Launcher bug hunt thread - Startup performance of 2020.14

[Deuterium Oxide]

As it seems a larger-than-usual number of players are having troubles with startup performance, whilst we are having trouble reproducing the exact behaviour, it's time to call a general bug-hunt on this little nasty.

This thread is for reporting one specific issue: Poor startup performance.
Any unrelated bug report posted in this thread will be deleted in order to keep it clean. This does not mean we don't want you to report issues, just that we don't what them confusing this thread and making it hard to trace what might be going on with this particular bug.

No "me too" posts
Please post individually without referring to other posters. Clearly describe the behaviour that you yourself is seeing. It's all too easy to misidentify bugs others are experiencing as being the same you are affected by. This makes our QA cry and that makes me sad as well. So! If I see posts of this nature, I'll edit them with a request that you update them with relevant information. Reports will be disregarded until relevant information has been added.

One post per player
This thread is not inteded for discussion, but as a collection of similar error reports. As such, each user should need only one submission. If you feel the need to add more information as you dig into the problem (for example getting inspiration from other posters and the tests / workarounds they have tried), please edit your existing submission to add new data as it's being discovered. Any further post after your first will be summarily deleted.

How to report
Now for the more constructive part - How to report on this bug in a way that will make it possible for us to actually make headway in finding the root cause. Please follow the below check-list:

Runtime environment
This will let us see any trends that may be present as to softweare or hardware.

• Launcher version you are running (example: "2020.14")
• Distribution platform (example: "Steam")
• Operating system (example: "Windows 10", please note that THIS IS MANDATORY even if you are a Windows user. Include version of OS.)
• Game(s) affected (example: "Stellaris and HoI4")
• Count of mods and source of mods (example: "321 mods installed from Steam Workshop, 15 mods installed from PDX Mods and 2 mods installed manually")
• Count of DLC and activation state (example: "9 DLC installed and 8 of those activated")
• Processor make (example: "Intel i7 7700k")
• Size RAM (example: "8 GB RAM")
• Type of storage and available space (example: "SSD with 113 GB free space")
• Any antivirus software installed and activated (example: "Windows Defender", please also indicate if you have no active antivirus software)

Observed behaviour
Once the formalities are over, you now need to describe the behaviour you experience

• "Wall clock" time, as measured in seconds, from the moment you start the launcher until it
  • Displays a window
  • The window is fully rendered (no spinner)
  • The "Play" button is possible to interact with
• Any error messages encountered
  • As modals / pop-ups (screenshots willl help) - This is especially important as the problem seems to be associated with some type of error condition with mods access
  • As "triangle warnings" on your mods or DLC (screenshots will help)
• Logs
  • If the launcher is generating logs that are of non-zero size, please attach those as well
  • If the launcher logs are of zero-size please make note of it
  • Bootstrapper or installer logs are not needed
• Repeatability and mitigation
  • Do you experience the listed behaviour on every start occasion?
  • Do you have any workarounds that seem to mitigate the problem?
  • What measures have you taken that has not worked?
• Any other information you think might be useful for us as we search for a solid reproduction of the behaviour

I'll be moderating the thread myself and hopefully @AndrewT will lend a hand as well. If you are affected by the bug, please take the time to follow the checklist above, and we'll have a much better chance at killing this particular bug in the not-too-far-off-future.

Thank you for your co-operation citizen!

 

[MrApophenia]

Runtime Environment

• Launcher version: 2020.14
• Distribution platform: Steam
• Operating system: Windows 10, version 10.0.18362
• Game affected: Stellaris
• Count of mods and source of mods: 299 mods from Steam workshop, none active
• Count of DLC and activation state: 14 DLC, 14 active
• Processor make: Intel i7 4790 CPU
• Size RAM: 16 GB RAM
• Type of storage and available space: 1.43 TB non-SSD hard drive with 396 GB free
• Any antivirus software installed and activate: Windows Defender; however, the 'protected folder' Ransomware functionality is disabled. (I tried enabling it temporarily specifically to add an exception for stellaris.exe and the launcher, which did not fix the problem.)

Observed Behavior

• Wall Clock Time
  • Displays a window: 4 seconds
  • Fully rendered: Most of the launcher is loaded and interactable at 100 seconds, but mods area still loading; took an additional 61 seconds before that loading circle stopped spinning and the error message screenshotted below appeared.
  • Play: Able to interact with play button at 100 seconds, even though mods area is not fully loaded.
• Error Messages:
  • See screenshots below.
• Logs: I don't know where logs are stored, but can post them if you provide instructions.
• Repeatability and mitigation
  • The long load times occurs on all loads. The error messages are intermittent and not always the same message; I have also gotten the "unable to load mod order" one in the past, but couldn't replicate it to get a screenshot today.
  • As noted above, I tried activating Ransomware in Windows Defender so that I could add an exception for Stellaris and the Launcher to the protected folder access list, but neither adding that exception nor deactivating the protected folder function made a difference.
  • I also tried temporarily installing a different antivirus, AVG, and running with that active. Also did not make any difference.
• Other info: I noticed that with the 'initial playset' that contained all mods, they were sometimes randomly becoming enabled without my having set them as enabled, and this kept happening on each load. I created a new playset with no mods and deleted the initial one, which did seem to stop that behavior.

EDIT - Per notes below, was asked to add info to my original post rather than adding new posts. So to update, it turned out that the new playset with no mods did not actually fix the file - mods seem to be getting randomly added to the 'No Mods' playset, and enabled, with no action on my part. Screenshot added to the attachments below.

The 'balanced precursor worlds' mod shown in that screenshot has reappeared on the mod list for that playset 3 times now after I removed it, although it's not always enabled.

 

[Draconas]

Runtime environment

• Launcher version: 2020.14
• Distribution platform: Steam
• Operating system: Windows 10 Enterprise, version 1803
• Game affected: Stellaris
• Count of mods and source of mods: 100 mods. 95 from steam workshop, 5 local. All inactive
• Count of DLC and activation state: 14 DLC, 14 active (No necroids)
• Processor make: Intel i5-6600K @ 3.5Ghz
• Size RAM: 32 GB RAM
• Type of storage and available spaaaaaace:
  • Stellaris, Mods & The Launcher installed on 500GB M2 SSD, with 90GB free
  • Documents folder (so all stellaris and launcher config) on 3TB WD Hard disk with 500GB free.
  • (I used the move documents folder in windows, so Documents live on the hard disk, but my main user profile is on the SSD. Having checked to be sure Stellaris and all steam workshop mods are on the SSD, the launcher is installed on the SSD. The paradox interactive folder that has all the config, the steam workshop links and all the files for the local mods is on the hard disk)

Any antivirus software installed and activate: Windows Defender; Stellaris, steam workshop and paradox documents directory are all excluded. They are also excluded from the windows indexing service.

Wall Clock:

• displays Window: 6 seconds
• Window Rendered: 30 seconds
• Play Button Interactable: Immediately

Of interest this is much faster than when I raised the issue, where I was looking in the region of 90-120 seconds. The main difference that I know of is that I have trimmed my modlist down from approx. 125 down to 100. Unfortunately I don't remember which mods I removed beyond ones that i don't play anymore (shockingly) or ones that had not been updated in a while.
The only other action I have taken is to install and start using Irony mod manager, but that has only added another local mod of my merged playset. Just to be sure I have deleted said mod, but it has not impacted start time.


Errors:
No dialogs/modals, and I had none when I had the issue
Mod warnings: Roughly 50% of my mods still have version warnings, this is down from about 80-90% when I initially reported.

Other thing that appears to have fixed since launch - last weekend when playing the game, it consistently remained in the "running" state in steam even after it had exited. Had checked process monitor and there were no stellaris and no launcher processes running, but steam refused to believe the game had shut down until I quit steam and restarted it. This no longer happens and steam accepts that the game is closed immediately after closing.

Files:
these are the 2 non zero files other than the 2 you wanted excluded. In addiion there is a dated log file that is zero length.


While I am pleased at the faster startup time for me! I am frustrated that I no longer have a good repo for you, evidence points to it was either number of mods (but I did not remove many, 20 tops, and my load time went down to 30 seconds or less from 2 minutes) or one or 2 particular ones. Unfortunately steam does not have a workshop history feature.

Though actually, while I was overjoyed at knocking 90 seconds off my startup time. 30 seconds to start up for the launcher is still actually very bad, seeing as that's a significant fraction of what it takes to load the game just to start the launcher up.

Have included my modlist from irony.

 

[MrApophenia]

One more update here - the launcher is still randomly enabling mods without being told to, even after I created a playset with no mods included in it. I just went to start a game and found it was not achievement compatible due to the checksum being modified, despite not having enabled any mods. I exited out and reloaded the launcher, and found the following:

To be clear, I neither added this mod to the 'No Mods' playset, nor selected it to be enabled. It simply appeared there as enabled, on its own.

------

@MrApophenia - Please add any new information to your original post, that will make keeping track of your personal progress much easier! Thanks!
/DO2

 

[MrApophenia]

It was suggested that I do an export of my mod list, so I posted it here.

------

@MrApophenia - Please add any new information to your original post, that will make keeping track of your personal progress much easier! Thanks!
/DO2

 

[VerKer]

As @AndrewT was suggesting, i am reposting some stuff from a different thread here, maybe it is useful. Please note that this was moved here from another thread so I havent followed instructions how to post here, ofc (feel free to request if you need more info from me). I would bet that most users who experience extended launcher startup times are a) on the beta branch and / or have b) moved the launcher away from drive C: to a different location. See below:

posting #1

I have the very same problem since 2.8 and no, it is not caused by number of mods installed. While i did not change the number of mods, the launcher v2 loaded within seconds pre-2.8 and takes over 70 seconds to load with the current version. It is heavily writing on my HDD on startup. Based on my previous experience with the launcher v2 i would estimate this is (again) a problem with file paths.

I would bet the OP has tried to replace the launcher away from drive C: (where you have your OS only basically, times on a small SSD, and do not want any game stuff there). In my case the launcher is relocated in the game directory of stellaris. To make this work i basically have to edit the "launcher-settings.json" file after every game patch or switch to / from the beta branch, as this file insists on placing the launcher path into C:\user\username\documents or sumsuch every time.

However this does not seem to be enough any more, the launcher insists to write data on drive C: still, mainly under user\username\local and under user\username\roaming - on every startup it does.

I would really, really like to learn where the launcher stores all its filepath locations so i can fix this myself. Basically i intend to contain the launcher on my D: drive where steam and my game folder are. Cant be that hard... I have been using a "launcherpath" file earlier pointing here, but either that one is in the wrong location or it does not work any more, as it did with previous versions of the game / or the launcher.

Any pointers are appreciated.

posting #2

If helpful, this is what my launcher bootstrapper log looks like:

2020-11-08 01:33:46 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper version: 2020.4
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [main] [INFO] Reading launcher versions in D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found 8 directories/files, checking whether they're valid launcher installations
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking .cpatch
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] .cpatch has invalid dirname (false)
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: ThirdPartyLicenses.txt
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: bootstrapper-v2.exe
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] launcher-v2 has invalid dirname (false)
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2.2020.13
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2020.13` and branch `` from path: `D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.13`
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking whether D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.13\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version exists
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found valid installation under D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.13\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2.2020.14
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2020.14` and branch `` from path: `D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14`
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking whether D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version exists
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found valid installation under D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: launcherpath
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking temp
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [DEBUG] temp has invalid dirname (false)
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [main] [INFO] Found 2 launcher version(s) in total
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [INFO] Branch file `D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\beta_branch` does not exist
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [main] [INFO] Found `` branch
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [main] [INFO] Latest version is `2020.14` from branch ``
2020-11-08 01:33:46 [launcher] [INFO] Launching D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14\Paradox Launcher.exe

posting #3

Interestingly, the game keeps writing a .cpatch directory under \newlauncher only to report this directory as false in the log file:

2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found 5 directories/files, checking whether they're valid launcher installations
2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking .cpatch
2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [DEBUG] .cpatch has invalid dirname (false)

Another issue seems to be, that it is missing a directory which seems supposed to exist here:

2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [INFO] Branch file `D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\beta_branch` does not exist

On the other hand, it then refers to a directory which i am unable to locate myself before it finally starts the launcher:

2020-11-08 01:52:04 [main] [INFO] Found `` branch
2020-11-08 01:52:04 [main] [INFO] Latest version is `2020.14` from branch ``
2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [INFO] Launching D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14\Paradox Launcher.exe

As for the long delay in starting the launcher, i think the solution might be in this line of the log (or i am just reading "extracted" wrong, but if it unpacks launcher data on every startup this might be the issue):

2020-11-08 01:52:04 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2020.14` and branch `` from path: `D:\Spiele\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\newlauncher\launcher-v2.2020.14`

@AndrewT feel free to move my posts where you see the fit the best, or shall i repost all this stuff there?

Adding my system info:

• Launcher version: 2020.14
• Distribution platform: PC / Steam
• Operating system: Windows 10 pro, v 2004
• Game affected: Stellaris v2.8.1 beta branch
• Count of mods and source of mods: 161 mods from Steam workshop, 1 my own mod local, tested with none active and with 23 mods playset, as well as with 1 single mod playset, doesnt change behaviour (not relevant imho)
• Count of DLC and activation state: own all DLC, all active
• Processor make: Intel i7 4790 CPU 3.6 GHz
• Size RAM: 12 GB RAM
• Type of storage and available space: C: drive (OS) 256GB SSD (129GB free), D: drive (steam, stellaris) + E: drive 10TB HDD in 2 partitions, with 2TB allocated to D: including 1.15TB free space
• Any antivirus software installed and activate: sophos endpoint agent (not relevant imho)

Adding behaviour info:

• "Wall clock" time, as measured in seconds, from the moment you start the launcher until it
  • Displays a window = 3 secs (blank window)
  • The window is fully rendered (no spinner) = 1 Minute (HDD heavily seeking and writing)
  • The "Play" button is possible to interact with = 1 Minute 5 secs
• Any error messages encountered
  • As modals / pop-ups (screenshots willl help) - This is especially important as the problem seems to be associated with some type of error condition with mods access = no pop up warnings occur however some mods (cosmetic) which worked previously ceased to work in game in v2.8.1 beta e.g. "Diverse Rooms"
  • As "triangle warnings" on your mods or DLC (screenshots will help) = yes using some outdated mods (cosmetic) (irrelevant imho)
• Logs
  • see above
• Repeatability and mitigation
  • Do you experience the listed behaviour on every start occasion? = yes
  • Do you have any workarounds that seem to mitigate the problem? = no
  • What measures have you taken that has not worked? = with / without mods active, different playsets, behaviour always the same (probably launcher pathing problem, see above)
• Any other information you think might be useful for us as we search for a solid reproduction of the behaviour = see description above

EDIT - update 8.11.2020 17.30hrs

Following my conversation with @Mousetick in a different thread, i have meanwhile tried and deleted all configuration files, that would point the launcher to edited directories of mine. I deleted all directories involved as well as all launcher data and removed the launcher from windows apps. After that, i downloaded the latest launcher package, unzipped the 3 files contained into my stellaris game directory, ran steam.exe as admin and fired up the game. I did let the launcher install into its vanilla directory and all (what i normally dont do) just to prove if / if not the slow launcher startup had anything to do with editing configuration files.

Unfortunately, after the fresh install the launchers behaviour remains the same. It takes about a minute to render up and a few additional seconds to log into my PDX account and show me the start buttons as active.

Here is the latest logfiles:

dowserlog

2020-11-08 16:47:14 [main] [INFO] Dowser version: 2020.4
2020-11-08 16:47:14 [main] [INFO] The `launcherpath` file does not exists:
C:\Users\error37_hs\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcherpath
2020-11-08 16:47:14 [main] [INFO] Trying to fix existing installation in "/passive" mode
2020-11-08 16:47:14 [main] [ERROR] Fixing existing installation failed:
exit status 1605
2020-11-08 16:47:14 [main] [INFO] Running regular installation in "/passive" mode
2020-11-08 16:47:19 [main] [INFO] Launcher installation succeeded!
2020-11-08 16:50:26 [main] [INFO] Dowser version: 2020.4
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Dowser version: 2020.4

bootstrapperlog

2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper version: 2020.4
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Reading launcher versions in C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found 6 directories/files, checking whether they're valid launcher installations
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking .cpatch
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] .cpatch has invalid dirname (false)
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: ThirdPartyLicenses.txt
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: bootstrapper-v2.exe
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] launcher-v2 has invalid dirname (false)
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2.2020.14
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2020.14` and branch `` from path: `C:\Users**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14`
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking whether C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version exists
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found valid installation under C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: launcherpath
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Found 1 launcher version(s) in total
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [INFO] Branch file `C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\beta_branch` does not exist
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Found `` branch
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [main] [INFO] Latest version is `2020.14` from branch ``
2020-11-08 17:13:16 [launcher] [INFO] Launching C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\Paradox Launcher.exe

cpatchlog (part of it, might be helpful i dont know)

2020-11-08 17:13:25 [repository] [WARNING] failed to make metadata path repository.json world writable: failed to chmod C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\repository.json: Zuordnungen von Kontennamen und Sicherheitskennungen wurden nicht durchgeführt.
2020-11-08 17:13:25 [repository] [WARNING] failed to make metadata signature repository.json.asc world writable: failed to chmod C:\Users**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\repository.json.asc: Zuordnungen von Kontennamen und Sicherheitskennungen wurden nicht durchgeführt.
2020-11-08 17:13:25 [repository] [WARNING] failed to make keypath _keys/public.gpg world writable: failed to chmod C:\Users\**********\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2020.14\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\_keys\public.gpg: Zuordnungen von Kontennamen und Sicherheitskennungen wurden nicht durchgeführt.

If i am not mistaken this points to some domain issue or something. Hm, but what else can you do but run steam.exe and thus the installer installation in admin mode?

The best guess that I can come up with is a localisation problem of the GERMAN Verions of Win10 which are not able to compute the JScript option / attribute "everyone" because that has been localized in german windows to the attribute "jeder". Given the launcher used JScript language to enable file access under /appdata/local using the "everyone" attribute, that might fail because german windows versions can not compute that.

Rough guess but i could not find anything else that was better related (if it turns out to be far off, my apologies, just a random user here, not a programer):

quote:

"An dieser Stelle noch der Hinweis, dass die von Microsoft im Advisory ADV200001 auf einem deutschsprachigen Windows meist nicht funktionieren. Microsoft hat beim cacls-Befehl nämlich eine Lokalisierung vorgenommen. Gegenüber den von Microsoft im Sicherheitshinweis veröffentlichten Ausführungen enthalten die obigen Befehle eine Modifikation des Autors für deutsche Windows-Varianten.
http://www.heise.de/meldung/Komment...spenst-geht-um-im-World-Wide-Web-4229968.html
Die von Microsoft für ein englischsprachiges Windows verwendete Option everyone führt in einem deutschsprachigen Windows zu einem Fehler ‘“Zuordnungen von Kontennamen und Sicherheitskennungen wurden nicht durchgeführt.”. Dann muss in einem deutschen Windows das Attribut jeder (statt everyone) im Befehl verwendet werden, damit die Anweisung akzeptiert wird."

Sobald Microsoft einen Patch für die Schwachstelle veröffentlicht hat, kann die Scripting-Engine jscript.dll wieder freigegeben werden. Die entsprechenden Befehle sind unter ADV200001 aufgeführt, wobei auch dort in einem deutschen Windows das Attribut everyone in den Befehlen durch jeder zu ersetzen ist.
(Günter Born) /

/end quote
source: https://techbizweb.com/internet-explorer-zero-day-schwachstelle-in-jscript-scripting-engine/

Update #2 to keep all in one thread:

This is clearly an issue of the Stellaris beta branch only, at least on my system. Reverting Stellaris back to butler 2.8.0 resulted in launcher being ready in about 20 seconds before you can click the play button. From the beta branch it needed more than a minute, while every thing else stays the same. Just saying. It might be useful to include a question in the opening post, if players experience this released, or in beta versions only.

Update #3

"This is clearly an issue of the Stellaris beta branch only" - or is it? I have meanwhile switched thru and forth between 2.8 and 2.8.1 beta versions several times, and meanwhile the launcher seems to have changed its behaviour. Its also around 20 secs on the beta branch now, so it seems my statement was false. Maybe installing the launcher from scratch and in its dedicated location (without fiddling on the text configuration files / launcher location) might have helped this issue more than everything else.

 

[MrApophenia]

I just tried reverting back to 2.8 and it had no effect on the issues described above.

It has been suggested that I go back and try cleaning out old mods, which I will probably do but will take a while, so I'm not messing with that today. I will mention that after both disabling the mod in my last screenshot and then deleting it from the 'No Mods' playset again, it has once more added that mod back in, although not enabled this time.

------

@MrApophenia - Please add any new information to your original post, that will make keeping track of your personal progress much easier! Thanks!
/DO2

 

[Draconas]

I just got a new computer, so I am doing this as a separate post due to total shift in the runtime from the one in https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-performance-of-2020-14.1440877/post-27083621

Runtime environment

• Launcher version: 2020.14
• Distribution platform: Steam
• Operating system: Windows 10 Profession 19041
• Game affected: Stellaris, 2.8.1
• Count of mods and source of mods: 101 mods. 95 from steam workshop, 6 local. All inactive
• Count of DLC and activation state: 14 DLC, 14 active (No necroids)
• Processor make: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X @ 3.7GHz
• Size RAM: 32 GB RAM
• Storage: everything installed onto the same on a 2TB PCI-e 4 M2 SSD. Currently 1.4 TB Free. This time there is no funny business with User directories, it's all default.

Any antivirus software installed and activate: Windows Defender; Steam and Paradox documents folders excluded.

I had copied across the PDX config directory from my old system.

Wall Clock:

• displays Window: 3 seconds
• Window Rendered: 10 seconds (note these are absolute, so window appears on second 3, window renders 7 seconds later on second 10)
• Play Button Interactable: Immediately

Of interest:
All mods show red ! error: The archive path in this mods descriptor is invalid or does not exist. Probably to be expected as any hardcoded paths from my old computer would now be invalid.
After going to manage all mods-reload all mods: All mods now appear twice. once with errors and one without.

My Actions:

1. Delete all steam-downloaded mod descriptors
2. Delete launcher cache files (mod-registry.json and .launcher-cache)
3. Manually fix local mods to correct path
4. Start launcher

Wall Clock:

• displays Window: 3 seconds
• Window Rendered: 9 seconds
• Play Button Interactable: Immediately

As I had nuked the cache and all the ugc files from mod this was a start from cold and included clearly scanning the steam workshop folder and regenerating all the ugc_* files for the mods

Stopping and restarting the launcher (without deleting anything, so it is now a warm start as its cache and the mod files exist) produces the same time as above.
Of note the time modified of all my mod ugc_ files is updated, indicating that the launcher is performing file IO on all of them.

That is of interest to me, as there is no need for the launcher to modify the files in theory. My assumption is that the launcher updates the ugc file each time in line with what data it has from the steam workshop folder (e.g. when a mod changes its name or supported version) and it does not check first to see if there is a actually a change, it just overwrites. It has clearly read them (or incorrectly cached the contents of them and not refreshed its cache when it refreshes the file, as it has the old file path).


From reading the above posts and my experience shifting computers:

I am thinking it is an IO issue around the mod files. So based on what I see happening I think what the launcher is doing is:

1. Scanning the Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod directory to find all UGC files
2. Attempting to load mods based on the paths that exist in the UGC Files
3. Scanning the steamapps\workshop\content\281990 directory to find all workshop mods
4. Writing ugc files into Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod for all steam mods, whether they have been updated or not
5. Performing a degree of resolution between the mods it found on steam and the mods it found from ugc files and storing that list in its internal cache

All of the poor performance is when the Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod directory is on a slower hard disk. Not necessarily the launchers state that it puts in appdata/local as for both my original PC and for @VerKer the appdata/local folder was still on c:\ which was an SSD.

I suspect it is some combination of possibly erroneous mod files / mod versions that give the launcher a problem parsing / loading them / fall into exception cases, combined with having a lot of mods -> having to read and process, and then write a lot of ugc files, which gets compounded by having those files on a slow spinning rust disk, which is probably why you have been unable to recreate it at PDX, i suspect all your dev machines are running off SSD's.

You'll probably need to replicate a split setup (windows 10 has the ability to move the Documents folder to another drive natively so it is actually quite painless), subscribe to 100-200 steam workshop mods, ideally old out of date ones (ironically several of the most-subscribed list in steam qualify, if not @MrApophenia 's mod list has some prime candidates) and then attach a profiler in the same way that it as done for Stellaris startup in https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...iary-181-threading-and-loading-times.1413671/ I think that the SSD's much higher throughput and much better random access performance will mask it otherwise.

For me the issue is fixed via throwing hardware at the problem, if I manage to retrigger it on the new setup I will update this post.