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Elite Dangerous launch error in Rift S

CGH001
Protege
I've not played ED for a couple of months, although I did let Oculus do the January ED updates. Now, whenever I launch in VR or desktop mode using the Oculus launcher I get 'Unhandled exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object' whenever the ED sign in screen opens.  It then closes the window and I can't play the game.

Has anyone else got this message please?

I can get it to run using the ED.exe in the games folder (although this seems to give some issues with Voiceattack and HCS  for some reason) and google reveals some debate re the .NET framework which doesn't seem to be an issue on my system.

Thanks.
18 REPLIES 18

RattyUK
Trustee
It is a .NET error (rearing its ugly head once again)
Microsoft have a FixDotNet app that may fix it most of the time, remember a restart is needed after running it.

The other solution that may help is to start in desktop mode and wait until the play button pops up, click and play, there is a good chance that, after the mandatory restart, that just starting it that way will cure the issue.
HTH 🙂
PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

FrontierSupport
Adventurer

Hi there, 

I am sorry to know that you have experienced
this issue! This is often related to .NET I'm afraid. You should be able to circumvent the issue
by running through the following:

On C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch you should
find a file named EDLaunch.exe.config.

For Steam installs, it should be here: C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous


·        
Firstly,
make a backup of this file by copying it to another location, such as your
desktop.



·        
Open the
EDLaunch.exe.config file with a text editor such as Notepad. You'll see
something similar to:



<supportedRuntime
version="v2.0.50727"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >

Switch the lines, so they look like this:



<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/ >




Once you have done this, save the file and attempt to start up the
launcher. If it's still not working you can just replace the file with the
backup you created.


If you continue to have problems, please submit a ticket so that we can investigate further.

Thanks,

CMDR Sputnik

RattyUK
Trustee


Hi there, 

I am sorry to know that you have experienced
this issue! This is often related to .NET I'm afraid. You should be able to circumvent the issue
by running through the following:

On C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch you should
find a file named EDLaunch.exe.config.

For Steam installs, it should be here: C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous


·        
Firstly,
make a backup of this file by copying it to another location, such as your
desktop.



·        
Open the
EDLaunch.exe.config file with a text editor such as Notepad. You'll see
something similar to:



<supportedRuntime
version="v2.0.50727"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >

Switch the lines, so they look like this:



<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/ >




Once you have done this, save the file and attempt to start up the
launcher. If it's still not working you can just replace the file with the
backup you created.


If you continue to have problems, please submit a ticket so that we can investigate further.

Thanks,

CMDR Sputnik



Awesome!
I've copy/pasted your reply into a yellow note!  I don't see the issue often, but any knowledge given is great 😄

PC info: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - Sapphire 7900XTX - 32GB DDR4 4000 - 3 NVMe + 3SATA SSD - Quest 2 & 3

CGH001
Protege

RattyUK said:

It is a .NET error (rearing its ugly head once again)
Microsoft have a FixDotNet app that may fix it most of the time, remember a restart is needed after running it.

The other solution that may help is to start in desktop mode and wait until the play button pops up, click and play, there is a good chance that, after the mandatory restart, that just starting it that way will cure the issue.
HTH 🙂


... thanks for the info. It won't let me start in desktop mode unfortunately as it does the same thing 😞 

CGH001
Protege


Hi there, 

I am sorry to know that you have experienced
this issue! This is often related to .NET I'm afraid. You should be able to circumvent the issue
by running through the following:

On C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch you should
find a file named EDLaunch.exe.config.

For Steam installs, it should be here: C:\Program Files
(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous


·        
Firstly,
make a backup of this file by copying it to another location, such as your
desktop.



·        
Open the
EDLaunch.exe.config file with a text editor such as Notepad. You'll see
something similar to:



<supportedRuntime
version="v2.0.50727"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >

Switch the lines, so they look like this:



<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/ >
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/ >




Once you have done this, save the file and attempt to start up the
launcher. If it's still not working you can just replace the file with the
backup you created.


If you continue to have problems, please submit a ticket so that we can investigate further.

Thanks,

CMDR Sputnik



Yay!! This has fixed it 🙂 Many thanks for your help.

ChrisHale
Honored Guest
I just wanted to report that this error cropped up for me today and I'm using my Oculus Rift CV1. The recommended solution worked for me too. I had tried the other recommended steps in the Elite support forum but only this one worked.

MowTin
Expert Trustee
Wow, Frontier support read this forum? They have their own forum. It's maybe one of the best forums I've been on. Just lots of fellow nerds on there. It takes a certain type of person to obsessively play a space sim. 

I'm waiting for carriers to get back into ED. 
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

SteelArgus
Explorer
I have tried this fix with the EDLaunch.exe.config. and it only made it worse the launcher and the game both will not run but if I revert it back the launcher still crashes but the game itself will continue to play, now if I launch the game in desktop mode the issue does not happen so its only in VR I get the fore mentioned error message

FrontierSupport
Adventurer
Hi there Steel!

Hmm, it may be time for you to open a ticket with us. From there, we hopefully should be able to get you up and running.

You can do so here:

https://support.frontier.co.uk/topic.php

Please open a ticket, and hopefully we can get you playing!

- CMDR Zenit