Why hey there, CIG! There's a considerable amount of us backers out here, who've flat out been unable to play, or even just launch, for an entire month now (ever since early v3.13 PTU). Launch Issues: Either the launcher just throws the red error with no further info in the logs, after StarCitizen.exe crashed 0617347 seconds after it's been launched... like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUX6mbewpuw Performance, low FPS Issues: Or the game does launch, but doesn't get more than an utterly unplayable 1-5 FPS on systems that previously got 25 - 60 FPS on v3.12, and still do get 40 - 60 FPS in Arena Commander free fly right now. Many affected backers also report their CPU and / or GPU being under-utilized / near idle when that happens. Also, loading screens take 6+ minutes, when they usually only took about half of that in v3.12 and older. Question is - why? From what I could gather, a considerable amount of "couldn't launch before, but now I can" backers find themselves in the "suddenly, low FPS" crowd now. As do I. But, those systems appear to be everything, all across the whole spectrum of Win7 with outdated hardware and 16 Gigs, to the latest Win10 kitted with 32 Gigs of RAM, NVME SSDs, and all the other hottest new shit in hardware. Mind you, each of which used to run the game fine, just previously. And all of that while other, seemingly identical systems, have no such issues. Fixes, or Voodoo? Backers have resorted to trying all kinds of Voodoo by now, including (but not limited to): - Clearing caches and USER folders - Installing a Windows Media-Pack patch - Re-installing the launcher and / or game - Resetting their accounts - Uninstalling security programs (Anti-Malware / Firewalls) - Re-installing Windows entirely from scratch ... and the only consensus under all of these, some quite radical, steps seems to be "still doesn't work for me". There are a few here and there that do say whatever it was they did actually fixed their issues, however these are like 1 in 10 cases, and with these odds, it may simply be confirmation bias. Point being: We don't have the one true, reliably working, solution to the problem. If someone wants to try and exhaust each of these options at the risk of potentially wasting all that time for no results, that's up to them to decide. But do be aware, there have been reports of people who did all of these, and still didn't get it to run. Furthermore, in the early PTU days when the issue first occurred, some people were able to reliably re-copy their LIVE accounts to the PTU environment, to launch the game without any issues - once, each. They had to re-copy their accounts for each launch, suggesting that somehow, their accounts were being corrupted in the PTU versions when playing, or even just logging in. Interestingly, some people were also able to spam the "relaunch" button of the launcher error quickly 50x, and slip on into the game that way, also suggesting that something with the login procedure may be going wrong, and retrying over and over would allow you in, no other changes required. If true, this method is likely to put strain on the login servers, and is thereby discouraged as it could lead to increased instability of the service. So, what now? CIG, could you please make a statement about what the heck is going on here? So far, there has been zero communication regarding these critical issues for an entire month by now, and we're really beginning to feel unheard and left alone out here. Especially with the event now beginning - for everyone but us. It used to be something I attended to annually, with all my friends, and was looking forward to it especially this time around, since I've had so much fun in v3.12, and a new friend who's never attended an event yet. Here's a few sources linked together: ================ Launch Crash ================ - [FORUM] 3.13.1 still does not fix the problem that causes the game to crash immediately [...] - [FORUM] Can we fix the 3.13 unable to launch game on Windows 10 bug? - [FORUM] Star Citizen has stopped running unexpectedly error is still occuring - [FORUM] !!! Game still crashes on launch attempt on my W8 (not W7) - [FORUM] Is anyone succesfully running the latest 3.13.0 PTU patches using Windows 7? - [FORUM] After updating 3.13, my game has been reporting errors and can not be started [...] - [FORUM] Well, so much for Fleet Week - [STARC-3456] Cannot launch game - SC has stopped running unexpectedly - [STARC-5044] Game Crashes at Launch - [STARC-3353] 3.13 LIVE Launcher Red Screen - [STARC-3753] I can't get past the laucher - [STARC-5183] Game Launch Crash Immediately Problem Persists - [STARC-3413] 3.13.0 LIVE launcher error code: 3221225477 - [STARC-5435] When I try to log in the game crashes - [STARC-6502] Star Citizen has stopped unexpectedly Huh? Your Crash is evolving! (Possibly related ones) - [STARC-109] Instant Crash (CTD) before the game window appears (Flavor: Crash reporter) - [STARC-6113] Crash on Startup (Flavor: Loading screen) ================== Low FPS ================== - [FORUM] At least on my hardware, Windows 7 no longer runs Star Citizen well - [FORUM] Worst PTU experience yet - [STARC-5102] Terrible performance in cities 15-25 fps - [STARC-5723] Extremely Low FPS compare to 3.12 (3 - 10 FPS) - [STARC-5581] Horrifyingly Terrible Framerate on PTU - [STARC-6156] All-round terrible performance, especially initially - [STARC-6233] Frames drop to zero (CPU/GPU usage drop) - [STARC-6684] Cant leave Microtech without CTD/Extremely poor Performance - [STARC-5574] lack of frames *Also, side note: We really have to get something like a "umbrella-issue" that has a proper, easily findable and descriptive title, and joins together already existing other issues under it's umbrella. The "15-25 FPS" one didn't seem like the right one to report to, leading to the "3-10 FPS" one, for example. All of these tickets are basically the same issue, but the first one may have a title that's a misnomer, and therefore more and more issues get created new, rather than put into one, leading to stuff potentially falling through the cracks. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ *UPDATE: 2021-05-23 5PM: PTU VERSION 3.13.1-7445322 - 3 empty servers with 10-25 FPS, drops to 5 depending on location, load screen just 1:30min instead of 6+ - looking away from "bad" areas reliably increases FPS on empty server - performance on empty server with no roaming fleet is better, but still bad - 2 full servers, 1 half full: Low FPS issue remains - looking away from "bad" areas doesn't increase FPS on a loaded server - Not just server load, but combination of issues. Server load just makes it worse *2021-05-27 5PM: CIG Issue Council activity - [STARC-5581] Horrifyingly Terrible Framerate on PTU and - [STARC-6253] Memory problems with last PTU patch have both been marked by CIG as duplicate of: - [STARC-2976] Crashing to desktop at New Babbage commons ... which is under investigation currently. Despite no CTD mentioning in 5581. Why? No such duplicate reports have been filed, it appears that CIG did it. And Memory being piled in from 6253... 2021-09-12: VERSION 3.14.xx works so damn fine, it's never ran better on my system This is amazing. Really bummed about missing an entire version, but been really enjoying playing with triple the usual performance since 14 dropped! =D