Fix: Failed to initialize Unity Graphics

The error “Failed to initialize unity graphics” occurs when launching Unity mostly because of Direct3D not active on your computer. Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. It is widely extended to support up to 27 platforms and the support is growing in numbers.

Unity is used to create both 2 and 3-dimensional games and also has support for developing simulations for laptops, desktops, smart TV’s, and mobile devices. Make sure that you have an administrator account when following the solutions listed below.

How to fix Failed to initialize Unity Graphics

• Failed to initialize Unity Graphics Linux: This error occurs when you have a Linux operating system (Ubuntu etc.) and Unity fails to launch upon start and pops the error.
• Unable to initialize Unity Engine: This error refers to the main running engine of Unity and signifies that it is unable to launch it because of some misconfigurations.
• Failed to initialize Direct3D Unity: This condition occurs when Direct3D is disabled on your computer which causes Unity to fail the startup. We will look at the solutions below to see how to fix this.

Solution 1: Enabling Direct3D

Direct3D is a graphics API which is mainly used for rendering three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is very important. It mainly makes use of hardware acceleration on your computer to perform its operations and includes several different types of buffering as well. We will go through the steps on how to enable the feature on your computer.

1. Press Windows + R, type “dxdiag” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Click on the Display tab and make sure that all the DirectX features are enabled especially Direct3D acceleration.

3. If any of the features are disabled, you can enable them using two methods. Either updating the graphics driver or downloading the latest version of DirectX on your computer.
4. To install DirectX, navigate to DirectX official website and download the latest version from there. Upon installing, restart your computer and try launching Unity again.

Solution 2: Updating/rolling back Graphics Drivers

If the latter doesn’t solve the issue, you need to make sure that you have a working graphics card on your computer with the latest drivers installed. We have two ways through which we can update the graphics driver; either you can automatically update or you download the driver manually from the manufacturer’s website and install it on your computer.

1. Press Windows + R, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Once in the device manager, expand display adapters, right-click on your hardware and select Update driver.

3. Select the option and proceed with the driver installation on your computer.

Note: You should also make sure that the correct hardware is functioning and there are no conflicts if you are using a CLI. Also, make sure that hardware acceleration is enabled on your computer.