Project not loaded after installing 1.9

Ray_Rune · October 25, 2024, 6:58am

I cannot sure the exact problem, so I will describe precisely as much as I can dive into it.

Project was file frozen from 1.8.2. While opening, this message showed up in front of the blank white window.

Loading scene is failed, and could not open any scene manually.
This is the log message - did not detected any Windows platform toolchain.

[Info] Missing MSVC toolset v140 or later (VS 2015 or later C++ build tools). Cannot build for Windows platform.
[Info] Exception: Platform Windows has no required SDK installed and cannot be used.

FYI, Sample project was loaded without problem - so toolchain detection only fails with this specific project.

================================================================
[ 00:00:03.067 ]: [Info] Compiling shader ‘C:\Program Files (x86)/Flax/Flax_1.9/Content/Shaders/DebugDraw.flax’:00000384a94976ba0000004400000077…
[ 00:00:03.069 ]: [Info] Starting scripts compilation…
[ 00:00:03.070 ]: [Info] Command: C:\Program Files (x86)/Flax/Flax_1.9/Binaries/Tools/Flax.Build.exe -log -logfile= -build -mutex -buildtargets=GameEditorTarget -skiptargets=FlaxEditor -platform=Windows -arch=x64 -configuration=Development
[ 00:00:03.080 ]: [Info] Shader compilation ‘DebugDraw’ succeed in 13 ms (profile: DirectX SM5)
[ 00:00:03.080 ]: [Info] Shader ‘FlaxEngine.Shader, 00000384a94976ba0000004400000077, C:\Program Files (x86)/Flax/Flax_1.9/Content/Shaders/DebugDraw.flax’ compiled! Cache size: 2890 bytes
[ 00:00:03.133 ]: [Info] Flax.Build 1.0.0
[ 00:00:03.220 ]: [Info] Building targets…
[ 00:00:03.238 ]: [Info] Missing Android SDK. Cannot build for Android platform.
[ 00:00:03.250 ]: [Info] Missing MSVC toolset v140 or later (VS 2015 or later C++ build tools). Cannot build for Windows platform.
[ 00:00:03.252 ]: [Info] Exception: Platform Windows has no required SDK installed and cannot be used.
Stack trace:
[ 00:00:03.259 ]: [Info] at Flax.Build.Platform.GetToolchain(TargetArchitecture targetArchitecture) in F:\FlaxEngine\Source\Tools\Flax.Build\Build\Platform.cs:line 276
at Flax.Build.Builder.BuildTargets() in F:\FlaxEngine\Source\Tools\Flax.Build\Build\Builder.cs:line 362
at Flax.Build.Program.Main() in F:\FlaxEngine\Source\Tools\Flax.Build\Program.cs:line 152
Total time: 00:00:00.1406116
[ 00:00:03.265 ]: [Error] Failed to run build tool, result: 1
[ 00:00:03.295 ]: [Info] Editor end init
[ 00:00:03.295 ]: [Info] Changing editor state from FlaxEditor.States.LoadingState to FlaxEditor.States.EditingSceneState
[ 00:00:03.303 ]: [Info] Searching for valid Control
[ 00:00:03.307 ]: [Info] Found 24 types (in 4 ms)
[ 00:00:03.308 ]: [Info] Searching for valid Actor
[ 00:00:03.309 ]: [Info] Found 52 types (in 0 ms)
[ 00:00:03.375 ]: [Info] Loading editor windows layout from ‘Y:\HyperTactics/Cache/WindowsLayout.xml’
[ 00:00:03.375 ]: [Warning] Cannot load windows layout. File is missing.
[ 00:00:03.375 ]: [Info] Loading editor windows layout from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)/Flax/Flax_1.9/Content/Editor/LayoutDefault.xml’
[ 00:00:03.391 ]: [Info] Closing splash screen
[ 00:00:03.392 ]: [Info] Loading default project scene
[ 00:00:03.393 ]: [Info] Changing editor state from FlaxEditor.States.EditingSceneState to FlaxEditor.States.ChangingScenesState
[ 00:00:03.396 ]: [Info] Loading scene…
[ 00:00:03.396 ]: [Error] Cannot load scene without game modules loaded.
[ 00:02:53.731 ]: [Error] Failed to deserialize scene 8401e1a14006abb6fa1f2aa560c16752
[ 00:02:53.733 ]: [Info] Changing editor state from FlaxEditor.States.ChangingScenesState to FlaxEditor.States.EditingSceneState

Editor Options does not recognize my VS installation, so Editor cannot let VS open the solution file from ‘Open Script Project’ menu.

Manually opening .sln file with VS shows only Build Scripts - no game files, no plugins, etc.

Also, every plugins are all gone. Nothing showed in plugin window, not included in build projtect.
They are still exist in /Plugins/ directory, but not recognized.

I think somehow Flax fails to recognize existing compilation toolchain,
but cannot figure out how to manually fix it globally or project by project.
There is no ‘Compiler / MSVC selection’ like options in Game Settings / Editor Options menu or Build Settings, and no configurable things in Launcher Engine list.

Is there any way to manually find and assign compiler build environment?

mafiesto4 · October 25, 2024, 8:56am

What Visual Studio version do you have? Does it contain required components for C#/C++ scripting (C++ if your project uses C++).
You could try running VS Launcher option to verify/repair the installation of MSVC.

That’s the logic we use to find toolsets based on VS Installation location:

github.com

FlaxEngine/FlaxEngine/blob/master/Source/Tools/Flax.Build/Platforms/Windows/WindowsPlatformBase.cs#L265

    
      
                      else
                          Log.Warning("Found Unsupported MSVC toolset version: " + version);
                  }
              }
          }
          
          
/// <summary>
          /// Finds all the directories containing the Windows platform toolset.
          /// </summary>
          /// <returns>The collection of installed toolsets.</returns>
          public static Dictionary<WindowsPlatformToolset, string> GetToolsets()
          {
              if (_toolsets != null)
                  return _toolsets;
              _toolsets = new Dictionary<WindowsPlatformToolset, string>();
          
          
    // Skip if running on non-Windows system
              if (BuildTargetPlatform != TargetPlatform.Windows)
                  return _toolsets;
          
          
    var vsInstances = VisualStudioInstance.GetInstances();

So for VS 2017-2022 is looks up in <VS_Folder>\VS\Tools\MSVC\<toolset_version>\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe

Ray_Rune · October 25, 2024, 9:09am

I’m using VS 2022, and cl.exe resides in
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.39.33519\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe

It looks like somehow OS does not report VS existence correctly

github.com

FlaxEngine/FlaxEngine/blob/master/Source/Tools/Flax.Build/Projects/VisualStudio/VisualStudioInstance.cs#L124

    
      
          while (true)
          {
              enumerator.Next(1, instances, out int fetchedCount);
              if (fetchedCount == 0)
                  break;
          
          
    ISetupInstance2 instance = (ISetupInstance2)instances[0];
              if ((instance.GetState() & InstanceState.Local) == InstanceState.Local)
              {
                  VisualStudioVersion version;
                  string displayName = instance.GetDisplayName();
                  if (displayName.Contains("2017"))
                      version = VisualStudioVersion.VisualStudio2017;
                  else if (displayName.Contains("2019"))
                      version = VisualStudioVersion.VisualStudio2019;
                  else if (displayName.Contains("2022"))
                      version = VisualStudioVersion.VisualStudio2022;
                  else
                  {
                      Log.Warning(string.Format("Unknown Visual Studio installation. Display name: {0}", displayName));
                      continue;

Might be from this API

VS is just there and works itself as well… is there any way to nudge the version to the Flax?

mafiesto4 · October 25, 2024, 5:04pm

You could try using master branch (eg. tomorrow build via Launcher or compiled manually) as I updated that Microsoft lib here: Update `Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Configuration.Interop.dll` from … · FlaxEngine/FlaxEngine@1f71a5a · GitHub

Maybe they fixed this issue of VS detection on your machine.

OlanderDA · October 28, 2024, 2:30pm

Maybe an option. I did not have this issue but I am not installed in the default location.

Many software (especially industrial) have issues with the C:\Program Files\ and C:\Program Files (x86)\ and C:\Program Data\ locations because of Windows Security Aliasing (for a good reason).

Any industrial and game (niche) software I always install either in a separate drive D:\ or C:\Utility
When doing this I have no issues with software in regards to Windows 7/10/11.

For clarity:
D:\Flax
D:\Flax Projects
D:\VS2022