Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

3rd party Steam/Half Life based mods fail to load due to "launcher dll error" (Resolved)

Tags:
  • Windows 7
  • Games
  • Steam
  • DLL
October 4, 2014 9:10:55 PM

(Original question asking for help solving "Launcher.dll" seen with several not just one HL2 game mod. Details outlined when solution for multiple problems outlined below.)

This is a good one! Regardless of extensive search results a number of HL2 game mods not any of the original Half Life, Half Life 2, or episodes runs into this continual problem. Since the game mods excluding all and any of Gary's GMod are titles like Dark Factory, Radar 56, A Frayed Stitch in Time, Precursor, etc. all single player type mods have been running until the last fresh install of Windows 7 losing some and regaining some back later this problem appeared only as of late!

Initially when each of the mod's started having startup issues with the client.dll error the trips to the Steam forums revealed some Gameinfo.txt corrections for HL2, EP1, ad/or EP2 required mods where graphic distortions were also seen. Suddenly this "Failed to load Launcher.dl: could not locate spedified module" error became a reoccuring event spreading from one game mod to the next. Since these are all 3rd party extras and none are from Steam/VALVe but student programmer submissions they all lack the propertie option to veriify local content on drive.

The ClentRegisty.BLOB file and rename of folders will be the next test to see if anything corrects itself while some type of alternative working solution is required. The Steam community's Gameinfo.txt file corrections were for problems directly involving the SDK type updates where game executable location information had to be corrected.

------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Upon running into a first time seen error the next time I went to start up Half Life 2 itself not one of the few out of some 38 total add on game mods(Striker Mountain, Minera:Metastasis, Dark Factory, etc.) I ran right into the launcher.dll error once again as with most of the mods. With HL2 you can while you can't with the mods as far as go into properties from the Library option on the game option screen, Local Content, and then verify all files. An error came on one of the HL2 files.

What to do? Once the game saves were backed up being a routine practice the local content was deleted and the HL2 shortcut clicked on afterwards as the local files(certain ones only) were put back on in seconds showing a local zip type archive is kept by Steam. HL2 started up just like a fresh install went on. When then going to the first mod the main screen loads up with a black border and giant while square with a startup background image not found error while so far the rest of the mods effected were back running normally again. It seems the "Launcher.dll" error is mostly a need to correctt the HL2 files themselves when add on mods run into this showing something in HL2 went missing or is then unusable invalid and needs to be replaced.

And one last item in regards to the 3rd party game mod A Frayed Stitch In Time(cascade folder name on drive) upon editing the GameInfo.txt fo make a correction for the Half Life(1 not 2 derived) game mod using the information for correcting Steam/Source update problems the game resumed normal operation no longer seeing the startup background image error. The following corrections vary depending on HL2, EP1, and Episode 2 mod requirements. The text files are edited with NotePad and then saved to overwrite.

FOR HL2 game mods replace the text from "SEARCHPATHS" downward with the following:

SearchPaths
{
game+mod |gameinfo_path|.
platform |gameinfo_path|.
game_lv hl2/hl2_lv.vpk
game+mod hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk
game+mod hl2/hl2_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk
mod+mod_write+default_write_path |gameinfo_path|.
game+game_write |gameinfo_path|.
gamebin hl2/bin
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform
}
}
}

------------------------------

FOR HL2 EP1 and PORTAL game mods:

SearchPaths

Game |gameinfo_path|.
Game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic
Game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
}

FOR PORTAL:

SearchPaths
{
game+mod |gameinfo_path|.
platform |gameinfo_path|.
game_lv hl2/hl2_lv.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|portal/portal_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic/ep1_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_english.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk
mod+mod_write+default_write_path |gameinfo_path|.
game+game_write |gameinfo_path|.
gamebin portal/bin
game |all_source_engine_paths|portal
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform
}
}
}

-------------------------------

FOR HL2 EP2 game mods:

SearchPaths
{
game+mod |gameinfo_path|.
platform |gameinfo_path|.
game_lv hl2/hl2_lv.vpk
game+mod ep2/ep2_english.vpk
game+mod ep2/ep2_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic/ep1_english.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic/ep1_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_english.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_pak.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_textures.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_vo_english.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_sound_misc.vpk
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2/hl2_misc.vpk
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform/platform_misc.vpk
mod+mod_write+default_write_path |gameinfo_path|.
game+game_write |gameinfo_path|.
gamebin episodic/bin
game |all_source_engine_paths|episodic
game |all_source_engine_paths|hl2
platform |all_source_engine_paths|platform
}
}
}

-----------------------------------

And lastly if the bad guys are found simply standing doing nothing and seem totally unaware of you when loading a game save or starting a new game session you may see the A.I. error onscreen for Artificial Intelligence. The following correction is edited into the GameInfo.txt file as you would for the other corrections.

Open NotePad and create a new text you can save to any temp folder. Once you open it up and are inside the new text file, write the following lines.
ai_norebuildgraph "1"
ai_disable "0"

Save the file as ai_fix.cfg, right click the file and set it to read only.
Next, open up valve.rc in notepad, you should see the following
// load the base configuration
//exec default.cfg
// Setup custom controller
exec joystick.cfg
// run a user script file if present
exec autoexec.cfg
exec ai_fix.cfg
//
// stuff command line statements
//
stuffcmds
// display the startup level
startupmenu

under "exec autoexec.cfg", add this line
exec ai_fix.cfg

This should solve the problem on the first attempt.

Note that the above solutions have been quoted to some extent without direct links to other forums. The Copy + Paste method once you use the backspace key to remove all text upto the SEARCHPATH line in the GameInfo.txrt files places the corrections in the updated text file for each mod.

The above should work for both 32bit and 64bit Windows Vista, 7 and 8, 8.1 since all game mods are 32bit. If you are running into any other similar problems with Steam/Half Life, Half Life 2/Source driven games or mods please feel free to respond here as well as to offer any other possible game fix(es).

(Note for staff: please move this posting to the correct section if needed)

More about : 3rd party steam half life based mods fail load due launcher dll error resolved

!