Sniper Elite 5 players face black screen issues after launching the game, and sometimes hard-quitting and restarting the game doesn’t even work. This issue can be for various reasons: an outdated graphics card driver or game version, a corrupted game, or graphics settings not supported by your system.
While many players are facing this issue, the developers might present a solution in the future. However, we have gathered some fixes to address this issue and continue your smooth gaming experience with Sniper Elite 5.
1. Update Sniper Elite 5
While your game should automatically update itself, it’s worth checking to see if you are running the latest version.
Log into your Steam client and select Sniper Elite 5 from your library. Confirm if the game has a pending update or not. If there is, you are strongly advised to update the game before jumping in to stop the Nazi war machine.
2. Restart your PC
Sometimes, restarting the computer fixes all the temporary issues that cause the game to crash. Once your PC restarts, launch the game to test it.
3. Select Vulkan When Launching the Game
If restarting the game didn’t fix your error, you must choose Vulkan API. To do this, follow the given steps:
- Click on the gear settings icon in the game launcher.
- Select Vulkan as the rendering API.
- Click on OK and then click on Play.
4. Run the Game as an Administrator
For Xbox Game Pass users:
- Create a desktop shortcut for the game.
- Right-click on the shortcut and select “Run as administrator”.
For Steam users:
- Go to the game installation folder.
- Open the Launcher folder, right-click on the game executable file (sniperelite5.exe), and select “Properties”.
- Go to the Compatibility tab and check the box that says, “Run this program as an administrator”.
- Click on Apply and then click on OK.
- Return to the game folder, open the bin folder, right-click on the executable file again, and choose properties. Again, go to the compatibility tab, check the “Run this program as administrator” option, and save the settings.
- Repeat the same process for the vulkan.exe file.
- Launch any of the executable files.
- If the issue persists, go to the launcher folder and open the executable file’s properties. From there, check the option “Disable fullscreen optimization.”
- Repeat step 8 for the executable files in the bin folder.
5. Update Display Driver
Go to Device Manager, click on display adapters, and choose your display adapter. Right-click on the display adapter and choose Update Driver option. Select the automatic search option, wait for the installation to complete, and close the window.
Next, check if your window is updated, open Steam, and go to the library. Right-click on your not working game and click properties. Go to installed files and check the integrity of your game files. Once the files are validated, click browse and right-click on your not working game application and open properties to run the compatibility mode test for Windows 7 and 8. Check the Disable fullscreen optimization and Run as administrator options, then click ok. Try to play the game.
6. Update GPU Drivers
Not having the latest graphics card drivers matters less nowadays as long as you are not running drivers from several years ago. Still, it doesn’t hurt to keep your GPU drivers updated.
7. Update DirectX
An old DirectX version or missing DirectX files can sometimes make it difficult to run games. You should always keep your DirectX updated. If the previous methods didn’t work for you, open Task Manager, click Startup and disable all the unused applications. Next, download the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer to the Microsoft website and install the downloaded file. Next, download the latest ARM64, X86, and X64 versions from the Microsoft Visual C++ website. Install downloaded files and run Command Prompt. Type the SFC/SCANNOW and press Enter. Now, you need to restart the PC and run the game.
8. Disable Overlay Applications
There could be applications running in the background, causing a black screen to appear every time you launch Sniper Elite 5. This sometimes happens with other games, as well. Hence, you should check and disable any troubling background applications before launching the game.
Log into your Steam client and right-click Sniper Elite 5 in your library to open its properties. Then, go to the General tab and disable the “Enable Steam Overlay” option. Launch Sniper Elite 5 to see if disabling the Steam overlay has fixed your black screen.
There are also other third-party overlays that you can consider disabling. If you are using Discord, disable its overlay from its Overly settings. If using an Nvidia graphics card, open up your Nvidia GeForce Experience settings and disable the in-game overlay.
9. Verify Game Files and Repair
It is not uncommon for a game to become corrupted. Running a repair on Steam can fix these corrupted or lost files.
Log into your Steam client and right-click Sniper Elite 5 in your library to open properties. Head into the Local Files tab and select “Verify Integrity of Game File” to run diagnostics. If there are corrupted or missing files, they will be fixed.
10. Lower Graphics Settings
Your system may not meet the minimum requirements to run Sniper Elite 5. You could still be using higher graphics settings, causing the black screen to appear at launch.
Once you are able to start the game, you can confirm that by decreasing your graphical settings. Go into the in-game settings and disable cumbersome graphics options such as V-Sync, Shadows, Anti-Aliasing, and others.
