With the recent influx of players due to our Steam holiday sales and the Jumble Bundle, we are seeing the following problems.
KNOWN ISSUES & SOLUTIONS
Game keeps asking you to Optimize Shaders, and then says you need to verify the integrity of the cache.
Exit the game. Find NS2 in your games list, right-click it and click "Properties". Click "Local Files" and then choose "Verify integrity of game cache". It should tell you that some files were invalid, and it will automatically download them again. Run the game after this is done, let the game optimize shaders and it should work now.
Game doesn't support Mac/OS X
NS2 does NOT support Mac. We worked on this awhile, but we never finished it. I don't know where it was listed as supporting Mac, but this was a mistake. If you bought the game through Steam and want your money refunded, you have to contact Valve support. For Humble Bundle, you can contact them here.
When I´m connecting to a server, the connection fails. I´ve already checked if I´m connected to steam and if the same problem occurs also in other games.
This may be resolved by lowering the pings per minute setting in Steam. You can do this in the Steam settings under the "Downloads" tab and setting the "Game server browser: max pings / minute" pull down to 500.
The game "tabs back" to the desktop when you start it, even though it's still running.
The game seems to be incorrectly auto-detecting a resolution that isn't supported by your monitor. Find your system_options.xml file in your %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 folder (open Explorer, type %appdata% then hit enter, then browse to the Natural Selection 2 folder). Open it up with Notepad or other editor, then find this line:
<window-mode>fullscreen</window-mode>
...and change it to:
<window-mode>windowed</window-mode>
Then run the game again. You should now be able to play around and find a resolution that works in full-screen.
Main game menu not working - stuck at blank screen
This problem is caused by Steam not properly removing files when it updates. You should be able to fix it with the following:
- Uninstall NS2
- Find your NS2 directory, and remove all remaining files. The directory should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Natural Selection 2.
- Reinstall NS2 through Steam normally
The game doesn't start under Linux
There is a problem with the game not working under some versions of Linux. We're not sure what's causing this or how to fix it, so unfortunately you'll probably have to figure it out yourself through these forums and other players, or get a refund from Valve and/or Humble Bundle (above).
After opening menu, some graphics options are blank, the decal life slider is to the far left, even beyond a selectable point. Options can be changed, but neither the "back" nor "apply" buttons will work. Settings cannot be applied, menu cannot be closed or backed out of, and only way to quit game is to use the console command.
This is triggered by one of your settings values being outside of the range of expected values.
There should be a file in this location that stores your settings:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<steamid>\4920\remote\options.xml
If you delete the line:
<marineVariant>6</marineVariant>
...and then start the game, it should work.
I changed the resolution and then got a black screen and could still hear the game (at a very low fps). Now the game won't start - I get a "Couldn't Initialize Render Device" error.
It seems that the selected resolution is not support on your machine. This can be fixed by deleting the system_options.xml file in the %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 directory. You can find this directory easily by opening Explorer, typing "%appdata%" (no quotes), and hitting enter.
I get a crash dialog from GLSLCompiler.exe.
Switch away from OpenGL to DirectX. You may also be able to fix by deleting the system_options.xml file in the %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 directory. You can find this directory easily by opening Explorer, typing "%appdata%" (no quotes), and hitting enter.
OTHER ISSUES
If your problem isn't listed here, browse this Tech Support problem and you may see an answer there. Otherwise, we may be able to help you with your individual problem. To get support from us:
- Go into your \Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Natural Selection 2 directory (usually C:\ but could be a different drive).
- Find TechSupport.exe in that directory and run it, following the prompts for it to gather lots of info about your system.
- Click "Save", then send that file to us at tech-support@unknownworlds.com.
We can't promise to look into every problem, but if we're not overwhelmed with other things and/or you write us nicely, that will increase the likelihood.
KNOWN ISSUES & SOLUTIONS
Game keeps asking you to Optimize Shaders, and then says you need to verify the integrity of the cache.
Exit the game. Find NS2 in your games list, right-click it and click "Properties". Click "Local Files" and then choose "Verify integrity of game cache". It should tell you that some files were invalid, and it will automatically download them again. Run the game after this is done, let the game optimize shaders and it should work now.
Game doesn't support Mac/OS X
NS2 does NOT support Mac. We worked on this awhile, but we never finished it. I don't know where it was listed as supporting Mac, but this was a mistake. If you bought the game through Steam and want your money refunded, you have to contact Valve support. For Humble Bundle, you can contact them here.
When I´m connecting to a server, the connection fails. I´ve already checked if I´m connected to steam and if the same problem occurs also in other games.
This may be resolved by lowering the pings per minute setting in Steam. You can do this in the Steam settings under the "Downloads" tab and setting the "Game server browser: max pings / minute" pull down to 500.
The game "tabs back" to the desktop when you start it, even though it's still running.
The game seems to be incorrectly auto-detecting a resolution that isn't supported by your monitor. Find your system_options.xml file in your %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 folder (open Explorer, type %appdata% then hit enter, then browse to the Natural Selection 2 folder). Open it up with Notepad or other editor, then find this line:
<window-mode>fullscreen</window-mode>
...and change it to:
<window-mode>windowed</window-mode>
Then run the game again. You should now be able to play around and find a resolution that works in full-screen.
Main game menu not working - stuck at blank screen
This problem is caused by Steam not properly removing files when it updates. You should be able to fix it with the following:
- Uninstall NS2
- Find your NS2 directory, and remove all remaining files. The directory should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Natural Selection 2.
- Reinstall NS2 through Steam normally
The game doesn't start under Linux
There is a problem with the game not working under some versions of Linux. We're not sure what's causing this or how to fix it, so unfortunately you'll probably have to figure it out yourself through these forums and other players, or get a refund from Valve and/or Humble Bundle (above).
After opening menu, some graphics options are blank, the decal life slider is to the far left, even beyond a selectable point. Options can be changed, but neither the "back" nor "apply" buttons will work. Settings cannot be applied, menu cannot be closed or backed out of, and only way to quit game is to use the console command.
This is triggered by one of your settings values being outside of the range of expected values.
There should be a file in this location that stores your settings:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<steamid>\4920\remote\options.xml
If you delete the line:
<marineVariant>6</marineVariant>
...and then start the game, it should work.
I changed the resolution and then got a black screen and could still hear the game (at a very low fps). Now the game won't start - I get a "Couldn't Initialize Render Device" error.
It seems that the selected resolution is not support on your machine. This can be fixed by deleting the system_options.xml file in the %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 directory. You can find this directory easily by opening Explorer, typing "%appdata%" (no quotes), and hitting enter.
I get a crash dialog from GLSLCompiler.exe.
Switch away from OpenGL to DirectX. You may also be able to fix by deleting the system_options.xml file in the %appdata%\Natural Selection 2 directory. You can find this directory easily by opening Explorer, typing "%appdata%" (no quotes), and hitting enter.
OTHER ISSUES
If your problem isn't listed here, browse this Tech Support problem and you may see an answer there. Otherwise, we may be able to help you with your individual problem. To get support from us:
- Go into your \Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Natural Selection 2 directory (usually C:\ but could be a different drive).
- Find TechSupport.exe in that directory and run it, following the prompts for it to gather lots of info about your system.
- Click "Save", then send that file to us at tech-support@unknownworlds.com.
We can't promise to look into every problem, but if we're not overwhelmed with other things and/or you write us nicely, that will increase the likelihood.