Hello Unreal Engine Community,
I’m encountering persistent rendering issues in Unreal Engine 5.5.1 following a crash, and these problems affect both existing and newly created maps. Despite extensive troubleshooting, I haven’t been able to resolve the issues. Below is a detailed description of the problems:
- Material Rendering Issues: Since the crash, materials are not rendering correctly. They appear transparent (showing backsides, as if normals are inverted) and flicker constantly across all meshes in the scene, regardless of their type or location.
- Re-importing Materials Ineffective: I tried re-importing materials from an older, functional project save, but the issue persists. The re-imported materials still exhibit the same flickering and transparency problems.
- Global Material Misapplication: Materials render incorrectly on every mesh in the project, even those not assigned to them. For example, a material applied to one object appears on unrelated meshes, creating a chaotic visual effect.
- Lights Not Rendering: All lights (point lights, spotlights, directional lights, etc.) are invisible in both the viewport and rendered outputs. They neither cast light nor show any effect, even when I create new lights or modify their settings.
- Issues in New Maps: When I create a new map in the same project, the problems persist—materials remain broken, exhibiting flickering and transparency issues, and lights stay non-functional. This suggests the issue may be engine-wide rather than map-specific.
- Suspected Engine Issue: Given that these issues started immediately after the crash and affect both existing and new maps, I suspect the problem lies within the engine itself. The project was functioning correctly before the crash.
Crash Details:
The crash occurred while I was in PIE (Play In Editor) mode in the editor. When I decided to exit PIE mode, the engine crashed abruptly. I suspect this may be related to the EOS Integration plugin, as it was active in the project at the time.
Steps I’ve Tried:
- Re-imported materials from an older project save.
- Created a new map to test if the issue was map-specific (it was not).
- Verified project files through the Epic Games Launcher.
- Checked mesh normals and material settings (double-sided rendering, opacity, etc.).
- Created new lights and tested various lighting setups.
- Restarted the engine and my PC.
- Updated GPU drivers (NVIDIA RTX 4080, latest drivers).
- Reviewed error logs, but found no clear indicators of the cause.
System Specs:
- Engine Version: Unreal Engine 5.5.1
- OS: Windows 11
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4080 (16GB VRAM)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: NVMe SSD
Additional Notes:
- The project uses Lumen for global illumination and Nanite for some meshes. Disabling both had no effect on the issue.
- No engine source code modifications or custom shaders were used.
- I’ve searched the Epic Developer Community Forums and Unreal Engine Issues Tracker but found no reports of similar issues in UE 5.5.1.
Questions:
- Has anyone else experienced similar rendering issues (flickering materials, transparent meshes, missing lights) in UE 5.5, especially across new maps?
- Is this likely an engine bug, or could it be a project or engine installation corruption?
- Are there specific steps to reset or repair the engine’s rendering pipeline?
I’d greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions! I can provide screenshots or crash logs if needed (though the crash itself isn’t recurring; it’s the subsequent issues causing trouble). Thank you for your time and assistance!
