Black screen after launching ( Solved: Use -window to start windowed )

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

Hello dear developer.
Ive got over 500 games in two steam accounts.
I bought the game this morning, installed it, gave all permissions with AV and Firewall,
but the game freezes the system after I see a few CMD windows popping up and closing again.
Have to then reset the PC as its frozen.
The game shortcut shows "steam://rungameid/313080".

At first I suspected a multiscreen issue, as with "This War of Mine".
But the game also freezes on startup with only one active screen.

Please let me know how to initiate the game in windowed mode ?
-w on to something or so ?

If you let me know how to start in windowed mode,
then I can let you know if the problem still exists.

:-)

[Microsoft Word]

hey there, this seems like a very unusual crash. i have not seen anyone else experiencing this before.
could you give some information on your system and what version you are playing?
have a look, if your pc actually produced a crash-report

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

Hello.
Im playing the version downloaded from Steam today, which I guess is your latest version.

Can you please let me know if its possible to edit some value somewhere,
making it possible to launch in windowed mode ?

System: Win7Ultimate sp1 v6.1.7601,64bit
16gb ram
Phenom2x6 1075t
amd hd7900 3gb driver14.501.1003.0
Board: ASRock 870 Extreme3
Audio: ASRock IXP SB600 HD

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

I have generated a system report file which I can give you :-)
Can you please tell me an email address where I can send that to ?

As the system/screen freeze behaves similar as in "The war of mine":

The system is actually still alive, but can not be accessed anymore,
the screen/displaymode seems hooked up. The fix in the game ThisWarofMine was to deactivate the 2nd screen, but this trick does not work with your game..

The black screen I see when I start your game ( with one or two active monitors ) is slightly grey,
it could be that the initial startup has an conflict with my display and then the graphiccard or monitor gets stuck and can not get out of this forced monitor mode.

The 4 bat files get executed from The Masterplan\crashdumper,
but I see no crash dump. It looks very much like a screen resolution problem and not a crash.

For a fraction of a second I see a window open ( in 800x600 or so ) after the 4 bats have been executed,
then the screen goes to fullscreen in 1280 and the system is locked up in black/greyish fullscreen and the pc needs to be switched off and hard restarted.

I found an Google Analytics ga.vitor.sol file on my pc,
which stores or submits my ip address, the time when I accessed the game etc.
It states my resolution of 1280x720. I downloaded your game for the first time via steam today, after buying it.
In the sol file it says "themasterplan.0.5.1" - I dont know if this is just an old version number number in that file...Perhaps the Adwords cookie just shows your ad campaign name.

* Please let me know how to identify my installed game version ?

* Can you please let me know if its possible to edit some value somewhere,
making it possible to launch the game in windowed mode ?

--------------------
Update:
I have ticked the windows system check box on your .exe "Minimize on start".
The difference is that I now hear the game music and see a black screen.

I have bug tested your game launch sequence now for 4 hours.
I hope I get an answer to my questions and that I dont have to check back on your game in half a year to be able to play it.

* Perhaps you can bang in a screen resolution selector, with tick box "Run windowed" to the start process ? However, if you let me know how to set the game to run windowed, that would be fine for now.

I read other tickets in you game forum on the black screen problem on startup, but could not find a written resolution in those threads. Please provide help in the forum, so that others can benefit from it., thank you. The alt+enter tip does not work if no sound is heard with the black screen.

Hoping for help.

[Microsoft Word]

hey there, i think one of the developers will get in touch with you here quickly, in the meantime you can try this: its cross posted from another thread here, that got unpinned, im not sure as to why?

--------------------------------------------------
As many of you are already aware, in the recent update some rather nasty (i.e. game crashing) bugs crept in to The Masterplan. Here's a little update of what we know, are doing, and what you can do about it.

Next Update: Early Next Week

We have been investigating these bugs, and thanks to your reports and logs, have found and (hopefully) fixed some of them. We hope to push these, and more fixes, in our next update, planned to be released early next week (Monday/Tuesday time, most likely.)

Workaround: Launch Settings

There are few ways to try to get the game working right now, apart from the most likely futile reinstall. Instead, there is something you you can try in the Game crashes or garbled graphics FAQ:

1. Find The Masterplan on your Steam game list
   
2. Right-click the name, and choose Properties
   
3. Click 'Launch Options...'
   
4. Type one or both of the following commands to limit the use of resources.
   

   -fboQuality=3 -textureQuality=3

   You can test values 1, 2, and 3, with the default being 4, to see how this changes the game performance. The graphics quality will go down, but for now, this may at least let you play the game.

We are well aware the game is far from optimized at the moment, it is something quite normal for this stage of development. We will address that later in the development cycle, but while there's still new stuff being implemented, optimization would not be as effective as it will be later on.

Keep helping us, please!

We thank you, and ask you for more patience with the game. It is still Early Access, and things do go wrong. We are committed to fixing things, and finishing the game.
To help us in this, please keep playing the game, keep reporting everything suspicious, and keep presenting your ideas and suggestions. It is incredible motivating to have people commenting, reporting, and giving their feedback.
If you do experience problems, check crash log guide and send any log files our way to [e-mail].



Yours most sincerely,
Shark Punch Team

-------------------------------------------------------------------

also have a look at the crash log guide. it should direct you to where you can find your crash logs, in case you havent found them yet, and where to send them to.
i hope this helps while the devs are looking into the matter :)
cheers,

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

\Steam\steamapps\common\The Masterplan\The Masterplan.exe" -window

Providing answer to my question on how to get in to windowed mode would have saved me 4 hours. Anyway, thanks for responding...And a happy new year to you :-)

Works.

[Microsoft Word]

no disrespect but I'm just a mod, not a developer. and I also dont know how to resolve such an issue.
however, I'm happy you could resolve the issue and this might also be valuable information for others experience the same problems.
happy new year to you too and I'm looking forward to seeing you around here :)

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

Okidoki.
Its very kind that you helped out.
I know that development is complex, I once was the producer on a $30mil game over several years...which was very tiring.

Keep the good work up :-)

[Celeve]

Hey Zorg! Sorry we couldn't get to you sooner, Tuesday was a public holiday and we weren't around the office. Thanks to Gladiator though for helping out, seems you found a solution! :)

For future reference, I'll post the start-up options to a pinned thread soon, it makes sense they are there - the previously pinned post got unpinned as it wasn't specifically about them.

edit: the launch configuration options are listed in the graphics FAQ on the Bugs section.

[Peacekeeper]

Same problem here. Blackscreen when switching in fullscreen mode.
Window mode works but this is not the best experience.

Please fix Fullscreenmode

[Celeve]

Sorry to hear that! Please list your computer and OS specs, including the resolution you use and if you have something else that might affect this, like multiple monitors. We'll then see what we can find out. :)

[Peacekeeper]

System: Win10Pro.10122,64bit
4GB Ram DDR3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 3GB Ram Driver 352.84
Board: Asus Maximus Extreme X38
Monitor: Dual BenQ XL2420T @ 1080*1920 and FP91V+ @ 1280 * 1024

[Leksapeksa]

Let's see if the release version that comes out today fixes this issue for you. Your machine should be more than capable to handle this game in whatever resolution, fullscreen or not. One thing I'm interested in is that does this issue happen if you only have one monitor in use?

If the release version today doesn't fix this, please be in touch again and let's try to figure out a solution.

[K1N6 54V4G3]

My game has stopped working. I'm so sad. I brought it today.

[Microsoft Word]

did you have a try at setting different launch settings? what exactly is happening? can you start it up? does it launch missions? give a little more hints so the devs can chime in and help :)

[K1N6 54V4G3]

Yes I did have a try at setting different launch and it didn't working. It said 'masterplan.exe has stopped working'. I'm frustrated.