V.2.0+ Black Screen issues

[Doomed]

I am encountering an issue where in any version of 2.0 versions, including the newest 2.1, start up with a black screen. The cursor is visible and the game actually works, but all it shows is a black screen. I have looked on the forums before and have seen this trick of going into the .ini file and manually adjusting the resolution but that does not seem to work. Any version previous to 2.0 works just fine though.

The strange thing is is that the 2.0 versions did use to work and I never got this black screen before. But I do not know what suddenly caused this issue as I do not believe I have adjusted any settings on either my computer or the engine itself. My only guess is that I must have changed something at some point and don't remember what it was. Has anyone else had this issue where manually adjusting the .ini file did not fix this issue?

I am running on Windows 7 64bit, Nvidia GeForce GTX 766m / 2GB GDDR5

[Rachael]

This issue needs a little more information - such as your driver version and the age of your driver. Also you said you're using GZDoom 2.1 - what version? 2.1 has never been officially released so the version info will have some Git repository numbers on it - these are needed too.

Please post your DXDiag, as well as the full version that GZDoom reports on the console.

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Export a DXDiag report:

1. Go to Start > Run and type 'dxdiag' (without quotes please) in the 'Open' field and press OK button
2. Wait for 'green' progress bar to finish loading and then press the 'Save All Information...'’ button
3. Name the file with some useful info, like your name and the date, and save it where you can find it, like the Desktop, by pressing the 'Save' button
4. Press the 'Exit' button to quit this application

Export a MSInfo report:

1. Go to Start > Run and type 'msinfo32' (without quotes please) in the 'Open' field and press OK button
2. When the 'System Information' window is open, click on 'File' in the top toolbar and select the 'Export...' option
3. Name the file with some useful info, like your name and the date, and save it where you can find it, like the Desktop, by pressing the 'Save' button
4. The export process can take a few moments, so please wait for the progress bar to finish, and then you can close this application

Source: Shamelessly stolen from here
Uploading requested files to the forum:

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2. Click "Upload attachment" near the bottom of the editor
3. Click "Browse"
4. Go to your desktop, and open one of the requested files in the browse window
5. Click "Add the file"
6. Click "Browse" again
7. Find the other file on your desktop, and then select that one
8. Click "Add the file"
9. Type something into your post so it is not empty
10. Click "Submit"

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GZDoomVersion.png (15.46 KiB) Viewed 1340 times

[Doomed]

Hello Eruanna,

I have got the requested information. Unfortunately I was not able to upload both .txt files directly due to the files being too big. I have uploaded them to my dropbox and have included the links below.
DxDiag: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a9t4jqheu8ypb ... 5.txt?dl=0
MSInfo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xdrn3v74f9wo8 ... 5.txt?dl=0

Here are the versions where I am experiencing the mentioned issue.

• GZDOOM g.2.0.03 (2014-09-16 -8:47:13 +0200)
  GZDOOM g.2.0.05 (2014-12-27 15:57:09 +0100)
  GZDOOM g.2.1.pre-1159-gfbefe13 (2015-06-04 09:27:17 +0200)

If there is any more information that is needed please let me know.

[Rachael]

It looks you're using a laptop that hybrids an Intel and NVidia display on the same screen. This is common for newer gaming laptops, and I have one myself that does that.

You need to tell NVidia that you want to use your NVidia card on GZDoom. You can also tell your NVidia driver that you want to use your NVidia for everything, but that isn't recommended unless the laptop spends most of its time on the charger. Either way, you will have to use NVidia's control panel to do this, and that can be accessed by right-clicking on an empty portion of your desktop.

https://ucdavistechtalk.wordpress.com/2 ... h-optimus/

Intel isn't known for great OpenGL compatibility and from your posted specs it looks like your computer is defaulting to the Intel adapter. Intel has gotten better over the years, but GZDoom has never been optimized to run on it. You can still try updating your Intel graphics driver, however. Mine ran GZDoom perfectly fine - albeit slow.

[Doomed]

The Global settings are set to use the High-Performance NVIDIA Processor which I have checked and saw that GZdoom is already set to use that. When I right click on the GZdoom application it is already defaulted to High-Performance NVIDIA Processor. I even clicked on that option just to see if maybe it was just saying that but not actually applying it and I still get the black screen in all of the previously listed versions. I have also updated my intel graphics driver but that did not seem to do anything. Is there anything else I might be missing that needs to be changed?

[Graf Zahl]

Intel isn't known for great OpenGL compatibility and from your posted specs it looks like your computer is defaulting to the Intel adapter. Intel has gotten better over the years, but GZDoom has never been optimized to run on it. You can still try updating your Intel graphics driver, however. Mine ran GZDoom perfectly fine - albeit slow.

Please no false information. I actually have tested GZDoom 2.x on the Intel HD 4000 in my system and it worked fine, albeit a bit slowly.

[Rachael]

The Global settings are set to use the High-Performance NVIDIA Processor which I have checked and saw that GZdoom is already set to use that. When I right click on the GZdoom application it is already defaulted to High-Performance NVIDIA Processor. I even clicked on that option just to see if maybe it was just saying that but not actually applying it and I still get the black screen in all of the previously listed versions. I have also updated my intel graphics driver but that did not seem to do anything. Is there anything else I might be missing that needs to be changed?

Try then, updating your NVidia driver. With your's, the dates on it look a bit old. If that still doesn't work, then something is going a little fishy inside your system and we might have to collect some GZDoom logs in order to know what's going on.

Failing that, I have prepared a special archive - this is a stock and bare GZDoom 2.0.05 with Shareware Doom and no add-ons and it has a pre-config file (for windowed mode and to auto-select Doom1.wad) and an autoexec.cfg which automatically enables logging. Just run it, and close it after it starts. The text file should then appear in its folder. Using this file would be like running GZDoom in "safe mode." You can extract dev versions on top of it if you want to test those, too, but I targeted a release version since you did say you had trouble with it, anyway.

I would prefer tests on both the NVidia and the Intel adapter, and let us know if you see anything on either.

The text file will be named "GZDoom-test-log.txt" when it appears.

GZDoom-Test-2.0.05.zip

(4.63 MiB) Downloaded 38 times

Please no false information. I actually have tested GZDoom 2.x on the Intel HD 4000 in my system and it worked fine, albeit a bit slowly.

Sorry I never knew you had one.

[Doomed]

After updating my Nvidia driver all of the previously mentioned versions now work and do not have a black screen, with the exception of changing the resolution in game to something different but that is easily fixed by simply exiting and re-opening the programs. I am still confused as to why all of these versions suddenly had this issue occur to begin with when previously I was able to run it just fine without any kind of black screen issue, even when changing the resolutions in game. But either way, it seems to be working just fine now.

Thank you for your help.

~Doomedarchviledemon

[Rachael]

I am still confused as to why all of these versions suddenly had this issue occur to begin with when previously I was able to run it just fine without any kind of black screen issue, even when changing the resolutions in game. But either way, it seems to be working just fine now.

GZDoom v2.0 underwent a massive overhaul of its rendering engine. A lot of code has been removed, and some of it has been rewritten or cleaned up in various stages. If Graf (the author of GZDoom) wants to speak for these changes, I will let him reply with his own information about it.

Needless to say, no major project is ever just perfect right off the bat and it sometimes takes a little tweaking to get things working properly again. This is especially true when driver bugs or conflicts occur, or it can also crop up when there is an error in your system files, in general.

Thank you for your help.

~Doomedarchviledemon

No problem. Thank you for letting us know it worked out.