Can't start game, black screen then minimises

Homeworld Remastered Collection Homeworld: Remastered Collection Tech Support
#1

I have a GTX 980, i7 2600K, 8GB RAM, Asus P8Z77V motherboard.

It will open launcher, but when I click on any of the Homeworld Remastered games it will start up on a black screen then after a few seconds it will minimise, it will stay running in the background, if I click on it in the taskbar it will do the same thing.

Homeworld 1 Classic will play, Homeworld 2 started first time but took minutes to do so, when I changed resolution and did a restart it did not come back and was again minimised in the task bar.

Any help please.

2 Likes
#2

Hey there,

Try these general troubleshooting tips: https://gearboxsoftware.zendesk.com/entries/62484764-General-PC-Troubleshooting-

If none of that is working for you, submit a support ticket on the same page and our team will attempt to assist!

#3

Are you streaming or using caption software by any chance ?

#4

I have a similar issue that Iā€™ve logged a ticket for.

Launcher works and when I click either HW:RM 1 or 2 the game startsā€¦but it starts invisible, I can hear music but nothing appears on my screen so it appears Iā€™m still in the desktop. If I click anywhere it seems to minimise back to desktop.

When I launched the game the very first time It loaded but the game menu appeared to overlap/repeat vertically about 20-30 times, as if the resolution was whack.

I have a Nvidia GTX670 with the latest drivers, latest directx. I havenā€™t checked all the .NET distributable but no updates appear on windows update (even in optional).

#5

Do you have any third party programs with overlays running (MSI-Afterburner / Trillian, etc.)

Some users reported disabling these programs/overlays fixed their issue of experiencing a black screen: Some Serious Issues with a GTX970

Doesnā€™t sound exactly the same, but worth a shot.

#6

Hey Jeffybug, thanks for the reply!

Unfortunately I donā€™t use any of those programs. Iā€™ll try troubleshooting again after work and let people know how I go, hopefully its just one of those weird combination of issues that crop up on day 1

Cheers
JC

#7

I seem to have a ā€œblack screen --> minimizesā€ type issue as well.

The screen where you select the game comes up, but when I select any remastered game, the screen turns black, then it just closes.

The classic versions work, though.

#8

Well, with the talk of overlays being an issue, I disabled the Steam overlay and it worked, Homeworld 1 Remastered gave me the Gearbox logo video and went blank, I brought up task manager and click on Homeworld in the task bar and it came back up on the menu, Homeworld 2 Remastered managed to get to the menu screen on itā€™s own.

Kinda silly that this has an issue with probably the most compatible overlay around guys.

#9

Iā€™m wondering if itā€™s worth starting another thread about this?

I have the same issues. I am an old time HW player (fresh from the old relic forums!) and decided to check in because I have the exact same issues as you. I was hoping to play HW:RM on my laptop (I have a second PC thatā€™s MUCH beefier) but I the game wonā€™t start at all.

Iā€™ve raised a ticket with Gearbox but so far theyā€™ve only sent me the standard FAQs - which are not helpful and not appropriate for this issue!

The orignals play just fine though - so itā€™s not all bad news! :smiley:

#10

I resolved this issue. Assuming you are:

Able to load the splash screen, but black screen and crash to desktop immediately after.

Using an Nvidia cared and have the control console for it.

Go into your Nvidia control panel. click Manage 3D Settings. under the global tab, select the drop down box and set the card usage preferences from: Auto-Select to High Performance Nvidia card or whatever.

This will make the game use your Nvidia card instead of your integrated graphics card. Which is what HW:R is trying to do right now.

1 Like
#11

^ā€” This fellow right here has your fix (probably) (heā€™s getting a heart for caringā€¦) - I walked a friend through this just a moment ago. I think this is covered on the Support page, FYI. Iā€™m up at 4am working to figure out why some machines default to the ā€˜less capableā€™ device under GL - really would like to get this into our first patch!!!

#12

Got a response from tech support. Apparently OpenGL 3.3 is not supported by Intel HD 3000 graphics drivers. Wish I had known this before I purchased the game.

Only fix for someone with those graphics (including me) is to get new hardware it looks like. Wish the game had some DirectX compatibility.

#13

Mine appeared to be a different issue as none of the more (now common) fixes resolved. Hopefully the below helps someone else!

Primary fix was to go into \SteamApps\common\Homeworld\HomeworldRM\Bin\Profiles\Profiles1\PLAYERCFG.LUA (open with Notepad) and check enter my proper resolution. I also set screenFullscreen = 0 and loaded it in windows mode first before setting it back to full screen in game.

It seems also that for whatever reason I didnā€™t have a profiles1\PlayerCFG.LUA file so I had to get this off my brothers computer. I closed my supporting ticket with this information so hopefully it can get looked into or if someone else has a similar problem they can investigate this avenue!

#14

Where else can i get this file. referencing - Profiles1\PLAYERCFG.LUA - I donā€™t have it and donā€™t have access to another computer to try to get it.

This could very well be my problem. Nothing else is working.

Edit:
Finally got it working.

Had to run HMR2 in order to have it generate the player file, change my desktop settings to max res, 4460 x 2560, then change the file to 4460 x 2560 with settings of fullscreen res ( 0 = fullscreen for me), then restart.

#15

Iā€™ve found that often if youā€™ve not managed to get into the game yet it wouldnā€™t of created the PLAYERCFG.LUA for you to change the resolution settings. What you can do though is go to the exe, right click on properties, find the comparability tab or button and choose the low res safe mode option. You can then change the resolution to something easier on the eye once you are in game.

#16

that seems to be whatā€™s going on here, in this userā€™s tech support post (using intel hd graphics instead of the radeon).

that looks like an intel hd graphics issue.