u/DeliciousCartoonist6

Hey everyone, I'm stuck with a brutal launch issue and hoping someone has a workaround.

I was playing Crimson Desert via NVIDIA GeForce NOW. After switching back to my local PC to play natively via Steam, the game completely refuses to boot. When I click "Play" on Steam, it briefly acts like it's launching, but then silently crashes back to the "Play" button. No display windows open, no splash screens, and absolutely no error messages or codes pop up.

Even navigating to the game files and running CrimsonDesert.exe directly as an Administrator results in the exact same instant, silent crash.

My System Specs:

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (Drivers completely up to date)
• Platform: Steam (PC)

What I Have Already Tried (None of this worked):

1. Cleared Cache Files: Deleted GFN's local CefCache folder and fully uninstalled GeForce NOW.
2. Verified Files: Ran "Verify integrity of game files" multiple times through Steam.
3. Overlays Disabled: Turned off Steam overlay, AMD Software/Adrenalin overlay, and Discord overlays.
4. Deleted Engine Configs: Deleted user_engine_option_save inside Local AppData to force default graphics settings.
5. Wiped Shader Cache: Used Windows Disk Cleanup to wipe the DirectX Shader Cache.
6. Launch Options: Tried forcing -dx11 and -dx12 via Steam launch settings.
7. Windows Security: Checked Windows Smart App Control, Media Feature Pack, and disabled Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS).
8. Steam Fixes: Cleared Steam's download cache and deleted local ssfn authorization tokens to clear any cloud-handshake lockouts.
9. Dedicated GPU Routing: Set Windows Graphics Settings to force high performance explicitly on the game's executable.

It feels like a hardware validation handshake failure or a Denuvo DRM account lock triggered by the cloud-to-local switch, but I'm fresh out of ideas.

Has anyone with an AMD card (specifically the 7800 XT) run into this after using GeForce NOW? Any suggestions on how to break this deadlock would be massively appreciated!