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  1. #1

    Game will not progress without alt-tabbing (may be the cause of some black screens)

    I am having a problem where the game will refuse to move forward in whatever it's doing at the time until I alt-tab out of the game and back. In most cases it immediately progresses as normal the moment I alt-tab, but seemingly more and more often I'm having to do it two or three times to get the game to "snap out of it".

    Initially this only seemed to happen when entering cutscenes. The screen would go black and I'd hear the ambient audio of whatever was happening in the area still going on in the background (NPC chatter, shooting, whatever), but I had no control and the cutscene was not playing. Alt-tab and suddenly the cutscene plays through as normal and I move on with my game.

    Yesterday this got a lot worse. Now game events weren't firing properly. I'd reach a waypoint in a mission only to stare at a hovering yellow dot I could run and jump through with nothing happening. I'd enter a room where there are clearly supposed to be baddies but it's abandoned instead. I'd walk over an outpost challenge location and the popup wouldn't appear. Again, alt-tab and the game remembers it's supposed to do something here and everything goes on as usual. That led to more than a few times where I found myself suddenly surrounded by a bunch of red dots on the map, or had to revert a mission to checkpoint because I didn't remind the game to keep moving when something scripted was supposed to happen in a firefight or similar (Reaganomics scene for example).

    Today I honestly have no idea if the game is even playable. I have to Alt-tab 2-4 times to even reach the main menu. Before the loading screen. Between it and the videos. Between the videos and the "don't turn off while saving" screen. Between that and the main menu. Entering or exiting settings. I haven't even tried to play yet because if it's that bad in the menus I can't imagine how bad it'll be in game.


    I believe this bug is related to at least some of the "black screen" issues people have reported. When it happens before the loading screen it causes exactly that, a full screen of blackness. When it happens at the start of a cutscene it causes almost the same. The letterboxing on the scene seems to be slightly off from the blackout on the rest of the screen, and that stands out on my monitor thanks to TN panels' weirdness with blacks, but I could see how it wouldn't be obvious to someone not looking for it so it effectively seems like a mid-game "black screen".


    Since I have the problem in a reliably replicable form right now, I decided to do some testing. Here's what I've done so far:

    • Launch just through uPlay, not using Steam (game purchased on uPlay, I just use Steam as my game launcher normally)
    • Change display mode from Fullscreen to Borderless
    • Change display refresh rate from 144 to 60 Hz
    • Verify game content


    None of these things had any apparent effect.

    And here's my hardware:

    • AMD Phenom II X6 1045T (2.7GHz Hex-Core)
    • Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
    • 32GB DDR3-1333
    • EVGA GTX 970 Superclock
    • 120GB Intel 330 SSD (System, Boot)
    • 3TB Toshiba 7200RPM (Games)
    • Triple monitor, not "nVidia Surround" but three independent screens. Asus VG248QE (1920x1080@144) in the center where games run, Dell E207WFP on the left, Dell 2005FPW on the right. (Both 1680x1050@72Hz)
    • Since input devices seem to be relevant I have a Logitech G700s mouse, Logitech G15 (Gen1, blue with folding LCD) keyboard, Belkin-branded Nostromo n52, and an Xbox 360 controller via the official wireless ****le.


    All hardware is at the OEM clock speed, I am not overclocking or underclocking anything.

    The game is running at 1920x1080 with the quality set to "nVidia" mode. No hardware has changed while I've been playing the game. I am on version 1.4.0 and it patched before playing yesterday, so as far as I'm concerned it played better on 1.3.0.



    I'm going to try later tonight cutting my system down to a more "normal" configuration. Standard generic keyboard and mouse, one monitor running at 60 Hz, etc. If it works better then I guess it's just trial and error from there to find the problem.

    If anyone else is having similar issues where the game seems to be doing "something" but it's just not right, try alt tabbing. If it works for you please post here with the situation and anything you think may be relevant about your gaming setup. Let's see if we can figure this out.
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  2. #2

    me too

    that's a lot of words there, but a very well composed explanation. unfortunately the devs dont seem to be reading this forum, just some community manager who will direct you to customer support. i wonder why this forum gets ignored, it's a tech support forum where possible fixes can show up from google, opposed to private chats and emails...if a fix is posted here, isn't it more likely to be seen, thereby making less work for them?

    anyway, i believe alt+tab temporarily fixing (better yet, bypassing) the issue holds some significance, and i think it's worth looking into for a potential fix. what does alt+tab change or do differently that loads the game's triggers?

    i'm also getting stutters and no reticles on red dot sights. i'm on a sager np8130, i7-2630qm, gtx 560m, 8gb ram, win7 ult x64, official wired x360 controller.... they explicitly state that mobile system arent supported (despite running shadow of mordor and the evil within well, and running this fine among its errors) so im f'd every which way :/
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  3. #3
    So based on your only real similarities with my system being the nVidia GPU and the Xbox 360 controller, I decided to start with the 360 controller. I unplugged my play-n-charge cable and magically I could get through the intro videos and in to settings again without any trouble. Plug it back in and the problem returned. I could literally plug it in, click settings, have it "freeze", unplug the charge cable, and it would unfreeze and continue on.

    So at least my issue with it being much worse today than yesterday appears to be somehow related to having an Xbox 360 controller charging from my USB port. Mind you that the Xbox play-n-charge cable does *not* transfer data, it is merely a charging cord. The controller still uses the wireless ****le (haha silly forum swear filter is filtering don-gle) for input messages and that remained attached the entire time.

    It's late so tomorrow I'll try playing the game without the controller plugged in at all, but I'll be really disappointed if that's related in any way since I love that the game finally supports switching gamepad to keyboard/mouse on the fly. IIRC FC3 and Blood Dragon didn't do that. Gamepad is so much better for driving/flying, but the mouse's superiority when shooting is unquestionable.
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  4. #4

    The same problem here.

    Exact same problem as you guys! Another solution that works instead of Alt+tabbing is pausing(sometimes you can pause and bring up the menu screen), changing some random setting like subtitles and then resuming. It forces the game to save your settings and this triggers the next scene.

    I think the problem is related to the game not triggering certain events when you get passed a checkpoint... Sometimes, you'll open a door and it's obvious a triggered script is supposed to execute, but it fails to do so. This results in some rather comical scenarios involving character models stuck in their idle animations just standing there. Props that are supposed to attach to them are also hovering in the air.. At one point, right before you get to the first town, where the woman throws you the rope, you can even SEE the scripted trigger icon(something only supposed to be viewed in a game engine's debugging mode) where the rope should be.. Pause the game, change some settings, unpause, and presto! The rope animation is triggered where the icon used to be. I don't seem to get this problem on my AMD Phenom machine, though with similar specs to what I have below..

    Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.50GHz
    RAM
    8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz (7-7-7-20)
    Graphics
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
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  5. #5
    the issues with controllers and other usb devices was supposed to be addressed in patch 4, i'm wondering if they're aware it's not working
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  6. #6
    I finally got around to setting up my streaming software again and had it happen a few times while messing around today.

    http://www.twitch.tv/wolrah/b/593325993 (Warning, campaign mission, plot spoilers if you care).

    7:30 and 11:00 are the two earliest examples, black screen at the beginning of the cutscene at 7:30 and being trapped in a room because the game didn't move forward at 11:00. Another one at 16:00.

    Apologies for my mic being in the wrong spot and picking up my breath a few times. Also preemptive I suck at shooting from the Buzzer.
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  7. #7
    I have the exact same problem and having trouble finding a solution anywhere. My game isn't progressing anything anymore. It started out with just the reticle of the sight missing and having to alt tab once in a while, but now I have to alt tab every few seconds throughout a mission, and even to start up the main menu. I can't really play this way :/

    I was using a Xbox360 controller, switched to keyboard and mouse to see if the problem persisted. At first it got better, but immediatly after that it returned. I saw a fix somewhere to reinstall it in a different directory, but with steam that is really difficult and I can't really understand how that would work. I first had a illigal version to try if my pc could handle it, which it could, and had the same problem there, same as with the bought version now.

    Hopefully Ubisoft will fix this because I can't play like this..
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