UE5 abrupt process termination whenever importing normal texture

[gregdbrown]

Hi, I recently got a new PC and now when i try to use UE 5.1.1 I can’t seem to import normal textures from my models (created in maya and textured in substance painter). When i try to import a normal texture, the Unreal Engine processes just ceases (i don’t really know if I should call it a crash because it doesn’t trigger the normal crash reporter, the process just ends).

Here is the end of the log generated from the most recent occurrence (i will include slightly larger section in a reply):

[2023.04.05-06.50.45:429][539]LogInterchangePipeline: Display: Auto-detected normal map
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:431][539]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal (TFO_BC5, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 336.562488 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast

I think i might be an issue with the graphics card because when i started using Substance Painter I was getting an warning about a known issue with it (it is an AMD 6700 XT). I tried to follow the provided steps at the following link to resolve that issue with Substance Painter:

GPU drivers crash with long computations (TDR crash) | Substance 3D Painter

This of course only affected Substance Painter (primarily by removing the warning, it seemed to function normally while i was just ignoring the warning as well), but I thought maybe there is could be an issue with Unreal as well.

I haven’t tried to directly import a normal map that wasn’t created on this machine, so I might try that.

Otherwise I really don’t know how to approach resolving this issue.

As i said I will reply with a larger section of the end of the log, but any other information I could provide or tests I could perform that would help me diagnose this issue I would love to know, or any help anyone could provide I would be very grateful!

(i did try removing the Oodle plugin as suggested in this post

UE5 crashes when importing a certain normal map

When I tried to import a certain normal map in UE5, it fails to import and crashes every time. When it comes to other normal maps it’s no problem. The file size of the map is 768mb. So I thought this is because the size is too big, but when I imported albedo file with the same size, no problem. Does anyone has the same experience and know how to fix it?

, but my log doesn’t mention oodle and there was no reason i should have hoped that might work; i re-enabled the plugin when i found it was still crashing)

[gregdbrown]

[2023.04.05-06.49.06:103][657]LogDirectoryWatcher: A directory notification for ‘…/…/…/Engine/Plugins/’ was aborted.
[2023.04.05-06.50.24:128][868]LogDerivedDataCache: C:/Users/Gregory/AppData/Local/UnrealEngine/Common/DerivedDataCache: Maintenance finished in +00:00:45.151 and deleted 0 files with total size 0 MiB. Scanned 23535 files in 22636 folders with total size 1494 MiB.
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:793][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:793][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (2)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:793][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (3)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:793][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (4)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:793][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (5)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:794][428]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (6)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:847][429]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (6)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:882][430]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_FossilMouth_BaseColor.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_FossilMouth_BaseColor (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:884][430]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_FossilMouth_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_FossilMouth_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:886][430]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_Rock_BaseColor.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_Rock_BaseColor (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:889][430]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (4)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (5)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (4)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (3)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (2)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:894][430]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing - (1)
[2023.04.05-06.50.29:898][430]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_BaseColor.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_BaseColor (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.30:165][434]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_Rock_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_Rock_OcclusionRoughnessMetallic (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.30:167][435]LogInterchangeEngine: [Success] Import Done
[2023.04.05-06.50.30:185][435]LogInterchangeEngine: [Success] Import Done
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:225][536]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:248][537]LogInterchangeEngine: [Pending] Importing
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:277][538]LogInterchangeEngine: [Success] Import Done
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:278][538]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal (TFO_AutoDXT, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 288.062484 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:390][539]LogInterchangeEngine: [Success] Import Done
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:429][539]LogInterchangePipeline: Display: Auto-detected normal map
[2023.04.05-06.50.45:431][539]LogTexture: Display: Building textures: /Game/Assets/Textures/Study01/FossilTextures/CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal.CollectiblePickUp_Fossil_SG_AmmoniteFossil_Normal (TFO_BC5, 2048x2048 x1x1x1) (Required Memory Estimate: 336.562488 MB), EncodeSpeed: Fast

I don’t think this larger snippet of the log really shows anything more, I had just closed the plugin window and then re-imported the other textures (base color, etc …) which worked, and then i tried to load the normal and the process ended.

I double checked my substance painter project settings and export settings and I am fairly confident that that is not my issue.

And as a matter of fact I have found a work around. If I…
-Copy the files for the normal textures (.tga) into the appropriate folder within the project using windows file explorer
-Open the project and click ‘import’ when Unreal recognizes additional files.

This actually still causes unreal to close, but while it’s closing it generates the .uasset files and then when i open the project again there they are.

Here is what a log from one of those crashes looks like.

[2023.04.05-21.28.01:420][ 37]LogSavePackage: Moving ‘D:/Users/Gregory/Documents/Unreal Projects/GAME712/GAME_712/Saved/PickUpBase_SG_BaseChasis_Normal808981D44A5D0E901D05318962156FE8.tmp’ to ‘D:/Users/Gregory/Documents/Unreal Projects/GAME712/GAME_712/Content/Assets/Textures/PickUpBase_SG_BaseChasis_Normal.uasset’
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:439][ 37]LogFileHelpers: InternalPromptForCheckoutAndSave took 742 ms
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:457][ 38]AssetCheck: New page: Asset Save: multiple assets
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:457][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/PickUpBase_SG_BaseChasis_Normal.PickUpBase_SG_BaseChasis_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:457][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenPlus_Normal.HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenPlus_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:457][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenCap_Normal.HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenCap_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:458][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenBody_Normal.HealthPickUp_Canteen_SG_CanteenBody_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:458][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/AbilityPickUp2_NonsenseDevice_initialShadingGroup_Normal.AbilityPickUp2_NonsenseDevice_initialShadingGroup_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:458][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/AbilityPickUp1_Cactus_initialShadingGroup_Normal.AbilityPickUp1_Cactus_initialShadingGroup_Normal
[2023.04.05-21.28.01:458][ 38]LogContentValidation: Display: Validating /Script/Engine.Texture2D /Game/Assets/Textures/PickUpBase_SG_BaseEmissive_Normal.PickUpBase_SG_BaseEmissive_Normal

I can probably get by for a while doing this, but I would really love to understand what is happening and stop it from crashing, so I can just import normally.

Thanks!

[gregdbrown]

Installing visual studio solved this issue. I’m really not sure why, I guess it needs some package to not crash when making uassets?

For transparency, though I didn’t post about it, my environment started having this issue with meshes as well, pretty quickly, and while and my backdoor method wasn’t working for the meshes; it wasn’t generating uassets so i was transferring over to an older machine to import then copying the project back.

I didn’t actually realize i hadn’t installed VS (have just been using blueprints so far)

Anyway, definitely recommend installing visual studio even if you’re not using C++ or anything, cause otherwise some stuff probably won’t work right. I imagine I would have caught this pretty quickly when i got around to packaging.

[gregdbrown]

I am just providing an update. I think I was wrong before in thinking installing visual studio was a solution. It did work after I installed visual studio, until I installed a windows update, which then broke my environment variables (the TDR delay). I reset the environment variables, but it still doesn’t work, in exactly the same way that it didn’t work before. So at this point I am just literally transferring all of my textures to my NVidia/Intel based laptop, which handles importing the textures just fine, and then transferring back the UASSETS. Compilation and most other processing times are much faster on the newer all AMD machine, but for some reason it just crashes every time I try to import a normal map. I have checked my directx settings in unreal and the directx output settings in substance painters and I don’t think they are at issues, but I really don’t know, and I’m very curious if anyone has read some of what I’ve posted here and has any thoughts. Thanks!