DCS starting to a black screen

Hello guys, I've recently installed DCS via Steam on my laptop. Full clean install, literally just pressed the install button on DCS and left it running. The problem is that DCS doesn't fully start. After seeing the DCS World/Eagle Dynamics screen, it goes to a black screen and I start hearing the menu music. It doesn't matter how long I leave it running, it doesn't load the menu's graphics. I've attached the black screen (Not even at my native resolution, I've cut the task bar below) and the task manager windows. Log is also attached.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide

dcs.log

Hi. User Owl Dynamic had the exact same issue here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=282016

 

The only error I see is this:

NvAPI_Initialize Error:

I've just found something troubling: if you look for "NvAPI_Initialize" in the forum search engine, you will find a lot of people reporting the same black screen issue. And all those people own an AMD graphics card.

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/search.php?searchid=36714894

 

I'm assuming the Nv prefix is for Nvidia, but why would the game look for Nvidia components when the graphics card vendor has not been identified yet? (the full name of the card comes right after in the log file).

 

I don't see any solution found for the other users. You can try contacting them or you can ask DCS for a support ticket here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/faq/710/

 

 

EDIT: can you ensure you don't have old and unused Nvidia graphics drivers installed on your PC?

I think some user did find a very interesting way to avoid the issue. Read the full post and give it a try: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4403760&postcount=9

 

 

Please tell us if that works.

Thanks Flappie, I'll try that. And no it can't be that, this is a laptop that has always had the same AMD GPU, I doubt I ever installed an NVidia driver by mistake

Nope. didn't work. Launched from the Radeon software, still just a black screen with the music. Tried updating the drives, still nothing. Just to rule the possibility out, how would I check if I have any NVidia drivers installed?

Like you said, you shouldn't have any. But you can check this looking at the Apps and features page of the Windows control panel.

Some other user says he needs to set Fullscreen option to false to see the main menu.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4425295&postcount=3

 

You need to edit this parameter in C:\Users\your_name\Saved Games\DCS\Config\options.lua

 

Can you try this?

Full Screen appears to be set to FALSE already...let me try with TRUE

Hey! Apparently it works now!

So what I changed was:

>Set Full Screen to TRUE and set the correct resolution in options.lua

>Open via AMD software

Thanks a lot Flappie, really appreciated. Have a good one!

You're welcome! Fly safe! :)