[6.0] Black screen after changing graphics settings - Fix in HF2.

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Alan Phipps
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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Alan Phipps » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 19:54

I have a Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB as my OS/drivers/boot drive and a Samsung SSD 870 QVO 1TB as my applications drive where Steam is. X4 is absolutely fine. I suspect therefore that the issue is perhaps with the newer Samsung 990 Pro SSDs and their set-ups, options and drivers.

Please check that these newer SSDs do not have any encryption, compression or extra caching set by default, whether built in or as an additional Samsung application option.
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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 19:58

Alan Phipps wrote:
Fri, 20. Jan 23, 19:54
I have a Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB as my OS/drivers/boot drive and a Samsung SSD 870 QVO 1TB as my applications drive where Steam is. X4 is absolutely fine. I suspect therefore that the issue is perhaps with the newer Samsung 990 Pro SSDs and their set-ups, options and drivers.
yes, I think so. My previous system had 980 and 970 evo and I had no issues.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 19:59

Alan Phipps wrote:
Fri, 20. Jan 23, 19:54
Please check that these newer SSDs do not have any encryption, compression or extra caching set by default, whether built in or as an additional Samsung application option.
how do I check if those are off or on?

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Alan Phipps » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 20:03

I would guess to look in the supplied Samsung SSD supporting literature, support software, in Samsung applications, or by online research.
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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 21:05

Alan Phipps wrote:
Fri, 20. Jan 23, 20:03
I would guess to look in the supplied Samsung SSD supporting literature, support software, in Samsung applications, or by online research.
Haven't found any info. Tried disabling W11 encryption and compression - but no change :( it takes 3-4 launches to bypass the black screen and be able to play

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Alan Phipps » Fri, 20. Jan 23, 22:26

At a further guess, all the Samsung support apps, and possibly any support information, would be in the folder where the Samsung Magician app that you uninstalled would have been.

I'm pretty sure the culprit will be a Samsung app or setting and not so much a W11 one.

On the off chance, see if it's mentioned at all in the ASUS support areas, or possibly look under devices and settings in ASUS's Armoury Crate if you have that app installed.
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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Imperial Good » Sat, 21. Jan 23, 03:32

Please try the 6.00 beta to confirm this was not fixed by the massive engine changes.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Sat, 21. Jan 23, 03:57

Imperial Good wrote:
Sat, 21. Jan 23, 03:32
Please try the 6.00 beta to confirm this was not fixed by the massive engine changes.
Tried it. Its a bit worse because with 5.1 90% of the time I can get into main menu on first attempt, while in 6.0 it takes several attempts.

(example for 6.0 beta: I launch the game see the first logo - then it freezes, I lat tab and end process. Then on the next launch I get to the intro and it freezes after the intro - I alt tab again, end process. Then on third attempt it usually reaches main menu.)

And both builds act the same if I try to change graphics settings.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Imperial Good » Sat, 21. Jan 23, 04:43

Freezes might be due to some obscure race condition that only can occurs on extremely fast SSDs with very highly parallel processors.

I wonder if reducing CPU core count could make a difference. Another approach would be to run a CPU stress test while X4 loads which would simulate a much slower CPU.

X4 uses non-cached IO to read data files. This is very different from most other games that use cached IO. It could be a bug with the Samsung NVMe drivers and those drives when it comes to what non-cached reads are permitted.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Nivcore » Sat, 21. Jan 23, 11:35

Mr.Freud wrote:
Sat, 21. Jan 23, 03:57
Imperial Good wrote:
Sat, 21. Jan 23, 03:32
Please try the 6.00 beta to confirm this was not fixed by the massive engine changes.
Tried it. Its a bit worse because with 5.1 90% of the time I can get into main menu on first attempt, while in 6.0 it takes several attempts.

(example for 6.0 beta: I launch the game see the first logo - then it freezes, I lat tab and end process. Then on the next launch I get to the intro and it freezes after the intro - I alt tab again, end process. Then on third attempt it usually reaches main menu.)

And both builds act the same if I try to change graphics settings.
Hey,

I interfere here once again.
Sorry, I know I'm repeating myself but yes I can confirm that as well
6.00 Beta is significantly worse than stable.

Stable: Most of the time the game loads normally, but the big problem is the graphics settings. Sometimes the game start takes a few seconds longer with black screen at start.
But this is rather the exception.

6.00: The start often takes several minutes or ends in nothing.
So exactly as you have also described.
The problem with the graphics settings is unchanged in 6.00.
47 75 74 65 6e 20 50 72 6f 66 69 74

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Mon, 23. Jan 23, 15:54

Imperial Good wrote:
Sat, 21. Jan 23, 04:43
Freezes might be due to some obscure race condition that only can occurs on extremely fast SSDs with very highly parallel processors.

I wonder if reducing CPU core count could make a difference. Another approach would be to run a CPU stress test while X4 loads which would simulate a much slower CPU.

X4 uses non-cached IO to read data files. This is very different from most other games that use cached IO. It could be a bug with the Samsung NVMe drivers and those drives when it comes to what non-cached reads are permitted.
tried disabling E-cores, Hyperthreading - no luck.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by jackyjakob » Mon, 10. Apr 23, 15:50

I had the same issue on my PC.
After moving the X4 game folder from the Samsung 990 PRO to a WD HDD the issue was resolved.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by qwertyuiop0931fh » Thu, 13. Apr 23, 13:47

Same exact issue using the 2TB Samsung 990 Pro.
Made a steam post here https://steamcommunity.com/app/392160/d ... 317789208/ with a link to this forum as well.

Troubleshooting:
- Ran all updates for Windows
- Updated graphic card driver to 531.41
- Disabled steam overlay
- Checked Vulkan install via vulkaninfo console command
- Verified game files
- Disabled AV (MS Defender)
- File compression is disabled
- No other screen overlay is enabled
- Deleted the Egosoft folder from Documents folder
- Rebooted the PC several times

Specs:
- Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
- Intel i9-13900KS
- Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master
- 32GB Corsair DDR5-7200
- 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB

Looking at the disk usage while on the black screen shows it consistently maxing out the read speed. Drive encryption is off and the firmware is the latest version. This is the only game it happens with.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Sun, 23. Apr 23, 23:47

Bought the Boron DLC, now I can\t start the game at all. In beta at least it would start every few launches.

Can Devs look into it? No other game/app has such problems with the nvme.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by CBJ » Mon, 24. Apr 23, 00:18

As already stated, we're aware of the issue and are investigating. In the meantime, the workaround is to install the game on a different drive.

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Re: [5.10 HF3] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Mon, 24. Apr 23, 11:38

CBJ wrote:
Mon, 24. Apr 23, 00:18
As already stated, we're aware of the issue and are investigating. In the meantime, the workaround is to install the game on a different drive.
Thank you!

Unfortunately I dont have another physical drive at hand :(

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Re: [6.0] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Atary » Mon, 24. Apr 23, 12:49

Hello everyone

I'm facing same issues. Also with 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe.

Please push topic

Cant play my favorite game anymore :cry:

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Re: [6.0] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by CBJ » Thu, 27. Apr 23, 12:26

We've just released a hotfix which should hopeful solve this.

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Re: [6.0] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Mr.Freud » Thu, 27. Apr 23, 14:54

CBJ wrote:
Thu, 27. Apr 23, 12:26
We've just released a hotfix which should hopeful solve this.
Just tested the hotfix and the problem is solved! Thank you very much!

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Re: [6.0] Black screen after changing graphics settings

Post by Atary » Thu, 27. Apr 23, 23:53

CBJ wrote:
Thu, 27. Apr 23, 12:26
We've just released a hotfix which should hopeful solve this.
Problem solved! Thank you very much :D

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