redistributables
Repairing corrupt windows files via DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and /sfc /scannow
Adding Darktide.exe and the Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE install folder as exceptions in Windows Defender
Disabling Smart App Control entirely
Using NVCleanstall to cleanly reinstall my GPU drivers. Multiple driver versions were tried with zero effect.
Restarting my PC with startup apps disabled to check for conflicts
I might be forgetting a few things that I’ve tried, I dug fairly deep into previous posts and reddit threads looking for a solution.
No Console Logs are being generated.
I attached the darktide_launcher.log.
A .dmp file in the EarlyCrashReports folder is generated per crash.
[PC] Do You Use Mods? (Optional):
Yes, and I’ve tried disabling them
Reproduction Rate (Required):
Constant (100%)
Platform (Required):
PC - Steam
[PC] Crash Report (Optional):
GUID: 2e5a2c20-0d3e-43c0-ae3c-b3d8278dddc4
Log File:
Info Type:
If you haven’t already done so, please try the following:
Uninstall your current GPU drivers using a dedicated driver removal tool e.g. DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and then reinstall latest clean drivers
Disable Steam Cloud Save, then delete AppData and Verify Integrify of Game Files:
Step 1: Disable Steam Cloud Saving
If Steam Cloud saving is enabled for Darktide, this may automatically restore the AppData and consequently cause the issue to resurface.
Navigate to your Steam library
Right-click Darktide
Select ‘Properties’
On the ‘General’ tab, scroll down to ‘Steam Cloud’
Disable ‘Keep game saves in the Steam Cloud for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’
Step 2: Delete AppData NOTE: By deleting your AppData, operative loadouts and custom keybindings will be reset. You may wish to make a back-up of the directory in the event deleting your AppData does not work to resolve the issue.
Press the Windows key + R
Enter %appdata% within the search input and select ‘OK’
Navigate to: AppData\Roaming\Fatshark
Delete the entire ‘Darktide’ directory
Step 3: Verify Integrity of Game Files
You will then need to use the ‘Verify Integrity of Game Files’ option, which is accessible via the Steam client and will ensure the installation is complete.
Right-click Darktide in your Steam library sidebar
Select ‘Properties’
Select the ‘Local Files’ tab
Select the ‘Verify Integrity of Game Files’ button
I had previously performed several clean driver reinstallations to no effect, but per your instructions I did so again before disabling Steam Cloud Saving, deleting the Darktide Appdata, and verifying the integrity of the game files.
After following those steps, the game is still failing to launch, however a crash prompt is not appearing. Now, after the shader compile popup disappears it just hangs indefinitely.
The “Launcher for Warhammer 40’000: DARKTIDE” process still shows up in Task Manager and Steam still registers the game as running, however nothing happens. I have made it this far previously, but after leaving it for a half an hour nothing changes.
Thanks for the update! Nothing seems amiss in your launcher log. Though historically, at least for Vermintide 2 error code '0xFA718003 ’ can indicate Anti-Virus possibly not playing nicely. It’s something I’d recommend checking here for Darktide!
Adding exceptions for the .exe files for both Darktide and the launcher may help. Also check that any files aren’t being quarantined or any processes blocked.
The only anti-virus I have on my PC is Windows Defender, and it has not indicated that any files have been quarantined.
I have exceptions for both the launcher and game .exe files as well as the main folders that contain them. I also created a process exclusion so anything related to Darktide.exe would be excluded as well.
NOTE: My game was in an UNMODDED state as all traces of mods were removed when previously performing a clean install.
Here is what solved this for me;
1: I added the exclusions screenshotted in the post above this one. My best guess is that it was the folder exceptions that fixed it, however adding all of them shouldn’t hurt anything.
2: I manually deleted all files related to Darktide in my AppData. I did NOT reinstall the game at this point as the game had already been reinstalled several times while troubleshooting. You may need to do this if you haven’t already.
3: I verified my game’s files via steam. If you are not a Steam user, you will have to figure out how to verify your game files on whatever platform that you’re using.
4: With all of that done, the game launched successfully. Now to fix all of my settings and mods -.-
My best guess is that something somewhere in the game’s files was being messed with despite the myriad of exclusions and exceptions that I added prior to this post being made. I remade the exclusions and exceptions as a sanity check and after verifying my game files again to repair anything that might have been damaged / missing, the game now launches.
I have ZERO idea as to why the game went from working without issue to crashing on launch when nothing about my system was changed (no driver updates, no windows updates, no major changes to my installed software), but I’m just gonna blame Windows 11.
