Loop VFX (thruster flare, weld/grind particles, block lights) stop rendering after world reload; per

Argh shared this bug 41 days ago
Submitted

Summary:

Continuous/looping visual effects — thruster glow, welder/grinder particle beams, block lights — stop rendering after exiting to the main menu and reloading a save. The underlying block function is unaffected (thrusters still produce thrust, welders still weld); only the visual layer is lost. Reloading the save again does not restore it. A full game relaunch does.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Start a survival world, build/use blocks with continuous VFX (thrusters, weld/grind tools, lights).
  2. Play normally for a period, or exit to main menu and reload the save.
  3. Observe: some or all continuous VFX no longer render, while the underlying block function continues working normally.
  4. Reload again — issue persists.
  5. Fully quit and relaunch the game, reload the same save — VFX render correctly again.

Expected behavior: VFX should render consistently regardless of save-reload, matching the block's actual functional state.

Notes for triage (from inspecting VRage.Render's public assembly docs — offered as a lead, not a confirmed root cause):

There appear to be two distinct mechanisms that could both produce this symptom, worth separating rather than treating as one bug:

  1. Flares (Keen.VRage.Render.Data.FlareDefinitionObjectBuilder) drive visibility via a per-frame OcclusionToIntensityCurve sampled against the depth buffer (occlusion 0.3 → full intensity, 0.5 → zero). If the GPU occlusion query handle isn't correctly rebound after a scene reload, a stale/invalid query could plausibly report full occlusion by default, silently zeroing every flare's intensity without touching the definition data at all.
  2. Particle effects (Keen.VRage.Render.Contracts.ParticleEffectEntity) are managed through an explicit handle (Id/IsValid) with lifecycle calls including InitializeEffect, StopEmitting/ResumeEmitting, and EnableDeferredDispose ("from this point, the effect has an implicit lifetime"). If a block's simulation-side code caches this handle across a scene reload without re-checking IsValid and re-calling InitializeEffect, it would keep calling StopEmitting/ResumeEmitting against a now-invalid reference — no error, no crash, just silence. This would also explain why only a full relaunch fixes it: that's the only path guaranteeing a fresh handle re-init.

The codebase also has a dedicated LoopedParticleEffectAttribute validator distinguishing looped vs. non-looped playback, consistent with looped effects specifically being the ones with a lifecycle-handle problem rather than one-shot effects (which init-and-forget and wouldn't hit a stale-handle issue the same way).


Related existing report: "[SE2] Thrusters don't have any visual effect anymore" (support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers2/pc/topic/50672) — same symptom, reload trigger, and workaround already independently confirmed there for thruster flare specifically; this report extends it to welder/grinder particles and block lights and adds a possible mechanism.

Replies (4)

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1

Not fixed in SSF update.

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3

This issue is still present after the latest update.

I experienced the same problem in the previous game version, and unfortunately I can still reproduce it now after the update.

In my case, I have experimentally confirmed one trigger: creating a new GPS marker causes the thruster visual effects to disappear. I recorded a video showing this behavior.

There may be other actions that trigger the same issue as well, because I have seen the effects disappear at other times during gameplay, but creating a new GPS marker is the first trigger I have been able to reproduce consistently.

The thrusters themselves continue to work normally. Only the visual effects disappear — the flame/exhaust effect is gone and only a small glow remains.

Reloading the save is not enough to restore the effects. I have to completely close Space Engineers 2, launch the game again, and then load the save. After a full game restart, the thruster effects are visible again.

So unfortunately, this issue does not appear to be fully fixed in the current version.

I can provide the recorded video if it helps with reproduction.


The problem was in the game version v2.3.0.2798 and remained in v2.4.0.77 after the update.

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4

I noticed that interacting with the Map screen, or just having map opened may trigger the issue with particle effects disappearing. There are many ways to reproduce this issue, but so far I have noticed, they are all connected with opening and using the map screen.

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2

Confirmed on my save.

On clean load, while opening map or adding GPS marker as new current position not triggers it,

but giving it a custom name does.

Same initial theory holds -> object list updated with new but VFX loop not reinitialized/broken

IMHO not the bug of map ui.

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1

Problem is still going on I can replicate it every single time after entering map VFX effects disappearing, only one way to fix it is restart the game. Please fix it

Thank you.

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1

Subject: Thruster particle effects disappearing (Critical visual bug)

Currently, the thruster particle effects are still disappearing. While hotfixes are being released, and some mission-breaking bugs can be bypassed using the debug menu (Ctrl+F12), this particular issue cannot be fixed on the user end without an official patch.

Disappearing thruster effects severely ruins the core aesthetics of space travel, which is a major part of the game's experience. Please look into this issue and fix it as soon as possible.

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