Crash when empty config files are absent

Development Platform & Builds
, , ,
1

Hi,

I packaged a shipping version of a game that is not use .pak archives.
I write a simple installer that do related stuff.

And here’s what I found.

Files below are empty after packaging (have zero size).
WindowsNoEditor\Engine\Config\Base.ini
WindowsNoEditor\Engine\Config\BaseEditorLayout.ini

If you run an executable with these files, all is ok. But if you remove them, the game will crash.
You can repro it on the example FpsCpp project.

My installer had a bug when it does not copy empty files. So, after installation process I was not able to run a game.
Fatal error is on the picture.

You should definitely check this behaviour.
Yes, those files can have some special meaning, but crashing when zero-sized files are absent is a strange thing.

2

And instant small update.
You need only Base.ini file to absent.
Second file has no impact on startup crash.

If you don’t have at least zero-sized Base.ini file in Engine/Config/ the game won’t run.

3

Previously this question was in a wrong section, so bumping this.

4

Hi Izwdgc,

Can you include the entire crash log for this thread as a txt file? Here’s instructions on where to locate them.

Thanks!

5

Hi,

Here is the zipped error report. (I don’t see any text logs, so attaching a dump and other files.)
This is a crash on default FpsCpp project.

link text

6

Hi lzwdgc,

Unfortunately, there’s very little in the way of usable crash data in the Visual Studio logs, and I have been unable to locate this as a known issue. Have you experienced this crash since you first reported it? If you like, you can PM me your Epic ID/Machine ID and I can search the crash reports for your specific crash.

Thanks!

7

As I said you can try the next thing.
Package any project you have without .PAKing files into archives.
Make sure the file WindowsNoEditor\Engine\Config\Base.ini is empty.
Delete it.
You should see a crash on project launch.

What about epic and machine ids.
I don’t think that crash information was sent to epic.
And yes, I see this crash every time I delete empty Engine\Config\Base.ini file.

8

Base.ini is a file that we expect to exist. It is the only .ini file that we require. We could add some text in it, but since we know it will exist, we do a couple of things based on its existence.

So, while I want to keep assuming it will be there, we can add some text into it so that it’s not anything special.

Josh

9

BTW, I checked in a comment into it, btw (won’t be in until 4.9)