I have a 5.7 project which I updated to 5.8. It works just fine in Development Editor build, but when I build it without editor (Development or DebugGame build), the application crashes immediately and silently (no logs, dialogs, nothing). With debugger I was able to see it gets following error:
Exception thrown at 0x00007FFC0A851B6A in MyProject-Win64-DebugGame.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: xSharedMemoryException at memory location 0x000000B0A117ED20.
I have done non-editor builds earlier in 4.7 and testing in multiplayer setups without any problems. I have been using VS2022 and MSVC 14.44. Now I tried this with VS2026 and MSVC 14.50 as well but I get the same results with it. I did also make a default first person c++ project and try it there. Exact same results, editor builds work, non-editor ones crash to same error.
The fact that this is not leaving any logs or traces is quite strange. And from the error you get, plus what’s seen in your screenshot, it seems the whole process dies on startup.
Checking with my peers, first thing to consider, specially has you just migrated the project, is to ensure that every and all components tied to the VS installation are present, and using their correct version. You can review the entire process with the UE doc below:
After ensuring everything is properly installed, the very next step after a migration, is to fully clear the project’s cache, as stale data is very likely present on it. To do so, close both UE and VS, then navigate to your project’s main directory, to delete the following folders:
Binaries
Intermediate
Saved
DerivedDataCache
.vs
Once complete, locate your .uproject file, righ click on it, and select “Generate Visual Studio project files”. Now you can re-open both UE and VS, to allow the project to fully rebuild.
If the issue persists, even in a default project as you tested before, then the remaining step would be a full reinstall of both UE and VS from your system, a fresh start. VS can be removed with it’s installer, no major workarounds. UE, on the other hand, requires a few more steps to fully clear:
First, uninstall the engine, launcher, any asset packs, etc
Next, open the registry directory HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Epic Games\Unreal Engine\Builds, and delete any build entries
Finally, delete the folders %userprofile%\AppData\Local\UnrealEngine and %userprofile%\AppData\Local\UnrealHeaderTool
After that, no elements related to UE should be left in your system
Now, reinstall UE launcher from scratch, and only add the version of the engine you want to work with (in this case, 5.8)
At this stage, reinstall VS and all it’s components
After the process is complete, re-do the test with a blank c++ project
Thank you for the detailed example and instructions on how to try to resolve the issue. I did check the required prerequisites and components and did update them as defined in the documentation. I did not yet uninstall and reinstall everything as this would be a major thing to do.
With the updated dependencies I was able to create a new 3rd person template project and run it without editor successfully. So the setup should be ok now. I did clean up my project by deleting mentioned folders (+ Build) and rebuild a development editor and development versions from it. With editor I cooked the files for use and then started non-editor build. It goes much further now and I get UE error. So the original issue seems to be resolved!
Now running the development build gives error:
Assertion failed: U_SUCCESS(ICUStatus) [File:D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Core\Private\Internationalization\ICUInternationalization.cpp] [Line: 167]
Failed to open ICUInternationalization data file, missing or corrupt?
Well I speaked too soon. After trying to resolve the above localization issue by building a debug game version, again all of the non-editor builds started silently failing. I did not do any changes to the code or configs.
After building the 3rd person project in debug version it seems to happen there as well.
If I opened the editor in 3rd person project and cooked the assets again, the project started. I wonder is this now some issue with the zen integration that is causing havoc and is really dependent on what has been build and when? Same seemed to happen in my project as well. In my knowledge the cook and code compilations should not be related in any way as long as I use same target (development/debug)?
The same for me. New Third Person Project(Variant None) created with 5.8 works with debuggame editor and xSharedMemoryException without editor(DebugGame only).
Hi. Did you check your components and versions like in the above post? It is actually possible that the exception that I received was possibly not the actual reason for the game not starting. It could be i.e. that the assets are not found or similar. I don’t fully know how the Zen should be used and whether editor should be running when testing the game build, but at least it tries to start.
Hi everyone. I was having the same problem but I’ve managed to fix it.
The exception is a red herring. The real issue, as someone suspected, is the Zen server. You have to have it running, which you can achieve by having the editor open when you run your game.
But, after managing to get the game to start, it was failing to load the uproject file. I can’t actually see it in the Zen server contents, don’t know what’s wrong with that.
So I’ve just gone on and disabled Zen for cooking: Go to Edit > Project Settings > Packaging and untick “Use Zenserver as cooked output store”. This way it will rever to using local storage for cooked assets and I can run again.
Hope this helps. If anyone has any idea on how to fix the issue with Zen and the project file, it will be much appreciated.
