Corrupt project assets

Hi all,

I have recovered an old project of mine which was created with the 4.12 version. I wasn’t able to open the project and when I deleted the startup map I was able to launch it.
(here is the answerhub question: https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/555912/cant-open-convert-old-projects.html)

Now when I am working with the recovered project (I have it now for 4.12 and the 4.14 version on two computers)
some of my assets are buggy. When I select them in the content browser my editor crashes.
Here is a log of my last crash:[link text][1]

I have opend the project now with two windows computers and one mac, but when I select specific assets (meshes and blueprints) the editor crashes.
I have imported the meshes into 3dsMax and they look fine. Somehow the multimaterial has more slots at it had before, but I have deleted them and exported it again as the same fbx, but the editor still crashes.

I have noticed that the icons of the meshes that are leading to the crashes are tinted red

124767-tinted.jpg

How can it happen that some assets are corrupted? Except of me noone was working on the project and the project was left alone fore some month.
Could this problem be caused by some error from Unreal Engine or could this be related to some server/ computer/ user created error?

Would be nice if I could get a fast answer, when it is caused by something external I would need to watch out for those problems concerning my other projects…

Hope you guys can help me. If you have questions please feel free to ask :wink:

Greetings

Evil_Fischi

Hi Evil_Fischi,

When you have a very old project that gets updated to a new engine version there are many changes that could cause assets to stop working. Even updating the version from 4.12.4 to 4.12.5 could cause errors (very unlikely though).

An example would be if I had a level that had deffered decals in it. These decals worked fine in 4.12 but in 4.14 they cause a crash under certain conditions. When I update my project suddenly this map crashes when I load it. This is why we recommend being very careful when updating to a new version.

Another example is a skeletal mesh with no materials assigned that causes a crash in 4.14. Your character could be fine in 4.12 but as soon as you update this bug gets introduced and makes the asset dangerous to open.


As far as what could corrupt an asset in your project that was left alone, there is no solid answer to this. There are many things that can cause this. For example a general reason would be a loss of data due to working on the asset and then a sudden crash or improper shutdown. (especially while saving)

The best way to deal with data corruption is to keep backups of everything. If you have an asset keep the FBX somewhere so that you can reimport it. Also, keep a copy of the project somewhere else too. Random data sometimes can get corrupt on your system and that just happens.

Now if you stumbled across a reproducible process that caused an asset to be corrupt, For example: “After I import a mesh and then assign 10 material slots I can no longer open the asset or it will crash” that would be a bug with the engine.

I hope that answers your questions,

Ed