If your game is crashing on start-up or during the intro logos, try this.

Rename the following file:

The Alters\Engine\Plugins\Streamline\Binaries\ThirdParty\Win64\sl.pcl.dll

I just put a .bak on the end.

This solved the issue for me.

I noticed this file was the cause of the crash in the Windows event viewer, it's the NVIDIA Streamline plug-in for the Unreal engine.

I do have the latest nVidia drivers so i'm not sure what the problem is.

[Update]

As mentioned by Hustlefan below, this fix will prevent NVIDIA frame generation from working in the game. But DLSS and low latency options work fine.

The problem is the Galaxy overlay which isn't compatible with Streamline in UE5 games.
By renaming that file you're able to play the game with overlay but you cannot use NVIDIA Frame Generation.

I don't use Galaxy though.

I'm in contact with 11 bit support, so I'll update this thread if I get any other information about this issue.

Interesting, thanks.
Let's see what they've to say about this.

I discovered that this issue is actually a problem with the NVIDIA driver installation and/or UE5, not this game in particular.

Evidently you now must install the "NVIDIA App" with the drivers for the sl.pcl.dll to function correctly. I've always done a custom driver installation without the app.

I tested this by doing a clean driver only installation and any UE5 game I tried crashes on launch. Then I did a clean driver installation including the NVIDIA App and every UE5 game I tried works properly.

[Update]

According to some reports this is no longer an issue when installing 576.80+ drivers. I can't be arsed to do anymore clean installs to test it, if anyone can confirm that driver only installation no longer has the sl.pcl.dll crash bug please reply here.

At the end of the installation I get an error: "internal expression error 'Runtime error (at 500:57): Out of string range.". I click "ok" the message: "Runtime error (at 211:63).Out of stack range". It says the game was installed successfully, a shortcut to start the game appears on the desktop. After starting the game the message
"Game files required to initialize the global shader library are missing from:
C:/GOG Games/The Alters/TheAlters/Content/
Please make sure the game is installed correctly."

Those particular errors with the GOG offline installer almost always mean that one or more of the bin files didn't download correctly.

Check out this thread for information on how to verify your files and find out which one(s) are corrupted, then try downloading them again.

Can anyone confirm this game works for them when installed with the offline installers?

I used Heroic to download the game.

You might want to ask in the game release thread, the general forum sees much more traffic than the sub forums.

Or contact support if you suspect it's broken on their end, it's been known to happen.

I used Heroic and installed the game. It works. But I want to download the offline installer files. Can I download the files with Heroic?

Heroic doesn't support downloading extras/offline installers yet.

Just my opinion, but I always wait a long while until downloading offline installers for newly released games. They usually get a lot of updates, and you just end up having to re-download the installer a bunch of times to keep your backup up to date.

MikeMaximus, thank you for your help. I will wait with downloading the game as you wrote. Let them update the game and I will download the offline files in some time. I am just curious if it was just me who had problems with downloading or is it some bigger problem with this game?