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Editor opens on blank screen

Discussion in 'Editor & General Support' started by picolino0, Jul 6, 2018.

  1. picolino0

    picolino0

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2015
    Posts:
    9
    Hello.

    I posted this issue on Unity answers, but I haven't gotten a response in days, so I'm trying it here now. I hope that isn't against the rules.

    Whenever I try to open a project the editor opens on a white screen. After a while some parts of the editor turn black (seemingly random. As far as I can tell these are some of the editor windows). When I right click on the place the hierarchy window is supposed to be I do get the correct contextmenu. It seems to be a visual error.

    Here's a screenshot:



    Here's some info about my computer:
    OS: Windows 10 Pro version 1803 (build 17134.112) and Unity version 2017.4.3f1.
    GPU: Nvidia GeForce 840m using the 'GeForce Game Ready Driver' v398.36

    Here's what I've already tried:
    • I installed Unity versions 2017.4.3, 2017.4.6 and 2018.1.6. All give the same result.When I install Unity it works for the first project. Then when I close the project and open any other project it breaks again. However if I reopen the same project right after it was closed it does work. This is only temporary though, because if I restart my computer and open the project, the editor is once again broken.
      Also this 'reinstall' fix only works if I uninstall Unity, then restart my computer and then install Unity again.
    • I installed Unity 5.6.6. This version doesn't seem to have the problem. I can open any project any time without the issue. Even after restarting my computer.
    • When uninstalling Unity I cleared all Unity related folders in the appdata folders.
    • I started unity with the '-force-gfx-direct' flag. No change
    • I read something about '127.0.0.1 localhost' needing to be in the hosts file, which I found strange, but I did it anyway. Doesn't change anything.
    • I used to have the Unity hub installed, but I uninstalled it and installed the Unity versions manually.
    • This https://answers.unity.com/questions/1424263/unit-white-screen-is-there-really-no-solution.html
    • Tried running Unity with the '-force-d3d9' flag. No noticable change.
    • I ran Unity using the integrated graphics card. Instead of turning black, some areas are now the gray Unity personal color. I can also interact with the scene window, but it's mostly black except for the 3d icons and some weird buffering issue that shows a trail of the icons. That's a little better I suppose, but still unusable.
    • Tried editing some nodejs files as described in some solution for a white screen in the project select screen. Didn't work, as expected.
    • While playing around with some windows (About Unity, Check for updates, etc.) the editor crashed. I uploaded the crash dump and error log, perhaps that can be of some use here (These windows are all blank too btw, I just thought that maybe one would be able to help somehow).
    I'm out of options, I've spent hours trying to fix this, but I really have not the slightest clue as to what the problem is here. The thing that confuses me the most is that it does work once when freshly installed..
     

    Attached Files:

  2. tsibiski

    tsibiski

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2016
    Posts:
    592
    Did you come across this thread?
    https://us.battle.net/forums/en/hearthstone/topic/20758516879

    It appears there are two main causes:
    1) GFX driver issues - needing updates & settings issues might help.
    2) Some secondary program on your computer that is competing with Unity for resources and trying to access the same memory location at the same moment.

    Seems "d3d11.dll caused an Access Violation" is a fairly common issue with Unity games, both within the editor and within build executables. But d3d11.dll is definitely related to your graphics card, so the source of the issue lies somewhere in that haystack. And ostensibly, the older versions of Unity either use something like "d3d10.dll" or earlier versions of the same dll, where the issue can't occur.
     
    picolino0 likes this.
  3. picolino0

    picolino0

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    Aug 26, 2015
    Posts:
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    I opened Unity while having windows in safe mode. This time it worked! So you are right about another program interfering. I can't believe I didn't try this sooner.. Thanks for the tip though. I'll investigate a bit further.
     
    tsibiski likes this.
  4. picolino0

    picolino0

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    Aug 26, 2015
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    I found the issue! Apparently there's some issue with running NordVPN and Unity at the same time. This can be fixed by running NordVPN through OpenVPN. Weird, but if it works it works.
     
    calded2 likes this.
  5. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    Great to know. I also run NordVpn, and Unity 2018.2. Will try it tonight, maybeb just never did both at the same time. May also be a NordVpn setting.
     
    picolino0 likes this.
  6. picolino0

    picolino0

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    Aug 26, 2015
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    Interesting. I hope it's just a setting. It's quite unconvenient having to run openvpn instead. I quite like the NordVPN client. But it's still better than not being able to run Unity at all.
     
  7. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    I am not able to reproduce any issues with my NordVPN running. I am using the most up-to-date Unity and NordVPN. I have a Windows 10 pc with a GTX 780 Ti GFX card. I am going to fiddle around with various settings and see if that triggers it. It would be good to find the exact cause, and send a ticket in to both Unity and NordVPN.
     
    picolino0 likes this.
  8. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    After making modifications to my NordVPN settings, I reproduce the issue 100%, no matter what further modifications I make. So I can't open Unity while NordVPN is connected, basically.
     
  9. picolino0

    picolino0

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    So what modifications did you make?
     
  10. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    I merely started at the top and worked my way down, one by one - toggling on/off. I don't remember what the top setting listed was, but immediately after I toggled it and loaded Unity, the issue appeared.

    I have not updated NordVPN settings since I purchased it. I set it and forgot it. That was about 6 months ago. So it seems likely that they've changed something since then - as I had no problem with NordVPN before I made changes. And I immediately changed it back to the previous setting, and tried again - but the issue continued.

    Therefore it doesn't seem that any particular setting causes the issue, but rather some way that the settings are registered causes it. Although that may just be a red herring. But it definitely seems like the issue is on NordVPN's side. I tried to create a ticket for Unity, but I couldn't figure out how to create an issue in Unity's Issue Tracker.
     
  11. picolino0

    picolino0

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    Well since there's an issue with the d3d11.dll file, I assume it's something visual?
     
  12. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    That would be the most reasonable assumption just by the library's purpose, but it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I have a nagging feeling that the problem NordVPN is introducing is not a d3d11.dll issue, but that we are seeing the symptom of the issue when Unity tries to access memory from that dll. A shared resource issue, rather.
     
  13. picolino0

    picolino0

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    I thought it might be the new CyberSec option thinking that Unity is an ad, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. However, I did find out that Unity does not have any problem with NordVPN running, as long as it's not connected. Strange..
     
  14. tsibiski

    tsibiski

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    It may be an issue related to the problems Unity sometimes encounters with Asset Importing. There used to be (maybe still is) a transient Unity issue where Unity Editor crashes hard once you select a project to load.

    The only way to fix it is to turn your internet off, load the project, and then turn your internet back on once the project loads. This normally also fixed the issue for subsequent loads of the project - as it seemed to overwrite whatever bad data was causing the crash originally (or it at least fixed it until the next time the issue randomly started again).

    I had that particular issue probably about 5 times last year.
     
  15. Pharaoh_

    Pharaoh_

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    Feb 13, 2014
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    I can confirm. VPN was the reason for my case as well.
     
  16. AfterLifeDaemon

    AfterLifeDaemon

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    Dec 22, 2013
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    Same, this still seems to be an issue.
     
  17. Mycroft__Holmes

    Mycroft__Holmes

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    Feb 16, 2015
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    I was having the same problem and, thanks to everyone on this thread, was able to fix it by turning off NordVPN.

    I toggled it off while Unity was trying to start, and it almost instantly finished launching. Because of this, I can see something in the error messages in the console that might explain why a network issue is fixing what appears to be a graphics problem: I see a bunch of instances of the following error message:

    "Failed to get socket connection from UnityShaderCompiler.exe shader compiler! C:/Program Files/Unity/Hub/Editor/2018.3.0b11/Editor/Data/Tools/UnityShaderCompiler.exe"

    I guess the shader compiler phones home for licencing reasons or something like that?
     
    picolino0 likes this.
  18. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    I am having this problem with Unity 2019.3 beta and I do not use a VPN. My graphics drivers are up to date and Windows is fully upgraded/updated too. No errors, just white blank window with the menus.
     

    Attached Files:

  19. likchun

    likchun

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    Jan 6, 2020
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    I had the same problem but didn't use any VPN. I solved this issue after shutting down a windows customization software.

    It seems that this issue was caused by Unity interferes with other programs (in my case, it's Windowfx). If anyone is having this problem, try to shut down different programs, one by one, to find out which one creates the problem.
     
  20. s2013612

    s2013612

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    Apr 29, 2021
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    for on my chromebook it just shows a blank screen and the site kept glitching. when I go fullscreen, there will be a black area.
     
  21. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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  22. calded2

    calded2

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    Thank you very much! It was my problem too.
     
  23. lakshyatripathi854

    lakshyatripathi854

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    Dec 19, 2020
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    Can you please help me? I don't even use NordVPN or any other software at the same time but still, this happens. PLEASE HELP ME IN FIXING THIS!!!