[BUG] Can't launch game "Process failed to start: The system cannot find the file specified."

[paulthegreat]

Describe the bug

I just installed Rare and downloaded/installed Satisfactory to the default suggested directory: "C:\Users[user]\Games". In the information about the game in Rare, it says the installation path is "C:\Users[user]\Games\Satisfactory" and the installation size is 28.26 GiB. When I Verify the files, it says they're okay. If I go to the listed directory, there's almost nothing there, just a ".egstore" directory with .mancpn and .manifest files; the actual game files are in "C:\Users[user]\AppData\Local\Programs\Rare\Users[user]\Games\Satisfactory". Trying to launch FactoryGameEGS.exe directly from that directory does nothing. Trying to launch the game from within Rare pops up an error dialog (see subject).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Satisfactory to default suggested directory
2. Try to launch from within Rare or from the actual installed directory's executable

Expected behavior

Game installs to the specified directory and launches

Screenshots

No response

Operating system

Windows

Version

11

Installation method

MSI

Python version

No response

Error message

Additional context

This is a relatively fresh Windows 11 installation, fully updated, all drivers fully updated. I'm trying Rare because the Epic Installer fails to run, and the Microsoft Store crashes when trying to install the prerequisites for the Epic Games Store app.

[loathingKernel]

huh, the install directory is clearly wrong, I will have to look into that, but can you install it someplace else instead and see if that works?

[paulthegreat]

It appears to do the same thing. I created and installed to the directory "C:\Rare"

The actual files end up in "C:\Users[user]\AppData\Local\Programs\Rare\Rare\Satisfactory" and I still can't run the game (same failures to launch; the error dialog from Rare, or just nothing happening from launching the exe directly).

The same thing seems to happen when installing Drawful 2: only the ".egstore" directory is created in the intended directory while the actual game files end up in that deep user directory. However, "Drawful 2.exe" does launch (edit: when manually/directly run; it fails with the same error message when running from Rare) and appears to function properly.

The game not launching directly may be due to the same issue of the Epic Installer not working, which I also haven't been able to resolve; I was thinking of trying to reinstall Windows. My other applications, including Steam and games installed from Steam, all seem to work fine.

[loathingKernel]

yeah, this does seem like a mess-up on my side, let me investigate. Which release is this?

[paulthegreat]

I manually moved the entire contents of the deep user directory of Drawful 2 into the intended directory and successfully launched the game from Rare. I tried the same thing with Satisfactory, and it thought about launching for a bit but ultimately gave me this error:

So even if the installation directory issue gets resolved, it seems like I'm still having issues with Epic/Satisfactory on my end.

[loathingKernel]

Huh, somehow I cannot reproduce this. I started up with Rare completely clean, and it was installed at the expected location. Truth be told, I tested through Wine, as I don't have a working and clean windows installation at this moment, but I am not sure it would be any different.