Launching Cemu games from Bigbox gives black screen

[Glenn72]

I'm using a Onexplayer AMD 5800u with Windows 11 with Bigbox 12.13 and Cemu 1.26.2f.  All games work fine when launched from Launchbox, but when I try launching from Bigbox I get the Now Loading splash screen from Bigbox, but I get a black screen.  If I press alt + tab a few times I can cycle and find the Cemu game and play it from there, however this hurts the handheld experience.

To me it looks like the Bigbox splash screen is not minimizing and Cemu is not put as the main window.

All works fine from Launchbox, any ideas why this is happening in Bigbox?

[Cnells2000]

3 hours ago, Glenn72 said:

I'm using a Onexplayer AMD 5800u with Windows 11 with Bigbox 12.13 and Cemu 1.26.2f.  All games work fine when launched from Launchbox, but when I try launching from Bigbox I get the Now Loading splash screen from Bigbox, but I get a black screen.  If I press alt + tab a few times I can cycle and find the Cemu game and play it from there, however this hurts the handheld experience.

To me it looks like the Bigbox splash screen is not minimizing and Cemu is not put as the main window.

All works fine from Launchbox, any ideas why this is happening in Bigbox?

maybe disable splash screen in bigbox options?

[Glenn72]

Thanks for the suggestion, strangly enough that didn't seem to work as I still see the "Now Loading* screen even with that option not checked.

In Launchbox there is an option on Manage Emulator with " Attempt to hide console window 9n startup/shutdown ".

 

If I try again with that checked I get a black box error message from Bigbox that this command requires elevation.

If I start Bigbox as Run as Administrator than everything works.

 

So either I need to make Bigbox autoboot as Administrator or I need to reduce permissions somewhere in Windows 11.

[Glenn72]

Ok so what works if anyone else has this issue is to go to the Bigbox shortcut properties, Compatibility and check Run this program as Administrator.

Now when Bigbox boots up, I can launch Wiiu U games directly without having to Alt + Tab to find the Cemu window.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Glenn72 said:

Ok so what works if anyone else has this issue is to go to the Bigbox shortcut properties, Compatibility and check Run this program as Administrator.

Now when Bigbox boots up, I can launch Wiiu U games directly without having to Alt + Tab to find the Cemu window.

You should never run Launchbox as administrator, while it seems to help with Cemu, it will break a bunch of stuff with Launchbox. Turn it off and try to work out the actual issue with Cemu.

[Glenn72]

Thanks for the warning as Running Bigbox as an Administrator.

Its not an issue with Cemu or Launchbox, its a Windows 11 permissions issue that Bigbox is not able to hide the startup screen for Cemu.

 

I'll see if I can remove whatever Windows 11 permissions is stopping this from the normal Windows account.

[Glenn72]

Ok completely disabling Windows UAC from Regedit and rebooting Windows 11 has resolved the issue.

I had UAC already disabled via Windows GUI and still ran into the issue until I used Regedit to disable completely.

Now Bigbox with Cemu works as normal user.

[skizzosjt]

9 hours ago, Glenn72 said:

Ok completely disabling Windows UAC from Regedit and rebooting Windows 11 has resolved the issue.

I had UAC already disabled via Windows GUI and still ran into the issue until I used Regedit to disable completely.

Now Bigbox with Cemu works as normal user.

I don't have seem to have this issue. I can launch Cemu games from BigBox with the starting/ending screens and all works as intended. I would think you have some setting ticked somewhere causing your headaches, whether in BigBox or Cemu. I am on Win 10 instead, but I wouldn't know why 11 would be the culprit of the issue if it was. I do not use that "attempt to hide console on startup/shutdown" option (edit: even with this option ticked it still launches games fine in both LB and BB for me). Startup screen tab has just enabling the start and shutdown screens along with hide mouse cursor during game. Nothing else ticked. I do not have fullscreen ticked in Cemu either since you can use a switch (parameter), -f, to achieve that. I am using Cemu version 1.27.0b also. It's an experimental build that let me do something with compressing the game files into a single .wua file instead of having those ridiculous folder structures. I'd be surprised if that is why I am not having issues, using this particular version of the emulator, but thought it was worth mentioning. Otherwise, these settings still give you problems?

Edited July 14, 2022 by skizzosjt

[Glenn72]

You could be absolutely correct that it could be a Bigbox setting but I've pretty much left everything at default as Onexplayer is quite new to me and I'm still in the early setup stages .  I think the only thing that I've changed was adding controller support.

Personally, I've never been a fan of Windows UAC, but I understand that it's  probably a  good feature for someone with low PC knowledge.

I also have Bigbox running on my Gaming laptop with Windows 10 and I haven't ran into this issue  either.  However I wanted a true handheld gaming experience and the Onexplayer really delivers this.

[BrainyCabde]

2023 and this is still an issue. Launching Cemu games from Bigbox gives me a black screen when the game launches. Opening up task manager brings up the Cemu screen, but that's obviously a pain to do that every time. Has anyone ever found an actual fix for this issue?

Edit - I found this script on another page here in the forums. It works, but the LB startup screen for Cemu is white. It's better than the original issue at hand here, but I wish there was another way to fix it without making the startup screen white. Here is the script for those interested.

 

SetTitleMatchMode, 2

loop 20
{
	Sleep 500

	if WinExist("Cemu")
	{
		Sleep 1000
		WinActivate
		break
	}
}

Edited March 21, 2023 by BrainyCabde

[Glenn72]

For me disabling UAC in Windows and through the windows registry is what fixed it for me.

[BrainyCabde]

Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Thanks for the input though.

[skizzosjt]

I still can launch and close Cemu games fine with startup and shutdown screens enabled. It makes me wonder if some users may have something particular about their setup that is lending to the issue. It looks like everything is default for me. I've been using experimental versions due to they support the WUA file format. But I don't recall having issues with the normal stable releases either. So I downloaded the latest stable release and this version works OK too. I was thinking maybe had something to do with the experimental versions but that test tossed that theory out the window

 

[BrainyCabde]

Yeah, I reverted my settings to what you have and the issue came back. It could be due to the fact that I have multiple screens. I am only running my secondary screen in Windows by itself though, so I don't think it would cause any issues there(unless Launchbox just hates multiple screens, in which case more users would be complaining about these kinds of issues). Either way, I guess i'll just use the fix I posted above. If something ever comes up, i'll post back in this thread for an update.

 

Edit- Ok. So I updated Cemu to the newest version, and even with the script I posted above it still goes to a black screen after launching game. Not sure what is going on here, this is the only standalone emulator that gives me troubles with this so far. Guess i'll look around some more and see what I can dig up...

Edited March 22, 2023 by BrainyCabde

[BrainyCabde]

So I spent a ton of time trying to figure this out. I give up. I removed Cemu from PC. Reinstalled it and also removed Cemu from LB and re-added it back to LB. Nothing worked. I would love someone forever if they could help me with this.

[skizzosjt]

3 minutes ago, BrainyCabde said:

So I spent a ton of time trying to figure this out. I give up. I removed Cemu from PC. Reinstalled it and also removed Cemu from LB and re-added it back to LB. Nothing worked. I would love someone forever if they could help me with this.

Bummer man. sorry to hear it's still giving you a hard time! just to make sure you have ruled out this variable, have you tried booting up your system with just a single display and launched a game like that? I know what you were saying in a previous post, that if multi screen setups were generally problematic there would be a lot more groans and moans on the forum. but I just wanna make sure all variables could be eliminated, and multi screen is one of them.

any scaling being used? aka DPI settings set to anything besides 100%? scaling can cause funny stuff for some programs.

and to clarify, does this issue only occur when startup/shutdown screens are enabled? have you tried disabling those if you normally use them? that's another common culprit of getting a full screen black screen at game launch

assuming startup/shutdown screens are enabled, when this black screen issue does occur, can you click on your mouse and it makes the shutdown screen activate and once that fades out you can then see and use Cemu?

try removing the -f (fullscreen parameter) from the launching arguments. I'd be curious if the issue happens even if Cemu launches into a window rather than fullscreen.

 

 

 

so far I think you have eliminated settings within Cemu by reinstalling another instance of it. but it's unclear what else has been vetted out by any troubleshooting so I'm just spitballing with a handful of things I would check if it were me

 

[BrainyCabde]

Both my screens are on 100% scaling. I've tried running just one screen, no dice. I've also disabled startup screens, no dice. This issue is only with Cemu, all other standalone emulators I use are fine(Yuzu, Dolphin, Xenia, RPCS3, CXBX-R, etc.). Would my LB install be fine if I install a fresh copy over the one I already have? I just don't want to lose any settings that i've put together.

 

Edit- So I launched a Cemu game with both monitors running, and it worked fine. The reason I don't usually do this though, is other emulators will not launch on my secondary screen(4KTV). This is the only emulator that has had this problem. I wonder if theres a setting I can change to solve this through Cemu...

Edited March 23, 2023 by BrainyCabde

[BrainyCabde]

There's definitely something weird with the way LB and Cemu are interacting with each other here. LB has no problem running standalone emulators on just my second screen, none of them turn black. I'd run LB with both screens turned on at the same time, but some of the other standalone emulators don't remember screen position and launch on my primary screen, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of LB in the first place.

 

Edit- For reference, my first screen is a 1440p monitor, and my second screen is a LG CX TV at 4K.

Edited March 23, 2023 by BrainyCabde

[skizzosjt]

20 hours ago, BrainyCabde said:

There's definitely something weird with the way LB and Cemu are interacting with each other here. LB has no problem running standalone emulators on just my second screen, none of them turn black. I'd run LB with both screens turned on at the same time, but some of the other standalone emulators don't remember screen position and launch on my primary screen, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of LB in the first place.

 

Edit- For reference, my first screen is a 1440p monitor, and my second screen is a LG CX TV at 4K.

huh, I was thinking it was the opposite thing going on. like you had two screens going and thought that might be lending to the issue. didn't see that one coming, using two screens is the solution. emulators and the PC system can sometimes have a fickle relationship lol - 1 day it works fine - next day "wtf is this black screen doing here!?" 🤷‍♂️

[BrainyCabde]

Yeah, only problem is it's only a solution for Cemu. If I use both screens at the same time for other emulators, they won't remember the screen that I want to play on. PCSX2 for example will only launch on my primary screen if both screens are enabled. There's a couple others that do the same thing too. I'd prefer to just have both enabled, but most emulators are just going to launch on my 1440p monitor. I've looked for apps that allow picking a monitor per application, but none of them seem to work anyways. Either way, i'll try to get that script running with LB again to see if it will work.