I hadn't played TW3 since 2016, so I thought maybe I'd pick up the season pass. My intuition told me that I should load up TW3 first, so I did and was stunned to find that it would no longer run - both via GoG Galaxy and directly from the game folder, Nothing has changed on my system other than updating Nvidia drivers. After a number of hours wasted verifying and troubleshooting, I reinstalled. After the long wait, it was disappointing to find that the game still wouldn't run, so I gave up on it.

Today, I decided to give it one more chance, so I began searching for answers again. I found one suggestion about removing Galaxy.dll, so I did. Loading TW3 directly from the game folder generates an error relating to Galaxy.dll, but the game loads. Loading the game from GoG Galaxy fails.

So what gives here? Why is this dll file preventing TW3 from running, and is there a fix in the works? What ramifications are there from removing the dll? Does it affect the game in any way or does it only affect GoG Galaxy, and in what way?

Thanks ..

could it be that the galaxy.dll is completely blocked by your firewall? the dll needs a local loopback to 127.x.x.x ... or crash.
its a weird programmed software, still phoning home when u dont use gog-galaxy.

edit:
witcher 3 (with or without gog-galaxy) is crashing when you:
- remove galaxy.dll
- completely block galaxy.dll with a firewall
witcher 3 (with or without gog-galaxy) works when you:
- replace galaxy.dll with an empty compiled script (rename the exe to dll). a renamed txt-file dont works.
- allow all or only local connections by firewall.

@Cattie: I have never heard of a dll needing access to the internet through a firewall. I always thought it was executables only, but that could be because of my limited knowledge of these things. With that in mind, I would think if a dll needed to go out on the net, it would call an executable somehow. I have no real clue.

Having said that, I went ahead and gave access to the dll in the firewall, but there was no difference. Still crashing.

I picked up the expansion pass last night and ran a fresh install of GOTY today. It failed as well. Renaming Galaxy.dll allowed me to run the game if I ran directly from the X64 folder like mentioned in my OP, but I had to shut down GoG Galaxy first, else it crashed that way too.

Your suggestion of replacing the dll with an empty compiled script is beyond me. How is that accomplished? And does it allow the game to still be run through GoG Galaxy or is it simply an alternative to renaming or removing the dll? If so, I won't bother. If it does negate the dll error message before the game loads, then at least that would be one improvement to the temporary workaround.

Bottom line is that this needs to be addressed and fixed by the GoG team.

hi storzic :)

sorry it wasnt helpful. it was just a try because thats what happens too when galaxy.dll is blocked or missing. but to your question about dlls: yes, my statement was a bit too easy, and too easy is often wrong in a way. you need to allow the witcher3.exe in your firewall.

first forget file extensions, its only used by the operating system to know how to handle a file when you click on it. often dlls are used as a sort of recource-files. pictures, links, data, complete executables... just everything. windows for example likes to put exe files into dlls. when its needed the exe gets unpacked in a temp-folder, started and when done, windows deletes it again.

but in this case you are not wrong: it seems like some code in the witcher3.exe needs the dll to connect to "galaxy-log.gog.com" (46.105.121.139) for example. your firewall shows that witcher3.exe is trying to connect. but the info of the connection target and maybe some code is from the galaxy.dll. same with the local loopback connections. by replacing the galaxy.dll with a special dummy it stops and the game still works perfect.
so we have two weird things: all gog-games want to phone home, even if you dont use gog-galaxy or achievements, and the game is crashing when you block the loopbacks (bad programming). both is not needed by the game itself (only when you use achievements), its mainly for collecting data from users.

i'm programming a bit so i have a compiler to make executables. so its not a solution for everyone. i bet, gog-galaxy needs the galaxy.dll for whatever, no idea because i dont use galaxy.

edit: i thaught about to add my galaxy.dll dummy, but i decided not to do it because its never a good idea to use exe files from someone you dont know, could be a virus. so better ask the gog-support.

Hey Cattie, but you were helpful or at least trying to be, and I appreciate it. That's important to these communities. It's those little suggestions that might help someone resolve their problem. Much better than the dreaded "You should reinstall your OS blah blah blah" suggestion. ;)

I can't count how many times in my life I thought I knew something, and then someone suggested something that went against what I knew or against logic, but I went ahead and tried it only to find out they were right. They are good learning experiences. Having said that, that dll thing was worth considering, regardless.

What you are saying about witcher needing to call home makes some sense, but that it exists doesn't make sense, considering that we've been able to play the game alone without using GoG galaxy before. Having that dll wanting to call home makes the DRM-free game turn into a DRM game in a way, which completely defeats the purpose of GoG, don't you think? If the game appears to need that dll to run and it needs to call home, then what they have on their about page "...."you buy it, you own it" philosophy" kind of loses its meaning.

I played the game yesterday a bit and figured that the dll had no noticeable ill affect on witcher so far, but is only perhaps needed by GoG Galaxy for the reasons you suggested. My thought is that what if I never found that troubleshooting thread suggesting to remove the dll? I would have continued sitting here thinking that I lost the "replayability" factor of this game, since it appeared that I wouldn't be able to play anymore. So for now, better a workaround than nothing.

And you're right, best not to post the dummy exe. Let the GoG folks resolve the issue. I'm sure they're aware of it (I hope).

Thanks for your help and info. Much appreciated!

Not really. DRM is made to stop you playing a game. Here you still can go offline and play it without limitations. The galaxy.dll error is "only" a bug or bad programming, but not intended.
The intention is to collect data about users, hidden, without making it public. The galaxy.dll is part of every single game on GOG, even when you don't use GOG-Galaxy. One reason why I don't use DRM-games or Steam or GOG-Galaxy is, i don't like this data sniffing. Without GOG-Galaxy the galaxy.dll is like spyware, not needed for anything else than sniffing.
Maybe i care about it more than others cause I'm from Germany and data protection is a big topic here, one of the reasons could be our history (before Hitler they collected data about everyone saying we are the good ones, trust us. Later Hitler killed thousands of people based on these data).
For me a trusted company is a company who don't collects data or only the absolutely necessary data for a limited time. And a trusted company tells you exactly what they collect.

@Cattie

You're right that this is not meant to stop you playing a game, but since it does if someone doesn't know about renaming it or deleting it, it kind of feels like it to me .. just an example, albeit maybe not a great one. ;)

In regards to data collection and privacy, I am totally with you on that.