Freelancer does not launch or shows a black screen and then exits - FLHDE/freelancer-hd-edition GitHub Wiki

Freelancer: HD Edition includes many different enhancements to improve the vanilla gameplay experience as much as possible. Unfortunately this specific combination of enhancements may not work on your setup. It's also possible there is another issue that causes the game to not run. Follow the instructions in each of the following possible solutions until the issue has been resolved.

Possible solution #1

This issue may be caused by save files that still remain from a Freelancer playthrough with a different mod.

In your file explorer, go to Documents/My Games/Freelancer/Accts. Rename the SinglePlayer folder to anything you want, e.g. SinglePlayer_bak. If this didn't work, you may rename the folder back to SinglePlayer.

It's also good to know that there's an option in the installer that will ensure save files are saved in a different folder. Enabling this may help resolve conflicts when having multiple mods installed simultaneously.

Possible solution #2

If vanilla Freelancer runs without issues for you, feel free to skip this solution.

If you're on Windows 10 or 11, you need to have DirectPlay enabled in order to play Freelancer.

Go to Control Panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows features on or off, and ensure DirectPlay under Legacy Components is checked.

Possible solution #3

Try reinstalling the mod, but on the Graphics API page, make sure dgVoodoo is not checked. It can cause issues on some PCs.

Before choosing a different Graphics API though, you could first try downloading and installing the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist. NOTE: Download the latest version for the X86 architecture! If this fixed the issue for you, we would appreciate it if you could let us know on our Discord server:

Support Server

If neither installing the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package nor choosing a different Graphics API helped, try the possible solution below.

Possible solution #4

Please ensure you installed Freelancer: HD Edition with a clean Freelancer installation. If unsure, uninstall Freelancer and make sure all the installation files have been deleted. Next reinstall Freelancer and the HD Edition.

Possible solution #5

There is a possibility that an antivirus program is interfering with the installation process. As a result, the installer may not be able to modify or replace files properly. If you have any antivirus software running, try temporarily disabling it during the installation to see if that helps.

Possible solution #6

If none of these solutions worked, please contact us on our Discord server; we'll help you out.

Support Server

If you do this, please mention that you've already looked at this page, because this is usually the first thing we'll ask.

Possible solution #7

NOTE: The instructions in this solution may be difficult to follow.

A crash might occur because one or more features that Freelancer: HD Edition offers do not work on your computer. Perform the following steps:

  1. Reproduce the crash.
  2. In your Windows start menu, search for a program called Event Viewer. It may have a different name if your Windows installation is set to another language.
  3. Go to Windows Logs -> Application.
  4. Make sure the list you see is sorted by Date and Time (newest first).

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You should now see one or more errors from when you made the game crash. Have a look at all of them. In this screenshot, we inspect the third error.

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Look at the filename of the Faulting module path. In this screenshot, it's d3d8.dll. Check if the filename from your error is in this list:

  • d3d8.dll
  • d3d9.dll
  • console.dll
  • DelayDisplay.dll
  • dxgi.dll
  • dxwrapper.dll
  • flplusplus.dll
  • HudFacility.dll
  • HUDless.dll
  • HudShift.dll
  • HudStatus.dll
  • HudTarget.dll
  • HudWeaponGroups.dll
  • jflp.dll
  • MP3codec.dll
  • MPRep.dll
  • MultiIntro.dll
  • numeric.dll
  • ranks.dll
  • storyfactions.dll
  • Territory.dll
  • TurretZoom.dll
  • WheelScroll.dll
  • Zone.dll

If the filename from the Faulting module path is in the list above, go to the EXE folder of your Freelancer: HD Edition installation directory, and try renaming this file. For example, rename Zone.dll to Zone_.dll. Doing so may fix the crash. If it doesn't, please contact us on Discord.

Support Server

The most common Faulting module path is d3d8.dll, which is often caused by the default dgVoodoo Graphics API selected in the installer options. Please select a different graphics API when reinstalling this mod if you experience this.