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Game won't launch on Steam

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Psychobunny919

Rookie
#1
Hey newbie here! Just downloaded the Witcher 3 update through Steam and now my game will not open at all. I have verified my files with no issues. I don't run mods, never have for this game as it is amazing without the mods. Not sure what to do now cause my game is dead. I click Play and then I see the GOG gui and I click Play and the GOG gui goes away and then I see my Steam gui and then the game goes from Running to Not running and that is all I get. Help!! :( Sorry to post this here but I didn't see any other post about this. I am not the only one having this issue but they are posting about this on Steam and I thought I would come here for help. :)
 
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Pervejbirk

Forum regular
#3
You running DX11 or DX12 ? Might help you if you add that so people can try and help you :) Sadly I can't as the game runs normally for me on both DX11 and DX12.. Also one thing I can suggest is to make sure your pc can run DX12 before trying to launch it in DX12
 
7w3n7y

7w3n7y

Rookie
#4
The game runs fine on DX11 but crashes while loading savefile on DX12. RTX-3070, Ryzen 7 5800X, and 32GB RAMS.
 
John_Russell

John_Russell

Forum regular
#5
There is definitely some odd behavior seemingly from the Ray Tracing which has terrible performance. Can you get to the Options menu? If so then try turning off Ray Tracing and then load the save which worked for me. Turn off Ray Tracing and just crank the rest of the settings to Ultra+ because the game still looks damned good and the performance is blistering fast. I'm getting 115 FPS inside the inn in White Orchard @ 1440p RTX 3070 Ti, 5800X and 32 GB 3600 dual rank DDR4 so I'm only slightly faster than you
 
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420JustinGoodearth

420JustinGoodearth

Rookie
#6
I'm having a similar issue with Steam. After the very LOOOONG next gen update that I didn't ask for, I can only get through the opening cut scenes to the menu but when I hit continue it crashes. Have made sure drivers etc. are updated and the game worked fine before the update. Won't start at all on DX11 but get to the menu with DX12. Is it possible to remove the update? As of now it seems I've waisted my money due to a patch I didn't want.
Post automatically merged:

Also Ray Tracing is off
 
John_Russell

John_Russell

Forum regular
#7
I'm on GOG and you can start the game without it if you create a shortcut for the witcher3.exe .... Must be a Steam problem which is why I always buy direct from the publisher if I can because Steam is just another layer of DRM I don't want or need. I also did a clean install of the game and since I was using so many mods I just deleted all my old saves because most likely they wouldn't work anyway.
 
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Psychobunny919

Rookie
#9
I am on Win 7 x64 Professional. I hate that I now have another layer of a gui to log into and deal with. Anyway I click Play on Steam then it gives me the GOG gui. Click play on GOG and in Steam it says Running. Three seconds later it isn't showing Running anymore and closes with no errors. I can still run the Classic version of the game thankfully.



Specs:
  • Asus X99-E WS (Intel X99 chipset)
  • Intel i7-5960X CPU (Water Cooled)
  • 32GB RAM
  • (2) EVGA GTX980Ti Classified ACX 2.0+(SLI)
  • 850 EVO Pro OS & Game SSD drives
  • SeaSonic Platinum Series 1200W PSU
 
Last edited:
LeKill3rFou

LeKill3rFou

Mentor
#10
Psychobunny919 said:
I am on Win 7 x64 Professional. I hate that I now have another layer of a gui to log into and deal with. Anyway I click Play on Steam then it gives me the GOG gui. Click play on GOG and in Steam it says Running. Three seconds later it isn't showing Running anymore and closes with no errors. I can still run the Classic version of the game thankfully.

There isn't an exe when you purchase from Steam. I wish there was.....

Specs:
  • Asus X99-E WS (Intel X99 chipset)
  • Intel i7-5960X CPU (Water Cooled)
  • 32GB RAM
  • (2) EVGA GTX980Ti Classified ACX 2.0+(SLI)
  • 850 EVO Pro OS & Game SSD drives
  • SeaSonic Platinum Series 1200W PSU
Click to expand...
Not sure, but as far I understand (and read), launching the game with GOG gui, will use (try to use) DX12 which is unavailable on Windows 7 (it's noticed in the requirements that DX12 require Windows 10/11)
On Windows 7, it should run with DX11
support.cdprojektred.com

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt System Requirements — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
support.cdprojektred.com support.cdprojektred.com

Could help to check here :
forums.cdprojektred.com

(Solved) No easy method of changing between DX11 and DX12 for GOG users

On the Steam release of the game there is a Launcher that lets you choose what graphics API the game will use, on GOG this Launcher does not seem to exist so there is no easy way to change between DX 11 and DX 12 (I realize I can just navigate to the games installation and launch the relevant...
forums.cdprojektred.com forums.cdprojektred.com
 
devivre

devivre

Moderator
#12
420JustinGoodearth

420JustinGoodearth

Rookie
#14
I just went back to classic. I didn't want the update but on Steam when you click the game it auto updated. If you are like me and want to wait till the kinks are worked out open Steam library - right click the game - click properties - then Betas - in dropdown select "classic" it will download and you may still need to use DX11 but you'll be back in action.
Post automatically merged:

Psychobunny919 said:
Thanks will send a ticket in.
Click to expand...
I just went back to classic. I didn't want the update but on Steam when you click the game it auto updated. If you are like me and want to wait till the kinks are worked out open Steam library - right click the game - click properties - then Betas - in dropdown select "classic" it will download and you may still need to use DX11 but you'll be back in action.
 
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Psychobunny919

Rookie
#15
Since I cannot get the update to run for whatever reason, is there any way to run the Classic without the GOG menu? I've tried to skip the loader in Steam and Classic will not open. It is forcing me to run through GOG and I don't see any reason to do that since this is the old version. Can I uninstall the GOG launcher and run Classic or are we stuck with this additional launcher now?
 
sushiadct

sushiadct

Rookie
#16
Direct X 12 is now not working on my remote play or PC... have to do 11 for now. My PC is i7 12700k with 32gb ddr5 and 3080 so not even close to being a hardware issue.
 
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Psychobunny919

Rookie
#17
Found a way to work around seeing the GOG gui in Steam. Thanks Xenophobe for the help!

In the Witcher 3 folder open the file 'launcher-configuration.json' in notepad, change the last line "fallback"from "DirectX 12" to "DirectX 11" ... then --launcher-skip will work since the 'classic' version is DX11, though you may need to set it to DX11 in the launcher the first time since it defaults to DX12.
Click to expand...
 

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