game does not launch

[ViccAznar]

Same problem here. Launcher opens normally, checks login/password and updates normally, but when I click "Play" it opens a new window, both windows close, and that's it. No error messages.
I don't see any logos, options, nothing — the game window just opens completely blank (black) and closes half a second later. I don't even get to see it impacting on the cpu usage.
This started after the Dawntrail update, it worked normally before.

I'm playing from Steam, on Windows 10, using NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650.
I have tried restoring system settings and restoring game data (from the Launcher). Have not tried reinstalling the whole game yet.
I've also tried updating my graphics card driver (nvidia geforce gtx 650), with seemingly no difference whatsoever.

Does FF14 create any log file, anywhere? Couldn't find where one would be located. Is there maybe some config file option to force one to be created?
Thank you.

Same Issue Here!

[Elysium]

My girlfriend is having problems launching the game. The Dawntrail benchmark worked perfectly for her but now we try to start the full game and when she clicks the "Play" button we get a black screen window and after that nothing happens. The black window closes and the game won't start.

We tried:

Full reinstall of the game
Update Nvidia Drivers
Try with the x64 and regular .exe files to start the game
Reset the game settings with the launcher
Restore Data with the launcher

GTX 760

[1mmika]

I'm running an nvidia gtx 780 and was also having this problem, tried pretty much all the same troubleshooting as everyone else. Finally got it to work after finding a reddit post which said to go back to an older driver! For some reason the newest 475.06 was causing the launch issue for me. My current driver is 456.71 but the reddit OP used 471.96, along with a few other people saying that this version worked for them, hope this helps!

[Tiakira_Yakumo]

I can start the launcher, log in, hit 'play', then launcher window closes and a new full screen black window opens like it used to, and then nothing. I end up with a black screen and a working mouse pointer.

Have to crlt-tab out of full screen black window switch to another desktop and force close what should be the game in a full screen window.

First let me say my system is definitely a "fringe" configuration that is unsupported by SE but FFXIV has worked flawlessly for the last 2 years, and before that it was running on Steam using Proton as a 'non-steam game'for another 2 years. Version 6.55 was working perfectly using WINE and Lutris on June 25th before the update.

My current system, software (all 64bit);
GNU/Linux, Devuan 5 (Debian 12 fork)
Trinity Desktop Environment 14.0.1.0
Glorious Eggrolls custom WINE package version 8.26 with the Lutris game launcher.

current hardware;
Intel Core i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz
Argus motherboard with 16GB RAM
nvidia GTX 1050, 3GB vRAM, using Linux driver ver. 525.147.05

Also been trying to get FFXIV working on my old system that is mostly the same except with a Intel i5 @ 2.8GHz, 12GB RAM, same vid card, and dual boots between Windows 7 and Devuan 4. Tried getting the game working in Win 7 but was getting some errors about the Visual C++ runtimes. I know SE doesn't support Win 7 anymore but the different OSs handle and report errors differently so its useful for diagnostics and testing.

What I've done so far;
confirmed the new bootFFXIV.cfg and FFXIV.cnf have the same edits as the older working ones, browser 0, browsertype 1.

The update changed it back to the games original 1280x720 windowed default. The same settings you get when you do a clean install. I manually edited the new FFXIV.cfg the update created for borderless window at 1920x1080, 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1280x720.

Installed the latest version of Microsoft's Visual C++ 2015 redistributable, 14.0.24123.0, into both the WINE prefixs and Windows 7.

All told today I reinstalled the games FOUR times, one "Restore game data" from the FFXIV Launcher's config menu, 3 completely clean (2 on Linux, one on Win 7).

So far nothing has worked. I've spent about 14 hours today trying to get the game working, a lot of that was just waiting for the game to (re)install and searching the forums for a solution.

Started a complete reinstall of Devuan 5 and installed the latest nvidia production release driver, 550.90.07 (the 525 is from the default Devuan repositories). Will finish that tomorrow.

Worst case If that fails I'm going to try installing Win 10 on my older system. if I can get to play FFXIV that way then I have to consider is FFXIV is important enough to me to give MS money for a Win 10 lisence. I ditched Windows when 8 came out, hated the UI, I don't like to be spyed on by my OS, and working with it was a major PITA. So many settings that used to be user changeable now weren't. I've also been around long enough to know about most of the less than legal things MS did in the past to get where they are.


The only thing I can solidly say is the issue seems to be centered around the file 'ffxiv_dx11.exe'. Since Linux/WINE handles running programs a little differently than Windows I was able to see how far along in the chain of executing programs FFXIV gets before it dies. the black screen that I was ending up at was ffxiv_dx11.exe not releasing it's display window when the program dies.

Sorry for the long sort of rant/vent. This has been incredibly frustrating, I've been playing for seven years and loved almost every minute of it. Hopefully the info above will be of some use to someone. I'm heading for bed, it has been a very long day trying to deal with this.

UPDATED: Fixed my install. Game now working.
So after getting some sleep and getting my morning caffeine requirement I resumed my search with a general focus on the ffxiv_dx11.exe program. After some digging I broadened my search to black screens and dx11 in general without looking for FFXIV specific issues.

Found a comment about turning the Vulcan shaders on, I kind of skimmed over it since the DVDK option in WINE was already enabled but it made me ask what would happen if I turned Vulcan support OFF. Which I did, and the game started normally. The delay between the game window going full screen and black and the "Square Enix" intro pl;aying was a little longer than usual the screen then went to the Dawntrail game menu and I was able to connect and load my main character. Spent the rest of the day getting caught up with my friends who were already playing. After I get this edit finished I'm going to see about starting a thread with this info to make this info easier to find.

So, tl:dr, try turning Vulcan support OFF. Worked for me, might work for you. YMMV. Good luck.

[Gurtvire]

Hi all, I'm sorry to hear others have been having this same issue too. Same here as well unfortunately.

I also noticed this same exact issue too with the Dawntrail Benchmark (ie able to login fine, click play on the launcher, black box opens then immediately closes seconds later, no error messages displayed at all). I've not come across that issue with any of the prior FFXIV benchmarks that I've tried in the past.

Now with the actual Dawntrail Expansion, I've noticed the same issue persists (I'm on the PC version, not Steam). I've tried some of the things people earlier have mentioned but without success.

Not sure what to do at this point except to wait and see if the FFXIV Dev team acknowledges this issue (I realize there's plenty going on right now given Early Access has begun and the official full launch is coming up July 2nd).

Just wanted to add my voice to the group so hopefully someone there realizes it's not just an individual issue, and that several others are noticing the same problem too.

(been playing since 2.0 so like others yeah, it has been years with the game. Still enjoy it and would like to keep going, but yeah it has been frustrating understandably)

[ViccAznar]

I'm still stuck here, but with a new error message.
Unfortunately, I can't go further than this and don't know what to do to fix it.

I hope this error message lights some part of the path to the solution:

"Unable to find the entry point for the SetProcessDpiAwarenessContext procedure in the dynamic link library D:\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\game\ffxiv_dx11.exe."

Thank you for the attention.

[Gobe]

A solution I found was while scrounging Reddit and the Forums yesterday
if the issue seems it freezes before the square enix logo pops up atleast
If on STEAM:

Step 1:
Open the Launcher. Login
Do not click the "Play" Button yet

Step 2:
Open task Manager
find in the program list "Steam (32-bit)"
Close that specific program. None of the other steam programs

Step 3:
Then click Play


Seems to work everytime on my end.
No idear why specifically I have to do this solution but it's a workaround I found working I have to do everytime i want to Launch the game

(First time replying on the forums so hope this still helps you people)

[MinOfForest]

Exact same issue here. Log in just fine, click "Play", game screen starts to launch, but disappears along with the Launcher while it's still black. I was able to play just fine until the servers went down for patching.

I've tried: Removing and reinstalling the game, updating Windows fully, "Reset System Settings" x3, "Restore Game Data" x4, updating graphics drivers, restarting the computer a million times, copying /boot folder from a friend, disabling "Game Bar" since that was in my Event Viewer logs, temporarily deactivating Windows Firewall and Defender (apps are whitelisted anywho). I'm at a loss of what to try next. I've been doing the Restore on loop in case that gets lucky, but so far no dice.

Windows 10 64-bit, NVIDIA GeForce 680, Windows install (not Steam)

Since this I tried doing a full copy of the /boot and /game folders from someone who has the game working (in case a clean install didn't work somehow) and still had the same issue. Ran dxdiag and sfc scan, neither came back with issues. One of the first things I tried for this failure was updating my graphics drivers (to 475.06), but several people had it work to roll those drivers back (474.82). No luck for me. I double checked to make sure my GPU was not overclocked (it wasn't and isn't).

Next steps are to try a different GPU and/or I'm about one cup of coffee of motivation away from reinstalling Windows 10 + FFXIV from scratch on my other drive and trying over there.

[MinOfForest]

I removed my Nvidia 680 graphic cards and threw a solitary Titan in, updated drivers to the newest for the Titan (which are old) and now the game's working. It just really hated the 680s?

[TouiiMonochrome]

seems like i am having the same issue, too:

steam starts the patcher, patcher does its thing, soon as i click "launch game" the processes disappear. starting the ffxiv_dx11.exe does give a procedure entry point not found error.

nVidia 1080, updated drivers, fix mode run, re-install, etc.