Project created in macOS is very different in Windows

[sebalv70]

Oh I’m happy to say I did something wrong if I did. But basically I followed the tutorial step by step, without omitting anything. And if I had setup something wrong, wouldn’t that behavior be in both machines, coming from exactly the same project?

But yeah, it’s a good idea for whoever wants to take a look at this, especially you since you have both PC and Mac, and anybody else that has both machines. The link is: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ7HN0VZaiunPPfF3EkcacyRuxjlOY5weLek

This is the file I just packed from 4.27 in the Mac. I copied it to a new folder, unzipped, loaded the project and it had my version. Copied the file to the PC, verified the checksum, unzipped, opened and it had the chairs and all that.

Thanks everybody for looking into this, I really appreciate it.

Edit: if you want to verify the SHA-256 checksum, it’s f94b206b43b30d17567956b5654dc6e715f0e9f2580955bdde94bc1a8aff84e7

Edit 2: I just realized something interesting. UE4 doesn’t save the latest version to the .uproject file. I have opened this project in the last hour, saved it, and the time and date of the file shows as today at 1:25 PM. Even more, the file is only 88 bytes, and this the content:

{
“FileVersion”: 3,
“EngineAssociation”: “4.27”,
“Category”: “”,
“Description”: “”
}

So, other than the version, it doesn’t have anything in it. And based on the time I just saved the project, looking inside each folder, I can see that the file that saved something is called “CachedAssetRegistry.bin” and is inside the “Intermediate” folder. Does this make any sense at all, that the actual project file doesn’t save anything? And regardless of that, if the latest modifications are saved in that CachedAssetRegistry.bin file, shouldn’t the same program in another OS read from the same file?

[Packetdancer]

So, I grabbed the zip from your link, unpacked it on Windows 11, opened the project, and I see chairs in Minimal_Default

And a door in Open_Sesame

Then I grabbed the MacBook Pro, unpacked the zip file, opened the project, and I see chairs in Minimal_Default

and a door in OpenSesame.

So far as I can tell, the project is being handled exactly the same way on both platforms, as I would expect. Does that differ for you?

[Packetdancer]

@sebalv70

Does this make any sense at all, that the actual project file doesn’t save anything.

That makes perfect sense.

To clarify, the .uproject file only contains metadata – what revision of the UProject file format the data is in (“3”, in this case), what engine it’s using for if you double-click on the .uproject file ("4.27’), and Category/Description metadata (which in my experience is mostly useful for plugins in a .uplugin file – which uses the same format – as it determines where the plugin will show up in the Plugins window). It basically exists as a “you can click on this to load this project” shortcut more than anything. (I mean, that’s not actually the only purpose, but it’s the only one most people use it for.)

If you have changed none of that data, then I wouldn’t expect it to have anything new in there when you saved.

The Intermediate directory is for, well, intermediate files. Things that don’t need to be saved – they’d just get rebuilt if you blew the directory away – but would be good to have stick around so you’re not rebuilding them every time you start the engine up, over and over and over and over and…

(It’s why, for instance, you don’t get that same massive “Compiling shaders…” wait on every load of the engine, rather than just the first time you load a project.)

Now, it might be worth closing the project, blowing away your Intermediate directory, and re-opening just in case there’s something weird in there, but I’m not placing high odds on that being your cause here.

As for things being updated in there… Unreal really likes to save stuff to the Intermediate directory. Sometimes even when you don’t think you actually saved anything.

[sebalv70]

Thanks for opening the project in both your machines. So what I get is similar, except that on the Mac, I have my door in both the Minimal_Default and the Open_Sesame maps. However, in the PC, I do have the chairs in the Minimal_Default and my version in the Open_Sesame. I could’ve sworn that earlier I also opened the Open_Sesame in the PC and it showed me the chairs, but I’m tired so I could be wrong.

But I guess, whatever this bug is, the workaround would be to save the map with a custom name. if using the starter content. I’m a bit concerned about the error message I got earlier when I saved it as Open_Sesame, especially because it doesn’t look exactly the same as the Minimal_Default. I told you guys earlier that when cycling between both, Open_Sesame was darker, even though I checked the lights and they had all the same details. But now, Open_Sesame is much lighter than the other one. So I don’t know, I’m confused.

[Packetdancer]

My gut feeling is still that the one machine has the map being saved into the template rather than the map in the game content.

But honestly, at this point I’d probably just:

1. Blow away both projects entirely.
2. Unzip that archive you made for me on both of your machines as a fresh project.
3. Re-open project (and wait while that Intermediate directory gets rebuilt).
4. Move on with life.

We know the zipfile contains a good copy of the project, and has the expected door in Open_Sesame, so It’ll probably be less overall aggravation to just napalm the existing project directories and walk away from the burning wreckage to a fresh copy from the zip file, rather than figuring out what specifically got borked in the process along the way.

[sebalv70]

Right, so let’s assume that the Mac is saving the Minimal_Default map to some other folder, let’s say, the folder where 4.27 is installed. Well, I just checked the Templates folder in the parent folder for 4.27, and every folder has the date 3/20. In macOS, if any file is modified inside a folder, it will also change the modified date of the folder.

So we know it didn’t save anything there. I checked all the other files and folders in that parent folder, and I couldn’t find anything.

But let’s say I missed a file. Let’s say UE 4.27 in the Mac saved to a file that is outside the tree of the project. However, the fact still remains that the Minimal_Default map shows my version in the Mac and the starter content in the PC. Both come from exactly the same project.

Now, since in your case you opened the zip in both Mac and PC and saw the same thing in both, my guess is that there’s some kind of bug that is related to caches. I wish I knew somebody at Epic Games I could show this too, because it’s mind boggling.

Hell, I even did this: in the Mac, I went through all the content, and deleted almost everything that wasn’t the Minimal_Default map. I deleted the meshes for the chairs, table, statue, other meshes that were in there, and a lot of other things that had nothing to do with my door blueprint. Then I packed that directly to the PC since I had the share mounted on the Mac. I unzipped on the PC, opened the project, and it still showed me the chairs!

But well, like you said, move on with life, I know what the remedy is, which is to save to a different map. I’ll just have to see if that error is only in this project or if it’s a problem with other projects too.

[Packetdancer]

@sebalv70

In macOS, if any file is modified inside a folder, it will also change the modified date of the folder.

(This actually isn’t 100% true, but the exceptions to the rule get into very nitpicky details of how the HFS journaled filesystem is implemented. And god help me that I’ve made life choices where I ended up knowing that fact.)

Honestly, again, I don’t think the right solution is “keep this project and always just save to a different map” or whatever. I would first try opening the project fresh on macOS – i.e., unzip what you sent me into a fresh directory and open that version of the project – and see if you see the same thing in that copy of the project.

Alternatively, if you genuinely think it’s an edge-case cache bug of some kind – which, hey, they do happen, though I suspect more folks would’ve seen this – then close the project, delete the Intermediate and Build directories, and re-open. That will have pretty much destroyed all caches and it will build them fresh.

If it still shows up with the door in Minimal_Default everywhere after you’ve blown away the caches and tried a fresh install and you’re certain it’s not in the engine templates, then I dunno what to tell you other than that your computer is evidently haunted; at that point I’d probably uninstall 4.27 and reinstall it just as a sanity check.

After that, I think I’d probably resort to digital exorcism. (That’s probably a thing, right…?)

[sebalv70]

@Packetdancer

Honestly, again, I don’t think the right solution is “keep this project and always just save to a different map” or whatever. I would first try opening the project fresh on macOS – i.e., unzip what you sent me into a fresh directory and open that version of the project – and see if you see the same thing in that copy of the project.

Oh, that’s what I did. Sorry, I thought that was clear. I unzipped that same file in both the Mac and the PC. And still saw different things.

@Packetdancer

Alternatively, if you genuinely think it’s an edge-case cache bug of some kind – which, hey, they do happen, though I suspect more folks would’ve seen this – then close the project, delete the Intermediate and Build directories, and re-open. That will have pretty much destroyed all caches and it will build them fresh.

I’ll definitely try that tomorrow. I would love it if you or somebody has ten minutes and wants to follow that tutorial on a Mac, then packages the zip, copies to a PC any way they want, open it in the PC and see what the result is. Hell, I also have a Mac laptop, so I could even try this on a totally different Mac and see what happens. Definitely will try that soon.

@Packetdancer

After that, I think I’d probably resort to digital exorcism. (That’s probably a thing, right…?)

Hey, these days people fart into jars and sell them for a fortune, so yes, I would say digital exorcism even sounds like a normal thing in these times.

[Packetdancer]

@sebalv70

I’ll definitely try that tomorrow. I would love it if you or somebody has ten minutes and wants to follow that tutorial on a Mac, then packages the zip, copies to a PC any way they want, open it in the PC and see what the result is. Hell, I also have a Mac laptop, so I could even try this on a totally different Mac and see what happens. Definitely will try that soon.

I should’ve mentioned that I did do that after you linked the tutorial, and got the results I expected; the project was the same on both machines.

[sebalv70]

@Packetdancer

I should’ve mentioned that I did do that after you linked the tutorial, and got the results I expected; the project was the same on both machines.

Then I guess something was funky with my installation. Last night I uninstalled all the engines and then deleted leftover files and folders. I’ll try this again with the new installation and see what happens.

[Packetdancer]

Fingers crossed that you’ve successfully conducted the aforementioned digital exorcism!

[vlsotu]

Sorry if my hint looks stupud, but I don’t have enough courage to read the whole story here. All I can say is that whenever I open a project in UE4, I have the exact same situation as yours, and I’ve always assumed it was normal: the project appears in its standard factory form, though with all the assets I may have introduced in the prevous sessions. I must fetch the actual umap I saved where I saved it to get back to where I was. So it goes: File menu>Open level and navigate to the place you actually saved your level under your own custom title.
Sorry again if this looks obvious and uselessly intrusive, because you may have got this from day one, but since i’m a beginner too, you’ll pardon me.

[sebalv70]

@vlsotu

Sorry again if this looks obvious and uselessly intrusive, because you may have got this from day one, but since i’m a beginner too, you’ll pardon me.

Not at all, actually you were really helpful, because you confirmed that what I was seeing was a bug and not something messed up with my installation.

I haven’t had a chance to play more with this, other projects and life things came in the way, plus I don’t think I would get any other result after reinstalling UE, so I kind of gave up. I know the solution is to save the map with another name and that’s it.

Thank you all for your help, much appreciated.

[jwatte]

I wonder what “open the project” means? Maybe you use some other path to open the project, or the editor, than those for whom it works?
Or maybe the registry has somehow screwed itself up such that the association that’s supposed to open the right editor with the right map, doesn’t?
Clearly, this works fine for most people, and clearly, it doesn’t work for some people, and I can’t think of a good way of figuring out what the diff between the two cases is.

[sebalv70]

Well, when I open projects, I don’t do it with the Epic Games extremely cluttered app. I just go to the folder and double click on the project file. Which is kind of misleading, because it doesn’t contain the project itself, it’s just a few lines, one of which has the version the project was created in. So I double click that file, and it always opens in the right version.

[Packetdancer]

@sebalv70

I just go to the folder and double click on the project file.

As do I—on both Windows and macOS—so I’m not sure that’s the cause here.

@sebalv70

Which is kind of misleading, because it doesn’t contain the project itself, it’s just a few lines, one of which has the version the project was created in.

Honestly, that’s not all that uncommon. Many programming IDEs have similar “the file that represents the project is actually a fairly small file containing just some metadata, and the rest of the project state and setup is loaded from other files once the developer tool starts” behavior.

Either way, I doubt that “clicking on the project file versus opening from the Launcher” is the cause here, simply because many others use that method to open projects. As jwatte notes, there’s got to be some common cause between what’s happening to the two of you, and why it isn’t happening to anyone else, really. But trying to figure out what that is…

Honestly, I wonder if it might be worth having one of you grab the engine logfiles for a project affected that way, and toss them up somewhere for folks to look through? Because whatever’s happening here—be it some exceedingly rare bug, or some bit of setup that’s poorly documented (and being taken for granted and not noticed as lacking by many of us)—it would be nice to find the cause and document and/or fix it…

[sebalv70]

@Packetdancer

I wonder if it might be worth having one of you grab the engine logfiles for a project affected that way, and toss them up somewhere for folks to look through?

Sure, where are the log files?

Regardless, I found another situation today that makes me think there’s really a bug or two when it comes to UE in different OSes. Now, this was in 4.23, which I’m kind of forced to use because it’s the last version that supports HTML5, and we need that for my work project, so this might have been fixed in later versions.

Basically, I brought my door blueprint into a larger project where it sits inside an art gallery that someone in my team purchased, so this one is not a project I can upload unfortunately. But at some point after I brought the door, I went into the materials for both the doors and the frame, and changed the color to a kind of light navy blue. Then I also moved the two materials, M_Door and M_Frame (these two are from the starter content) into a custom folder I created inside the content browser. Finally, I put the door blueprint inside another blueprint that contains the art gallery. I saved everything, then packaged to a zip directly to the share that is my D drive on my work laptop.

So in Windows, I unzipped the file, opened the project, and the freaking door is beige instead of blue. So I tried the process again, opened the project in macOS, saved everything, zipped to the Windows share, and opened. Same thing. The door is not even the same color as the starter content, it’s beige instead of that grayish brown.

And after a few minutes, I realized what the problem was; the doors and the frame were taking the M_Door and M_Frame materials from the starter content instead of the ones that I moved and edited. So I had to manually select the ones that I had edited.

So I deleted the project and the zip in Windows. Back on the Mac, I went to the starter content and made sure I didn’t need anything in there. Then I tried to delete the Starter Content folder, but it didn’t delete the folder, but it deleted everything inside. I tried to delete the empty folder many times, but nothing. But well, at least it didn’t have anything inside.

So once again, I zipped the project to the Windows machine. Unzipped it, and this time, the door was blue. However, I noticed something interesting. The Starter Content folder wasn’t empty, it was the full default Starter Content folder, with all the meshes, textures, etc. Except that for some reason, now it wasn’t picking up the two textures from the starter content, it was picking the right ones from my folder. However, the two textures were still under Props>Materials. And they are the orange yellow ones that I had seen before.

So again, this might have been fixed in newer versions, but I don’t understand why if you open a Mac project in Windows, it brings back all the starter content that I had deleted. And guess what? I opened the same exact zip in the Mac, loaded the project, and the Starter Content folder was still there, but empty as I had left it.

So how is it possible that if I open the same zip in macOS and Windows, the Windows version brings back all the starter content and the Mac version does not? I mean, that to me is a giant bug. And hopefully they found it and fixed it in 4.27 and 5, but at the same time, they took out HTML5, which is absolutely nonsensical, especially when its main competitor is Unity, which allows building to HTML5 and to the other OS whether you use Mac or Windows.

[Bradical]

I am having a similar problem! I made a project in Windows using a Marketplace asset. I copied it to my mac and all of my custom assets are missing! It’s as if I did nothing and the project is in it’s default state. I can see all the files on my drive…but they are not in the project. Very strange! Any new ideas on why this is happening?

[Bradical]

Ah ok, I was able to figure this out.

Basically I opened it directly from Finder instead of Epic Games Launcher. It seemed to launch my real project and recompile all the shaders. Everything appeared as it should now.

But now when I go to Epic Games Launcher I see both the “fake” version of my project located in Documents folder…and the real one in the external drive location where I copied it. I think a confusion happened when Epic Games Launcher asked me if I wanted to associated a uproject file with the launcher. I said yes and assumed that it was my actual project (because it had the same name and thumbnail). But perhaps this is some intermediary version of the core project that I based my real project on.

Pretty confusing…and probably a bug. But opening it directly solved it for me!

[SophieBramley]

Hi all, I am having a similar but different problem.
I am testing out multi- user, i first created a project using two window machines.

I created a nother project on a different sever creating the project file on a mac. When i opened the project and went into multi-user settings my materials had disapeared. This was mac to PC.

I tested it again with a new project multi-user with mac to mac and am getting the same problem.

I’m a pc user and noticed that mac is using Xcode. I have been running round the internet for a whole day and struggling to find what is the answer, any help?