Introduction
Sometimes the game can have trouble starting up altogether. Usually this is caused by issues with the local machine rather than a bug/issue with the game.
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This page should help you solving the most common mishaps by yourself.
Common Linux (GOG) startup issue
A common installation issue especially on Linux when having purchased the game through GOG is a missing Vulkan runtime. Details how to solve this can be found here.
Exitcodes
When you try to start the game, it performs some early startup checks and if it determines some a setup issuesissue, will provide you with an a popup like the following one which provides you with instructions on how to resolve the startup problem yourself:
These instructions are provided specifically for the issue which the game identified so you are not presented with random and pointless FAQ steps which might apply to resolve other situations but won't help with the specific issue at hand. In 90% of the cases the instructions on these popups will solve the issue. Important to recognize here is that at the end it states the exitcode of the startup error (Exitcode 212 in the screenshot above).
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In certain cases the browser might not bring up the troubleshooting page (f.e. if you have "internet security" software installed which prevents the game from opening the link in the browser). In such cases, you can use the list linked below to bring up the detailed troubleshooting steps:
Crash Errors and Information
Startup issues without exitcodes
In very specific circumstances the game cannot reliably pre-detect error conditions before the startup failure occurs. In these cases you might not see a popup at all but only instead get redirected to a troubleshooting page with the descriptions on how to solve the problem. In these cases please follow the instructions on the page.
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If you followed the instructions on that page and figured out these didn't apply to you, you can either also give it a blind shot and look at the following list of troubleshooting pages which don't have an exitcode assigned:
| Startup Error | Detailed Troubleshooting Page | ||||||||
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| Missing Vulkan Runtime |
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| Avest 3rd-party tool incompatibility |
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| Unsupported Intel graphics card issue |
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| NVIDIA driver startup error |
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| Steamoverlay related startup error |
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| Steamoverlay related startup error (type 2) |
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| Steamoverlay related startup error (type 3) |
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| Vulkan specific startup error |
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| 3rd-party tool device creation interference |
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Requesting further support
If you still end up being unable to start the game, please send a mail to prioritysupport@egosoft.com with the Subject: "Undefined startup issue" and attach the crash dump file to your mail. The file is located in the same directory as the X4.exe file resides. Make sure to pick the correct one with the timestamp encoded in the filename corresponding to the time you tried to start the game and point whether/that you didn't get redirected to another troubleshooting page and that you also didn't see a popup.This page explains how to locate the crash dump file: * Crash Reports and Crash Dumps
Please be aware that this support channel is solely intended to resolve issues with starting up the game. If you run into any other type of problem, please use our troubleshooting section in the official forums to tackle the issue you have.