Game loading problem

[Ghiaman1334]

Alright gamers, I need help.
Did another round of mod installs. Same, typical recommended method as all the others.
Went to open the game.
Warned about 'folder for Assetto Corsa being a different form of Assetto Corsa or something'.
Went looking around for what that problem is, and once when I opened it again to check the wording, I clicked OK by accident instead of cancel or the x button.
Try to open game again, then gives me a message about something to do with the cfg/templates route. I have a cfg in the menu alongside 'content', 'apps', 'system' etc and one inside the 'system folder'. I decided to put the templates bit (I think there was a spare one of them, idk?) in the earlier cfg (alongside content etc)
Next time I open the game, it tries to load, plays the opening cutscene, but gets stuck initialising UI. I even went away and had dinner, came back up and it was still doing it.
Is this likely to be to do with the 'different form of Assetto Corsa' problem, the one which I accidentally said OK to its solution? What is happening? Is it just a problem with one of the things I installed today? I did install a UI app mod but surely it doesn't lengthen my load time from reasonably quick to literally an hour or so.
Help me out here, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Just moved the main cfg back into the system part and now it won't load, giving this message. It's the same as the 'something to do with the cfg/templates' part.
Could not find part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\cfg\templates
Guess this means cfg should be outside of the system?
Also excuse me replying to myself a bunch about this, I'm hoping it could help others who wish to lend a hand, and also if others have a similar issue they can see my progress and such and use it to make an educated guess about what to do or something, idk

 

[JoelK]

@RasmusP Can you help the man, i would but i suck at solving software-related problems.

Maybe this helps.

 

[Peter Boese]

There is also a cfg folder in your documents/assetto corsa folder. Maybe it's this...

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Just moved the main cfg back into the system part and now it won't load, giving this message. It's the same as the 'something to do with the cfg/templates' part.
Could not find part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\cfg\templates
Guess this means cfg should be outside of the system?
Also excuse me replying to myself a bunch about this, I'm hoping it could help others who wish to lend a hand, and also if others have a similar issue they can see my progress and such and use it to make an educated guess about what to do or something, idk

Moved that combined cfg to the original outer area and now it's doing the same thing but with preferences(?)

 

[Ghiaman1334]

There is also a cfg folder in your documents/assetto corsa folder. Maybe it's this...

So do you think something is missing from it? What should I do?

 

[RasmusP]

Which mod?
Please send the link and tell us which mods you did install beforehand (not counting cars and tracks) and what did you do to your cfg folder.
We need to know what steps would be required for the mod to work to figure out at which step you screwed up your game and how to fix it

 

[dud]

Hold on. The core issue is the hang when the launcher loads? And you installed mods?

The original AC launcher will hang when there are too many car skins total (across all cars) are installed. Specifically when the string length of all car and skin names goes over some idiotic limit, they keep that as a plain ASCII file.

The cure is installing a better launcher.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Which mod?
Please send the link and tell us which mods you did install beforehand (not counting cars and tracks) and what did you do to your cfg folder.
We need to know what steps would be required for the mod to work to figure out at which step you screwed up your game and how to fix it

Not including cars/tracks? Alright.
RSS Formula 3 V6 - McLaren skins / old Williams livery (Fly Saudia) / skin template
Doritos skins for Mazdas RX7 and 787b
Initial D rev counter/ui app (probably the only one you need to know)

First off, am I meant to have two cfg files in different areas? If not, where is it meant to be? As stated, I had two in separate areas, don't remember when that happened.
Originally moved templates to earlier cfg file.
Then moved outer cfg to one in system
Later moved entire cfg in system out to main 'common/assettocorsa' part

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Hold on. The core issue is the hang when the launcher loads? And you installed mods?

The original AC launcher will hang when there are too many car skins total (across all cars) are installed. Specifically when the string length of all car and skin names goes over some idiotic limit, they keep that as a plain ASCII file.

The cure is installing a better launcher.

Can you recommend one?

 

[Jempy]

Looking at the 2 folders screenshots above, there's something strange !
It looks they are both in the same place !! in the game folder !?????
while the first above is in the common/assetto corsa folder as it is meant.... the second should be in Documents/assetto corsa !

Of course when the game is started it's looking for your AC documents and if they are at the wrong place it cannot find them of course.

Is the message with the folders screenshot above correct ? then the answer for the problem is rather easy to give.

Do you have a Assetto Corsa folder in your documents ? ...

 

[Jempy]

EDIT: sorry .... I just saw my view mistake ... it's the content of the game cfg folder you're showing.

Now for a recommended launcher ... easier: the best is of course Content Manager
More than a simple manager ... as with it you'll be able to have day-night and much much more.

 

[RasmusP]

Can you recommend one?

Content manager

I'll get to the rest tomorrow!
I think you'll sadly need the original files. You can only get them illegally, which won't be posted here or via steam integrity check. But that might replace other mod files and settings sadly...

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Content manager

I'll get to the rest tomorrow!
I think you'll sadly need the original files. You can only get them illegally, which won't be posted here or via steam integrity check. But that might replace other mod files and settings sadly...

So I'm missing an original file? How?
Also got CM lite and tried to start up a practice, says I'm missing the ppfilter default.ini. in case that helps.

 

[RasmusP]

So I'm missing an original file? How?
Also got CM lite and tried to start up a practice, says I'm missing the ppfilter default.ini. in case that helps.

Yes that actually helps a lot. It can mean two things:
1. You deleted the default.ini
2. You deleted the whole folder of the default.ini

Go to :
\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg\ppfilter

And tell me if that folder exists and if yes, what files you have inside this ppfilter folder.
The game needs a default.ini to run. I once wanted to clean my ppfilter list so I would only have my two custom filters in the game to choose from.
Game didn't start anymore.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Yes that actually helps a lot. It can mean two things:
1. You deleted the default.ini
2. You deleted the whole folder of the default.ini

Go to :
\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg\ppfilter

And tell me if that folder exists and if yes, what files you have inside this ppfilter folder.
The game needs a default.ini to run. I once wanted to clean my ppfilter list so I would only have my two custom filters in the game to choose from.
Game didn't start anymore.

ppfilters folder is empty, but exists.
Checked the cfg folder earlier in the path (around content etc), and that ppfilters has everything in, including the default

 

[Peter Boese]

ppfilters folder is empty, but exists.
Checked the cfg folder earlier in the path (around content etc), and that ppfilters has everything in, including the default

Maybe the best thing is you do a file integrity check in steam. So you got all the missing files back. then reinstall your mods. Seems your AC installation kind of crafted to be broken.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Maybe the best thing is you do a file integrity check in steam. So you got all the missing files back. then reinstall your mods. Seems your AC installation kind of crafted to be broken.

Should I move my mods out of the common files before I do that?

 

[RasmusP]

I agree with Peter! Do the integrity check.. Your AC install is messed up for whatever reason. If you didn't delete the files manually something f*cked up big time.

About the folder structure:
- You have 3x a cfg folder.

1. \\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg
this folder contains unique game files that are not anywhere else. The ppfilters in there are the ones that are actually used. So if there is no default.ini in there, the game won't start at all.

2. \\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\cfg
this folder is the base version of the 3. folder in the documents. If you delete the documents folder, this folder will be copied into your documents when you start the game for the next time.
So when you install AC for the first time, Steam will only put files into your steamapps folder. Then the game will copy this 2. folder into the documents area (3.)

3. C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg
this folder contains some custom config files that are actually used by the game. At first start the folder from "2." will be copied in here. Then the game overwrites files when you configure the game. Replays are stored in the documents too

Summary:
Folder 1 has essential and unique game files. If you delete any of them, the game is broken.

Folder 2 is only a basic backup of Folder 3. As long as you have Folder 3, Folder 2 will be "dead" and not used. You can delete Folder 2 if you want, as long as you don't delete Folder 3.

Folder 3 contains configured and additional files. It's based on Folder 2. If you delete it, the files from Folder 2 will be copied in here but all your configurations will be lost.

Integrity Check:
The integrity check will only check and maybe overwrite Folder 1 and 2. Folder 3 will be untouched.
Only if you delete important files from Folder 3, files from Folder 2 will be copied in there.


You f*cked up Folder 1:
So your game is now broken. There is no chance to get the files back sadly...
What you can do is to put at least the default.ini into the ppfilters folder of "Folder 1".
Since ppfilters have no copyright etc, here is mine:

Put it in there and try to start the game. If it doesn't start you'll have to do the integrity check.

 

[RasmusP]

Should I move my mods out of the common files before I do that?

Depends.
The integrity check will replace all EDITED files in the steamapps\common\assettocorsa folder.
It won't delete ADDITIONAL files. So if you installed a mod-car which is only a separated folder to throw in, it will still be there after the integrity check.
If you however changed settings in the assetto_corsa.ini, replaced existing textures, installed sound-mods that overwrite/replace existing original sounds then these will be gone and be reset to default.