If your Borderlands 3 game isn’t loading on PC, there’s likely a few reasons why. With the main reason being that you have probably enabled DirectX 12 and restarted the game since saving that option.
This is causing a lot of hang-ups, and the game to be stuck on a loading screen. The screen in particular is Claptrap dancing along a black screen. I suffered with this myself, and have found a fix.
If you haven’t switched to DirectX 12, then it’s also possible that your computer is just running a little slow. Give the game some time to load, or consider moving it to an SSD if that option is possible. As long as the animations haven’t crashed, then the game should eventually load.
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How to Fix Borderlands 3 Loading Screen
To fix this black screen and loading error, we need to open GameUserSettings.ini. You can locate this file in Users\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor by default. This is where all the configuration and save game data for Borderlands 3 is stored.
Open the GameUserSettings.ini file and search for PreferredGraphicsAPI. The value after the ‘=’ will say DX12 if you have enabled DirectX 12. Change this value to DX11, save the file, close it and re-open Borderlands 3. Your loading times should have returned to normal.
If you want to leave DirectX 12 enabled, then you will have to wait out the loading screen. Some users are reporting it takes up to 5 minutes, some say 15. If your error isn’t related to enabling DirectX 12, then you should try verifying game files or reinstalling the game.
