BATTLETECH - Black screen after initial credit logos [Linux]

[elfus]

One line summary of your issue
Black screen after initial credit logos

What platform are you running the game on?

Steam

What operating system do you use?
Fedora 29
Which version of the game are you running?
1.8.1
What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint,
Urban Warfare,
Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
1. Downloaded Game on Steam Linux and encountered the problem described here https://steamcommunity.com/app/6370...6976277/?tscn=1579461873#c3047182953364961872

I fixed that by deleting that libc.so file. Now the game opens

2. Start the game, initial credit logos appear. After the last logo (the one that says "Made with unity") the screen goes black, the cursor disappears.

3. When you move the mouse on the top left corner the text "PRESS [ESC] TO SKIP" The screen just sits there. Nothing ever happens. I've waited for about 30 minutes and the same thing happens.

I am using a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and I installed the latest propietary nVidia video drivers 440.44

I just noticed the very first error is a problem loading the shaders. And you might think this is a video driver issue, but I hardly think this is the case. The reason for this is that I have installed the BETA 1.6.2 on this same Fedora 29 setup and I was able to play BATTLETECH with no problems.

I must say that I have it installed on windows 7 as well and I have 60+ hours of playtime so I know my hardware handles the game.

Any help is highly appreciated, I really love this game and would love to play it on Linux
Have you tried verifying your files?
No

Steps to reproduce the issue
Open the game through Steam, click on Play.

Wait for the black screen.

Attach DxDiag (PC), System Info log (Mac), or run sudo lshw -html > specs.html and uploaded specs.html (Linux)

Attach Output Log
Windows: \Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\output_log.txt
Mac OS: Users >{name} > Library > Logs > Unity > Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/Player.log

If the game crashed, please attach the crash file with the time stamp closest to the crash.
Windows: [Steam library folder]\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\DumpBox
For v.17 and beyond try here: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
OSX: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps > common > BattleTech > DumpBox
Linux: [Steam library folder]/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/DumpBox

If a save game was loaded at the start of the game session, upload it. Please make sure to upload the save game with the timestamp closest to when you loaded it.
Windows:
Steam: [Steam installation folder]\userdata[SteamID]\637090\remote\C0\SGS1
GOG: 'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\50593543263669699\Storage\Shared\Files\C#\SGS#'
Vanilla:'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BattleTech\C#\SGS#'
OSX:
Steam: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > userdata > [SteamID] > 637090 > remote > C#> SGS#
GOG: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > GOG.com > Galaxy > Applications > 50593543263669699 > Storage > Shared > Files > C# > SGS#
Vanilla: Macintosh HD > Users > [username]> Library > Application Support > unity.Harebrained Schemes.BattleTech > C# > SGG#
Linux:
Steam: /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[steamID]/637090/remote/C#/SGS#
GOG: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
Vanilla: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/

Attach screenshot / video

 

[AndrewT]

I just noticed the very first error is a problem loading the shaders. And you might think this is a video driver issue, but I hardly think this is the case.

That message happens on all Linux and Mac (ie openGL) installations and is nothing to do with your problem.

What is causing your problem I do not know! After al those errors, the game appears to load just fine and is sitting there until you exit it. However the fact 1.6.2 works is a pointer back to a video issue ... !

Any chance you could try it on the supported distro Ubuntu instead?

 

[elfus]

Thanks for replying AndrewT

For the time being I cannot try Ubuntu, may be in a couple of weeks. However, do you have any other suggestions I could try?

 

[AndrewT]

We get no clue as to the problem in that log, so we are reduced to guessing possible causes.

The part where it hangs is where the intro video is shown. So I guess that also points to an issue in the video area. But I'm not aware of any way of stopping it playing, unfortunately.

Do you have any other Unity games?

 

[elfus]

No, I don't have other Unity games.

But hey! Good news! I managed to find the solution.

I noticed when I ran steam from the command line to see more of the output other than what's in Player.log I noticed the following:

Unable to preload the following plugins:
libBink2x64.so
libopenal.so.1
libsndio.so.6.1
Display 0 'ASUS VE278 27"': 1920x1080 (primary device).

Then basically I did what this guy SeulDragon mentioned in post battletech-black-screen-on-start-up-linux.1132591 ( seems I cannot post links because I'm the new kid on the block) but here is a copy and paste from his solution

I just (minutes ago) ran into this after rebuilding my Linux machine. Since it worked before the rebuild, I knew it should. Running a 750ti with the 415.25 nvidia driver on kernel 4.19.15.

Turns out I was missing a sound library (OpenAL) and SDL2 (media player library). Installing them allowed the plugins to load, the movies to play, and I am back in the saddle.

To trace down what libraries I was missing, I did the following:

• cd into the BattleTech_Data/Plugins/x86_64 directory of the game install location
• run ldd against each plugin that is says failed to preload
• look for any that say not found (i.e, libopenal.so.1 => not found)
• figure out what provides the library
• install that
• do the next one.

For the libbink ones, it was the OpenAL library which was missing.

I hope this helps!

I went to <Steam>/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/Plugins/x86_64 and ran ldd through all the .so files in there and for my particular case libopenal depended on libsndio which depended on libbsd. Both libsndio and libBink2x64 depended on libbsd which I did not have installed. So in my fedora 29 setup I just did sudo dnf install libbsd et voilá the game now opens.

I managed to get to the menu screen and evertyhing fine. I did not play because I had to leave and wanted to post all this before I forgot it. I'll play tonight to see how it goes.

Thanks for the help.

 

[elfus]

So I managed to play one mission and went just fine.

Thanks!

 

[Teggs]

Thank you very much for posting that, Elfus. And to Wumpus. It solves the same problem for me, and I will link from another thread with the same issue.

libbsd:

'This library provides useful functions commonly found on BSD systems, and lacking on others like GNU systems, thus making it easier to port projects with strong BSD origins, without needing to embed the same code over and over again on each project.'

Who thought it was a good idea to have BSD dependencies in a Linux build?