MTGA Unplayable: Black Screen, nothing more

[dave]

Starting the game produces only a black screen. No splash screen or menu screen, just black. I restarted my computer. I ran the Steam update program, no change. I verified the files twice, no change. I uninstalled the game and deleted its old folder. Reinstalled, still just a black screen.

The program was running fine last night, then less than 12 hours later, without my doing anything, the game is just a black screen. I can play other Steam games still now, no problem, just MTGA doesn't work.

I've waited as long as a full hour on the black screen to see if it just needed time, but never changed from black.

Linux high-end system, never had previous problems with the game, just started today, 14 hours ago, after working fine about nine hours earlier.

Help please.

[Shiku]

Had the same issue too yesterday after they've released a new patch. If you're on Linux try running it with Proton.

[dave]

Originally posted by Guzu:

Had the same issue too yesterday after they've released a new patch. If you're on Linux try running it with Proton.

I do run it on Proton (5.0-10) and have done for more than 2,000 hours in game.

[PantxeRotge]

Same problem

[anaris]

are you running it in non-native emulation, am i understanding that right? because if so the issue is probably better reported to the emulation environment

[dave]

Originally posted by anaris:

are you running it in non-native emulation, am i understanding that right? because if so the issue is probably better reported to the emulation environment

Sorry, anaris, I do not understand what that means, running in non-native emulation. Just Steam's Proton running on my Linux system. Worked perfectly fine for more than 2,000 hours playing until yesterday.

[PantxeRotge]

Solved! Changing the Proton Version did it for me (from 6. to 9.)

[anaris]

Originally posted by dave:

Originally posted by anaris:

are you running it in non-native emulation, am i understanding that right? because if so the issue is probably better reported to the emulation environment

Sorry, anaris, I do not understand what that means, running in non-native emulation. Just Steam's Proton running on my Linux system. Worked perfectly fine for more than 2,000 hours playing until yesterday.

yeah so proton is a virtual environment for running windows games on linux, which might not technically be "emulation" but probably shares some traits with it, and that suggests to me that an update of one or the other has caused an interaction *specifically with the virtual environment*. Game devs don't tend to be able to interact with the virtual environments if they're not developing for that platform - if Arena isn't tested on linux machines before release, for example - so "it doesn't work in the virtual environment" is usually a bug to be reported to the virtual environment people, they're usually the people better equipped to work out what is different in the virtual environment.

[Absolution]

same problem on win 11

[toomuchpc]

I am having this same issue on Win 11 - just started today. Was hoping to find a fix here.

[John-Silver]

I was able to fix my install by doing an integrity check on the game's files, after-which the game found an update, but only AFTER I tried launching the game again for a 2nd time.

[dave]

Originally posted by John-Silver:

I was able to fix my install by doing an integrity check on the game's files, after-which the game found an update, but only AFTER I tried launching the game again for a 2nd time.

Thanks for the update. I've done the check several times and had multiple updates, and still no good. I even uninstalled, wiped the folder (twice) and reinstalled, still no good. Frustrating!

[Zlehtnoba]

Originally posted by dave:

Originally posted by John-Silver:

I was able to fix my install by doing an integrity check on the game's files, after-which the game found an update, but only AFTER I tried launching the game again for a 2nd time.

Thanks for the update. I've done the check several times and had multiple updates, and still no good. I even uninstalled, wiped the folder (twice) and reinstalled, still no good. Frustrating!

Did you try the standalone client? You can have both that and the Steam version installed.

[lockwoodx]

Black screens are driver issues usually caused by install/patching issues. Verifying file integrity was the correct first step in troubleshooting and glad it worked.