Game works in editor. Doesn't after packaging

The current version is in 4.8.3, but I have tried 4.9.2 as well.

Entirely blueprint scripted.

Windows 64-bit.

I have been working on this app for a little over a year now. I am nearing the end of production and I packaged the project for Windows 64-bit to see if there are any last minute bugs that would come up. There aren’t any errors on build or package. But to my surprise almost every single thing doesn’t work when packaged. After doing some googling I didn’t find much on the issue. A couple people mentioned that some BP nodes are not meant to be used in the final product (Why?). Others mentioned changing the settings in the DefaultEngine.ini (What would I need to change?). I have deleted the Derived Data Cache, the Intermediate, and Saved folders and did a fresh package. Why would a game that works flawlessly in the editor not work at all when packaged? Isn’t the editor supposed to be a preview of what your packaged game will do?

Some things that don’t work:

  1. Level switching
  2. Model Switching
  3. Information Saving
  4. Blueprints updating from event graph
  5. Scripted character manipulation
  6. Limiting character movement

At first I thought maybe it was just a couple bugs but as I found workarounds for the first few I encountered it became very clear that this was a much larger issue.

I will be more than happy to provide any additional information anyone may need.
I sincerely hope we can find a solution.

Looking through the Output Log I found an error that couldn’t find the .sav file. I corrected this but it had no effect.

Hello HaxO,

  • When was the last time that this project worked after being packaged?
  • Do you have any error , or any output that you could provide?
  • Are you building your project before packaging it?
  • Are you packaging it as shipping or development?
  • Have you tested this with any other project, or a template?

Looking forward to hearing back from you, thanks!

Hey , Thanks for the reply!

  • Unfortunately this is the first time
    I packaged the project. I thought
    that the editor play button was an
    accurate representation. I won’t make
    that mistake again.

  • [OutputLog][1]. There are no errors in
    the build. In the output log I see an error "

  • I am building the project before
    packaging.

  • I have tried shipping and
    development. Both have the same
    result.

  • I have tested it with the realistic
    rendering. and with PlatformerGame.

  • Thanks for taking a look!

61436-outputlog.txt (3.32 MB)

Hey HaxO,

Have you tried running the .exe application as an ? Could you please try packaging for Shipping, Windows 64 through Unreal FrontEnd (Project Launcher)? When you finish packaging, are you receiving the same error? What if you package for Development through Unreal FrontEnd?

Thanks!

I run everything as admin. But I will try the FrontEnd build and report back whenever I figure it out.

Post a log generated from playing the packaged build of your game. (Not the log you’ve posted, that one gets generated when you’re building… but the other one that would be saved after playing your game). You may need to package as “Development” (maybe “Debug”?) to get the game to save output .

For whatever reason, I’ve had a number of issues with "Well it works in the editor! but not in the packaged build. This is likely anecdotal, but my best advice is to avoid using string variables at all costs (like… no strings whatsoever). Most of the functions I’ve wrote in BP that don’t work in packaged builds had strings in them. So I just rewrote them in such a way so they didn’t need strings, and I was off running.

Hey , Thanks for the reply!

Interesting that you have had similar issues. I am using 8 strings in the entire project. When you say you rewrote them to not use strings. Did you change the actual logic or just convert from say String to Text?

Is this the log you were talking about? I will try a dev build now.
[Client.log][1]

61583-client.log (28.1 KB)

Hey ,

I have packaged for windows 64-bit in both development and shipping from the Unreal FrontEnd and with the same results. Though I am also just manually fixing all of these broken features while I am trying out these different builds. I am down to one last glaring issue:

In the editor I have it set so when the character spawns he cannot rotate. I did this by disabling rotation on the Character Controller. But when I spawn in the packaged game I can rotate like nobodies business.

It really seems that the large majority of issues are coming from the packaged product not being able to find the SavedInformation.sav after creating it.

I see the following warnings within your provided, have you had a to look over these files yet?

[2015.10.06-18.12.28:470][  0]LogModuleManager:Warning: ModuleManager: Module 'GameplayDebugger' not found - its StaticallyLinkedModuleInitializers function is null.
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogAIModule: Creating AISystem for world Hallway
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogLinker:Warning: Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogUObjectGlobals:Warning: Failed to load '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode': Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogLinker:Warning: Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogUObjectGlobals:Warning: Failed to load '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode': Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogLinker:Warning: Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:471][  0]LogUObjectGlobals:Warning: Failed to load '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode': Can't find file '/Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:472][  0]LogUObjectGlobals:Warning: Failed to find object 'Class /Game/Blueprints/TchGameMode.TchGameMode_C'
[2015.10.06-18.12.28:472][  0]LogWorld: Game class is 'GameMode'


[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TableViewHeader.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TableViewHeader.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate//Docking/TabContentArea.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate//Docking/TabContentArea.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/ProgressBar_Background.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/ProgressBar_Background.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Normal.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Normal.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Selected.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Selected.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Mono.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/TaskGraph_Mono.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/SortUpArrow.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/SortUpArrow.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/SortDownArrow.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:144][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/SortDownArrow.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Icons/Home16x16.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Icons/Home16x16.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Icons/ToParent.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Icons/ToParent.png
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogStreaming:Warning: Failed to read file '../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/ComboArrow.png' error.
[2015.10.06-18.12.18:145][  0]LogSlate: Could not find file for Slate resource: ../../../Engine/Content/Editor/Slate/Common/ComboArrow.png


[2015.10.06-18.12.17:935][  0]LogWindowsMoviePlayer: Unable to load movie: ../../../TCH_App/Content/Movies/Default_Startup.mp4

I sure am! Been working through them since yesterday! I will update after finished.

Awesome, thanks! Looking forward to see your results.

I can’t seem to get rid of the errors that are looking for .pngs that I have never used. I assumed they were standard engine images or something. So I validated my engine and still they persist.

Has the error updated since you have attempted to fix all of these issues? Are you able to package your project in 4.10.0 Preview 1 or 2? If you’re not sure, please create a COPY of your project for 4.10 and attempt to see if the issues are resolved there. Otherwise, please provide the new error to me in .txt format.

Thank you!

Hey, Sorry it is taking me so long for these replies. A bit swamped. I haven’t had a to try it in 4.10. But I do know the problem now. When the game is packaged it saves the .sav with the correct information in the C://users//AppData/local/App like it is supposed to. But it is still READING the .savs in the editor project structure.

I cannot find anything on this issue. Any ideas?

Even when opened it in 4.10.2 It was still reading the .sav in the 4.8 editor directory.

I am going to mark this as answered and start a new topic with the current problem. Thanks for your help!

The problem is probably that the project settings ini files DON’T respect redirectors – at least this was my problem in a similar situation.

Try fixing up all redirectors (right-click on the content root and fix redirectors from there). This worked for me.