Hey guys and gals,

Below is a compiled list of the most common issues in Endless Space 2 on PC. Note that some of these steps should be undertaken only if you are sure of what you are doing, and as such we always recommend you exercise caution when tackling the problems head-on yourself. This thread will be expanded with additional info as issues come up.

Windows 7 pink screen issue

Manually download then install this update, if you have Windows 7 and you are encountering a pink screen then crash upon startup: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36805

If the update gets stuck along the way, try this: https://superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates/996072#996072

Windows 10 and our games

If you are encountering issues launching Endless Space 2 with Win10, right-click the game icon, go to Properties and in the Compatibility tab, tick the box "Run this program as admin". In some cases, your Documents folder might be read-only, if that is the case be sure to change that setting too!

If the icon on your desktop is just a shortcut, find the Steam installation folder on your computer. For me, it is: E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Endless Space 2 (default installation folder on my secondary partition), and select the Endless Space 2 executable.

Also worth a shot: running the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7. Same menu as above!

Mono Path Not Found
If you get the following error:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Windows mono path not found: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\mono\mono\mini\mono.exe

  at Mono.CSharp.CSharpCodeCompiler..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

Try these:

Make sure you are updated to the latest version of Windows 10.

Set "-force-opengl" in the Steam launch options. To do so, right click the game in Steam, go to properies, then click on "Set Launch Options...".

If the issue comes up when generating a new game, try changing the galaxy density.

Endless Space 2 gets stuck on "Game launched and ready" when loading a save

This will happen if you have special characters in the filepath for your game, such as the brackets in this example:
[NORMAL] Program Files\[STEAM]\steamapps\

Try reinstalling the game in a folder with a filepath that does not include special characters.

Endless Space 2 crashes on startup on laptop

There seems to be an issue mostly with HP laptops having both an Intel HD Graphics chipset and a discrete graphics card: the game starts, the video plays then the game crashes. 

Open your graphics card's control panel and follow these instructions:

 - NVidia Control Panel 

• Click on Manage 3D Settings. 
  • Click on Program settings
  • Click on Add a program
  • Select Endless Space 2
  • Select "Apply"
  • Close the Control Panel
• Restart your computer and launch the game.

- Catalyst Control Center

• Go to Graphics > Power Play - Set Plugged In and Battery to Maximum Performance. Click Apply.
  • (on certain models) go to Graphics > 3D and push the slider to Performance. Click Apply.
  • (on certain models) if you have a Switchable Graphics tab, go there, select EndlessSpace2.exe in the list of applications and set it to High Performance. Click Apply. (the default path for the application is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Endless Space 2 )
• Restart your computer and launch the game.

Cannot see the videos

If you have a 3rd party codec pack like K-Lite or others fun a FULL update on it. An older ffmpeg.dll file can cause the game to crash.

Things to look for
* Klite Codec Pack
* VLC Player

Alternatively, you can use "-novideo" as game launch option to disable ALL videos.

Cannot save the game

Check Save Folder 

If you cannot save games it usually means there's an issue with writing in the My Documents folder.

Right click on your My Documents folder in the file explorer and go to Properties. Click on the Security tab, click on your username or session name, and look at the "System authorizations" list. Check that "Writing" is Authorized, otherwise, click on "Advanced" and change it manually to Authorized.

Add the game to your antivirus's white list

If you are using an antivirus or a firewall program, it might be restricting Endless Space 2's permission to write/create files. You can try to add the game as an exception in your antivirus/firewall in order to grant Endless Space 2 unlimited access rights. Same thing for WorldGeneratorContext (or "amplitude.worldgenerator.exe"). To find out how your specific antivirus/firewall works, please refer to its help documentation (or google it, it helps!)

Once you have done that, start Endless Space 2 in administrator mode.

General PC troubleshooting

Update your drivers

While sometimes games can run fine even on outdated drivers, they are a common cause of issues in games, from graphics glitches to crashes. Update your graphics card's drivers by downloading and installing the newest drivers from the manufacturer's website. If you aren't sure how to find the appropriate drivers, we can help you find out which ones you need! 

FAILED TO CONTACT KEY SERVER

• Remove steam.app from /Applications folder
• Remove everything in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam
• Reinstall steam

Verifying the integrity of your game cache

• Load Steam
• From the Library section, control-click on the game and select Properties from the menu.
• Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button.
• Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes.
• Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit.

Important: One or more files may fail to verify. This is normal for most Steam games. The files that fail to verify are local configuration files that should not be replaced as part of this process. You can safely ignore this message.

Make sure you do not execute any intensive other tasks on your computer at the same time such as scanning for viruses, or other cache integrity verification.

Issues with FreeType

If you encounter  a problem with FreeType:

1. Check your game's files (see "Verifying the integrity of your game cache" above)

2. Attempt to reinstall 64-bits vcredist

If the problem persists, you should try this:

1) Rename the existing msvcr100.dll under Windows/system32/msvcr100.dll

2) Reinstall the 64-bit vcredist

3) Reboot your computer

Bad performances with a NVIDIA card

• Please verify if your monitor is plugged into the GPU and not the default slot of the motherboard.
• Go to the NVIDIA control panel.
• Then go to “Manage 3D Settings”, “Program Settings”.
• Look for or add “Endless Space 2” on the drop-list and tell NVIDIA to use the high-performance graphics processor instead of the on-board graphics card.

Add the game to your antivirus's white list

• If you are using an antivirus or a firewall program, it might be restricting Endless Space 2's permission to write/create files. You can try to add the game as an exception in your antivirus/firewall in order to grant Endless Space 2 unlimited access rights. Same thing for WorldGeneratorContext (or "amplitude.worldgenerator.exe"). To find out how your specific antivirus/firewall works, please refer to its help documentation (or google it, it helps!)
• Unchecking "Read Only" on your Endless Space2/Public/GalaxyGenerator folder and apply to the subfolders.
  
  Once you have done that, start Endless Space 2 in administrator mode.

Run this program with Windows7 compatibility

• Locate the EndlessSpace2.exe executable. It should be located somewhere in $/Steam/SteamApps/Common/Endless Space 2
• Right click on the .exe and select "Properties"
• Select the "Compatibility" tab
• Check the "Run this program in compatibility for " and select "Windows 7"

Re-install the library .Net Framework 4.5.1

• You can find the installation program here: /Steam/Steamapps/Common/Endless Space 2/_CommonRedist/DotNet/4.5.1
• Launch a normal game in order to test.

Make sure Steam is running properly when you launch the game

Sometimes, you need to reboot your computer and Steam to have the game run.

Conflicts with other apps

You might have issues (Access Violation...) if you do not deactivate the following applications:

• EVGA's Precision X OC
• DropBox

You can also try to run the game as an Administrator. You need to create a desktop shortcut, right click on it and "Run as an Administrator".

If these steps do not help, please start a new thread to report your issue. See this thread to learn how to report your issue in a way that'll help us help you!

Make sure that you include the error log if you have one. It would be in your game install folder in a folder with a date for a name. You game is usually installed to

• for Windows: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Endless Space 2/
• And for Mac: User/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Application Support/Endless Space 2/Dump Files

Likewise, if you had an issue and managed to solve it in a way that isn't mentioned above, please create a thread and detail both the issue and the solution you found. Thank you!