Help with an UNHANDLED EXCEPTION crash whenever I try to open any project

Development Programming & Scripting
,
1

I really need help solving this crash I get whenever I try to open a project in UE 5.1.1.

It always crashes at the “Initializing” stage of loading and it happens regardless of project. I even tried creating a fresh project.

My specs are as follows:

  • AMD Ryzen 7 2700
  • 48 GB RAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
  • Windows 10

Other solutions I’ve tried include:

  • Editing the DefaultEngine.ini file to change the port
  • deleting the global cache in /DerivedDataCache
  • Verifying the UE files

And here’s the crash log.

Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x0000000000000000

UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!UE::UdpMessaging::Private::DoJoinMulticastGroup() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\Transport\UdpMessageTransport.cpp:162]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!UE::UdpMessaging::Private::JoinedToGroup() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\Transport\UdpMessageTransport.cpp:184]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!FUdpMessageTransport::StartTransport() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\Transport\UdpMessageTransport.cpp:244]
UnrealEditor_Messaging!FMessageBridge::Enable() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Messaging\Private\Bridge\MessageBridge.cpp:81]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!FMessageBridgeBuilder::Build() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\MessagingCommon\Public\MessageBridgeBuilder.h:109]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!FUdpMessagingModule::InitializeBridge() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\UdpMessagingModule.cpp:556]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!FUdpMessagingModule::RestartServices() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\UdpMessagingModule.cpp:354]
UnrealEditor_UdpMessaging!FUdpMessagingModule::StartupModule() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Plugins\Messaging\UdpMessaging\Source\UdpMessaging\Private\UdpMessagingModule.cpp:275]
UnrealEditor_Core!FModuleManager::LoadModuleWithFailureReason() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Core\Private\Modules\ModuleManager.cpp:617]
UnrealEditor_Projects!FModuleDescriptor::LoadModulesForPhase() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Projects\Private\ModuleDescriptor.cpp:696]
UnrealEditor_Projects!FPluginManager::TryLoadModulesForPlugin() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Projects\Private\PluginManager.cpp:2078]
UnrealEditor_Projects!FPluginManager::LoadModulesForEnabledPlugins() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Projects\Private\PluginManager.cpp:2154]
UnrealEditor!FEngineLoop::LoadStartupModules() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\LaunchEngineLoop.cpp:4181]
UnrealEditor!FEngineLoop::PreInitPostStartupScreen() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\LaunchEngineLoop.cpp:3523]
UnrealEditor!GuardedMain() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\Launch.cpp:154]
UnrealEditor!GuardedMainWrapper() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\Windows\LaunchWindows.cpp:107]
UnrealEditor!LaunchWindowsStartup() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\Windows\LaunchWindows.cpp:244]
UnrealEditor!WinMain() [D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Launch\Private\Windows\LaunchWindows.cpp:282]
UnrealEditor!__scrt_common_main_seh() [D:\a_work\1\s\src\vctools\crt\vcstartup\src\startup\exe_common.inl:288]
kernel32
ntdll
2

I have now also tried a few more suggestions from this post Beginner’s guide on how to tackle and fix engine crashes | Community tutorial
Including…

  • wiped my graphics drivers using DDU and installed them fresh
  • went into the registry and extended the timeout detection on the GPU drivers
3

What were you working on before the crash. Usually this is a rename/deleted/move issue. Or especially struct/enum fields. So the engine is looking for something that is no longer there. If you can isolate the class you can copy a backup or worst case delete it

4

Well that’s the thing, I’m literally just trying to create and open a brand new empty project and can’t even open it. It gets created, but then when it tries to open it I crash before the loading is completed.

5

I spent a bit of time digging through the full crash log and the last lines are these, so maybe it’s a port connection issue?

Initializing bridge on interface 0.0.0.0:0 to multicast group 230.0.0.1:6666.
FUdpSocketBuilder: Failed to bind UdpMessageMulticastSocket to 0.0.0.0:6666. Error code 3.

6

Hello there @dudemic!

Checking with my peers, I think you already nailed the critical line in the log:

FUdpSocketBuilder: Failed to bind UdpMessageMulticastSocket to 0.0.0.0:6666. Error code 3.

That socket fail, plus the multiple other calls tied to “UdpMessaging”, suggest an access violation issue, or a conflict with the plugin itself.

As for your approach, closing the affected port could help, but I wouldn’t go for the DefaultEngine.ini file, as the crash happens even in a clean project, on startup. Meaning, I would check UE’s config file, at the AppData folder (…\AppData\Local\UnrealEngine\5.1\Config).

Still, unless your projects use LiveLink, or have multi-user editing, then there’s no need to have the UdpMessaging plugin in the first place. Disabling it should fix the whole issue. To test that, open the .uproject file of one of your existing projects with Notepad, look for the Plugins section, and add the following lines:

"Plugins": [
    {
        "Name": "UdpMessaging",
        "Enabled": false
    }
]

Also, unless there’s a particular reason to keep you working at UE 5.1.1, I would suggest upgrading to the latest version, then test a clean project from there.