Can't launch Prison Architect (2024)

Has the game ever run okay on this machine? Or never yet?

DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please send in the game log C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Introversion\Prison Architect\debug.txt
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

@Djano one of the reasons for this issue could be different values in settings.txt and preferences.txt which are caused by the launcher. It's been partially fixed but some players still have this issue.
You can take a look at these files which should be in here: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Introversion\Prison Architect

In preferences.txt check out these:

ScreenW 0 ScreenH 0 ScreenWindowed true

Somehow, default value for screen resolution now is set to 0 (screenW and screenH). Edit it to whatever your screen resolution is, for example ScreenW 1920 and ScreenH 1080. I also recommend setting windowed to true.

Save it and move to settings.txt. In that file take a look at these:

"display_mode":"borderless_fullscreen","windowed_resolution":"0x0"

This is how I have it. I realized just now that this has been changed since the last time I took a look at these and values in here seems to be set to 0x0 as well. No idea why it is like that.
Anyways, something that worked for at least 2 people is making sure that the values in both of these files are the same. So in settings.txt you should have it just like I have up there except windowed_resolution which should be "windowed_resolution":"1920x1080" or whatever you've put in preferences.txt.

There's a few more issues with these two files, launcher itself and some other stuff. The devs are aware of this and hopefully it gets fixed in the next update.

I dunno if this will work for you, let me know. You can also try a few more things, for example:

• Deleting settings.txt and preferences.txt is sometimes enough. This makes it so the game starts with default values and mods off.
• Check if those both files are not read-only. Righclick on them and go to properties.
  
• Unsub from all the mods from Steam Workshop. Old mods can cause weird problems, including game not starting or giving a black screen.
  
• Sometimes unsubscribing is not enough and you have to delete files manually. Take a look in here at Murgh's guide on how to do this properly: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1918148552
• Check if Visual C++ Redist from 2015 is installed on your PC, you can get it from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
• The last thing, but very important is the launcher cache. It can cause issues and the only way to fix it is by removing the cached files manually. They are located in two places:
  • C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Introversion\Prison Architect
  • C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive

    You can remove all of this. These should be re-generated when you re-install or start the game again.

Personally, I'd backup save files, uninstall Prison Architect, do these steps from Murgh's guide and then remove the rest of files manually (such as launcher cache and Prison Architect folder from where you've installed the game (..\Steam\steamapps\common\Prison Architect).

If all of this does not work for you then you may post the debug.txt file from the first location I mentioned and crash dump logs that are located in the game installation folder.

AndrewT said:

Has the game ever run okay on this machine? Or never yet?

DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please send in the game log C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Introversion\Prison Architect\debug.txt
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

Click to expand...

I followed it up to *\Prison Architect\ but debug.txt doesn't exist. What should I do?

It really should be there. But how about the rest of my post?

And what happens if you try safe mode instead?