Rome 2 Booting to a blank screen

[easytarget]

So, how would you feel after 161 hours to come home, attempt to boot up Rome 2 expecting no particular issues only be greeted by a blank screen?

Verify integrity, nothing, reboot system, nothing. Have to ctl-alt-del to get out only to see a little box saying Rome 2 has crashed.

I'm not going to bother describing what I think of CA right now.

[Hooahguy]

Are you using mods? Maybe one of them updated and now its incompatible with another one. I had the same problem that you had and the problem was mods that were incompatible with each other, causing a crash upon startup. CA didnt release any updates since the blood DLC, so I wouldnt be so quick to blame CA on this one. Unless you havent played since the blood DLC, in which case, yeah, check your mods.

[easytarget]

Tell me then, if you were in my shoes, having changed nothing on my system between the point I'm at right now, staring at a blank screen, and two days ago, the last time I fired the game up and it ran fine, just like the previous 161 hours, what would you posit as a possible explanation.

Again, can't stress this part enough, NOTHING has changed on my system between the last point it worked and now.

[Sp4]

Delete the folder: C>Users>Yourusername>Appdata>Roaming>CA>Rome II

Save your replays and save games (they are in that folder) and put them back in when the game has created the structure again (might take a minute).

This will delete your settings (Graphics, controls)

[easytarget]

Did that too, same result, blank screen.

[Sp4]

Set your game to run in windowed mode in the settings file and see if that changes anything.

People will probably recommend reinstalling Steam. I don't know why that would help but you might as well try that and once all of that failed, reinstall the game.

[Hooahguy]

You still didnt answer my question: are you using any mods?

Im just asking because I was in your shoes. And I was pissed as hell. I was so scared I would have to abandon (yet another) AAR because I couldnt load the game. Then I double checked my mods, and it turned out that two of them were incompatible with each other, causing the crash.

[easytarget]

I just tried Shogun 2 same problem, my guess, this bull--- launcher nonsense they brought back is at the core of the issue. Why they thought that was a good idea I've no idea. Just launch the stupid game already. Creates headaches for M2 to this day.

What is the common thread here? Two different TW games work one day, and stop working the next, and what do they share in common? A bad idea called a front end launcher.

[easytarget]

You still didnt answer my question: are you using any mods?

Im just asking because I was in your shoes. And I was pissed as hell. I was so scared I would have to abandon (yet another) AAR because I couldnt load the game. Then I double checked my mods, and it turned out that two of them were incompatible with each other, causing the crash.

No mods. And as I stated not once but twice, nothing on my system has changed between working and not working.

I don't run mods for any TW game I've played, never have. Unless you consider the blood DLC a mod, I don't. And besides, the game worked after I installed that.

[Hooahguy]

Well if its a launcher issue then I think going straight to CA on this one is best. Theres a tech subforum on the official forum, I would try there.

And that phrase "nothing on my system has changed between working and not working" is kinda ambiguous. But that aside, no need to be snappish.

[easytarget]

No idea why this happened, if it happens to anyone else this is the solution (although with one caveat, the writing in the game doesn't appear as clear to me as it did before):

1-

Go to C:\Users\Administrador\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Rome2 and open the "Rome2" folder.
There you'll find the "scripts" folder, and open it. It's empty right, there is nothing there right ?
Ok, no problem, relax.

2-
What you do is try to find a "scripts" folder of another total war game you have on your computer, like "Empire total war", or "Shogun 2 total war", or "Napoleon total war"
If you do not have another total war game on your computer then, buy "Shogun2 total war" (great game)and play it for a short while, so it generates it's own preferences.script.txt file. (If Shogun2 also doesn't work, well good luck...)

So you go to C:\Users\Administrador\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2
Open the Shogun2 folder and search for the "Scripts" folder and open it. There you'll find a file called :
"preferences.script.txt"

3-
You copy this "preferences.script.txt" file from the Shogun 2 game and you paste this file into the "Scripts" folder which belongs to the "Rome2" folder
of the "Rome2" folder.
In other words you copy and paste the "preferences.script.txt" file from the Shogun 2 game in here :
C:\Users\Administrador\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Rome2\Scripts

Now you have some code from Shogun 2 into your new Rome2 game.
I know what your thinking, this can't possibly work, can it?
Well, hold on, let's do some magic !

4-

You right click the "preferences.script.txt" file and select "open with" and you choose "notepad"
You will get some code and you search for the code line that says :

gfx_enable_directx11 true; # gfx_enable_directx11 <bool>, Enable DirectX 11 rendering #

Don't worry if the line is not exactly the same as this one.

If you can't find it, copy the text and paste it into a "Word" document and do a search for the word "directx11"

5-

If you found the code line in notepad, you change the word "true" to "false". The code line should look like this:


gfx_enable_directx11 false; # gfx_enable_directx11 <bool>, Enable DirectX 11 rendering #

6-

Then in notepad click file - save

[Hooahguy]

So I take it the problem is fixed?

[easytarget]

And that phrase "nothing on my system has changed between working and not working" is kinda ambiguous. But that aside, no need to be snappish.

I suspect then you might well find ambiguity many places even in monosyllabic words like no, or yes. I'm a lawyer by training, I know ambiguity.

And the statement "nothing has changed on my system" is not open to wide interpretation.

[easytarget]

So I take it the problem is fixed?

Sort of, but I've wasted a fair amount of time tonight and find it a bit annoying that the program just stopped working, forcing me to play hide and seek on forums looking for solutions. And there has been some loss in the writing in the game graphically as a result.

I've logged it on the forum, others have encountered this issue.

[Hooahguy]

I suspect then you might well find ambiguity many places even in monosyllabic words like no, or yes. I'm a lawyer by training, I know ambiguity.

And the statement "nothing has changed on my system" is not open to wide interpretation.
If someone asks "are you using any mods" and you answer "nothing has changed on my system", I hope you see why I felt it did not answer my question.


Sort of, but I've wasted a fair amount of time tonight and find it a bit annoying that the program just stopped working, forcing me to play hide and seek on forums looking for solutions. And there has been some loss in the writing in the game graphically as a result.

I've logged it on the forum, others have encountered this issue.
Fair point. Ive never had this problem but I can imagine why it is very frustrating.

[Sp4]

So basically you turned off DX11?

I have no idea why that would be an issue but okay. Update your graphics drivers/reinstall DX, that sort of stuff.

[easytarget]

Yeah, basically that's what solved it, and I don't consider that a solution though, so I'm going to bang on about this in the tech support forum along with everyone else experiencing the same issue till it gets figured out.

Only soln at present: disable 11 it in Rome 2 and boot up to 9 in Shogun 2 and I can get into both games.

[easytarget]

And lo and behold this morning, both Shogun 2 and Rome 2 work again under DirectX11.

And again, I'm left puzzled as to what has changed that led to it working again just as I was equally annoyed and puzzled by both games just suddenly not working.

The working theory on the tech forum is the steam beta may be the culprit.

[Veho Nex]

Just ran into the same issue today. Its delaying my finishing of the Athens run through and driving me off the wall.

[easytarget]

Then my first suggestion would be to turn off beta participation in steam (for steam itself, not the game, there's no beta running for the game at the moment) and see if that works.

If not, then editing the script file and turning off DX11 will default the game to DX10 and make it work. Or it did for me last night after wasting most of the night trying to figure it out.

[c19]

I suspect then you might well find ambiguity many places even in monosyllabic words like no, or yes. I'm a lawyer by training, I know ambiguity.

And the statement "nothing has changed on my system" is not open to wide interpretation.

lolz. A lawyer, that explains why you are being contemptuous. "Nothing has changed on my system" is mutually exclusive of "mods activated". The "last time you fired up the game" could have had mods enabled and therefore, "Nothing has changed on my system" means the mods are still enabled.

Oh ya, I have the problem with the blank screen too and can't get it to work.

[Kamakazi]

most likely a mod issue... I had the same problem a while back