game is stuck on black screen

[ashurakain]

As soon as i start the game, i get the music backround, and then a black screen. I cant alt tab, or esc, no videos loading, nothing. Just a black screen with music in backround. Cant play or see the game at all.

This is a really game breaking bug. will refund in 24 hours, if i cant play the game at all.

[Senlin]

I have similar issue. Black screen with music. However, I can alt-tab to desktop and when I do that a few times, I can notice the game screen for a split second before desktop appears. It seems the game handles something incorrectly, it might be related to my screen resolution (3440x1440). Verifying game files does not help (also deleting the .exe file and verifying again).

[Senlin]

Some more info - I tried changing screen resolution to something lower. I managed to get it to work, once. I went into settings in the game and turned off fullscreen. Then I quit the game, changed resolution and restarted the game. It didn't work and now I could not alt-tab at all. Since then I tried several more times, even changing screen resolution to something small again, it didn't work even a single time...

It would be nice if the game had the settings saved somewhere in open, text file, but I can't find anything like that. I suspect the issue is solely with fullscreen and it would work fine if the game managed to open in window.

[Circuit Hive]

Thanks for your help testing this froz. This is definitely a game breaking bug and I apologize. I have uploaded a patch that defaults the game to window mode (version 1.6.3f). It also changes your settings to window mode if you have never started a game. This should get both of you into a windowed version of the game and you should be able to maximize the window to get something close to the full screen experience.

The bug is clearly related to UHD screens and resolutions. I'll be working on an actual fix.

[ashurakain]

i really like tactical games and this games battle system looks like one of my old koei game, called uncharted waters, thats why i bought and wanted to check it out.

But im still getting the black screen and cant alt tab or even alt-f4 to close it. Hope this gets fixed, i want to at least try the game.

[Circuit Hive]

Hi Ashurakain. What's your screen resolution? This bug seems to be tied to very high resolutions. It also happens if the game files didn't download quite right so it's always a good idea to confirm the files. You can find instructions on how to do that here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/370120/discussions/1/1640913421072799210/

Also, try changing your screen resolution to see if that helps.

Make sure your game updated too. The latest update should have made it so the game starts in windowed mode.

[ashurakain]

ok... now the game is auto-uninstalling itself from my pc when i start the game, and i still keep getting the black screen and music.

Im not computer savy so i dont know any of that resolution thing, but right know its at 1080x720, and have no idea how to change it.

Ive had to do 4 hard resets on the game already, and i still cant play it at all.

But its ok, ill just refund it, i dont keep games that i cant even play.

[Senlin]

Hello again. I have tried today, but I'm not sure if I received the game update. I uninstalled and installed the game again to make sure, but there is no version number in the format you wrote anywhere I can find. Windows says the .exe file version is 1.6.1.0, but that doesn't really mean much. Steam says BuildID is 4239238 if it tells you anything.

Either way, it is still broken for me.

I also found the console.log file yesterday already and I checked it and I see the log is the same as yesterday. Here it is:

//-------------------------- 9/29/2019 -- 09:27:06 -----
Console trace is off.
---Loading System Scripts---
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video Initialization:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video initialization:
   Accelerated OpenGL display device detected.

Activating the OpenGL display device...
Activating the OpenGL display device...
Setting screen mode to 1280x720x32 (w)...
Creating a new window...
Acquiring a new device context...
Pixel format set:
  32 color bits, 24 depth bits, 8 stencil bits
Creating a new rendering context...
Making the new rendering context current...
OpenGL driver information:
  Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
  Renderer: GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2
  Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 436.30
OpenGL Init: Enabled Extensions
  ARB_multitexture (Max Texture Units: 4)
  EXT_blend_color
  EXT_blend_minmax
  EXT_compiled_vertex_array
  NV_vertex_array_range
  EXT_texture_env_combine
  EXT_packed_pixels
  EXT_fog_coord
  ARB_texture_compression
  EXT_texture_compression_s3tc
  (ARB|EXT)_texture_env_add
  EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic (Max anisotropy: 16)
  WGL_EXT_swap_control
OpenGL Init: Disabled Extensions
  EXT_paletted_texture
  3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1

Max Texture Size reported as: 32768
OpenAL Driver Init
OpenAL Driver Init Success
Module Manager: Cannot load explicit module Id 'Console' as it does not exist.
---Loading GUI---
---Loading Game Scripts---
Steam Stats and Achievements successfully loaded!
Checking version...
Files to load: 1108
Initializer 1
Initializer 2
Initializer 3
Initializer 4
Initializer 5
Initializer 6
Initializer 7
Initializer 8
Initializer 9
Initializer 10
Initializer 11
Initializer 12
Initializer 13
Initializer 14

If I understand right, it's setting screen resolution to 1280x720. I even tried yesterday to set my screen to that resolution before starting the game, but it still didn't work.

I also updated my graphic drivers yesterday to make sure it's not some issue with them, didn't help.

I hope the issue can be fixed, the game looks interesting and is exactly the kind of games I want to support, so I'm not going to ask Steam for refund until I'm sure there is no way to fix the issue.

[Circuit Hive]

Thanks for patience. Based on the build number you have the latest build and according the console.log file, it's trying to open the game in window mode. The "(w)" after the resolution means window. So the fact that it's still giving you a black screen is odd since it's supposed to be opening a window.

I'm going to try another update to report to the console the different possible resolutions that your monitor accepts. Maybe it will shed more light on the problem. I'll let you know when it's ready.

And thanks again for sticking with this just a little longer. It's been hard to fix this problem when nobody wants to troubleshoot it with me. :)

[Senlin]

I experimented a bit more and I'm now thinking the issue is more complicated.

I have noticed that when I open the game and the whole screen is black, when I press windows button on keyboard and move mouse a bit, I can see the cursor, but only on the sides of the screen. I'm thinking it's because the middle is taken by the game window and the cursor is hidden when I move into that region. So it's like I'm on desktop as you say, not fullscreen, but for some reason everything, including the desktopt itself, is black. Might be some issue with nVidia openGL drivers for my GPU?

It's really weird that I managed to get it to work that one time when I changed resolution to something lower. But it never worked after that...

[Circuit Hive]

Do you have antivirus software running on your machine? Believe it or not, just the name of this game can sometimes tip off antivirus software.

[Circuit Hive]

Alright, I found this post that talks about the same problem:

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/371918937275557183/

According to the thread, blackscreen even in window mode is a sign of driver problems. The solution seemed to be installing a windows 10 beta driver. Not sure if you want to start trying things like this but it's worth reading the thread and seeing if any of it might apply to you.

[Senlin]

I'm not using any antivirus, just the built-in windows solution for that.

I read the thread you linked and I really doubt it would help in my case. I don't have any issues like that with any other games, the thread was from a couple years ago and any beta driver from that time was likely made regular driver already some time ago. I can still try when I have some more time, but I really doubt it would help.

[Senlin]

There is no beta version of drivers for my GPU. Or, I should say, the newest beta are from 2 years ago and the regular, recommended drivers are more up-to-date. So I'm not going to try this. Any other ideas?

[spy_hunter103]

I have the same problem. When I start the game I get black screen with music playing. My laptop freezes and no keys work. I have to hard reset it. My processor is Celeron N4000 and I am using the integrated UHD600 graphics chip, 8GB RAM, screen resolution is 1366x768. I don't plan of refunding the game since I have a desktop with Win7 but boy is this annoying.

[Circuit Hive]

I'm still working on this. Give me time. I'll get it fixed.

@spy_hunter103: Does it run on your Win7 machine ok? Are you running Windows 10 on your laptop? I'm trying to find a common thread between these cases. Maybe it's a Windows 10 thing?