Why Tappy Chicken textures appear black in certain devices while Epic Citadel run perfectly?

Development Rendering
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1

These are screenshot from Andy (android emulator), where Epic Citadel run perfectly while Tappy Chicken textures fails. I remember seeing this black textures also in a Samsung SII.

These bring me concerns about my current project I’m trying to make a 2D game for Android, I can’t find good guide about texture format. What I should choose and how I tell the engine to use certain texture format like ETC1 or so… I feel a little lost.

24281-andy_epiccitadel.jpg
24281-andy_epiccitadel.jpg1496×967 482 KB

24282-andy_tappychicken.jpg
24282-andy_tappychicken.jpg591×931 52.9 KB

2

Not sure what could be causing the black textures.

Depending on what engine version you are on, the Launch On menu in the editor may or may not let you choose a texture format (recently we made it auto-select the best for the device).

You can always use the File | Package Project option to force a texture format while cooking. In there, you can choose ETC1. Then, in the directory you choose during packaging, will be a .bat file you can run to install it on your devices.

Josh

3

Hi, thanks for your reply! (working with 4.6.1 binary)

I’m just now playing with texture properties and found that checking “Compress Without alpha” makes the texture visible (while it lose its translucency of course). Maybe this bring some light.

About packaging a project for android, I will try that, but I confess still don’t know how to copy manually the files to my device and run it :wink: Currently I’m using “launch” from the editor and it detect Andy Emulator as a device connected. (That’s cool :D)

4

oh… you mean I run the .bat from Windows and it will detect and install the game to my device?

5

Yep, just double click on the .bat file :slight_smile:

6

Great! It get installed! But textures keep showing black, tested with every format… While Epic Citadel keeps doing well.

What texture format should I use to reach most devices? Where I find info? Thanks.

7

Howdy piXelicidio,

Just had a couple more questions about the issue that you have been running into. Is the Screenshot with the black textures Tappy Chicken or is that your project made with a 2D template?

Thanks!

8

(Answering a few questions with this post)

  • ETC1 will work on all Android devices that support UE4.
  • We haven’t done any work in particular to support emulators, so I really don’t have much to say about how well they will work
  • We expect Tappy to run on pretty much anything, there is no lighting, render target switching, etc etc.
  • Textures with alpha will be uncompressed when you cook for ETC1 format (so nothing should ever go wrong there).
  • I’d be interested to know your results with ETC1 on that Galaxy device
  • UE3 and UE4 are so completely different when it comes to rendering, that there’s no real point in comparing them. Not a single line of shader code is the same.

Josh

9

Hi Sean,
The screenshot with black textures is official Tappy Chicken from Google Play. Also notice this is not a “real” device, is Andy emulator (http://www.andyroid.net/).
When I test my project using Paper2D have same black textures or full black screen, showing only PrintString texts.

I saw the same problem with an old Samsung Galaxy SII SGH-i777, but I don’t have it at hand now.

I’m personally interested into finding a fix to this, if possible, to know that my simple 2D projects will run everywhere. :slight_smile:

Regards.

10

… or at least know why Epic Citadel runs perfectly while Tappy Chicken fails. Maybe something changed form UE3 to UE4 in detriment of 2D graphics.

11

Of course there is no sense into spending energy into supporting emulators :wink: I just had the idea that changing a small setting it could be fixed.

Your answers made me feel better since I have 0 experience developing for mobile and knowing ETC1 is the way to go is good.

If have the opportunity to replicate again this issue in a physical device I’ll let you know.

12

Howdy piXelicidio,

Just wanted to check in with you and see if you had a chance to test this issue on a physical device. If the issue still persists, please be sure to let me know so that i may be able to further test this issue.

Thanks and have a great day!