When opened it shows a black screen then quits

[mogo]

I'm opening from Epic Games launcher. I tried launching in -windowed launch option and it does the same thing. Installed new drivers and it didn't do anything. I can load in Unreal Tournament so its not the Epic store itself.

[Pompoulus]

Created an account to echo this. Brief black screen and then kicks me to desktop. I had this on the Xbox game pass (for PC) and it was doing this, dropped sixty dollars on this thing in hopes that it was Microsoft, but no. Epic store gives me the same problem.

[JakeyNZ]

I am having the exact same problem

[Tor Håvard Gipling]

Me as well. Black screen for 1 second then nothing.
I've now bought it on both stores, same scenario. But Microsoft store is even worse, doesn't seem like it's giving me full access to the folders it forced into my harddrive. 
Even if I take ownership of the folders the program exe prompts an error saying I don't have access.

Please by the gods tell us how to FIX THIS. Or just FIX THIS. I have waited so long for this! 

[Verstanden]

I have the same problem. I am on the Microsoft Xbox Gamepass PC (Beta). When I hit play the game, it launches and for a second one can see a black screen and The Outer Worlds Process in the taskmanager but afterwards it just closes down. I can launch other games from XGP.

i7-6700k, 16GB DDR4-3200, 1080ti, SSD

on reddit are people with similar issues. they had success disabling anything that puts an overlay on your screen or similar. None of the described solutions over there fixed it for me.

seems like the game saves some crash information on your local drive: (I modified some of the long cryptic stuff)

W:\WpSystem\XYZ\AppData\Local\Packages\PrivateDivision.TheOuterWorldsWindows10_xyz\LocalCache\Local\Indiana\Saved\Config\CrashReportClient

there is an ini file called CrashReportClient.ini, Content:

	[CrashReportClient]
bHideLogFilesOption=false
bIsAllowedToCloseWithoutSending=true
CrashConfigPurgeDays=2
	

so not very helpful. Could not find any files under my regular documents folder or app data folder. If you tell me where to find a meaningful crash report I am more than happy to provide it.

[Pidesco]

I've forwarded this issue to Obsidian.

[Verstanden]

okay I was able to launch the game. I am using Windows 10N. Before I was able to install the xbox app I had to install a windows update. Apparently as a Windows N user after some Windows updates one needs to reinstall the Media Feature Pack. How to do that is best described by Mozilla for the Firefox. So if you are using WindowsN you are now probably on Windows 10N 1903 and need the Media Feature Pack for it.

[maksin_fray]

Same problem. Waiting for solution.

 

[TheFilipinoKing]

Can confirm I'm seeing the crashing to desktop after launching from the Gamepass app. Reinstalled twice, still crashes. Sometimes it crashes at the title screen, sometimes it get through 20 seconds of the opening cinematic, freezes then crashes.

[FiendishWuMd]

2 hours ago, Verstanden said:

okay I was able to launch the game. I am using Windows 10N. Before I was able to install the xbox app I had to install a windows update. Apparently as a Windows N user after some Windows updates one needs to reinstall the Media Feature Pack. How to do that is best described by Mozilla for the Firefox. So if you are using WindowsN you are now probably on Windows 10N 1903 and need the Media Feature Pack for it.

Created an account to say thank you. This solved the issue immediately. 

[mogo]

Yep downloading the new Feature Pack solved it for me too.

[Pompoulus]

I installed the feature pack but this issue remains unresolved for me.

[thecountofchocula22]

Same issue. Updated Video Drivers and installed Media Feature Pack

[Maison]

Same issue for me. I bought from MS Store, same 3 second black screen crash whether launched from there,  Xbox (beta) app, or start menu. everything, including Win 10 and gpu drivers are up to date. Lord, how I wish the media pack solved it, but it is "incompatable with this version of Windows" probably because mine is not N.  Windows support was unhelpful, saying only "thank you for your understanding patience, this is a known technical issue, try back in 24 hours". I have the feeling I just lost $60.

[Herfie]

Have the same problems, tried reinstalling videodrivers, media pack etc. but still getting black screen and back to desktop.

Requested a refund from where i bought it, will follow this thread to see if there will be any solution to this problem, before i will try it out again.

[Verstanden]

sorry to hear ya'll can't play Looks like we might have different issues here.

did you guys check the reddit post I linked earlier. Any traces of Nvidia Ansel or MSI Afterburner on your system? Or any other program that creates an overlay.

[Maison]

No Afterburner, or Ansel.  I think the Xbox Game Bar app creates an overlay if you have it set to automatically capture clips etc, but I don't.
Thank you for your help anyway, much appreciated. Hopefully either Obsidian or Microsoft find a fix, but suspect that because its a small enough minority they will not bother.

[Pompoulus]

The consensus seems to be 'install the media feature pack' but my version of windows is not N and the media feature pack is not applicable. I was directed to another version located here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48231 and was able to install it but that did not solve the problem. Is a solution being worked on or am I too far in the margins and just not able to play this game? I've been looking forward to it for months. This is a huge bummer.

[ttobbattam]

I'm also having this exact same problem and haven't been able to get it fixed. I don't have an N version of windows 10. I tried installing the media feature pack like Pompoulus but my game still closes immediately after opening.

I reinstalled the game. I updated windows and my graphics drivers, and I've disabled everything that might cause an overlay. I've tried launching it from the Epic Games Store and from the .exe. I've tried running it as an administrator. I haven't been able to get the game to work even a little bit.

Is there anything that can be done?

I'm fairly certain my computer has the specs to run the game, but here are mine anyways, just in case.

OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit
Processor: Intel i7-6700HQ
Memory: 16GB
Graphics: Geforce GTX 970M

Edited October 27, 2019 by ttobbattam
I didn't have my version info for windows quite right.

[ttobbattam]

I just made a little bit of progress. When I run the .exe with the "-D3D12" argument, the game reaches the OBSIDIAN splash screen before crashing, rather than crashing immediately. I have directx 12, so I don't know why this A: changes anything in the first place, and B: still doesn't work. I'm pretty sure the issue is graphics related because of this though. My graphics drivers are up to date (GeForce Game Ready Driver v440.97), but maybe there's some other problem?

[Verstanden]

hey there. not sure if this will help but since your game crashes during the splash screen maybe it does:

https://www.nexusmods.com/theouterworlds/mods/2

basically this page gives information on how to edit your ini files to disable the intro splash screens. If you are on the MS store the config directory might be a different one and look something like this on the drive you installed your game to:

seems like the game saves some crash information on your local drive: (I modified some of the long cryptic stuff)

W:\WpSystem\XYZ\AppData\Local\Packages\PrivateDivision.TheOuterWorldsWindows10_xyz\LocalCache\Local\Indiana\Saved\Config\CrashReportClient

[Pompoulus]

Quick update: I'm at the title screen right now, I was able to get it to run. We'll see how she does but this is the farthest I've gotten. I've been doing a lot of stuff -- SO much stuff -- and I'm not sure what finally pushed it over the edge into viability. But the three main things I suspect contributed are: 1) I ran the sfc command and it found about 14 corrupt files and repaired them, 2) I ran msconfig and disabled a lot of non-microsoft processes, 3) I reinstalled. I've also, over the weekend, done a lot of other stuff suggested here and elsewhere. Good luck to everybody still having issues (for all I know this isn't the end of my woes either) and I hope they patch this thing up soon.

EDIT: Oh and I throttled the FPS to 60 in my AMD settings.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Pompoulus

[Pilda]

If you use the N wersion of windows 10, install Media Feature Pack. It alegedly helps.

[DonnyViper]

Wanted to join the chorus of people that are having this similar issue.  Running the game, either through the Epic Launcher or by directly clicking the .EXE file results in a black screen for a split second, and then a return to the desktop.  I have not got farther than that since downloading the game 16 hours ago.

I have tried several fixes recommended by others to no avail, including (but not limited to):

-Downloading the Media Feature Pack (which does not help because I do not have an "N" version of Windows)

-Updating NVidia graphics drivers (even rolled back to previous version as well, no change)

-Updating Windows 10

-Utilizing system file check from the Windows command prompt

-Downclocking my CPU

-Disabling any program running that has a screen overlay, including Geforce Experience

-Disabling GSync via the Nvidia control panel

-Disabling or enabling any "Xbox" related services in the Task Manager

-I do not have MSI Afterburner installed

-Disabling then re-enabling "Set Time Automatically" via adjusting date/time in Windows

-Disabling background services

-Disabling startup videos

-Re-installed the game and re-verified files several times

I'm sure there are other things I have tried but these are the ones I can remember off-hand. 

Yes, my system is more than equipped to run the game, with a RTX 2080 Ti, 32 GB Ram, and an Intel i7-6700K 4.0 Ghz CPU.  Any help would be appreciated.

Edited October 28, 2019 by DonnyViper

[ttobbattam]

Hey so I know this is a bit of an excessive solution for most people, but I factory reset my computer and now the game works fine. Something somewhere in the depths of my computer got removed or fixed. Presumably a less extreme solution could make the same change. Just know that hope is out there.

 

If everything else fails for you, you can just reformat your hard drive, reinstall your operating system, and try again. It worked for me.