DCS wont launch from Steam

[Onslott]

Hello All,

When trying to launch DCS from steam, it crashes. It works perfectly fine when I click on the .exe otherwise. The reasom why I am trying to launch from Steam is to be able to use an Xbox controller with the specific controller settings I made using the DCS FILMING template.

Any ideas?

dcs.log

[Flappie]

There's an error in your autoexec.cfg file.

load error Config/main.cfg:[string "C:\Users\kston\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config/autoexec.cfg"]:3: '<name>' expected near '\'

Rename it to "autoexec.cfg.bak" and see if it helps.

 

[sleighzy]

Your log is from Standalone not Steam. However there are a bunch of problems.

Firstly it looks like a least one config file is broken, from the DCS log analyzer:

Config File Corruption

Delete or rename Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\options.lua and try again.

This may be related to the below error you see in the logs:

2025-02-04 23:33:32.778 ERROR   Lua::Config (Main): load error Config/main.cfg:[string "C:\Users\kston\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config/autoexec.cfg"]:3: '<name>' expected near '\'
stack traceback:
	[C]: ?
	[C]: in function 'dofile'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:142: in function 'reloadOptions'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:155: in main chunk.
2025-02-04 23:33:32.778 ALERT   APP (Main): Config/main.cfg loading error: [string "C:\Users\kston\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config/autoexec.cfg"]:3: '<name>' expected near '\'
stack traceback:
	[C]: ?
	[C]: in function 'dofile'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:142: in function 'reloadOptions'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:155: in main chunk

You also have tons of mods, some of which have errors. Try removing those and running a slow repair of the game (Verify Files in Steam). If removing the mods and running a repair works then you could look at readding them one-by-one to see which is broken, and looking for updates.

Your preload radius is currently maxed out at 150000. You'll be loading a lot of potentially redundant stuff into RAM. You can drop that back to 60000.

 

EDIT: do what @Flappie recommended as well re: the autoexec.cfg file.

Edited February 5 by sleighzy

[Onslott]

18 hours ago, sleighzy said:

Your log is from Standalone not Steam. However there are a bunch of problems.

Firstly it looks like a least one config file is broken, from the DCS log analyzer:

Config File Corruption

Delete or rename Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\options.lua and try again.

This may be related to the below error you see in the logs:

2025-02-04 23:33:32.778 ERROR   Lua::Config (Main): load error Config/main.cfg:[string "C:\Users\kston\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config/autoexec.cfg"]:3: '<name>' expected near '\'
stack traceback:
	[C]: ?
	[C]: in function 'dofile'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:142: in function 'reloadOptions'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:155: in main chunk.
2025-02-04 23:33:32.778 ALERT   APP (Main): Config/main.cfg loading error: [string "C:\Users\kston\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config/autoexec.cfg"]:3: '<name>' expected near '\'
stack traceback:
	[C]: ?
	[C]: in function 'dofile'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:142: in function 'reloadOptions'
	[string "Config/main.cfg"]:155: in main chunk

You also have tons of mods, some of which have errors. Try removing those and running a slow repair of the game (Verify Files in Steam). If removing the mods and running a repair works then you could look at readding them one-by-one to see which is broken, and looking for updates.

Your preload radius is currently maxed out at 150000. You'll be loading a lot of potentially redundant stuff into RAM. You can drop that back to 60000.

 

EDIT: do what @Flappie recommended as well re: the autoexec.cfg file.

I am not trying to run the Steam version, but rather launching DCS from steam. So, yes, it is standalone launched from steam to be able to use the Xbox controller profile.

I will provide 2 logs, one from launching from the .exe, and one from launching from Steam method. As stated previously, launching from .exe runs perfectly fine, but from steam it immediately closes after the loading screen.

I tried @Flappie's method, but that did not seem to change anything. I will remove mods and repair and see if that works.

dcs - launched from executable.log dcs - from steam.log

[sleighzy]

I haven’t compared the two logs completely line-by-line yet, but one difference is that the Steam one is launching bin\DCS.exe and Standalone is launching bin-mt\DCS.exe. It shouldn’t make a difference but can you update Steam so that one also points to bin-mt\DCS.exe

[Onslott]

3 hours ago, sleighzy said:

I haven’t compared the two logs completely line-by-line yet, but one difference is that the Steam one is launching bin\DCS.exe and Standalone is launching bin-mt\DCS.exe. It shouldn’t make a difference but can you update Steam so that one also points to bin-mt\DCS.exe

I did actually notice that and try that but it also did not make a difference.

I've never used the log analyzer - is it able to tell which mods have issues?

[sleighzy]

6 hours ago, Onslott said:

I did actually notice that and try that but it also did not make a difference.

I've never used the log analyzer - is it able to tell which mods have issues?

Unfortunately not. Trial and error process of putting them back in to see which one is problematic. Given this doesn't occur with Standalone then I'm assuming not the case. What's the DCS FILMING template that requires Steam? I've used Xbox controllers in the past using Tuuvas's profiles (without Steam). I know Steam was required for PS controllers as their triggers don't work properly for rudders unless you use Steam, unlike Xbox controllers.

I also noticed that neither of the Steam logs show an actual game crash, which would insinuate that Windows itself may be killing this process. What is your actual experience when it crashes, what do you see? Can you run the Windows DxDiag tool, save the report from that, and also attach here. Do you get a full dcs.log-<datetime stamp>.zip file created for any of these crashes? Drop here as well if it does.

For the DCS log analyzer you can take your log files and drop them into the #dcs-log-analyzer channel in the Eagle Dynamics Discord server. The bot there will give immediate output so you can get feedback.

Edited February 6 by sleighzy

[Onslott]

Just an update to this thread:

After searching for another way to use the Xbox controller in DCS, I came across a Tuuvas tutorial, and in his explanation of adding the game to Steam, he has a segment that says that if you notice your game is crashing, it is probably because your Target location is not in quotes...which mins was not because I had moved the game to another drive and when adding the path, I forgot the quotes...

So for anyone that may come across this, be sure your Target location is in quotes!
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