Far Cry 3 Not Launching? Try these fixes

Far Cry 3 not launching on Windows can be really frustrating. While trying to play Far Cry 3, the game may refuse to launch and thus you won’t see the game window open up upon trying to click Play on your Origin or Uplay client. This can be a bit weird because you will most likely face this issue after playing the game for quite a while. However, regardless of when you faced the issue, no need to worry as we will be showing you how to fix the problem in this article today.

As it turns out, there are a number of reasons why you might be experiencing this issue where Far Cry 3 won’t launch. One of the factors that can contribute to the problem in question is a corrupted game profile file. This happens very often and is nothing serious. Far Cry 3, like every other game out there, stores your game settings in a profile called GamerProfile.xml. This file is loaded every time you launch the game. Thus, if this file is damaged or corrupted, your game, be it a steam game won’t launch. However, depending on your situation, that may not always be the reason. Therefore, before we proceed with showing you the different resolutions that will isolate the problem that you are facing, let us first have a better look at the causes of the game so that we can isolate the source of the problem. So, without further ado, let us get started.

Causes for Far Cry 3 Not Launching Issue

Now that we have gone through the possible causes of the issue, let us get started with showing you the different solutions that can help you get rid of the problem in question. With that said, without any further ado, let us get right into it.

Change Game Compatibility Mode

As it turns out, the first thing that you should do when you come across this problem is to change the compatibility mode of your game. What this essentially does is it allows the game to run as it would run on an older version of Windows. This can be especially helpful since Far Cry 3 is an old game and if you are running it on newer versions of Windows, it may not work very well. Therefore, this should be your first step in trying to fix the issue and it is very simple to do as well. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

1. First of all, navigate to the folder where Far Cry 3 is installed.
2. There, go to the bin folder. Inside the bin folder, right-click on the farcry3_d3d11.exe file and choose Properties from the drop-down menu.

   

3. On the Properties window, switch to the Compatibility tab.
4. There, tick the Run this program in compatibility mode for option.

   

5. After that, from the drop-down menu, choose Windows 7. In some cases, users have reported that Windows XP / ME worked for them so you can give that a try as well if Windows 7 doesn’t work for you.

   

6. Once you have done that, also make sure to tick the Run this program as an administrator checkbox down below.

   

7. Then, click the Apply button and then hit OK.
8. After doing that, go ahead and open up your game to see if it launches.

Disable Multithreaded Rendering

As we have mentioned above, another thing that can potentially cause the game to not launch at all is the Multithreaded Rendering feature. This basically splits the drawing work across multiple threads on your processor in order to improve performance on CPUs with multiple cores. While this is useful, it might be causing the issue for you here. Therefore, you should try disabling it to see if that fixes the issue. In order to disable this, we will be editing the game profile file. Follow the instructions given down below to do this:

1. First of all, open up the File Explorer on your system.
2. Then, on the left-hand side, click on the Documents option.

   

3. There, open up the My Games folder and then go inside the Far Cry 3 folder.

   

4. Inside the Far Cry 3 folder, open up the GamerProfile.xml file with a notepad. To do this, right-click on the file and from the drop-down menu, choose Open with > Notepad.

   

5. Then, inside the GamerProfile.xml file, search for the D3D11MultithreadedRendering keyword. To search for it, press CTRL + F which will open up the Find dialog box.

   

6. Once you have located the mentioned keyword, make sure it’s value is set to 0 which will disable it. Save the file by pressing CTRL + S and then close it.
7. After doing that, go ahead and open up your game to see if the problem is still there.

Delete Game Profile

As it turns out, in some cases, the problem can be caused by your corrupted game profile file. These files are important in the sense that they store your game settings on your computer. They are used by every game out there but are usually differently named. If the game profile file is corrupted or damaged, your game won’t open and you will have to delete it in such a case. Deleting the file is completely safe as another file will be generated automatically when you launch the game. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

1. First of all, open up the File Explorer window on your system.
2. Then, on the left-hand side, click on the Documents option.

   

3. Inside the Documents folder, make your way to the My Games folder.

   

4. There, open up the Far Cry 3 folder and inside that, delete the GamerProfile.xml file.
5. Alternatively, you can also choose to just cut it from there and paste it to a different directory like your Desktop.
6. Once you have done that, go ahead and open up your game to see if the issue persists.

Limit the Number of Processors

Far Cry 3 is an old game and if you are running it on a modern processor, chances are that you will encounter some issues instead of getting better performance. As it turns out, if you have a processor with high core/thread count, you will have to restrict it for the game to launch. This can be done pretty easily. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

1. First of all, open up the Start Menu, search for msconfig and then open it up.

   

2. Once the System Configuration window is up, switch to the Boot tab.

   

3. On the Boot tab, click on the Advanced options button.
4. This will bring up the BOOT Advanced Options window.

   

5. Here, click the Number of processors checkbox and from the drop-down menu, choose a number that is under 15.

   

6. Finally, click OK to close the window. Then, click Apply and then OK again to close the System Configuration window.
7. Once you have done that, go ahead and restart your system. After your computer boots up, try opening up the game again to see if the problem is still there.

Perform a Clean Boot

As we have mentioned above, one of the reasons why you might be facing this problem is because of third-party software on your system. This happens when the third-party software interferes with the game process and as a result it is not able to launch. This could be your antivirus software or any other application on your system as some users reported the Riva Auto Detection app to be causing the problem. To verify our suspicion first, we will perform a clean boot on your system that will boot up Windows with only the required services and no extra. This way, if the game starts in a clean boot, it would automatically mean that a third-party software on your system is causing the problem. To clean boot Windows, follow the instructions given down below:

1. First of all, open up the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + R combination.
2. Then, in the Run dialog box, type in msconfig and then hit the Enter key.

   

3. Once you have done that, it will open up the System Configuration window.
4. There, switch to the Services tab. On the Services tab, click the Hide all Microsoft services checkbox.

   

5. Once you have done that, click on the Disable all button. This will disable all the third-party software services on your system. Finally, click Apply.

   

6. After doing that, switch to the Startup tab.
7. There, click on the Open Task Manager option. This will open up a Task Manager window.

   

8. On the Startup tab of the Task Manager, go ahead and disable all the applications. To do this, select each app one by one and then click the Disable button.

   

9. Once you have done that, go ahead and restart your system. After your system boots up, try opening Far Cry 3 to see if it launches. In case it does, our suspicion will be verified and you will have to uninstall any potential third-party software on your system that may be causing the problem.

Rollback NVIDIA Drivers

As it turns out, if you are using an NVIDIA GPU, there are chances that a latest update could have caused the problem on your end. If this scenario is applicable, you will have to rollback your graphics drivers. This means you will have to uninstall the current version of graphics drivers installed on your system and then install a previous version. This can be done by downloading an older driver from the manufacturer’s website and then installing it on your system or through the Device Manager app even. For more information on how to do this, follow our rollback NVIDIA drivers guide.