Grim Dawn has been in the gaming space for some years now. While the player base was relatively happy with the state of the game, a recent update has changed that scenario. A bug has made the game unplayable for players on the Steam Deck. In other words, the notorious Black Screen at Launch issue has been troubling some players playing Grim Dawn on their Steam Decks. So, is there any fix yet? Well, as always, we have details on the same.
Black screen problems in games can happen on any gaming device, not just one specific type. Right now, after the recent update, Grim Dawn players using the Steam Deck are facing this issue. Well, it looks like dealing with these annoying glitches is something gamers everywhere have to tackle, whether on a console or a PC. Anyway, continue reading to find out if the community is relying on any specific workaround, or if the devs have made an acknowledgement on this matter.
Grim Dawn Steam Deck Black Screen at launch issue: How to fix it
Right now, the game developers haven’t said anything about it or provided a fix. So, players are stuck without a solution and are waiting for the developers to do something about it. On the bright side, there are some workarounds suggested by other players facing the same issue. While these workarounds did work for some, they are not guaranteed fixes and might not work for everyone. Anyway, here are those workarounds.
Restart
If you’re facing the black screen issue when trying to launch Grim Dawn on the Steam Deck, a quick workaround is to restart the game and the Steam Deck itself. Sometimes, a simple restart can help resolve this problem. Give it a try, and hopefully, you’ll be back to enjoying your game without any black screen troubles.
Try Different Proton Versions
To troubleshoot the black screen problem, try experimenting with Proton versions. Find Grim Dawn in your Steam library on the Deck, click the three-line button, go to Properties, and open the Compatibility tab. Here, switch between the Proton versions. Try out all the available versions, and when you do this, focus on Proton 7 or Proton Experimental first. After making the change, run the game to see if the black screen issue persists.
Edit Docs and Launch Offline
If you’re experiencing issues launching Grim Dawn on your Steam Deck and have observed that it only works in offline mode, there’s a potential workaround. Navigate to Grim Dawn’s Documents folder location and locate the options.txt file. Open it for editing and change the line “UPnPEnable = true” to “UPnPEnable = false”. Save the changes and try launching the game with an internet connection enabled. This workaround did the trick for some players and helped them get past the black screen, so make sure to give it a try.
Verify the Files
Another potential workaround for addressing launch issues with Grim Dawn on your Steam Deck is to verify the game files. Open Steam, head over to Library, select Grim Dawn, tap on Properties, navigate to the Local Files tab, and click on “Verify Integrity of Game Files”. This process checks for and repairs any corrupted or missing game files that might be causing the problem. After verification is complete, try launching Grim Dawn again to see if the issue persists.
GOG version? (source)
For Steam Deck users attempting to run Grim Dawn with Heroic/GOG and encountering a black screen issue, there’s a workaround to run the 32-bit version. Install Grim Dawn via Heroic in Desktop mode, add Grim Dawn.exe as a third-party game in Steam, go to Steam OS, access the properties of the added game, force the Proton version to “experimental”, and add the start command “PROTON_NO_D3D11=1 %command%”. To run the 64-bit version, append “/x64” to the start command at the end. These steps might resolve the black screen problem and enable a smoother gaming experience on the Steam Deck.
Well, that concludes this guide about addressing the Grim Dawn black screen issue on the Steam Deck. We hope these solutions prove helpful in resolving the problem. For more gaming insights and reads, be sure to follow DigiStatement. Happy gaming! Read more: Grim Dawn Steam Deck Stuttering & freezing issues: How to fix it
