Swarm issues after moving 4.8.3 -> 4.9.2

Hello,
I read about prior issues with SWARM failing to kickoff and I’m not sure they’re applicable to this situation. I can build lighting on all levels except our most important one, which is obviously problematic.

Our project was in 4.8.3 and lighting builds on the level fine.
We moved it to 4.9.2 and now swarm fails to kickoff only on the main level.
Tried updating to 4.10 today thinking perhaps that would alleviate the issues - but the substance plugin is not compatible with 4.10 yet.

What we’ve tried:
-Deleting and replacing (i.e., ctrl+z) all meshes - read this on a forum somewhere
-Saving as new level (file>save as) - didn’t make a difference
-Export as .t3d and reimport - no dice
-Went to backup file in 4.8.3, lighting builds. Converted to 4.9.2 again. Swarm fails to kickoff.

Any ideas on how to fix this or what the issue may be?

In theory we can leave the project in 4.8.3, the issue is that 4.8.3 cannot package a shipping build for Windows 64bit. I’ve tried the different workarounds for that and haven’t had any luck, always receive errors.

Thanks!

Hi Gone_Fishin -

Take a look at our Swarm TGroubleshooting guide on the wiki:

A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements - Epic Developer Community Forums

I believe you will find the answer there, if you still are having issues, please post back here.

Thank You

Eric Ketchum

Hi
Thanks for your quick response. I checked out the solutions on the link but unfortunately none of those solutions worked.

  1. Try restarting Unreal Engine 4 and/or your computer. - have tried both many times, no luck

  2. Check Task Bar and/or Task Manager for multiple instances of Swarm Agent running. Close all or more than a single instance. -only one instance present, and only when I try to initiate it

  3. Disable Firewall and/or Anti-Virus software. If this works, make sure to add an exception for SwarmAgent.exe - shouldn’t be an issue, I can build other maps in same project

  4. Test building lighting in known levels with assets that work, like the Default Level from Starter Content or one of the Template maps.- works fine with a different map in the same level

  5. Verify the engine by going to the Epic Games Launcher > Library > Select Engine Version > Verify (see image below) - did this, no difference

  6. Re-install the engine - uninstalled and reinstalled, still same error, swarm failed to kick off.

Another thing mentioned was HD space, but I checked that as well and there’s more than enough space.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again for your help, our team really appreciates it.

OK got it working through one of the most monotonous processes ever - but it gets weirder. Bear with me, I’m going to type this out so when some other poor soul with too many actors in their scene runs into the same problem maybe this will help them.

I read on a different thread that the issue can be due to a corrupt mesh or material. And of course there isn’t a easy way (at least that I could find) that you can check that all at once.

First, I created a duplicate project and I did all of this in the duplicate. NO IDEA why this carried over to my actual project file…

  1. Checked all my materials to make sure there were no errors. There weren’t, at least that I saw.

  2. Next I started deleting all of my similar meshes in the scene one type of mesh at a time, and then tried building lighting. That let me identify what the problematic mesh type was. For example, first deleted all pillars. Then tried building lighting. Then deleted all doors. Then tried building lighting. Did that for a crazy long time until I found the mesh type that was causing problems.

  3. I had a lot of those meshes, so then I closed the project (didn’t save) and opened up all of the one mesh that was a problem. Then i deleted them one by one and tried building lighting again between each.

  4. Closed file without saving.

  5. Once I identified the issue I went back into my primary project file. Out of curiosity, I clicked build lighting and it worked.


Any ideas why messing with a mesh would correct the issue in a completely separate project? It was not cloned, but rather hard copied in Windows explorer.

Have a good evening, and thanks again for the ideas and your quick response.