So I’m having issues with my project. After successfully packaging it for windows, running the exe just gives an unresponsive black screen. Correct default map and everything. I thought maybe upgrading to 5.1 (from 5.0.3) would help my issue and the project immediately crashes upon loading, mentioning NiagaraGraph.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Hey there @darthgrayter! I’ve seen multiple issues on upgraded projects. It’s not always just builds that have this issue. I have seen a number of users have issues with Niagara systems. You may have to find the offending system and remove/replace it.
Thanks for the suggestion! As far as the UE5.1 version goes, if I delete a certain asset folder, it doesn’t immediately crash. Unfortunately the assets are rather crucial, so I’m just going to wait for a future version of 5.1 that hopefully doesn’t break the assets.
But that leaves my project stuck on 5.0.3 with a game that only gives a black screen when packaged. Any tips on fixing that?
It’s definitely dependent on the error it’s producing. Could you launch your debug build the command argument -log and see where it’s failing? It’s likely the same offending Niagara asset, but we’ll have to see. You could also run it through a debugger if you’re savvy.
So, the cmd prompt won’t appear when I press “~”. There’s no error, just a black screen and unresponsive program. Running in editor is perfect, even when I run it in standalone game.
You’d have to run your own cmd and then use the -log argument when launching the packaged project. This will launch a totally different window. I’ve got a video showing some packaging debugging a little bit more in depth.
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Thanks for the video!! I followed the instructions and the game actually ran from vs one time perfectly… then it stopped working and is just not responding. I attached my logs below.
The weird thing is, if I select the “for distribution” setting on projects settings and package for debuggame, the “main” exe doesn’t work, but the Win64-Shipping exe does run.
StarSurfer.log (31.5 KB)
Interesting! Is there an accompanying crash log that goes with this? It doesn’t mention the exception here while it does show a crash GUID.
Nope, no crash log or GUID… just unresponsive black screen.
The logs don’t mention much here, without a stack trace it’s hard to point out what’s still failing, I’m not too experienced in debugging shipping packaged games past some of the tips the video gave for the most part. If it is indeed still the Niagara systems, cutting the specific one causing the issue out has been the regular fix. Is there any way you can package in a basic level first, set that as the starter map and see if the shipping lets you in to that. This may point to whether it’s something we can scrub or plugin interference.
For anyone who might still have this issue - if I uncheck the “For Distribution” box in Project Settings → Packaging, then it seems to work reliably after I package.