Witcher3 w/REDprelauncher not switching profiles.

[JeeperDon1]

I use icue 4 and Win11.  I just installed Witcher3 via Steam, which includes 'REDprelauncher.exe' as the app Steam invokes.  When then in REDprelauncher, you hit Play to invoke 'witcher3.exe' in another folder.  I have both of prelauncher and the actual game .EXE files attached to a specific icue 4 profile. 

The problem is the profile never switches for the REDprelauncher, not via Steam or running the .EXE manually.  When I tell the prelauncher to Play and the game starts, the profile still does not load.

The If I manually run the actual witcher3.exe (in another folder, the same app the prelauncher runs) to play the game, the game starts and the profile switches as it should.  

I am a long time icue user and have a few other games installed with their own profiles and they always work fine.

Though the profile switches fine by directly invoking witcher3.exe, I do not get Steam keeping track of my long term game progress, so I would rather not do that.

I understand other games use the REDprelauncher too, so I hope someone might know what I can do.

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by JeeperDon1

[c-attack]

It would seem Steam and/or Project Red are doing a little behind the curtain stuff with the launching.  Common issue with MS Store games as well.  Given the circumstances, it would make sense to take your W3 profile off the exe and manually switch to it prior to gaming.  If they have gone to the trouble to make the game launch in a unique way different than other Steam games, it was likely for a contractual reason and I would not expect that to change or be explained.  

[JeeperDon1]

More odd behavior...  I found a way to tell Steam not to use the launcher and go directly to the game, or so it seems.  The odd part is the icue profile still does not switch.  It's nicer from a launch perspective because I don't get the intermediate launcher popup with needed 'Play' click, so I'm keeping it.  But now it's even more odd about the profile.

[c-attack]

Hard to know for sure without the same thing play around with.  However, I just linked one of my CUE profiles to a Steam game that is crosslinked with Ubisoft Connect, so another cross platform dual permission kind of set up.  Linked profile takes, although it stutters a bit as it switches back and forth during the initial loading and checking.  Other .exe programs in the SteamApps/common folder link as expected.  It seems like Steam and Project Red needed to come to some agreement about how the launch was handled, what data was being collected, etc.  They created a unique way to deal with that and it's probably not going to be link friendly.  Rather than try to workaround the issue, it might make more sense to manually engage it before play.  You are likely to trip up on something by bypassing one or the other.  I still have not so fond memories of trying to prevent the GOG Galaxy Launcher from re-downloading the entire W3 game every time there was a small update. 

[JeeperDon1]

In thinking more on the 'skip the launcher' trick (adding '--launcher-skip' to the Steam game Properties), I think the prelauncher is still what Steam invokes, but the trick just tells the prelauncher to not display itself and do an auto-Play.  

My son has Cyberpunk 2077 installed (same prelauncher) and only has the final game executable attached to his icue profile.  It switches to the icue game profile fine.

[JeeperDon1]

Theory verified... I renamed redprelauncher.exe and Steam said 'error loading', so the prelauncer bypass trick just tells it to bypass the display popup, still gets invoked and then invokes the actual witcher3.exe, so still no icue profile.  I'm fine with manually switching the profile.  I'm just intrigued that it works differently on two different Steam invoked  cbprojektred.com games.

[JeeperDon1]

Fixed, my bad.  It turns out there are two game folders, x64 and x64_dx12.  I had told icue to watch the x64 one to be executed, but the prelauncher was invoking the x64_dx12 game version.  The icue profile auto-invokes fine now.  Sorry for the hoopla here. 🙄

Edited December 30, 2022 by JeeperDon1

[c-attack]

That ok. This is absolutely guaranteed to come up again and you will have helped others figure it out. 

[Nude Pineapple]

Yes just helped me, I did the same thing as you and chose the exe in the x64 folder and I didnt know I could skip the launcher, thank you this is great!

Edited January 24 by Nude Pineapple