DCS Launcher Blank

[gloveside968]

Today, 27July2025 I updated DCS and my graphics card drivers and have not been able to launch DCSdcs.log.

I have researched a few similar posts and 1) in my saved games options.lua I do not have the "Launcher" line item to set from 'true' to 'false' 2) I have done a cleanup and slow repair on the within the bin folder (not the bin-mt folder) 3) I deleted the contents within the fxo and metashaders2 folders (I left the empty folders in the location) & 4) I am trying to avoid renaming my saved games folder name to minimize the other actions that would need to happen to transfer bindings, etc.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

My comp specs are:

GPU 3080ti (Nvidia GeForce RTX)

CPU: intel i9 10th gen 10850k 3.6Ghz

RAM: 64GB

Edited Sunday at 10:33 PM by gloveside968

[silverdevil]

15 hours ago, gloveside968 said:

Today, 27July2025 I updated DCS and my graphics card drivers and have not been able to launch DCSdcs.log.

I have researched a few similar posts and 1) in my saved games options.lua I do not have the "Launcher" line item to set from 'true' to 'false' 2) I have done a cleanup and slow repair on the within the bin folder (not the bin-mt folder) 3) I deleted the contents within the fxo and metashaders2 folders (I left the empty folders in the location) & 4) I am trying to avoid renaming my saved games folder name to minimize the other actions that would need to happen to transfer bindings, etc.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

My comp specs are:

GPU 3080ti (Nvidia GeForce RTX)

CPU: intel i9 10th gen 10850k 3.6Ghz

RAM: 64GB

hello. your DCS.log is small but that is because you are not getting by the launcher. it does show you are opening DCS with a shortcut for BIN-MT. though this folder is essentially the same, you should try to open from the BIN folder.

2025-07-27 21:30:46.969 INFO    APP (Main): Command line: "D:\DCS\DCS World OpenBeta\bin-mt\DCS.exe" --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR

another thing you can do is rename or make a backup of the options.lua, restart DCS. a new one will be created.

also make sure you have the recent visual c++ 14.44.35211 installed. it came with last DCS update.

[gloveside968]

Thanks for the reply @Silverdevil. I have tried to open DCS.exe from inside the BIN folder (see first attached log) and the BIN-mt folder (2nd attached log) which ends up with the same results (blank launcher screen).

I changed the name of the options.lua file located to options-old27Jul25.lua located in the following path Savedgames>DCS.openbeta>config>Options.lua and ran the DCS.exe files in both BIN & BIN-mt folders and noticed a new options.lua file hasn't been created in the savedgames>>config folder.

how do I check to ensure I have the recent visual c++ 14.44.35211 installed? and if I don't what are the steps to install it?

** Edit: confirmed latest visual c++ installed, see screen shot**

Thanks again for the help.

dcs.log dcs.log

Edited Wednesday at 04:26 AM by gloveside968
updated to confirm latest visual c++ installed

[silverdevil]

4 hours ago, gloveside968 said:

Thanks for the reply @Silverdevil. I have tried to open DCS.exe from inside the BIN folder (see first attached log) and the BIN-mt folder (2nd attached log) which ends up with the same results (blank launcher screen).

I changed the name of the options.lua file located to options-old27Jul25.lua located in the following path Savedgames>DCS.openbeta>config>Options.lua and ran the DCS.exe files in both BIN & BIN-mt folders and noticed a new options.lua file hasn't been created in the savedgames>>config folder.

how do I check to ensure I have the recent visual c++ 14.44.35211 installed? and if I don't what are the steps to install it?

** Edit: confirmed latest visual c++ installed, see screen shot**

Thanks again for the help.

hello.

it does look like you have the latest c++. installed when you patched.

perhaps try this. rename your whole DCS folder in Saved Games to DCS.bak. then run DCS again from the BIN folder (this folder will eventually go away) to see if a new DCS folder is created and launcher opens. it it works you can copy your control bindings from the old folder to the new folder.

also post up your options.lua. this file apparently is changed when DCS is ran. not sure why.

[gloveside968]

options-old 29Jul25.lua

 above is the options lua file I renamed in attempt to force DCS to create a new one. I ran DCS after I renamed to -old 29Jul25.lua and don't see another options.lua file in the same location.

I'll try renaming the saved games DCS to DCS.bak and report back.

Thanks for the responses so far.

[gloveside968]

Thanks for your help silverdevil! Renaming saved games to DCS.bak to force create another DCS.openbeta file worked!

I moved over my input files and scripts and preferences easily.

I wonder what the issue was?

Thanks again!

[silverdevil]

3 hours ago, gloveside968 said:

Thanks for your help silverdevil! Renaming saved games to DCS.bak to force create another DCS.openbeta file worked!

I moved over my input files and scripts and preferences easily.

I wonder what the issue was?

Thanks again!

good to hear. i suspect something got corrupted. last time i ran the sim there were no less than 16 files changed on my system. i use a program called witching that has some buttuns to create backups of important files. i run this before every DCS update.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3315428/