Why does a black screen appear on my device?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi forums,

Before I say anything, you should know that I have a Galaxy Nexus and I programmed my game on a Windows 7 Simulator. Also, I’m pretty sure I have the latest version of Corona SDK because I downloaded it just a few months ago.

My app works fine on the simulator, but I have this problem that I keep on getting a black screen after my splash screen loads on my device. I know that filenames are case sensitive on devices but not on simulators, so I changed all of my filenames to lowercase and display.newImage(“image.png”)'s to lowercase, too. All of my images are .png.

I tried to connect my device to my computer and use adb logcat to see the console.log, but adb doesn’t sense my

So how come I get this? I can’t seem to find a solution when I google this. Please help me!

#2

Hi @cozymonster,

If you downloaded Corona a few months ago, you likely do not have the most current version. We are releasing new public builds more often now, so chances are you have an older version. You can check by going to the Simulator and getting the “about” info. The latest public version is 2013.1137, so if you have earlier than that, please upgrade and see if the issue persists.

Also, pertaining to the “black screen”, please read this tutorial:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/07/09/tutorial-basic-debugging/

Regards,

Brent

P.S. - I’m aware of your request for a name change, but there’s some issue in our forum software today which is preventing me from doing it. If I don’t get it done in a few days, can you please remind me, just in case? Thanks!

#3

I checked my version by doing Help > About and I had 2013.1137 - it’s the new version, so it I don’t think that’s the case with the black screen  :(. I’ve read that article before so that’s how I know about it.

I’ll remind you if you forget…

#4

I found this tutorial and that’s why I didn’t have a debugging thing.

http://visualgdb.com/tutorials/android/usbdebug/j

So now adb senses my device. I found the issue with the black screen.

Is the forum software bug gone today?

#5

Hi @cozymonster,

If you downloaded Corona a few months ago, you likely do not have the most current version. We are releasing new public builds more often now, so chances are you have an older version. You can check by going to the Simulator and getting the “about” info. The latest public version is 2013.1137, so if you have earlier than that, please upgrade and see if the issue persists.

Also, pertaining to the “black screen”, please read this tutorial:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/07/09/tutorial-basic-debugging/

Regards,

Brent

P.S. - I’m aware of your request for a name change, but there’s some issue in our forum software today which is preventing me from doing it. If I don’t get it done in a few days, can you please remind me, just in case? Thanks!

#6

I checked my version by doing Help > About and I had 2013.1137 - it’s the new version, so it I don’t think that’s the case with the black screen  :(. I’ve read that article before so that’s how I know about it.

I’ll remind you if you forget…

#7

I found this tutorial and that’s why I didn’t have a debugging thing.

http://visualgdb.com/tutorials/android/usbdebug/j

So now adb senses my device. I found the issue with the black screen.

Is the forum software bug gone today?

#8

Hi cozymonster29,

I’m facing the same issue that you reported on these Android devices viz. Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy-Note, Nexus 7. My splash screen loads up, but then immediately after it, I get a black screen, and then the main scene of  my game shows up. I’d appreciate if you could let me know what was the issue that you found with the black screen, and if you could share the same, that’d be great.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

#9

if your device is not being detected by ADB  you should check if the drivers for your divice is installed on your computer propperly.

dose the CMD say “----wating for device—”??. if it say so it could be your divers. also  try  

"adb kill-server"

  and then

adb start-server

this should  refresh the logcat and then try your corona command  

"adb logcat Corona:v \*:s"

and see if your device show the logcat, this could help you solve your problem.

if you have any questions ask me  i am here to help

Sean:

From Boxing Studio Games

#10

Thanks for the reply Sean. I appreciate it, unfortunately, I was looking at the solution that cozymonster29 used to fix the black screen issue that he saw on his Android device. I’m able to capture adb logs from the device, but I don’t see anything untoward there, and am not able to figure out if there’s a setting in the build.settings or config.lua I need to make or is there any other solution to the black screen problem.

I’m using 2013.2100 version of the Corona SDK though.

Thanks for your help though!

#11

 Hey vgtrnd  I never encounter  this issue with corona so  this a obscure problem to me. But I know one thing when corona gives problems like this your SDK needs to be updated or uninstall and reinstall back.  I hope cozymonster29 did solve this problem and could share it with us. Also try to rebuild your APK file and then reinstall it to your device and see if you still encounter this problem.

any questions ask me… hope this help

Sean :

From Boxing Studio Games

#12

Most likely if “it works in the sim but not on the device”, and in particular if it’s working on none of your devices, you have an error in your code.  The best guess is it’s a file name case sensitivity problem.  Devices are case sensitive where the sim is not.  So:

image.PNG

image.png

are different files on the device.  Any where you use a file name, or a scene name if you’re using storyboard, it’s suspect to a case sensitivity problem.  These errors however manifest themselves in your device’s console log.   This tutorial is very good at helping you make sure you can see that log:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/07/09/tutorial-basic-debugging/

Now, it’s common practice to do:  adb logcat Corona:v *:s

But that only shows you messages generated by the Corona activity.  There could be other things generating errors outside of Corona, so also make sure to do:   adb logcat

and look through the ton of messages that will come at you for any errors when you try to run your app.  I find it best to let the adb logcat kind of calm down then run your app so you can have a better idea of which messages are coming from trying to run your app.

Now we do have an issue that’s still in 2100 with some Android device’s black screening because their GPU’s.  These are generally devices with Tegra 2 chipsets. This has been fixed in a later daily build.  But you mention an Nexus 7 (which I have) and it’s not subject to this Tegra 2 problem.

Rob

#13

Thanks for the response, Rob. I did a adb logcat, and I didn’t find anything weird in the logs. They appear normal. In fact I had posted the logs on the other thread. http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/44036-black-screen-appears-immediately-after-the-launch-imagesplash-screen-shows-up-stays-for-a-second-and-then-transitions-to-the-main-game-screen/

Not sure if it helps!

#14

Hi cozymonster29,

I’m facing the same issue that you reported on these Android devices viz. Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy-Note, Nexus 7. My splash screen loads up, but then immediately after it, I get a black screen, and then the main scene of  my game shows up. I’d appreciate if you could let me know what was the issue that you found with the black screen, and if you could share the same, that’d be great.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

#15

if your device is not being detected by ADB  you should check if the drivers for your divice is installed on your computer propperly.

dose the CMD say “----wating for device—”??. if it say so it could be your divers. also  try  

"adb kill-server"

  and then

adb start-server

this should  refresh the logcat and then try your corona command  

"adb logcat Corona:v \*:s"

and see if your device show the logcat, this could help you solve your problem.

if you have any questions ask me  i am here to help

Sean:

From Boxing Studio Games

#16

Thanks for the reply Sean. I appreciate it, unfortunately, I was looking at the solution that cozymonster29 used to fix the black screen issue that he saw on his Android device. I’m able to capture adb logs from the device, but I don’t see anything untoward there, and am not able to figure out if there’s a setting in the build.settings or config.lua I need to make or is there any other solution to the black screen problem.

I’m using 2013.2100 version of the Corona SDK though.

Thanks for your help though!

#17

 Hey vgtrnd  I never encounter  this issue with corona so  this a obscure problem to me. But I know one thing when corona gives problems like this your SDK needs to be updated or uninstall and reinstall back.  I hope cozymonster29 did solve this problem and could share it with us. Also try to rebuild your APK file and then reinstall it to your device and see if you still encounter this problem.

any questions ask me… hope this help

Sean :

From Boxing Studio Games

#18

Most likely if “it works in the sim but not on the device”, and in particular if it’s working on none of your devices, you have an error in your code.  The best guess is it’s a file name case sensitivity problem.  Devices are case sensitive where the sim is not.  So:

image.PNG

image.png

are different files on the device.  Any where you use a file name, or a scene name if you’re using storyboard, it’s suspect to a case sensitivity problem.  These errors however manifest themselves in your device’s console log.   This tutorial is very good at helping you make sure you can see that log:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/07/09/tutorial-basic-debugging/

Now, it’s common practice to do:  adb logcat Corona:v *:s

But that only shows you messages generated by the Corona activity.  There could be other things generating errors outside of Corona, so also make sure to do:   adb logcat

and look through the ton of messages that will come at you for any errors when you try to run your app.  I find it best to let the adb logcat kind of calm down then run your app so you can have a better idea of which messages are coming from trying to run your app.

Now we do have an issue that’s still in 2100 with some Android device’s black screening because their GPU’s.  These are generally devices with Tegra 2 chipsets. This has been fixed in a later daily build.  But you mention an Nexus 7 (which I have) and it’s not subject to this Tegra 2 problem.

Rob

#19

Thanks for the response, Rob. I did a adb logcat, and I didn’t find anything weird in the logs. They appear normal. In fact I had posted the logs on the other thread. http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/44036-black-screen-appears-immediately-after-the-launch-imagesplash-screen-shows-up-stays-for-a-second-and-then-transitions-to-the-main-game-screen/

Not sure if it helps!