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 Post subject: FAQ / troubleshooting
 Post Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:09 pm 
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Questions answered below:

-The game does not start, how can I fix this?
-I don't even get the Launcher, how can I fix this?
-When trying to download the game an error occurs that says 'the content file was locked'. What do I do?
-My virus scanner says Awesomenauts is a virus or trojan, how can I fix this?
-The game just shows an endless "Waiting for Steam initialization" message, how can I fix this?
-Alt+tab crashes the game, how can I fix this?
-Crashes and black squares with Intel videocards
-All characters look like black boxes, how can I fix this?
-I can't connect to Galactron from my Campus/College Network/University Network, how can I fix this?
-I can't play online at all, how can I fix this?
-What can I do about network errors and high ping?
-I lost my connection while in a match and ended up getting a lockout penalty when I got back! Why is this?
-How can I get better framerate and solve hickups?
-What is the difference between High, Medium and Low graphics quality?
-What is VSync?
-How are rankings in the Leaderboards calculated?
-I dropped a lot in the Leaderboards when I lost only one match, why?
-Why did I drop in the Leaderboards without even playing?
-How can I report a cheater or hacker?
-[Mac] Retina display issues
-[Mac] How to enable Xbox 360 Controller support on Mac
-[Mac] Crash on startup and errors about modified files
-[Mac] Steam Overlay not opening
-[Mac] Game often crashes after several matches
-[Linux] Crash on startup or black screen
-Stuck on initialising
-[Windows] My controller controlscheme got reset
-[Windows] Awesomenauts doesn't work well with high resolution displays
-Left stick seems to override my right stick's input on Xbox controller.
-I have another problem, what should I do?


The game does not start, how can I fix this?

This can have all kinds of causes. Here are a number of things to try:

A. If you are getting "error 51" then you have software on your computer that is conflicting with Awesomenauts. Steam has an explanation on how to fix that here.

B. It is possible that when hitting 'launch' on the launcher you end up getting the launcher again instead of the game booting. If this is the case, please try restarting the Steam client first. It should fix this issue.

C. The files might have been broken by Steam while downloading. So the first thing to do when there are problems is always to let Steam check the files. To do so, right click the game in the Steam menu, choose Properties, go to the Local files tab and click Verify integrity of Steam cache. It is okay if the game says it needed to redownload 1 file. (Link to Steam's official walkthrough on how to Verify Integrity of Game Cache)

D. If that didn't work it might be because Steam's Verify Integrity didn't actually recognise the broken files and you need something more rigorous. Try what is explained in this topic to do a better version of that: http://www.awesomenauts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=30093
E. If that didn't work, and you get the message "Execution of command 'AwesomenautsSteam.exe' failed (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)", it's possible your virus scanner has incorrectly detected Awesomenauts as a virus/trojan and deleted the required file. Please see 'My virus scanner says Awesomenauts is a virus or trojan, how can I fix this?' for more information.

F. If you're running DirectX, try manually installing DirectX drivers from here

G. Try switching between DirectX and OpenGL (this is an option in the startup menu).

H. Try switching between running Windowed and Full Screen, and try a couple of different resolutions.

I. Try running on Low graphics quality. Some older videocards (especially Intel cards) can only run the game on Low. Even if you have a newer card, just try this to see whether it makes a difference.

J. Steam might not have triggered the installer correctly, so try running its parts by hand. To do so go to either C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam or C:\Program Files\Steam and run these three files:
Steam\steamapps\common\awesomenauts\Data\VCRedist\vcredist_x86.exe
Steam\steamapps\common\awesomenauts\Data\VCRedist\vcredist_x86 2010.exe
Steam\steamapps\common\awesomenauts\Data\DirectXRedist\DXSETUP.exe


K. If you have it: try turning off Nvidia Surround (Nvidia's multimonitor system).

L. Update your drivers. Incomplete drivers are the most important cause of problems with Awesomenauts. Windows Vista/7/8 might tell you the drivers are up to date, but Windows automatically downloads an incomplete version of your drivers. To get the complete drivers, download them yourself from the website of Nvidia, AMD/ATI or Intel.

M. If none of these steps solve your problem, then please post a topic about it here on the forums and send us all of your log-files, so that we can help you find a solution. Here is how to get/send logs.

N. It has been reported that in some cases clearing the steam download cache can solve your issues. More info on how to do that here


I don't even get the Launcher, how can I fix this?

There is an extremely rare issue with the Launcher not even starting. The Launcher is where you can set the resolution and graphics quality and such. If you don't get this when you start the game, you can try starting it directly from your harddisk. You can probably find it here:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Awesomenauts\AwesomenautsLauncher.exe

If the Launcher still won't start that way, you can get around it by creating the config file yourself. To do so, create a file Config.txt in the same folder as where the launcher is. Open this file in Notepad and put this text in it:
Quote:
800
600
Windowed
Low
OpenGL
vSyncOn
multiThreadOn

Now try running the game by starting Awesomenauts.exe. If it works now, you can tweak the Config.txt to whatever settings you like. Here are the options for each line of the file:
Quote:
resolution width
resolution heights
Fullscreen / Windowed
High / Medium / Low
OpenGL / DirectX
vSyncOn / vSyncOff
multiThreadOn / multiThreadOff

If Awesomenauts.exe also does not start after creating Config.txt by hand, have a look at the FAQ topic "The game does not start, how can I fix this?" above.


When trying to download the game an error occurs that says 'the content file was locked'. What do I do?

This error appears when some files have been corrupted during an update. The exact error message should also show a specific file path, e.g. /Users/me/Application Support/Steam/Steamapps/Common/Awesomenauts/Beta/Awesomenauts.app/contents/frameworks/Cg.framework/Headers/cg.h on Mac. This issue is fixed in 3 steps:
- Delete the corrupted files: Browse to this file (or as far as you can go, the folders themselves may be corrupted as well) and delete all files in this folder. In this example, the Headers folder was corrupted, so all files in Cg.framework should be deleted.
- Clear the Steam download cache
- Run Verify Integrity of Game Cache. Steam will download all missing files and the game should run again.
Repeat these steps if the same error shows up for other files.

If this doesn't solve the issue, try uninstalling and installing the game again.
You uninstall the game by right clicking on the titel in your steam library, then going to properties > local files tab > delete local game content.
It should get rid of the error. If this is not the case, please make a topic on the tech support forum with a short description of your issue.


My virus scanner says Awesomenauts is a virus or trojan, how can I fix this?

Awesomenauts is not a virus, but some virus scanners think so anyway. We are working with the virus scanner companies to have Awesomenauts whitelisted, but in the meanwhile you can work around this by telling your scanner that Awesomenauts is okay. Just whitelist Awesomenauts.exe in the scanner. If you don't know where Awesomenauts.exe is, then right click the game in Steam, go to Properties, then Local Files and then click Browse Local Files.

If you cannot even install the game because of this, or if your scanner has already quarantined the file, then you can resort to stronger measures by following these steps:
-Disable the anti-virus software
-Install Awesomenauts (or, if already installed, use 'Verify integrity' option as described in 'The game does not start, how can I fix this?', item B)
-Whitelist Awesomenauts
-Re-enable anti-virus software

See also Steam's official take on this issue.


The game just shows an endless "Waiting for Steam initialization" message, how can I fix this?

This is a rare glitch where Steam refuses to connect to the game. Here are couple of things to try to solve this:

A. Try restarting Steam.

B. Try rebooting your computer

C. Try starting the game in different ways:
-Start from inside Steam by clicking the game there.
-Start Awesomenauts from the start menu or desktop icon, while Steam is already running
-Start Awesomenauts from the start menu or desktop icon, while Steam is not running
-Start directly from your harddisk, while Steam is running. That would be this file:
c:\Program Files (X86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Awesomenauts\Awesomenauts.exe


Alt+tab crashes the game, how can I fix this?

This is a rare issue with videocard drivers on Windows. If you happen to get this, switch between DirectX and OpenGL (you can select these in the Awesomenauts launcher). In all cases we have seen so far, the alt+tab crashes only happened in one of those and switching fixed it.


Crashes and black squares with Intel videocards

There is an issue with Intel videocard drivers, causing Awesomenauts to crash during the droppod sequence, or causing characters to look like black squares. Here are the things you can do to solve it:

A. If you have both an Nvidia videocard and an Intel videocard in your computer, then the problem is likely that Nvidia Optimus uses the wrong videocard for Awesomenauts. It should use the Nvidia videocard. To solve this, right click Awesomenauts.exe on your harddisk and set Nvidia Optimus to use the Nvidia card instead of the Intel card. You can find Awesomenauts.exe here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\awesomenauts\Awesomenauts.exe

B. If you have only an Intel videocard, then the problem is in your drivers. To solve it, go here and download the latest videocard drivers: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support?iid=hdr+support#?iid=subhdr+dnlds. Then uninstall your old videocard drivers and install the new ones.

C. If that still doesn't fix it, try running Steam's Verify Integrity Of Steam Cache on Awesomenauts. You can find this by right clicking the game in Steam, selecting Properties and then go to the Local Files tab. Check viewtopic.php?f=13&t=30093 for more details.

D. If that still doesn't solve it, try running on Low graphics quality, and try in both DirectX and OpenGL.


All characters look like black boxes, how can I fix this?

This is either a problem with your videocard drivers or with the videocard itself. The first thing to try is to switch between DirectX and OpenGL. If this does not fix it, you should try installing the latest videocard drivers. Be sure to download them directly from the website of Nvidia, AMD/ATI or Intel, since Windows Update sometimes automatically downloads broken drivers. If that still does not fix it, then your videocard is probably simply very old and lacks some needed features. If that is indeed the case, then you can only play the game on Low graphics quality. "Low" is our compatibility mode for really old videocards.


I can't connect to Galactron from my Campus/College Network/University Network, how can I fix this?

Contact your IT department and ask them to unblock/whitelist these addresses:
40.121.162.197:444 (TCP)
23.96.22.16:444 (TCP)


I can't play online at all, how can I fix this?

A. Set Awesomenauts to be trusted in your firewall / antivirus applications.

B. If that doesn't help. Uninstall all your firewall and antivirus applications. Disable windows firewall. Reboot your PC and try playing Awesomenauts again. If that works, reinstall your firewall, test Awesomenauts. If it's still working reinstall the antivirus, test Awesomenauts. And if it's still working enable the windows firewall and test again.

C. If your operating system MTU setting is set below 1200 you won't be able to play Awesomenauts online. This explains how to change your MTU in Windows.


What can I do about network errors and high ping?

Network errors happen when either you or your opponent have network trouble. If you get lots of network errors, then it is probably your own internet that is problematic.

A. This often happens because someone else in the same house is also using your internet connection. Make sure no one is doing heavy downloading on the same connection while you are playing.

B. If you are using Windows 10, turn off that your computer is used to upload Windows updates to other users. To do so go to Settings -> Windows Update -> and under "Choose how updates are installed" you'll see "Choose how updates are delivered". Turn this off.

C. The easiest solution we have seen, is to uninstall Adobe Air. When Adobe Air is installed, it sometimes introduces insane lag to the game. This also sometimes happens to other games (DotA 2, League of Legends), and several users have confirmed that uninstalling Adobe Air fixed massive lag problems for them.

D. Turn off other programs that use bandwidth, like Skype, Spotify and Youtube. For example, Skype even uses a lot of bandwidth when you are not actually chatting with anyone. You should only use online services like Skype, Spotify and Youtube while gaming if you have a strong internet connection. Turn them off if you are getting regular network errors and see whether that helps.

E. Reboot your router. Many routers perform worse when they haven't been rebooted for a while. UPnP and port forwarding might start failing over time.

F. Your router might have a setting similar to UPnP Advertisement Period. Set this value to the lowest possible

G. In most other cases, this is a router problem and can be solved by opening certain ports. Here is an explanation of how to do that: How to configure your network for best online play.

H. Another thing to check, is whether your firewall is blocking Awesomenauts. Steam seems to have some tricks that allow playing online even while the game itself is blocked, but this gives you really bad connection quality. The Windows firewall message might be up in the background while you are running Awesomenauts.

I. Update your network card drivers, wireless network card drivers and router firmware. Also update or uninstall "Network Manager" applications. Check the manufacturers website for more information.

J. If you are on a wired network try another network cable.

K. If you are on a wireless network try switching to wired. Wireless networks can be very unstable.

L. If you reallyreallyreally cannot switch from wireless to wired, check whether any objects or other Wifi networks might be interfering. Discover the best wi fi channel for your router And example for objects: we have received reports from players who had bad network connections in Awesomenauts when they also used their wireless headphones at the same moment. Try turning off other wireless devices and see whether that decreases your connection problems.

M. If you are only having connection problems when playing "Quick Match" or "Battle" check "How to get the best matchmaking" below.

N. Very low framerate can affect the network performance. When the framerate is very low the game has extra delay in sending and handling network packets. The topic How can I get better framerate? below might be useful.

O. If this does not help, then please send us all three of your log-files, plus an extensive description of what happens exactly. Be sure to check your pings and tell us those as well. You have a separate ping to each player in the match and you can see those in the scoreboard (press TAB to open that). Here is how to get/send logs.

I lost my connection while in a match and ended up getting a lockout penalty when I got back! Why is this?

With Galactron you can rejoin, provided you have the game running before the match becomes safe to leave (which is after 3 minutes of you leaving), and there are still other players in the match. If you're certain you couldn't rejoin despite these two conditions were satisfied, please let us know.

How can I get better framerate and solve hickups?

A. Awesomenauts plays best on 60fps (frames per second). If you are having lots of hickups, try turning off MultiThreading. For most players this is not an improvement, but for some older computers it is a big improvement. If your computer is not fast enough to achieve high framerate, try running on Medium graphics quality. After that, the biggest framerate improvement you can get is running on a lower resolution. If the framerate is still not good enough at that point, try running on Low graphics quality.

B. Turning of Replay Recording (Help & Options -> Settings -> Replay Recording), can give a performance boost.

C. Overclocking CPU or GPU can make your PC unstable. This can result in hickups. Reset the clocks to their default values.

D. Run a virus scan, and remove all viruses.

E. Anti-virus programs can interfere with the game and Steam. Add the following folders to your Anti-virus program's exceptions/exclusions list:
C:\Program Files\Steam\appcache\stats
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\awesomenauts
Replace C:\Program Files\ by the folder where Steam is actually installed.

F. Windows 10's Digital Video Recording software has been reported to cause framerate issues with Awesomenauts. in order to disable this, open the Xbox App, go to Settings and disable the Game DVR option there.


What is the difference between High, Medium and Low graphics quality?

High is how the game is intended to be played. However, if your computer is a bit older, then you can switch to Medium or Low graphics quality. Here is what these change:

-High: full graphics quality, everything looks best.

-Medium: backgrounds are flattened and don't have any depth any more, and are less sharp.

-Low: same as medium, but now textures are also half the resolution and there are no post effects (so no greyscale when you die and no colour effects when you are in stealth as Leon). Low graphics quality is our special compatibility mode for older videocards, like the Intel 960. These videocards don't support non-power-of-two textures and/or rendering to textures.


What is VSync?

VSync makes the game run at the exact same framerate as the monitor. This makes the game look most fluent and prevents ugly screen-tearing effects (horizontal lines in the screen). Most modern monitors run at 60fps (frames per second), but some people prefer to run on a much higher framerate. To do so, disable VSync. When you have a fast computer and have disabled VSync, the game might run on 200fps or more. This does not look any more fluent, because your monitor cannot show this, but to some players the controls feel slightly more reactive and fast on the higher framerate.


How are rankings in the Leaderboards calculated?

Our ranking algorithm is more complex than simply looking at the win percentage. We use a more advanced version of ELO. What we do is very similar to most other games. If you lose a match, you lose points in your ranking. How many points you lose, depends on the rankings of you, your team-mates and your opponents. If you lose against someone who has a much lower ranking than you, then you lose a lot of points. If you lose against someone who has a much higher ranking, then you don't loose as many points.

We punish leavers. We track how many matches every player actually finishes. If you leave a match before it ends, you lose ranking. This also happens if you have a network error, since we cannot see the difference between a real network error, and someone unplugging their network cable to avoid a loss. So leaving just before you lose is not a good idea for your ranking!

Kills don't matter. It is all about winning or losing a match. This way support heroes and players who focus on destroying turrets instead of killing players don't have a disadvantage.


I dropped a lot in the Leaderboards when I lost only one match, why?

If you have a very high ranking and you lose against an opponent who has a really low ranking, then you might lose a lot of points in a single match. Basically, pros should make sure they don't lose against n00bs.


Why did I drop in the Leaderboards without even playing?

Other people also play the game and they might have passed you in the Leaderboards.


How can I report a cheater or hacker?

By sending us an email. Please check here for the address and what to send us: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3480


[Mac] Retina display issues

If your game appears stretched please check the following option in the System Preferences menu:
Energy saver > uncheck automatic graphic switching

Also, it appears there is a problem where our launcher is choosing a resolution too big for your retina screen to properly show the game. Always make sure to choose your screen's native resolution.

On 13": 2560-by-1600
On 15": 2880-by-1800


[Mac] How to enable Xbox 360 Controller support on Mac

You will need to install a special driver to make the Xbox 360 Controller work on Mac. There are various drivers available for this, below are links to two examples that users have reported worked for them. Just download and install one and if it does not work, uninstall it and try the other:

http://xhd.sourceforge.net
http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/Projec ... river#toc1

Awesomenauts on Mac has not been configured specifically for the Xbox360 controller so you may need to do some small changes in the controls screen for your gamepad!


[Mac] Crash on startup and errors about modified files

Try Steam's "Verify Integrity Of Steam Cache" option on the game. This checks whether all files downloaded correctly and re-downloads them if needed. Check viewtopic.php?f=13&t=30093 for more details.


[Mac] Steam Overlay not opening

On some Macs we have seen the Steam Overlay (activated with SHIFT-TAB) not activated properly. If you see this problem occur, please restart Awesomenauts.


[Mac] Game often crashes after several matches

We are still investigating this issue, but it seems like someone actually found a solution for this one. Please try the solution suggested here and reply in that topic with whether it helped: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9209


[Linux] Crash on startup or black screen

This might be because of driver problems. Awesomenauts is a 32bit only game and if you use the proprietary nvidia or ati drivers you need to ensure the their 32bit OpenGL drivers are installed as well.


Stuck on initialising

This can be caused when the Steam servers are experiencing problems. Changing your download region in Steam: Steam -> Settings -> Downloads + Cloud -> Download region to another region close to might be a good temporary fix.


[Windows] My controller controlscheme got reset

Some controllers change names when plugged out and back in. A different name means that the game doesn't think the controller is the same as one with the old name, the old one has a saved controll scheme, the new one doesn't. Some controllers can be set to Direct Input or XInput. Setting the controller to XInput (which changes the name once) makes sure the name doesn't keep changing so your controllscheme won't reset again.


[Windows] Awesomenauts doesn't work well with high resolution displays

Typically this results in zoomed-in view and/or high cursor speeds. To fix this, you'll need to disable Windows' window scaling for Awesomenauts.
Please find the Awesomenauts executable:
Right click the game in the Steam menu, choose Properties, go to the Local files tab and click Browse Local Files.
Right-click Awesomenauts.exe and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab, and check the Disable display scaling on high DPI settings box, then click Apply (see this image). Do the same for AwesomenautsNewMatchmaking.exe if applicable. The game should now display properly.


Left stick seems to override my right stick's input on Xbox controller.

Be sure to turn off the Xbox controller mapping integration. To do this, open big picture, navigate to the gear in the upper right corner (settings), navigate to 'controller settings' and uncheck 'Xbox Configuration Support' there.


I have another problem, what should I do?

Create a post describing your problem here on the forum and we will try to help you as soon as possible! Other users might also be able to help you. Please give as much relevant info as you can, so that we can answer your question quickly. If relevant, please also send us your log-files. Here's how to get/send logs: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2223


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