Wallpaper Engine Bug causing black background

[Zomitsu]

I am not sure why, but with the recent updates I have been having an issue with Wallpaper engine on one of my computer set-up. My current set up consists of two computers linked to 1 monitor, keyboard, and mouse through a KVM Switch. Under the recent updates I have begun having issues when I use the switch to go from one computer to the other. This bug, when switching back to the computer that is running Wallpaper engine, causes Wallpaper engine to hang. Any attempts to switch the background, move to the next background, or any settings have no effect, this too includes shutting down Wallpaper engine, or even attempting to switch background through Windows it's self. No matter what until wallpaper engine is restarted, the background remains black. The only remedy I have found is to completely shut down and restart either my computer, or Wallpaper engine. I am not sure why this is happening and would be grateful for any suggestions, and/or help to solve this issue.

[Biohazard]

It could be caused by the new display events which will pause/stop wallpapers until the display becomes available again. Try changing the 'display sleep' playback option to 'keep running'.

If that doesn't work, try the beta: http://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/2/350544272219415004/

(Actually it would be good if you could try the beta either way because I have made a lot of changes about monitors there again and having more feedback on that before making them public would help)

[Zomitsu]

I will try both options and see what results I get. I will reply with the information for you asap.

[Zomitsu]

Just tried switching everything to 'Keep Running' as advised with no change. The black screen still appears and is unable to be changed under any circumstance until either A) The computer has been restarted, or B) Wallpaper Engine has been closed and re-opened (which in turn forces Steam to open every time, as is par for the course when opening a program that is linked to steam in any facet). I will take a moment to download the beta installation and see if that has any results. Oddly enough this problem was non-exsistent on older versions of Wallpaper Engine, it only recently started occuring with the previous 2 recent updates if I recall correctly.

[Zomitsu]

I have just switched over to the 'Beta' branch of development for Wallpaper engine, clicked the KVM Switch button, waited about a minute on my second computer before clicking the KVM switch button again to switch back to the computer running Wallpaper Engine in the background. Unfortunately the bug persists and the entire background went black again, and remained until I restarted Wallpaper engine. Even using the option to remove wallpaper engine background to go back to a normal standard windows background did not work, as well as exitting wallpaper engine left the black background to persist even under attempts in windows options to 'personalize' and change the background through windows did not achieve anything.

Edit: July 13th, 2017 @ 1:58pm: I am sorry, I did further testing, and indeed I can change the background though windows. Wallpaper Engine does not seem to be freezing, locking up, or anything of the nature. It just seems to, for lack of a better term, hangs unable to proceed. Examples of backgrounds I am using are videos of Horizon 3 cars.

[Biohazard]

Thanks for checking. Do you perhaps know if your KVM switch passes through the monitor information (DDC/EDID) and monitor events like plugging it in/out and power related notifications?

Can you send me the log.txt from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine\bin\log.txt over www.pastebin.com ?

[Zomitsu]

I am sorry, I have realized my mistake. I had windows on a black background and it was getting stuck on that background. When using the KVM switch, Wallpaper engine just seems to vanish from the background, or is removing it's self, I am not sure. However Wallpaper engine does not crash, and the UI remains active and usable. It does leave the stock chosen windows background chosen before putting in place Wallpaper engine in full view.

[Zomitsu]

I will get the log for you asap, let me locate that and send it.

[Zomitsu]

I am sorry for the confusion in me getting confused and not entirely understanding what was going on with the bug. Here is the log information at the website you requested. https://pastebin.com/r7Txjpsc

[Biohazard]

Just to reassure, after this bug happens, you still need to fully restart Wallpaper Engine? So changing the wallpaper to a different one doesn't suffice to get it back, the program needs to be reset?

And I'm also sorry, I copied the wrong path, I actually needed the other log.txt: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine\log.txt

[Zomitsu]

Correct, Wallpaper Engine, or the entire computer needs to be restarted. Going into the Wallpaper Engine GUI attempting to physically change/select another wallpaper has no effect. Another odd occurance is I save a playlist and when this bug happens, the entire wallpaper playlist unloads as if there is no playlist loaded. I will be uploading the requested log here in a moment.

[Zomitsu]

Unfortunately the Log.txt file you have requested is too large for pastebin. So I have uploaded the Log file in it's entirety to my personal dropbox. Here is the link to the requested file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vv7r5kk2ouzrglw/log.txt?dl=0

[Zomitsu]

As for the KVM Switch, I unfortunately do not know, it seems to be about as direct as the switch can be to connect both computers to one monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The product is manufactured by IOGear if that makes any difference.

[Biohazard]

It looks like either your monitor doesn't fully support device information or the KVM switch isn't forwarding it, apparently not all do that. This doesn't explain why you can't get the wallpaper back though.

Are you re-opening the wallpaper browser window? Or do you keep the browser open and then attempt to change wallpapers? If you don't re-open it, I could see this happening if the KVM switch causes your monitor to be identified differently or something I guess.

I have updated the beta. Can you delete the old log.txt files and download the update over Steam (restart Steam to make sure it pulls the update)? Then please set the 'log level' option to 'Verbose' in the Wallpaper Engine settings, restart the program and trigger the bug. It should print some more stuff to see if the monitor changes its device name or something. There is also a marginal chance that it's fixed now. If it's still broken as before, maybe you could share this log with me again: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\wallpaper_engine\log.txt

Edit: Preferably test it with a scene wallpaper like the 3D car, to avoid the issue coming from Windows' video player for now.

[Zomitsu]

I will do that now and will post a response with a link for downloading the log file asap. As for switching the background, I've tried both with right clicking on the wallpaper engine system tray icon and clicking 'next wallpaper' as well as opening the wallpaper engine GUI and manually selected, neither results in any changes.

[Zomitsu]

It would appear that the recent changes have fixed the issue and it is no longer happening. I am including a download link to the Log file which I unfortunately had to rename Lognew and uploaded to DropBox. Thank you for all the help, you are an amazing developer. I am sorry if I caused trouble, it never fails that I find a way to break things.

Thank you again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jh0qhbv8bdiob67/lognew.txt?dl=0