Black screen issue

[Th334]

Hi,

I bought a copy of your awesome game, but it doesn't want to work. What happens is:

1) I successfully install the game
2) successfully run it
3) it says that there's an update available
4) I download the update and instal it manually
5) open the game and look at the black screen (no response).

It seems like it worked before the update...because I actually could download it via the game client.

I've installed the latest Adobe AIR (and even reinstalled).

Hope you guys can help me out.

[coyot]

What version is the update? There was a bug that got very recently fixed and behaved just like that. Version 1.0.30 should work OK, but there will be 1.0.32 pushed out soon I think.

[Velerichiv]

I'm having the same issue with the 1.0.32 update. 1.0.1 works just fine.

I've taken the same steps as Th334 with the same effect every time--black screen.

[coyot]

a good start would be running the FileMon utility (newer version is called ProcessMonitor) (I assume Windows) and observing what is the last file operation that DQ tries to make and whether it fails or not.

I just got 1.0.32 and it seems to work fine, so it is not a generic problem

[larsiusprime]

Crap, sorry about this. Let's get to the bottom of it.

1) What OS are you running it for? Windows / Mac / Linux ?

2) Go to your program's install directory:
(On windows that is C:\Program Files (x86)\DefendersQuest\DefendersQuest\)

3) Look for this folder:
\locales\en-US

Open the contents of that folder, right-click, properties. Make sure they're not set to "read-only" or "hidden" or something weird like that.

4) Go to your program's config directory:
(On windows that is C:\Users\<YOUR_USER_NAME>\AppData\Roaming\DefendersQuest\Local Store\)

Make sure the config.xml file and the save files aren't set to "read-only" or "hidden", etc.

Hopefully it's something simple like that. Otherwise... I'll keep digging.

Also, when does the black screen appear? Immediately? Does it EVER show anything else, even just the word "loading...", etc, before the black screen hits?

[larsiusprime]

I've got a potential cause for this. Anyone experiencing this bug, go to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\DefendersQuest\DefendersQuest\

And look for "config.xml" My hypothesis is that if this file is missing, the game will crash. Can you confirm this?

What I think is happening is I added logic recently that tries to read from this file earlier in the game than usual. Normally, if the file is missing, it recreates it with default values. However, I think these early reads are "unsafe" and trying to read from it without checking to see if it exists, and happening BEFORE the "recreate if missing" logic. So, if the guess is correct, only people missing the file should have the bug.

Secondly, if you copy-paste this text into a file you name config.xml file and dump into that directory, the bug should go away:

Code: Select all

<config>
  <locale value="en-US"/>
  <game version="1.0.34" demo="false"/>
  <volume sfx="0.5" music="0.5"/>
  <mute sfx="false" music="false"/>
  <show_tutorials value="default"/>
  <show_dialogue value="never"/>
  <show_flashing value="true"/>
  <show_battle_numbers value="false"/>
  <particles value="0.5"/>
  <aoe_hilight value="false"/>
  <default_game_speed value="0.5"/>
  <exp_mult value="1"/>
  <gold_mult value="1"/>
  <fail_penalty value="0.5"/>
  <bench_penalty value="0"/>
  <video window="fullscreen" scale="false" change_res="false">
    <offset x="0" y="0"/>
    <mode width="1440" height="900" depth="32" frequency="60"/>
  </video>
  <tracking value="true"/>
  <eula accepted="true"/>
  <facebook like="false" sucks="false" haggle="false"/>
  <mouse cursor="default"/>
  <controls preset_to_use="qwerty">
    <keys verb="spell">
      <key id="ONE" value="0"/>
      <key id="TWO" value="1"/>
      <key id="THREE" value="2"/>
      <key id="FOUR" value="3"/>
      <key id="FIVE" value="4"/>
      <key id="SIX" value="5"/>
    </keys>
    <keys verb="class">
      <key id="Q" value="0"/>
      <key id="W" value="1"/>
      <key id="E" value="2"/>
      <key id="R" value="3"/>
      <key id="T" value="4"/>
      <key id="Y" value="5"/>
    </keys>
    <keys verb="character">
      <key id="A" value="0"/>
      <key id="S" value="1"/>
      <key id="D" value="2"/>
      <key id="F" value="3"/>
      <key id="G" value="4"/>
      <key id="H" value="5"/>
    </keys>
    <keys verb="target">
      <key id="U" value="0"/>
      <key id="I" value="1"/>
      <key id="O" value="2"/>
      <key id="P" value="3"/>
      <key id="LBRACKET" value="4"/>
    </keys>
    <keys verb="target_option">
      <key id="SEVEN" value="0"/>
      <key id="EIGHT" value="1"/>
      <key id="NINE" value="2"/>
      <key id="ZERO" value="3"/>
    </keys>
    <back_key id="ESCAPE"/>
    <pause_key id="SPACE"/>
    <faster_key id="EQUALS"/>
    <slower_key id="MINUS"/>
    <boost_key id="B"/>
    <recall_key id="DELETE"/>
    <cycle left="COMMA" right="PERIOD"/>
    <tab left="ACCENT" right="TAB"/>
    <navigate_scroll>
      <keys up="UP" down="DOWN" left="LEFT" right="RIGHT"/>
    </navigate_scroll>
    <keyboard_cursor speed="1" enabled="false" accel="1.05">
      <keys up="NUM8" down="NUM2" left="NUM4" right="NUM6" click="ENTER"/>
    </keyboard_cursor>
  </controls>
  <unlock>
    <challenge id="0" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="1" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="2" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="3" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="4" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="5" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="6" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="7" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="8" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="9" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="10" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="11" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="12" unlocked="false"/>
    <challenge id="13" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="0" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="1" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="2" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="3" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="4" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="5" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="6" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="7" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="8" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="9" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="10" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="11" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="12" unlocked="false"/>
    <reward id="13" unlocked="false"/>
  </unlock>
</config>


If I can get confirmation on this, I will be able to fix this bug tomorrow.

[kidkaos]

I am having this same problem after updating to 1.0.32. Prior to updating I was able to run the game fine.

I tried creating the config.xml file per instructions and it did not fix the problem.

Tried to reinstall the game and get defenders_quest_1_0_1.exe (Not Available)

[larsiusprime]

Shucks, this isn't making me happy.

@kidkaos:
Send me your order number or email address and I'll reset your links. That should get you version 1.0.22

In light of the bigness of this bug, I'm rolling the update server back to 1.0.22 so nobody else has to deal with this until I can isolate the problem.

[larsiusprime]

UPDATE:

@kidkaos:

I just reproduced the bug on my end pretty reliably. I delete the config file - the bug happens. I restore it, the bug doesn't happen. I repeated this a couple times and I'm sure this has to be the source of the bug. Perhaps you missed something in the steps?

Where exactly did you create the file, and what were the other contents of that folder?

On my computer, the directory is:
C:\Users\Doucet\AppData\Roaming\DefendersQuest\Local Store

Because my username is "Doucet." This is the same folder that contains "SAVE_SLOT_1.dfq", "SAVE_SLOT_2.dfq", etc.

[coyot]

I'd really suggest using some file-access-monitoring utility in cases like this. They'll clearly tell you what the process is doing.
For windows XP, you can find it here and it's very trivial to use. You start it up, then start whatever application you want to look at, and in the FileMon window you can set a filter to events from that application only. And you get a full trace of all it's I/O operations.
So when it runs into a brick wall of a missing file, it will be the last action in the log.

[larsiusprime]

Okay, this will be the real test: I think I've fixed the bug in version 1.0.35. I'll be uploading that to the test server shortly.

Anyone who's had this bug, please try to download and install that, and see if it fixes your problem. With 1.0.35, it shouldn't matter if config.xml is missing - if it's missing, it will default to a blank slate of options and recreate the config.xml file the next time it saves options to disk.

It works for me locally. Build will be up in 30 minutes. If you haven't signed up for testing yet and want access to the test build, send me a PM and I'll give you a tester invite.

UPDATE: It's live.

[kidkaos]

Your original post said:

Anyone experiencing this bug, go to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\DefendersQuest\DefendersQuest\

And look for "config.xml" My hypothesis is that if this file is missing, the game will crash.

So I was putting it in the wrong folder. I tried creating the file in the Appdata location instead and now it works fine. Thanks for the quick fix. This is without a doubt the best tower defense game since Defense Grid so I am very happy to have it working again

[larsiusprime]

@kidkaos:

That's a relief! Thanks for the feedback I've got a working build on the test server and as soon as I get a few eyeballs on it I will push it live, so that probably means tomorrow. Until then the public update server is rolled back to 1.0.22 to minimize the damage from this one.