[B18] Could not initialize Steam API

[AndJusticeForAll]

Hello everyone,

Just like many of you I was really excited to play Rimworld after the new update except that it seems I just can't get it to work. Everytime I start the game I get the 'Could not initialize Steam API' error message, except I cannot click on any of the buttons ('Ignore' and 'Quit') and hitting escape does nothing either. I have also 2 weird lines of green pixels, one at the bottom of my screen the other one on the right side. All these issues disappear if I go back to alpha17b, I only have this problem with the beta18 version.

It's worth noting that I've never experienced this error before, with Rimworld or any other game on Steam, and I have 260+hrs on Rimworld about 80 hours on Vanilla, the rest on heavily modded games. I've tried looking online but nothing worked...

So far, I :

- Unsuscribed to all my mods
- Rebooted my computer several times
- Launched Steam as an administrator
- Exited Steam and started it again
- Disconnected from steam, exited it, and connected again
- Checked for updates for my graphic card, and the steam client
- Launched the game manually as an administrator from the Steam folder
- Uninstalled the game, manually deleted the Rimworld folder, and installed it again
- Checked the integrity of the game files

Aaaaand I think that's it, and it still doesn't work. Always the same problem described above. If anyone has an idea I would gladly try it !

Thank you so much and enjoy this wonderful game and the new update !

[Lord_Connor69]

Hey I just wanted to say your not alone on this issue. The exact same thing has been happening to me, and I can't get into the game at all. So I hope they can fix this issue quick.

And just one more bit of information that I could add to this issue is that I would get the same problem when I tried to play this update well it was still in the unstable testing mode. But now that it is the standard mode however, I can't play at all.

So to any Rimworld geniuses out there plz help.  <3  <3  <3

[Calahan]

Have you both tried performing a full clean reinstall yet? Details here: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4805.0

@ AndJusticeForAll - It looks like you've already tried several aspects of a full clean reinstall (but looks like you've missed the registry entries), but please try performing one because unless you methodically perform all the steps involved then you might miss something and leave a trace of the game behind (which might mean the issue remains along with it).

[Lobstercraft]

I remember having the same issue some alphas before. Maybe it was when A17 came out. I followed the steps in the link above. And did a full wipe of Rimworld as explained in the link. Just delete every traces of Rimworld on your pc before you reinstall. That fixed the problem for me
Ah and maybe backup your savefiles before.

[Lord_Connor69]

Have you both tried performing a full clean reinstall yet? Details here: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4805.0

@ AndJusticeForAll - It looks like you've already tried several aspects of a full clean reinstall (but looks like you've missed the registry entries), but please try performing one because unless you methodically perform all the steps involved then you might miss something and leave a trace of the game behind (which might mean the issue remains along with it).

Thanks I'll try all the steps (might take a bit) then get back to this forum to confirm if it works or not.

Okay..Ya just spent the last 2 and a half hours following all of the steps listed and there's no change. (except the second hard drive one. I don't have a second) And I could list how the special virtual uninstaller couldn't locate the rimworld file to going through all the files I could find until I found the ones with the appid.txt and other rimworld stuff then deleted it manually. But I am soo tired of this right now. So if anyone can find another fix, or make this one work leave it here I could use it.

Also if you find the fix u r a god.

[Calahan]

@ Lord_Connor69 - Can you please give more detail about what happened where you say... "how the special virtual uninstaller couldn't locate the rimworld file".

So you followed the instructions, performed step 1 okay (yes?), and then during step 2 where you have to... "B: In Steam library, right-click RimWorld and select Uninstall"... the Steam uninstaller gave you an error saying it couldn't detect the game or the file or something??? (yes?). I don't use Steam that often myself but I can't recall anyone encountering an issue with Steam not detecting the game to uninstall it before, so this is certainly a strange one if that's what happened (did you delete the game files through your O/S?).

If you still can't get B18 to work then please try installing A17b (from the Beta's tab) and check if that still works or not. If it does then perform a clean uninstall of A17b, along with the registry cleaner in step 4, and then try again to install B18.

If that still doesn't work then please can you post your log file (as an attachment) from after B18 fails to start. Details on where to find your log file can be found in the pinned thread at the top of the bugs forum. A screenshot of the error message that appears might be useful as well (if you save it in jpeg format then you should be able to post it as an attachment).


Users who have reported these "Could not initialise Steam API" errors in the past have usually been able to solve it by either just exiting and restarting the Steam client, and/or restarting their computer. But I assume you've already tried both of those already.

[Lord_Connor69]

@Calahan sorry I should have made it more clear.    Step 1. Ok    Step 2. Ok    Step 3. Ok    Step 4. Didn't Work presuming I downloaded the correct SPECIAL VIRTUAL UNINSTALLER.

4.  [Windows only] Download and run Delete_RimWorld_Registry_entries.reg (right click the link and use Save Target As) and double-click it to delete all registry entries related to RimWorld.

Steam Did Uninstall the game there is no problem there. (sorry should have made that clear, also thanks for the help, I'm just tired)

The step I was having trouble with was #4.

Also I can confirm that Alpha 17b still works.

[Calahan]

Thanks for the confirmation on various things. So first thing to check

1 - You are using a Windows O/S yes? As that registry cleaner is for Windows only (sorry if this is a dumb question but it needs to be asked just in case). If so then please can you confirm which version of Windows you are using.

If yes to using Windows then...

2 - Please can you start A17b, exit, and then post the log file that was generated (as an attachment ideally). Details on where to find it (if needed) can be found here (see #6): https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=513.0

3 - If A17b is working fine through Steam, then what happens when you try a clean uninstall of A17b? Or more precisely what happens during step #4 when you try to run that registry cleaner with A17b installed? Do you still get the same error?
3a - If so please try downloading the file to your harddrive, and then navigating to where you saved it, right-click and select "Open with>Registry Editor" (if Registry Editor isn't the default/suggested program to open it with then please check if it's on the list of "other programs/apps").
3b - If you still get an error then please can you take a screenshot of it so that we can better understand the exact error being given (as I've never know that registry cleaner not to work before, so it's very odd that it doesn't work). If you save the screenshot as a leg file you should be able to post it as an attachment.

[Lord_Connor69]

I am using windows I believe the specific version is windows 8.1
And I was just confused how to use the registry cleaner. But I spent a little more time reading the instructions last night and managed to use it.  (however the game was still unplayable after re-downloading rimworlds new beta)

I have also attached the log file for the game (version 17b)

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

[Calahan]

Thanks for the log file, and for confirming you've managed to get the registry cleaner to work.

Sadly your A17b log file offers no clues to the cause for this problem. As one theory I had was that you were using a custom install path or special characters or the like that A17b was fine with but B18 wasn't. But no, your paths are all as standard as they come. Oh and nice try but Steam is cold and uncaring so isn't going to help you, as such you can remove the "help me this game wont start" command line instruction you've inputted.


Okay, next step is for us to get a better look at exactly what error you are being given. So please update to B18 again, and then when you get the could not initialise Steam API error please:

1 - Take a screenshot of the error message*.
2 - Navigate to the following folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RimWorld\RimWorldWin_Data and check to see if there's a output_log.txt file there. If so please post it like you did with the previous log file (hopefully it will be the B18 log file and not the A17b one you just posted).

If you can't attach the log and the screenshot to the same post (due to the 600kb limit) then feel free to double post.


* Ignore the following if you already know how to take a screenshot.

But if you don't then there are either countless tutorial for this that Google can help you find, or: (and apologies if the following is insultingly simplistic. I don't know your computer know-how so have to assume it's zero)

1 - Locate the Printscreen button on your keyboard. It's often abbreviated as PrtScr or PrtSC, and is usually found to the right of the function keys (ie. the F-key, aka. F1-F12 keys).
2 - Press the above button to take a screenshot of whatever is currently on-screen. So press it when Steam gives you that error message.
3 - Open an image editing program. All O/S's should come with one, and Windows 8.1 should have one called Paint. If you can't find it in your apps list then you should be able to start it by finding any image you have on your computer, right-clicking and selecting Edit.
4 - Once the Paint UI opens, select File>New from the header menu, and when the new blank image appears select Paste command in the top left-hand corner of Paint's UI. The screenshot you just took should then appear in front of you as an image.
5 - Select File>Save as and select JPEG picture. Choose a save location and then post that image file as an attachment.

[Lord_Connor69]

Ok this is the (hopefully) beta 18 log file.

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

[Lord_Connor69]

And here is the error message. (I'm sending three screenshots because it might give you extra information. If not no harm in sending it I guess)

It starts by opening this green box in the top left corner.

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

[Lord_Connor69]

Then the game has some loading dots (this happens when the game is working) But after that it pops up with the error screen. (have to try to send in two parts because it goes over 600kb)

Never mind my screenshot goes over 600kb alone (One is 604.8kb and the other is 605.2kb). I don't know if that is normal I would assume I did something wrong. So I'm just going to give the information for the third screenshot.

The third screenshot occurs after you have left the error screen open for at least a few minutes. There is no significant difference, all that changes is the green box in the top left corner (that can be seen in my first screenshot) disappears well the error message remains.

[Calahan]

Unfortunately that log file is from A17b. So it's looking like the game doesn't even start to load, which suggests this isn't an issue with RimWorld and is an issue with Steam or more likely the Steam client.

And the screenshot you posted is in png format, which is a lot higher quality than the jpeg format I advised saving the image file as, and is the reason why the other screenshots were too large to attach (higher quality = larger size). So:

1 - Please try uninstalling and reinstalling the Steam client. Maybe using Revo Uninstaller (Google it) if a regular uninstall doesn't solve this. At this stage I'm 99% sure this is a Steam / Steam client issue and not a bug or issue with RimWorld. As everything RimWorld related is pretty much ruled out by now. (do you have any other Steam games that have very recently updated? If so have you tested to see if they are working?)

2 - Still need to see exactly what this error message is. I've been Goggling this issue and there seems to be 3 or 4 possible issues all producing slightly different error messages, or possibly just one single error that people are misreporting by not accurately and precisely typing the error message up when they are posting about it. As some are saying "Steam API can't initialise", "Steam API won't initialise", "Can't initialise Steam API" etc etc. Which all seems like the same issue but might not be as it all depends on the precise wording. So please either convert or retake those screenshots and save in jpeg format so you can attach them. Or upload them to file host such as File Dropper or Zippyshare and then post the download link to them.

3 - Ask for help on the Steam technical assistance forums (I rarely use Steam myself but I assume they must have tech help forums). As like I said this is almost certainly a Steam issue and everything I've found relating to these Steam API errors are also all confirming it's a Steam client issue.

[Lord_Connor69]

The Error message in question is exactly:


Could not initialize steam API. Possible causes:

-Steam is not running.
-Launched from outside Steam without steam_appid.txt in place.
-Running with different privileges than Steam client (e.g. "as administrator").

In most cases, rebooting your computer will fix this problem.

You can play anyway, but no Steam stats will be recorded and Steam features won't be
available.


(at the bottom of the large text box) ((by the way the large text box has the normal home screen planet art behind it))

                            Ignore                                           Quit

(those are your only two options and you cant click either of them you have to hit the windows button to exit the game)