Black screen after joining friends game

Andrew Simpson shared this bug 7 months ago
Solved

Hi Support,

My 2 friends and I have been playing a scenario for a few months without issue.

I run the game and the 2 friends join my game. Since the new update when one of the friends joins my game he gets in but everything is black. He can see all HUD and HUD markers, he can walk around but all is black.

We got him to create a new scenario and we joined his game. He could see but when I joined him, I had the same issue that he had.

Then the 2nd friend created a new scenario, we both joined his game and neither of us could see.

The 2nd friend doesn't get the black screen at all.

We have tried deleting shader cache files on all machines, restarted steam and updated to the latest GFX drivers and nothing has helped.

Please can you let me know if there is anything else we can try or is this a bug that you need to fix.

Kind regards

Andrew

Replies (7)

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i did the same with the deletion of shaders and the config. it worked the first time but now its not working

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Hello, Andrew!

Thank you for writing to us, and we sincerely apologize for the issue you have been experiencing.

The lobby you've joined is modded (has active MODs/Scripts), or is it vanilla (has no active MODs/Scripts). If it's modded, please try disabling all MODs on this lobby, or create a vanilla lobby, or join Keen's Official Servers to check if the issue is related to the MODs active on your friend's lobby, or if it is general for other worlds/servers as well.

Also, does the same issue occur when you play in single-player mode as well?

To resolve this issue, did you (or your friends) also try verifying the game files on Steam? If not, verify the game files by following the below steps;

  • Right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files (wait until all files are verified successfully)

Once done, try again deleting the cfg file and ShaderCache folder by following the below steps ;

Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file

  • It means your game configuration will be deleted
  • You can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

Delete ShaderCache folder

  • Same access as SpaceEngineers.cfg

Once you have completed these steps, please launch the game and join a vanilla lobby with your friends. If the issue persists, kindly share the log files from the time the issue occurred and a screenshot of the screen.

  • You can access your log files by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

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Hi Keen,

Thanks for your reply.

Before I ran through any steps I connected to my friends vanilla lobby - no mods on but experimental mode on - Still black.

Then I connected to my friends vanilla lobby - no mods - experimental mode off - Still black.

I also noticed there wasn't any sound either.

I have ran through all your recommended tests etc in the following order.

  1. Verify Integrity of Game Files - Done - Connected to friends lobby - No effect and still black.
  2. Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg - Done - Connected to friends lobby - No effect and still black.
  3. Delete ShaderCache folder - Done - Connected to friends lobby - No effect and still black.
  4. I also deleted the mipMapTextureCache2.B5 file - Connected to friends lobby - No effect and still black.
  5. I joined an official Keen server - Everything worked.
  6. I joined a couple of random non Keen servers (not sure whose servers) - Everything worked.
  7. Connected to friends lobby again - No effect and still black.
  8. Tried changing res and various other GFX settings in game - No effect and still black.
  9. I thought I would try the F5 to force a reload of the world I was connected to and - Fixed, sound and GFX all working.
  10. When I drop completely and connect again all black / no sound F5 fixes it each time.

I'll be testing again tomorrow with my other that also had the issue and trying F5 again and see what happens.

I have added a screenshot and log files etc.

You can see in the screenshot if I hurt myself you get the red overlay to show you are hurt.

When you go to weld or grid a block you get the block overlay too.

Anyway, I hope this helps you resolve the issue and create a patch.

Kind regards

Andrew

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Hello, Andrew!

Thank you sharing further information.

We have successfully reproduced this issue on our side and put into our internal system.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

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Just want to leave a comment. I reported the same bug, but since there already existed a report for the same bug, my bug report was closed as a duplicate, which is totally understandable.


I'm glad I read your workaround - pressing F5. It worked for me, too.

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That's great. Hopefully Keen will be able to see what the difference between a standard load vs a reload when joining a game and provide us with a fix.

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What I've found is that the main menu videos missing causes this issue (black screen in 3D world and no sound either).

I can't say I understand why, especially as the main menu works fine.

I've tested a few times, even with empty Videos folder and all of them cause the black screen. As soon as I restore them in their full the worlds work fine with graphics and sound.

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i figured that after a few times. i dont understand why it never did that until after the signal update

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Hello Engineer,


We’re pleased to inform you that this issue has been resolved in version 205.


As such, we’ll be closing this thread.


If you encounter any other issues with the game, please don’t hesitate to start a new thread here on the forum—we’re always happy to assist!


Happy engineering!


Kind regards,

Keen Software House - QA Department

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