I know that Steam says that their client stopped supporting Windows 7 for Secret World Legends as of Jan 2024. Is that true just for them, or for the standalone clients too?
Both SWL and TSW can be run in Windows 10 and Linux Mint. But when I try to launch either one in Windows 7, only the ClientPatcher.exe process runs (endlessly). The ClientPatcher application never starts. There are old reports of similar behavior in “Age of Conan”, but I can make that work in Windows 7. The Patcher.log file contains this nonsense:
[2024-04-15 22:12:25Z #0] [ID:0] [ResourceManager] RDB files in use: 34
[2024-04-15 22:12:25Z #0] [ID:0] [ResourceManager] Found 141.2 MB Unused space in all rdbdata files. 0 errors.
[2024-04-15 22:12:25Z #0] [ID:0] [ResourceManager] No project defined,you are missing the project configuration keys or they are pointing to a non existing project,running dreamworld control center and selecting a project should fix it
Edit: while running Windows 10, I set compatibility mode on the ClientPatcher to Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Each time, it started up normally.
I dont think any of those error messages has anything to do with that issue. Its probably just steam that doesnt let you touch the authentication server with a old non supported steam version. So I assume funcom standalone will work all the way back to xp.
My question relates to the standalone clients of these games, not the Steam versions (Steam no longer supports Windows 7 for them). The weird “No project defined, you are missing the project configuration keys or they are pointing to a non existing project” message has been appearing for years, for AOC, TSW and SWL. For the two Secret World titles, it appears to be associated with trying to run them in Windows 7. I found a thread mentioning solving the issue by discovering that some other program was causing interference. But my Win7 installation is very stripped-down; about the only other things running are AMD Adrenalin (also running in Win10) and Avast Free Antivirus (because Win7 is out of support).
The DreamWorld message in your Patcher.log file is a red herring in this case. It seems to appear on all player clients on all Windows versions, and is to my understanding going to say that for anyone who isn’t capable of using the DreamWorld Control Center and defining a project… and only Funcom developers are capable of doing so.
Something else is interfering with your ClientPatcher while you’re using Windows 7, and it isn’t DreamWorld Control Center.
You mention that you run Avast while in Windows 7, so make sure Avast knows that Secret World Legends and its files should be exceptions and are safe, otherwise it might block it. Something certainly is.
Well, it isn’t Avast. I tried setting exceptions and “safe program” loopholes in Avast and the Windows firewall. That made no difference, so I uninstalled Avast completely. No difference. DreamWorld may have nothing to do with this, but I have a suspicion that the patcher is expecting to see something that isn’t present.
Unless you are a Funcom developer with access to the DreamWorld Control Center, there’s absolutely zero reason to worry about that DreamWorld Control Center warning, as that particular warning is present on all patcher.logs for all players even when the launcher is working successfully. DreamWorld is Funcom’s proprietary game engine.
Are you running the ClientPatcher as Administrator?
Additionally, try putting compatibility mode on the other executables in your Secret World Legends installation, just in case.
The game and the patcher/launcher haven’t been updated in years, so Funcom having stealthily pulled support for Windows 7 seems rather unlikely.
However, as Windows 7 itself has been unsupported for some time, it’s possible that you’re experiencing issues with expired SSL certificates.
(Just as an example. I no longer have a Windows 7 system so I can’t test it and running the game in compatibility mode on Windows 11 would still be using current certificates.)
On the other hand, it might just be another program interfering with the patcher. It’s not just antivirus/anti-malware that can cause problems.
The beginning of the patcher.log file where it mentions IP addresses should state whether it is having issues connecting to the patch server!
It would likely help us pin this down if the patcher.log in question was checked over it again to see whether the log contains any error messages pertaining to the patch server or connection in the very beginning of the file prior to the parts that were included in the first post.
Setting the executables to run as Administrator makes no difference. Running an Administrator or Standard account type makes no difference. The beginning lines of the patcher.log files are effectively identical (sometimes slight differences in the IP addresses of “a1705.dscd.akamai.net” as I reboot to the other OS). The two log files are essentially the same up to “[ResourceManager] No project defined,you are missing the project configuration keys or they are pointing to a non existing project,running dreamworld control center and selecting a project should fix it”. Under Windows 10, the log file continues to be added to, while the Windows 7 log file stops at this point. The file is apparently still open for additions (I discovered when I tried to copy it without killing the process first), but the ClientPatcher.exe process just sits there doing nothing.
In that case, there’s probably something else running that’s preventing the launcher from starting up properly.
@Vomher recently dug up an old post mentioning an incompatibility with Mumble if it’s running before you try to launch SWL.
There have also been reports in the past of things like the Alienware control panel (and possibly others like it) interfering with the patcher.
And just for completeness’ sake, missing DirectX 9.0c runtimes will also cause problems, though those typically manifest as the patcher crashing immediately with a Windows error message.
I’ve had the patcher crash quite a few times while trying to get it to run in Linux, trying out different Proton options, but not this sort of frozen process. I should note that both Windows 10 and Windows 7 (and Linux) are working off the same game installations, on a separate SSD dedicated to program installations.
The Windows 7 boot options are sparse, no special advanced check-offs. Startup items: Realtek HD USB Audio Manager (motherboard audio), Logitech Download Assistant and SetPoint, Fresco Logic xHCI (USB3) Host Driver, Avast Antivirus.
Background processes: assorted Radeon Settings and Software (Adrenalin 22.6.1), various Avast Antivirus, Windows Task and Desktop Managers, Logitech and Realtek processes, Fresco Logic tray application.
It’s nice that some can still run TSW/SWL with Windows 7, but I think I will have to give up on the idea. I have suspended or uninstalled about everything except Windows itself, and still the patcher process freezes solid as soon as I start it. I even tried creating new game installations; the patcher process in the installer froze so it couldn’t even download/create all the necessary folders.
My Win7 page file is system-controlled at 100% of RAM size; with 16GB RAM on a 1TB drive, that should be plenty. As an experiment, I took manual control and set it to the original standard of from 1.5x RAM to a max of 3x. This made no difference to the patcher freeze.
I did an experimental reinstall of Windows 7 on a spare drive to try to see just where the ClientPatcher broke/froze. I wasn’t successful as I spent a lot of time and effort trying to get it to an actually functional state and lost sight of the step-by-step testing procedure. At the end, the system was functional but the patcher process still froze; but I at least know what was in the system by that point:
Windows kb976932 (Service Pack 1)
kb2533552
KB3020369 critical update?
kb3125574 rollup update
KB3138612
KB3145739
KB3172605
kb4474419
kb4490628
kb4530734 monthly rollup
kb4531786 - All these were marked as important updates.
windowsupdateagent-7.6-x64
wufuc_v1.0.1.201-x64
DirectX package
Logitech unifying250 and SetPoint6.70.55_64
Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-22.6.1
MSI board drivers: chipset, USB, LAN, audio
Out of curiosity, have you tried moving your SWL folder to a different location or a different drive entirely? Ideally not somewhere in Program Files or another protected folder.
Oh, I never install games in Program Files. There is always a root folder /Games. There is a separate SSD named Installs where I put my /Games. I run all my games in Win10, Win7 and Linux Mint from the same installation location; only TSW and SWL have a problem, and only in Win7. I did try creating new TSW and SWL installations with a /Games on my Windows 7 drive; the patcher froze and could not even download/create all the folders.
The issue seems unique to ClientPatcher.exe for TSW and SWL. ConanPatcher.exe (Age of Conan) works fine.
I have previously installed win7 and had no problems with both games and there is nothing Funcom has changed that would break it. you sure you didnt copy over games folder from other partition and windows dont have permission to write to those folders? I mean some people copy the RDB since they already downlaoded it. but if its a different install you cant copy the folder called RDB BUT you can copy the files inside the folder.
if you do it this way delete all the folders. start install again. end the patcher when it starts downloading the 4gb files. delete contents of RDB folder and then copy over files from other install. you cant copy over entire folder of install. (just in case thats what you are doing)
