Fantasy Grounds Not Launching After Latest Update – Install Stops After Updater

[azamboni]

Hello,

After the latest update, Fantasy Grounds no longer launches on my system. Here’s a detailed overview of what happened and what I’ve tried so far:

1. Initial problem:

Immediately after updating to the latest version, Fantasy Grounds stopped launching.

When trying to start it, the updater runs, updates itself, and then the process ends without starting the main program.

FantasyGrounds.exe is not present on my system at all after the update attempt.

2. Troubleshooting steps attempted (before contacting support):

Followed several suggestions from the support forum, including clearing cache, reinstalling, and checking antivirus/firewall settings.

Formatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows from scratch.

Reinstalled Fantasy Grounds. Problem persisted exactly the same way.

3. Steps attempted after contacting support (SUPPORT-29531):

Whitelisted FantasyGroundsUpdater.exe, and FGUpdaterEngine.exe in windows defender and firewall (nothing else in on my PC now)

Manually uninstalled Fantasy Grounds following the official guide.

Performed a clean installation again.

4. Current situation:

The updater runs, updates itself, and then stops.

The main application (FantasyGrounds.exe) is never installed or appears to be missing.

I have log files and screenshots available, including one showing a window that appears for less than a second before disappearing (possibly related to the error).

5. System details:

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz

RAM: 8 GB



Any guidance on how to get past this updater stage so the main program can be installed would be greatly appreciated.

[Zacchaeus]

I would suspect the age of the CPU might be an issue. What graphics card do you have?

Also the image shows a missing file - which could be the FG.exe file certainly. But you might want to ensure that this has installed properly as well https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/1667760130/ONLOAD+System.DllNotFoundException+lua5.1+Error

Might also be a good idea to attach your log files to a post here.

[azamboni]

Hello Zacchaeus,

Thank you very much for your reply and for your time — I really appreciate your help and expertise.

I am aware that my computer is a bit old (the graphic card is an AMD Radeon HD6676), but until last Thursday it was running Fantasy Grounds and Discord simultaneously without any noticeable lag or unexpected crashes. I have been using Fantasy Grounds since 2016 and the Unity version since its release in 2019, without running into this kind of issue before.

From what I can see, the updater first checks whether there is an updated version of the updater itself. Once it downloads and installs this update, it restarts. This is exactly the point where I am having the problem.

FantasyGrounds.exe is the second file that should be checked and installed/updated, but since I completely formatted my drive, this is essentially the same as a first-time installation on my PC. Because the process stops before reaching that step, the file is simply not present on the system at all.

I have attached the log files I was able to locate, as well as screenshots of the installation folders, in case they help diagnose the problem.

Thank you again for your assistance — your support is greatly appreciated.

[Zacchaeus]

It will need a response from the devs here I think since I don't know the technicalities but I have now seen a few posts like this one here and on Discord and the common factor in all of them is that the users are running on a now unsupported version of windows (such as Win 7) or their CPU/graphics card is more than 10 years old. The last patch included the latest update to the Unity game engine and I suspect it is that which might be causing the issue. Possibly the graphics rendering or the way that threading works or something similar is no longer compatible with older systems. But this is guesswork; I can't see anything in the log files that point to any error.

[azamboni]

I understand your point about the possible compatibility issues with older hardware and the new Unity engine update. My system is indeed quite old.

I would also like to clarify that the problem is not directly with FantasyGrounds.exe itself, because the installation process never gets to the point where that file is downloaded or installed. The updater updates itself, restarts, and then stops before the main program installation can even begin.

It would be helpful to know from the developers whether the recent update to the Unity engine has introduced specific CPU or GPU requirements that may affect older systems, and if so, whether there are any possible workarounds.

I will wait for a reply from the dev team, Thanks again for your support

[Moon Wizard]

We don't have any specific visibility into what is happening at the OS level; and the Unity logs are in a different location.
(The logs you provided are the application-level logs, which look fine; not the Unity engine logs.)
In the Updater Settings, there is an option to compile logs which also includes the Unity logs.
The Unity logs are located at:
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\LocalLow\SmiteWorks\Fantasy Grounds\Player.log and Player-prev.log
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\LocalLow\SmiteWorks\FGUpdaterEngine\Playe r.log and Player-prev.log

These may or may not tell us anything; depending on what the Unity engine reports

Also, you can delete the old FantasyGroundsUpdater directory and rename the FantasyGroundsUpdater_NEW to FantasyGroundsUpdater to force the updater to change over versions, if it's failing for some reason. However, it's probably an indicator of a system level issue, which the Unity logs may or may not help identify.

Regardless of whether the program worked before; we have to maintain keeping up with the Long Term Support versions of the Unity engine in order to keep up with support for performance and new operating systems requirements, as well as security and bug fixes of the core engine. So, there will be points in time when the system requirements jump. We usually try to schedule our Unity engine updates to coincide with mid/end summer releases based on the current LTS version of the Unity engine.

Regards,
JPG

[azamboni]

Hello Moon Wizard,

Thank you for the detailed instructions.

I’ve followed your suggestion to replace the FantasyGroundsUpdater folder, but unfortunately the problem remains exactly the same.

I’m attaching the Unity logs you mentioned — specifically, I could only retrieve the ones for the Updater Engine, as I never reach the point where the main FantasyGrounds.exe is launched (as I’ve explained before). Therefore, there are no Unity logs for the main program.

I’ll be waiting for your feedback after you’ve had a chance to review these logs.

Thanks again for your time and support

[Moon Wizard]

I'm seeing this error in the Unity player log:
GpuFence::Create(): Failed to create ID3D11Fence, error 0x80070057

I'm not familiar with that error; but the little info I found from a quick search (not much info available), it looks like it is an issue with the graphics card supporting the DirectX libraries that Unity engine is using.

Make sure that you are running the latest drivers for your OS and graphics card.

Regards,
JPG