Gaming Steam: The vanishing of Ethan Carter won't start

[HipsterPluto]

Hi guys,

I recentrly bought The Vanashing of Ethan Carter on Steam. When I first started the game, it was very laggy. I stopped the game and started it again, so I could change some settings to make it faster, but it didn't start.
I read some forums where people have the same problem. I did what they did (most of the time it was a missing .dll file), but nothing seems to work.

Can somebody help me with this?

 

[ody81]

There should be a redist folder in the game's folder
Reinstall everything in there, failing that, verify the game files in the properties (right click vanishing in steam go to properties and you'll see verify somewhere)

 

[HipsterPluto]

There should be a redist folder in the game's folder
Reinstall everything in there, failing that, verify the game files in the properties (right click vanishing in steam go to properties and you'll see verify somewhere)

Thank you for your reply.

At the game's folder, there is a map called _CommonRedist. There are three more folders named: DirectX, DotNet and vcredist. In those folders, there are a lot of files (DirectX has alot of .cab files, DotNet has one application, one .vdf and one windows file and vcredist has two application filesand one .vdf file) There are a lot of files, and I don't know how to reinstall all of them, so what I did was going into the vcredist folder and start the vcredist_x64 and vcredist_x86 applications, click on repair and then finish. Then I verified the game properties, but the game still didn't start.

I guess that was not the solution. How do I reinstall everything in the _CommonRedist folder?

 

[ody81]

Do you know what graphics card you're using?

And what settings did you change? If you change resolution for example to a resolution not supported by your monitor/telly then you might crash, maybe. Depends on the game.

But yeah, what graphics card?
And what settings?

And while we're at it, try launching launcher.exe in the game's folder by right clicking it and selecting run as administrator (in case your steam folder is in a protected place like program files)

Or even try running it without the launcher by going into the game's folder and into the binaries folder, there'll be a x86 and x64 folder, pick whichever and run astronautsgame.exe. (think that's the file lol)

 

[HipsterPluto]

Do you know what graphics card you're using?

And what settings did you change? If you change resolution for example to a resolution not supported by your monitor/telly then you might crash, maybe. Depends on the game.

But yeah, what graphics card?
And what settings?

I've got an Intel HD Graphics 4600.

I didn't change anything. I started the game and it asked me to set the settings. I just clicked "ok" to see if it would work with the high settings (it was already on high settings) and when it began to lag, I wanted to change it. Because it was so laggy I couldn't even go to the settings, I closed the game and tried to start it again. As it wouldn't start, the first thing I did is installing the game on steam again, but it wouldn't start.

 

[ody81]

okie-dokie, did you try the astronautsgame.exe in the 32bit folder (x64) in binaries?

 

[HipsterPluto]

okie-dokie, did you try the astronautsgame.exe in the 32bit folder (x64) in binaries?

Yes. First I tried the austronautsgame.exe (full name is AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping, I don't know if that changes anything) in the 64bit folder, because my PC is 64 bit. Then I tried the one n the 32bit folder. It does the same as when I click on "play" in steam: there comes a load icon next to my cursor, and that's it...

 

[ody81]

Well we're on to step 3 now...

Delete local content through steam and redownload.

It'll give you a fresh install, we'll get to see if it works the first time again or it was just a fluke.

That'll help me help you.

I'll be around for a few more hours tonight so just pm me or post a reply here when it's reinstalled and we'll take it from there

 

[HipsterPluto]

Well we're on to step 3 now...

Delete local content through steam and redownload.

It'll give you a fresh install, we'll get to see if it works the first time again or it was just a fluke.

That'll help me help you.

I'll be around for a few more hours tonight so just pm me or post a reply here when it's reinstalled and we'll take it from there

Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately, this didn't work. It just finished installing, so I clicked "play". There comes a pop-up saying: "preparing to launch the vanishing of ethan carter..." and next to my cursor comes a loading icon.
Yet, nothing happens...

 

[ody81]

Righty-o.

Lemme think a bit, I've been drinking as usual

Here we go...

One thing that could explain the first time, only time loading could be...

DUH DUH DAAAAAA

Go to My Document then into My Games and delete the The Vanishing of Ethan Carter folder.

This will scrub the config clean, but also your savegame data (which won't bother you )

Deleting local content through steam doesn't get rid of these files, so when you reinstall a game, bang, savegames are still there, but bang, so is your old (and in your case borked) config data.

Give it a go! And I'll drink a beer

Edit: oh oh oh, If by chance the launcher (just use steam to launch the game) works, set all the graphics options to low, at least for the first run just to see how it goes performance (choppiness) wise

 

[HipsterPluto]

Righty-o.

Lemme think a bit, I've been drinking as usual

Here we go...

One thing that could explain the first time, only time loading could be...

DUH DUH DAAAAAA

Go to My Document then into My Games and delete the The Vanishing of Ethan Carter folder.

This will scrub the config clean, but also your savegame data (which won't bother you )

Deleting local content through steam doesn't get rid of these files, so when you reinstall a game, bang, savegames are still there, but bang, so is your old (and in your case borked) config data.

Give it a go! And I'll drink a beer

Edit: oh oh oh, If by chance the launcher (just use steam to launch the game) works, set all the graphics options to low, at least for the first run just to see how it goes performance (choppiness) wise

It seemed like the solution, but it still doesn't work


EDIT: Wait, maybe I also have to delete it from the :C. Gonna try it again!

 

[HipsterPluto]

It works!!

Thank you

 

[ody81]

Excellent! I knew we'd nut it out in the end, you can thank heineken lol

Hopefully it runs fast enough to be enjoyable, I'm playing through it myself at the moment. The graphics are nice and all, but in the end I stopped noticing on account of the very interesting narrative

 

[HipsterPluto]

Excellent! I knew we'd nut it out in the end, you can thank heineken lol

Hopefully it runs fast enough to be enjoyable, I'm playing through it myself at the moment. The graphics are nice and all, but in the end I stopped noticing on account of the very interesting narrative

I just played a little while, and sometimes it lags just a little bit. It may not be the best quality to play the game, but that's ok.
When I quit the game, it was very laggy. Those three dots that come at the right bottom of the screen stopped coming (there were constantly two of them) and after 10 minutes having the same screen, I shut down my laptop.
I wanted to know if my progress was saved and I wanted to try a controller on the game, so I started it again in the Big Picture Mode. The game was very laggy when I used the right analog stick to look around, so I guess that's because of the controller...? Or maybe the Big Picture Mode. Anyway, I quit the game and that went fine.

I'll go back to using my keyboard and mouse and hope it won't lag too much.
From my short experience, I really like the game In spite of the lag, it was worth the money

 

[ody81]

I just played a little while, and sometimes it lags just a little bit. It may not be the best quality to play the game, but that's ok.
When I quit the game, it was very laggy. Those three dots that come at the right bottom of the screen stopped coming (there were constantly two of them) and after 10 minutes having the same screen, I shut down my laptop.
I wanted to know if my progress was saved and I wanted to try a controller on the game, so I started it again in the Big Picture Mode. The game was very laggy when I used the right analog stick to look around, so I guess that's because of the controller...? Or maybe the Big Picture Mode. Anyway, I quit the game and that went fine.

I'll go back to using my keyboard and mouse and hope it won't lag too much.
From my short experience, I really like the game In spite of the lag, it was worth the money

Well big picture could I suppose drain some more resources, I've never once bothered looking lol. But not a controller.

If you're using an xbox 360 controller then the game (and any game) well recognize that without big picture mode, so just use the regular steam mode and try that. Some games are picky so turn on your controller before you click launch.

if you're using x360ce to emulate a 360 controller on saaaay... a ps3/ps4 controller, yeah, x360ce introduces some lag.

 

[HipsterPluto]

Well big picture could I suppose drain some more resources, I've never once bothered looking lol. But not a controller.

If you're using an xbox 360 controller then the game (and any game) well recognize that without big picture mode, so just use the regular steam mode and try that. Some games are picky so turn on your controller before you click launch.

if you're using x360ce to emulate a 360 controller on saaaay... a ps3/ps4 controller, yeah, x360ce introduces some lag.

I'm using the DS3 Tool for my ps3 controller to recognize it as an xbox 360 controller, so that is probably causing it.
But no problem, I can also use my mouse and keyboard.

Thank you (and heineken) for the help