Viewport displays black in both Collision view modes - 4.22 Only

[akiraburn]

I’m running into a strange issue with the View Mode. As the title says, I’m experiencing a pitch black Viewport whenever using either of the two Collision view modes. I have performed a myriad of troubleshooting and cannot discern what the problem might be. So far I have attempted the following:

• Create a new C++ project with only starter content
• Create a new Blueprint project with only starter content
• Check in orthographic views while setting either one of the Collision view modes on
• Ensure that all drivers are up to date, no missing frameworks, etc.
• Testing on a different PC
• Check Project Settings for Collision and Rendering based preferences that may have an influence
• Test in prior versions of Unreal
  
  

And along with these I’ve attempted a number of other ideas. So far the only thing that has produced any good results is running an older build of Unreal. I decided to install 4.21.2 to test this issue, and any project running in there or any other prior versions seem to be correctly rendering the Collision view mode. I am certain that I far exceed the hardware requirements, running an Intel Core i9 7940X and an RTX 2080 Ti, along with 64GB 3200 MHZ DDR4, with a good 2+TB of space open on the drive where my projects are. And for the sake of ruling out anything possibly strange that could occur, I’m not running anything in the engine from an SSD. Though, the fact that the Collision view modes were working in old versions of Unreal was reassurance that this shouldn’t be at all hardware related.

To ensure that I simply have not been running into a fluke issue, I tested the Collision view modes on my girlfriend’s PC, which is also equipped to handle Unreal decently well (Core i7 6700K, GTX 1070, 64GB DDR4). Her machine is also running into these exact same problems on 4.22, but is fine in many other prior builds (she has 4.18, 4.19, 4.20, and I believe one other build which were tested and working fine).

This testing coincidentally confirmed that it also seems to be unrelated to specific Windows versions or updates. Her machine is still on Windows 7 Ultimate, while mine is on Windows 10 Professional. And again, on her machine I made certain that there were no missing frameworks, that the PC had been tested on different GPU driver versions, been recently restarted, etc. No matter what the case, as long as we are on 4.22, we’re seeing a black screen.

So I’m uncertain if this is a bug of 4.22 and that others have also running into this problem, if this is something related to Niagara being introduced and there is something new that needs to be changed with regards to that, or if there might be something simple that I have overlooked. When running either of those view modes, I can tell that objects are still being rendered, as clicking on them creates the appropriate outline (see images below). And switching through any other view mode works perfectly normal.

I have already searched through a plethora of reported problems and their corresponding answers, but besides one other report from a few days ago that has not received any answers (besides others also reporting the same problem), I have not seen any other reported problems similar to mine, and I have seen no answers that work. If someone could help me with troubleshooting this, that would greatly appreciated. Included here are a few of example images:

[Qwigs]

I have this same issue with 4.22, no idea what it is either. These views work fine in 4.21 for me as well.

I’ve noticed the same issue is happened with Visualize → Mesh DistanceFields

But interesting in this case is you can see Mesh DistanceFields if you also turn it to Unlit, so that seems like a clue to me, Watson.

I’m guessing the materials for these viewmodes aren’t set to emissive?

[akiraburn]

Thanks for the response Qwiggalo. You are definitely correct that the error is also appearing with Visualize → Mesh DistanceFields. And turning it to Unlit does change this and display correctly for me as well. Very nice findings there, as I missed that initially.

I’m not sure if anyone from the development team has been checking these topics, but it would be excellent if someone from the team could look further into this and get back to us. Hopefully, if nothing else, an increment version update will fix this.

[akiraburn]

Quick update. 4.22.1 was just released, and along with it seems to be correctly functioning Collision view modes. The Mesh Distance Fields view that Qwiggalo mentioned also seems to be working fine. So anyone running into this problem on 4.22, just make sure you run the update and that should resolve it.

I’ve only just installed the update and started some work, so I can’t say for certain, but everything looks good so far. I’ll report back if I notice anything else related appearing, otherwise, thanks for the response Qwiggalo, and many thanks Epic dev team for fixing that quickly.

[anonymous_user_85c40ce3]

Have the same issue with 4.22.1

[anonymous_user_4984de501 (anonymous_user_4984de50)]

Enabling “Ray Tracing Debug” under Show → Developer → Ray Tracing Debug solves the issue. However, it also makes the lighting in the “Lit” view mode extremely dark and unresponsive to positional changes, as it normally does. I have not found a better solution for the viewport being black, and I have not found any solution for the lighting issue when Ray Tracing Debug is enabled.

[Qwigs]

The best solution I’ve found is to set the Settings → Preview Rendering Level to Shader Model 4. It’s easy to toggle this off and on.

[anonymous_user_92c3a584]

Changing Preview Rendering Level causes gazillions of shaders to recompile. Also, on my system (MacOS Mojave with Unreal 4.22.3) Shader Model 4 is not available

[anonymous_user_92c3a584]

Same problem in 4.22.3, player collision lighting results in a pure black viewport (checking show/developer/ray tracing debug shows it but you have to uncheck this to return to normal lighting)