Bug #517

Game Crashes on Startup with DirectX 12 or No DX Level Selected

Status:	Closed
Priority:	Critical
Added by:	LordTerminus on April 27, '25
Assigned to:	Unassigned
Due date:
Reported for:	S5.09

Steps to Reproduce

1. Select DirectX 12 or Select Play Deep Rock Galactic with no DX level selected
2. Click Play in Steam
3. See DRG splash banner
4. Banner disappears, game has crashed, doesn't get as far as black screen or info screen
5. Select DirectX 11
6. Click Play in Steam
7. Game starts normally
8. Select Play Deep Rock Galactic with -regenerateinis in Steam settings for command line parameters
9. Click Play in Steam
10. Game starts normally

Explanation

Game crashes on startup 100% of the time with DirectX12 selected, and will crash with no DX level selected, unless -regenerateinis is on the command line. Forcing DirectX11 appears to get the game to start reliably. I have run the game with and without -disablemodding, and modding directory has been removed, no effect on behavior.

I'm not certain how to determine version of the game in terms of the S5.NN (I'm guessing Season 5, then update NN?) numbering scheme, but my build version appears to be 1.39.113250.0, visible in my pause menu screenshot. The "(How to Find It?)" link below does nothing for me when clicked.

I'm running Windows 10, fairly recently updated, though the issue has been ongoing for months. CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, GPU Nvidia 4080S, graphics driver updated recently, some time after starting to have this issue, which was perhaps mid to late last year, with no change in behavior.

Windows event log reports a crash:

Faulting application name: FSD-Win64-Shipping.exe, version: 4.27.2.0, time stamp: 0x00000000 Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.19041.5438, time stamp: 0xab0dece3

Deep Rock Galactic does not appear to get far enough in starting to produce a log when it crashes this way, though it appears that the previous FSD log (in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deep Rock Galactic\FSD\Saved\Logs) does get removed. I have not been able to find any crash log that corresponds to my crashes.

I do see, in C:\Users<my user>\AppData\Local\CrashDumps, that there are files corresponding to my crashes with names like FSD-Win64-Shipping.exe.88684.dmp that are ~83MB in size, if one of those would help.

If there is a parameter that I can use to enable debug logging, or force DRG to give me any more information about the crashes, I would be happy to do that, but so far, I haven't found a good way to get a log. I do have a Report.wer file that Windows crash reporting appears to have produced, which I have attached.

Thanks in advance for any guidance or fixes that come down the line. I love this game, and I'm glad that I have the workaround that I can run it in DX11 mode, so I can keep playing, but it would be great to understand why it crashes (and does so so quickly) when attempting to use DX12, why -regenerateinis helps when not forcing a DX level (maybe it allows it to gracefully fall back when selecting a level?), and what could be done to get it working in DX12 mode again.

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