I'm new to Steam - Purchased Divinity II: DKS from the site but can't launch the game. Then decided to install & play Fallout: New Vegas from my DVD but somehow it installed in steam... & I can't launch the game or re-install without Steam... 1) Any ideas on how I can get the games to launch? Drivers,OS up to date, tried the validate games cache in properties, running various files as Administrator etc.. but nothing seems to work. 2) Can I get rid of Steam and re-install FNV ? I'd prefer to get it working tho.... I'm on Windows 7. GPU - ATI Radeon HD5970 Thanks !
in answer to question 2, I think FNV is a steamworks game, so you won't be able to run it without steam. Edit: Steamworks being the DRM tied to Fallout: Nev Vegas.
It seems a little vague, do you get an error message when you attempt load the games? Maybe this will help http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=204155&page=2 posts 29 to 36 of the thread..
thanks for responding Guys. What happens is that the game prepares to launch - a dialogue box comes up then it disapears and the blue action circle next to the cursor disappears and nothing happens. Been on lots of forums and this is a very common problem - the most popular solution is the verify game cache option in properties but it always comes up with 1 invalid file called installscript.VDF - i've tried deleting/re-installing etc but nothing works.....
From the very beginning, are you running it from steam ie. clicking "play" in steam or running FNV.exe from the Fallout folder for example? You mention a dialogue box comes up after it prepares to launch. A: What does the box say exactly? and B: Is this after the Fallout menu screen or before? I mean, has the game installed after being downloaded....once a game is downloaded, when you run it for the 1st time, you get a couple of installation phases for things like DirectX and VCC etc. This happens every time you run a new game regardless of wether DirectX is already installed on the system and I am wondering if it is this that is failing or the actual game?
ok, everything has installed in steam and I've had the 'first time initialising' box, I then click play FNV in Steam - then small black dialogue box says 'preparing to launch FNV' then it doesn't launch. There's a section on this in Steam support: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?id=69 and I've done everything it says - the one thing that isn't right is the verifying game files which throws up 1 invalid file (out of 430) which is the installscript.VDF. Is there a fix for this ? I've tried repeatedly verifying and steam says: "will acquire invalid file' but it doesn't. Hope this helps?
When you go through the various "first time initialising" steps, Stage 1 of 4, 2 of 4 etc, one or more steps can sometimes hang. I've had this a few times, but Mafia II is the only game I can actively remember by name. Anyway, I think there's an option to cancel or stop the initialisation, after which the game should then work OK. I think it's trying to load files which the game itself doesn't actually need and your system doesn't actually like. In my case the games have all lauched fine once I've cancelled/skipped the offending part of the initialisation process.
yes, I've done that 3 times. Going to try a few more things I've spotted on other forums - I'll let you know if I get it sorted & what the problem was.... - any more ideas gratefully received though !
interesting, i know we are talking about FNV but in your first post you mentioned this happens with every steam game?.. is this true? I made a search on my pc for those .VDF files and they are simple scripts, try looking for it and open it with notepad, maybe someone who has FNV on steam could post his too so we could compare them or something. They look something like this: "InstallScript" { "Copy Folders" { "L4D Sprays Copy" { "SrcFolder1" "%STEAMDIR%\\steamapps\\common\\left 4 dead demo\\left4dead\\materials\\vgui\\logos\\custom" "DstFolder1" "%INSTALLDIR%\\left4dead\\materials\\vgui\\logos\\custom" "IgnoreExitCode" "1" "NoCleanUp" "1" } } "Copy Files" { "L4D Config Copy" { "SrcFile1" "%STEAMDIR%\\steamapps\\common\\left 4 dead demo\\left4dead\\cfg\\config.cfg" "DstFile1" "%INSTALLDIR%\\left4dead\\cfg\\config.cfg" "IgnoreExitCode" "1" "NoCleanUp" "1" } } }
Problem sorted ! this has taken 4 days of intermittent searching, re-installing, forum reading, re-installing window, drivers etc etc - the problem seems to have been the invalid installscript.VDF file which Steam wasn't re-acquiring when it said it would & for some reason it did it this time. Phew ! Thanks so much for your helpful responses everyone - much appreciated.