Game won't start

[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!

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Cobarus

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]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

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]

Originally Posted by Cobarus

%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

[Cobarus]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Ah, that worked! Here you go.

edit: spoke too soon, file is too large.


ok, here we go again. LINK

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]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Ah, that worked! Here you go.

edit: spoke too soon, file is too large.


ok, here we go again. LINK

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.

[serezha]

Originally Posted by 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.

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