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Tribes: Ascend

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Tribes: Ascend
Tribes: Ascend cover
Developers
Hi-Rez Studios
Engines
Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows April 12, 2012
Tribes: Ascend guide on StrategyWiki
Tribes: Ascend on Wikipedia
Tribes
Subseries of Metaltech
Starsiege: Tribes 1998
Tribes 2 2001
Tribes: Vengeance 2004
Tribes: Ascend 2012
Tribes 3: Rivals 2024

Key points

Graphics options can be further lowered or heightened by editing Tribes.ini.
As of version 1.4 the in-game web browser has been removed and the game will no longer install Adobe Flash Player as a prerequisite.[1]

General information

Steam Community Discussions
Tribes Wiki
Tribes Ascend Wiki
Tribes Subreddit

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Developer website
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require a Hi-Rez Master Account (including Steam).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17080/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Video settings
Video settings

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Custom/unlisted resolutions can be set by command line parameters.
Widescreen resolutions are Vert-.
Another way to set resolution[citation needed]
  1. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Tribes Ascend\TribesGame\Config\tribes.ini
  2. Change ResX= and ResY= to match your resolution.

Field of view (FOV)

FOV 60 FOV 120
TribesAscend-60FOV.jpg
TribesAscend-120FOV.jpg

Editing tribes.ini

An explanation to the various items in the game's ini file can be found here (Google Docs).
  • The .ini can be modified to further lower or heighten graphics than the in-game menus allow, remove the native 60 FPS lock or otherwise make specific choices as to what graphics should be shown.

Input settings

Gameplay settings
Gameplay settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Audio settings
Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
French

Network

Requires a Hi-Rez Master Account.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Custom server sessions must be rented through the developer.[2]
Direct IP

Issues unresolved

Crash after pressing Play on AMD graphics cards with Nvidia PhysX installed

Having Nvidia PhysX installed causes issues with Tribes: Ascend. Uninstalling it fixes the problem but will break games that require PhysX.[3][citation needed]

Issues fixed

Tribes: Ascend Knowledgebase

Reducing mouse input lag

Add a line in tribes.ini[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Tribes Ascend\TribesGame\Config\tribes.ini
  2. Add the line OneFrameThreadLag=False after DirectionalLightmaps=True.

No Cursor In EULA And Menu Buttons

Validate the installation[4]
  1. From the game launcher, select the Small Gear button that opens the Options menu at the top and select the 'Troubleshooting and Diagnostics' button.
  2. Hit the "Validate / Repair" Button on the bottom left.

Notes

It takes a few minutes to validate the files and then (if you are experiencing this issue) re-download them.
If this does not fix the issue, use the diagnostic and support utility to send Hi-Rez Studios the log files from your Tribes: Ascend patcher.

"Decompression Timed Out"

Temporarily disable anti-virus[citation needed]
After downloading the game or updates via the Hi-Rez Studio's patcher, it may freeze or move excruciatingly slowly during the decompression stage, eventually resulting in the error message "Decompression Timed Out".
  • Disabling your virus scanner may just solve it. This is often due to an anti-virus program attempting to scan the files while they are being decompressed.
  • If disabling your anti-virus does not solve this issue, the uncompressed files can be downloaded directly by opening up the options menu, selecting the "Troubleshooting and Diagnostics" button and hitting the "Validate/Repair" button.

"Failed to start the Hi-Rez Studios Authenticate And Update Service" or stuck at Validating

Uninstall, repair .NET Framework and reinstall[citation needed]
  1. Run "Hi-Rez Diagnostics and Support" from the Start menu as an administrator, click "Restart Service". If that fails, delete the %PROGRAMDATA%\Hi-Rez Studios folder and reinstall.
  2. Go to Start -> Run -> type "Services.msc" and press Enter. This will show a list of your system's services. Scroll down to "Hi-Rez Studios Authenticate and Update Service". Right-click that and select "Restart" if it's running, or if it's stopped, select "Start". Also make sure that its startup type is "Automatic".
  3. Repair the .NET Framework by following the steps outlined here.
  4. Uninstall the "Hi-Rez Authentication and Update service" via the Control Panel. Reboot.
  5. Reinstall the entire game:
  • If not using Steam: run the game installer again from here.
  • If using Steam: Right-click Tribes: Ascend in the Library then click "Delete Local Game Content". Ensure the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tribes, %PROGRAMDATA%\Hi-Rez Studios, and C:\Program Files (x86)\Hi-Rez Studios folders have been deleted. You may need to stop the "Hi-Rez Studios Authenticate and Update Service" first (see step 2).
  • Alternatively, this uninstaller has been provided by Hi-Rez Studios support. Run this program as administrator and when it brings up a command prompt, you will need to type 'OK' and press Enter for the program to remove the files. After the program is finished and your computer is restarted, download and install a fresh version of the Hi-Rez Update Service here.

"Cannot find the Hi-Rez installation" (Steam)

Launch InstallHirezService.exe after uninstalling non-Steam T:A[5]
  1. Uninstall non-Steam T:A (you may want to delete manually all remaining files ; killing a Hirez-related Windows service will be necessary. Windows will tell you)
  2. Go to \Steam\SteamApps\common\tribes\Binaries\Redist
  3. Launch InstallHirezService.exe (If it displays something about updating, agree and launch it again.)
  4. If it displays something about uninstalling something, agree.
  5. Launch Tribes Ascend from your Steam library.
  6. Prerequisites install properly, game starts.
WARNING: There have been instances of Visual C++/.NET framework libraries being somehow affected by this.

Stuttering

In the DirectX Control panel, set to version 9[citation needed]
  • If you have the DirectX SDK installed (usually only developers), ensure that the 32-bit DirectX Control Panel (i.e. the DirectX Control Panel without "64-bit" in the title) is set to the Retail Version of DirectX 9 (Find the DirectX Control Panel in the Start Menu, under Programs. On Vista or Windows 7, just type "DirectX" into the search.)
  • If that doesn't work, disable PhysX (switch it to CPU) in the Nvidia control panel.

"XINPUT1_3.DLL is missing" when clicking Play

Reinstall DirectX[citation needed]

Install the DirectX End-User Runtimes.

Stuck on map loading

Verify if anti-virus or firewall isn't blocking the game[citation needed]
Please do the following and try to launch a map again after each step to see if this issue is resolved.
  • Verify that your Anti-virus and firewall are not blocking the game traffic. You will need to create an exception for the launcher and game client in both your anti-virus and firewall.
Default launcher folder

32-bit

C:\Program Files\Hi-Rez Studios\Hirezlauncherui.exe

64-bit

C:\Program Files (x86)\Hi-Rez Studios\hirezlauncherui.exe
Default game client folder

32-bit

C:\Program Files\Hi-Rez Studios\HiRezGames\Tribes Ascend\Binaries\Win32\TribesAscend.exe

64-bit

C:\Program Files (x86)\Hi-Rez Studios\HiRezGames\Tribes Ascend\Binaries\Win32\TribesAscend.exe
  • If (and only if) you are using an Nvidia video card, make sure your PhysX is configured correctly.
  1. Open nVidia Control Panel (Start Menu -> Control Panel -> nVidia Control Panel)
  2. Under "3D Settings" select "Set PhysX Configuration"
  3. Make sure "Auto-select" or "CPU" are selected, if it is forcing to GPU some users have reported being unable to get into a multiplayer match (Roaming works fine).
  • Delete all files in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Tribes Ascend\
If none of these steps work, please log in to the answer center at Hi-Rez Customer Support and submit a ticket so that we can assist you with troubleshooting this issue.

Issues unresolved

  • The player is propelled when they hit certain objects at high speeds (e.g. the flag stand on Raindance, which can throw the player into the air, sometimes hitting the invisible ceiling)
  • Sometimes, hitting Enter in Chat won't do anything. To solve this, you can only restart the game.

Other information

Safe Mode

Hi-Rez added the option to run Tribes: Ascend in safe mode, which runs the game with default settings and lowest texture quality.
  • To access safe mode, open the Tribes: Ascend Launcher, click the settings icon, and enable “Run game in safe mode.”

Command line parameters

To input these, start the launcher and click on the cogs in the upper-right corner.
Code Description
-steam Enables Steam overlay if run outside of Steam.
-windowed Runs the game in windowed mode.
-resx=800 -resy=600 Changes game resolution.

API

Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics PhysX

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB Windows XP/ 3 GB Vista, 7
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher

Notes

  1. File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/17080/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (17080) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References