Startup Video - Black Screen

I have created over 40 version builds of our demo and yesterday the startup video assigned began playing back the latest packaged project (4.8.3) with a black screen when loading the video. If I preview in standalone from the editor it does the same thing. If I open old 4.8.3 projects on my pc, all of them result in same issue when it was working for several weeks before on my PC. They work on any other PC though.

I did have a fatal crash in the Launcher a couple days ago that corrupted my current project to where it wouldn’t even open. Luckily I had made a copy of the project that morning and the original was intact so aside from losing almost a days worth of work at least I had a backup. This is the only thing I can think that may have damaged some engine binaries? System or Registry files? I don’t know, but short from reinstalling Launcher and/or reformatting my PC… I have exhausted my initial ideas for a fix.

The only other thing that has changed to my knowledge was a Java update, which I have uninstalled but didn’t fix anything so I reinstalled it.

The game plays fine once past the black startup - And again this was working on my pc, now it won’t, but works on others… after a Launcher crash.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, so I can avoid reformatting my pc.

Thanks!

Hey Ronnie,

In order to assist you in an effective manner would you providing me with some answers to the below questions.

  • Would you provide me with the type of Media File it is, and whether you have it set to ‘From URL’ or ‘From Memory’ for the asset in the content browser?
  • Would you also mind checking to see if this also occurs on a newer release like 4.9.2?
  • Would you provide me with your system specifications? ‘dxdiag’ if on Windows.

There were known issues reported for this engine version about the media player causing crashes and experiencing issues with the start up movies. As an aside, Windows has compatibility issues with H.264 and .mp4 encoded media files. Since this seems to be working on other machines though, I feel it could be related to your streaming type.

Let me know if you have questions.

,

Hey Andrew,

Yes this happens in 4.9.2 as well. The media file is in fact .mp4@720 - it is NOT linking to a URL, I created a Movies folder under Content Directory and copied it into folder and linked to that video through Project Settings/Movies ‘startup movies’ which automatically creates a media player asset when copied into folder - when I link to the movie in Project settings, it says I need to copy to project, but then says cannot overwrite movie file - Seems to be something new for 4.9.2 as I don’t remember that in 4.8.3?

Regardless, I’m pretty certain that is not my issue since it is broke in both versions (on my PC) when it ran fine in 4.8.3 till a few days ago. I can’t get the movie to play from older builds when it played just a week ago, and plays on any other pc I test.

What format and codec should I use if not .mp4 H.264? I’m using Premiere to export and have attached a screenshot of the available export/encoding options

I also have crashed a couple times in 4.9.2 today [link text][1]just reviewing the video media player asset and trying to change the link to not be local because defaults to C:Drive, and replace with ./Movies

I have attached the dxdiag as requested and a few screen shots including recent crash.

Thanks for your help

62967-dxdiag.txt (39 KB)

Hey again Ronnie,

Thank you for providing me with some ample information in order for me to reproduce this issue on my end.

I attempted to follow the steps you provided and get the crash to occur, but was unsuccessful in my attempt.

To confirm, the message you receive when searching for the directory in your Project Settings when setting the Startup Movie asking to copy the movie into your project does appear in 4.8.3 and 4.9.2. You mention you created the Movies folder and copied your movie into the directory, you then re-linked the target of your startup movie to have the local path. Just as an aside, we removed the ‘From Memory’ option entirely from 4.8.3 to 4.9.2 which could be part of the issue. There were a lot of crashes and known issues associated with this directory structure and caused users (including myself) to have corrupted projects after packaging this video.

What I had to do was delete any references to the video, this included going into my Content folder in windows and deleting the .uasset file associated as well. I also deleted the ‘Movies’ folder so there were no references at all. Try creating a new blank project in 4.9.2, do not create the movies folder, and go into your project settings and find your start up movie. Copy it into your project when the prompt appears, and then package and play. See if the project crashes or if you experience anything out of the normal.

Let me know once you have tried this, and if you have any questions.

Thank you,