Game won't start

[serezha]

Has anyone encountered the following issue:
After starting the game, a black screen appears with the mouse cursor on it and lasts indefinitely. Game won't start
I don't want to delete the game and issue a refund

My configs:
computer information:
CPU:
Processor manufacturer: Genuine Intel
Processor manufacturer: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz
OS version:
Windows 7 (64bit)
NTFS Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

videocard:
Model: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
DirectX driver: nvd3dum.dll
Driver version: 21.21.13.7849
DirectX driver version: 21.21.13.7849
Release date: 1 20 2017
OpenGL version: 3.2
Color depth: 32 bits/pixel
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Manufacturer ID: 0x10de
Card ID: 0x1c82
Version: 0xa1
Number of screens: 1
Number of logical video cards: 1
SLI or Crossfire not detected
Main resolution Screen: 1920 x 1080
Desktop resolution: 1920 x 1080
Main size Screen: 26.65" x 15.00" (30.55" diag)
67.7cm x 38.1cm (77.6cm diag)
Main Bus: PCI Express 16x
Main video memory: 4095 MB
Supported anti-aliasing: 2x 4x 8x

soundcard:
Audio Device: Speakers (Realtek High Definition

Memory:
RAM: 16349 MB

[Sonarman]

Updated below

[Sonarman]

Try right clicking the game title in your steam library and choosing properties>betas one of the devs (Penta) has just posted that they have uploaded a branched version of the game which many potentially fix the visual issues some are encountering.


A steam user also suggested adding -windowed to the games launch properties might help.

[Artur Salwarowski]

We are very sorry about that! It seems like a very rare issue, but it seems that we have fixed it and an update will be rolling out ASAP!

[Sonarman]

It’s 2.45 am here in the UK which probably means it’s about 4.45 am in Poland? Thanks very much Artur it pretty obvious you guys are really committed to the success of project and customer satisfaction.

[serezha]

I confirm that the latest few today patches did not bring resolution to the black screen problem after starting the game (((

[Hayab]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz is 10 years old.
Some newer games need specific CPU command extensions to run properly and older processors don't have it. Maybe that's the reason?

[serezha]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3550 CPU @ 3.30GHz is 10 years old.
Some newer games need specific CPU command extensions to run properly and older processors don't have it. Maybe that's the reason?

In a discussion on steam, people write:
My game still doesn't work. Still get the black screen on startup. Its not as if my PC is old and is struggling to run this game. I've got an i9 10900k, 16GB RAM, 3080 GTX Nvidia GPU.

Problem not solved yet.

[Cobarus]

I'm experiencing this issue too. I've gone through some extensive diagnostic steps and workarounds to no avail, and have even installed the game on two different computers (my desktop and laptop) with the same result: Game launches to indefinite black screen.

These three lines in my Player.log file could be a clue as to why the game menu never loads or outputs any sound:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at GameManager.get_SpeechVolume () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at MainMenuManager.Start () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0

I've attached my full Player.log file, which is located in the directory: "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter"

For anyone that has a working game, I'd be interested to see what the Player.log file looks like and what appears after the Daedalic.Dbtool.Client.BannerSystem:Start() line item, as that's where my game appears to be getting stuck.

I think it's either the NullReference section that is causing the main menu and the game itself to fail to load, or the start of the BannerSystem that's causing the hang up.

Here are the diagnostic steps I've taken so far:


Installed latest Windows Updates
Installed latest NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready drivers
Fully uninstalled and reinstalled the game
Installed the experimental-public build
Ran game files integrity verification check
Launched the game executable as Administrator
Cleared the NVIDIA cache folder
Changed the scaling option in NVIDIA Control Panel from "Aspect ratio" to "No scaling"
Ran the game with various command-line flags through Steam, i.e. -windowed, -window-mode exclusive, -screen-fullscreen 0, -force-d3d9, -force-d3d12


System specs—
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X @ 3.60GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
RAM: 16 GB RAM
OS: Windows 10 Pro 21H2 (19044)

[Aktungbby]

Cobarus!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Onkel Neal]

For anyone that has a working game, I'd be interested to see what the Player.log file looks like and what appears after the Daedalic.Dbtool.Client.BannerSystem:Start() line item, as that's where my game appears to be getting stuck.



I can help, where do I find the player log?

[Onkel Neal]

I'm browsing the local files, not finding that file... help!

[Cobarus]

I can help, where do I find the player log?

The AppData folder is usually hidden in Windows. For simplicity, if you copy/paste the following string exactly as it is written in File Explorer along the top bar, it will direct you to the location where the Player.log file exists:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter

See my attachment for a visual image example of where to paste the above string in File Explorer.

Thanks again!

[Onkel Neal]

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter



Ah, that worked! Here you go.

edit: spoke too soon, file is too large.


ok, here we go again. LINK
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X18XPzrpYpgq9YoaKsH23u5cWf5BlxxK/view?usp=sharing)

[Cobarus]

Ah, that worked! Here you go.

edit: spoke too soon, file is too large.


ok, here we go again. LINK
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X18XPzrpYpgq9YoaKsH23u5cWf5BlxxK/view?usp=sharing)

That helps immensely Onkel, thank you!

I have determined the differences between a working game (Onkel's log file) vs a non-working game (my log file). If Artur sees this and can pass it onto the devs:

The following group of text exists in my Player.log file, but not Onkel's, right after the <RI> Initialized touch support. line:

ArgumentException: JSON parse error: The document is empty.
at UnityEngine.JsonUtility.FromJson[T] (System.String json) [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at GameManager.Awake () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at UnityEngine.GameObject.AddComponent[T] () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at GameManager.get_Instance () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at MainMenuManager.Awake () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
UnityEngine.GameObject:AddComponent()
GameManager:get_Instance()
MainMenuManager:Awake()

And finally, the following group of text also exists in my log file, and is not found in Onkel's log file:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at GameManager.get_SpeechVolume () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0
at MainMenuManager.Start () [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0

So it appears that my game is having issues reading/parsing an empty or missing JSON file, which results in the game's Main Menu to fail to load. The log file, however, does not indicate the name nor location of the empty or missing JSON file.


Additional diagnostics:

I used Process Monitor (by SysInternals) to capture all file access events when the game is launched. The only three JSON files opened/queried were:


RuntimeInitializeOnLoads.json and ScriptingAssemblies.json
Both files located in *\Steam\steamapps\common\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter_Data
Banners.json
File located in%LOCALAPPDATA%\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter\Cache\Banners\BannerCache


However, all three JSON files have data inside of them. Without knowing which JSON file the Player.log file is reporting as empty, I am now unable to continue my diagnostics. Hopefully this information is enough to pass along for a quick resolution.

Thank you.

[Cobarus]

Ah, that worked! Here you go.

edit: spoke too soon, file is too large.


ok, here we go again. LINK
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X18XPzrpYpgq9YoaKsH23u5cWf5BlxxK/view?usp=sharing)

Onkel Neal, if you don't mind, can you also provide me with your GameData.dat file? It's in the same folder location where the Player.log is stored, which is:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter

I think I'm getting closer to the root problem. I noticed my GameData.dat file is completely empty. As a test, I put some random information in there, saved it and relaunched the game, and now the JSON error in my Player.log file indicates "Invalid value." instead of "The document is empty."

It's possible there's supposed to be some specific information or code the game is looking to read/parse in that particular file, but because mine is empty, the game never fully loads.

Thank you.

[Cobarus]

Belay that request. I deleted the GameData.dat file and now my game fully launches and works! Issue resolved.

For anyone that is experiencing the black screen on launch, see if you have a GameData.dat file in the following folder and then delete or rename it:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter

That file had a date stamp of March, which I can't guarantee that it's when I first installed and played the demo, but it feels like it was around that timeframe. It's possible the file was left over from the demo. Who knows.

[Onkel Neal]

Man, you rock! Thanks for all the diligent work solving this. :Kaleun_Cheers:

[serezha]

Belay that request. I deleted the GameData.dat file and now my game fully launches and works! Issue resolved.

For anyone that is experiencing the black screen on launch, see if you have a GameData.dat file in the following folder and then delete or rename it:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Wolf Studio\Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter

That file had a date stamp of March, which I can't guarantee that it's when I first installed and played the demo, but it feels like it was around that timeframe. It's possible the file was left over from the demo. Who knows.
I don't have a GameData.dat file in this folder. And I didn't have a demo version of the game. In this folder I have three files:
player.log
Player-prev.log
steam_autocloud.vdf

Black screen on startup persists

[Cobarus]

I don't have a GameData.dat file in this folder. And I didn't have a demo version of the game. In this folder I have three files:
player.log
Player-prev.log
steam_autocloud.vdf

Black screen on startup persists

The Player.log file usually contains clues as to what's causing the game to get stuck at the black screen after launch. If you don't mind sharing your file here, I can take a look at it and see if there's anything I can ascertain from it in hopes to find a solution to resolve your case.

[serezha]

The Player.log file usually contains clues as to what's causing the game to get stuck at the black screen after launch. If you don't mind sharing your file here, I can take a look at it and see if there's anything I can ascertain from it in hopes to find a solution to resolve your case.
I copied the link to my Player.log file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fc3tys17A1fC76lfXPetn_N4q0SYlItU/view?usp=sharing

[Cobarus]

I copied the link to my Player.log file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fc3tys17A1fC76lfXPetn_N4q0SYlItU/view?usp=sharing

Thank you. I have looked through the LOG file and it appears your case is a known issue between the Unity game engine and DirectX 11 on Windows 7 (and Windows 8.1). In the other cases I've come across when searching this issue, the game developers have needed to fix it on their end.

There are two things you can try on your end to see if they'll make a difference, however the first one is a temporary workaround that might get the game running, but could exhibit performance or gameplay issues.


Run the game with DirectX 10

See my attached screenshot for visual depiction of the following instructions.

Open the Steam application to the Destroyer The U-Boat Hunter main game page.
Click the gear icon on the right-hand side, located under the game's picture banner, and click Properties.
In the Launch Options section, either type in or copy/paste the following line: -force-feature-level-10-0
Close out of the Properties dialog and launch the game.


You can always switch back to DirectX 11 by following steps 1-3 again, and removing/backspacing the Launch Options line item.


Disable the Steam Overlay

On some occasions, the Steam Overlay can cause rendering issues on game launch. You can try disabling it, if it isn't already, to see if it makes a difference.

How-to—

Follow the above steps 1-2 to reach the game Properties dialog, and then uncheck the boxes next to both:
Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game
Use Desktop Game Theatre while SteamVR is active

Close the Properties dialog and launch the game.

[serezha]

Close the Properties dialog and launch the game.

Thanks for the help. But all my attempts to launch the damn game have failed.

[Onkel Neal]

Windows 7, end of life in 2020. Sorry, mate.

[schlechter pfennig]

If you are using Nvidia you might want to try this:

1: Go to Nvidia control panel
2: Go to "Manage 3D settings
3: Go to "Program Settings" tab
4: Find Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter (you may need to add the program to the list with the "Add" button)
5: Find the "vertical synchroimpulse" line
6: Turn it off (or Vertical sync setting to "use the 3D application setting")
7: Apply changes

[serezha]

Thank the Gods, after today's patch, the game was finally able to start :Kaleun_Cheers: