In-game Text Turns Black After Setting Up ES3/Auto Save

[lcn_mc]

Good afternoon!

I've run into an issue with all of my in-game text turning black, and after doing a bit of internet and Moodkie forum research, the problem looks to be related to the Auto Save feature in ES3. (I've also had ES3 installed in my Unity project months without any issue, but after implementing Auto Save this past weekend, the 'text turns black' issue manifested instantly, which leads me to believe that ES3's Auto Save is the culprit.)

Here are the details from my Unity project:

• Editor Version: 2021.3.18f1
• Easy Save Version: 3.5.6
• Other Notes: I'm using the Playmaker and Dialogue System for Unity plugins

I've observed that I can temporarily fix the issue by reimporting Easy Save 3, but that only works for one cycle of playing in the editor. (After I finish playing in editor and stop doing so, the issue will return the next time I do.)

I've read past forum threads on this issue (with one from 2020 being the most-recent), but there didn't look to be a resolution in there.

Any assistance or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Joel]

Hi there,

This issue was resolved quite a long time ago and we've had no other reports of it since, and it doesn't appear to be happening at my end with the repro case we've used previously. Please could you replicate this in a new project containing only Easy Save with a simple scene and private message it to me with instructions.

All the best,
Joel

[lcn_mc]

Joel,

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into trying to replicate this in another project and send it over. Simultaneously, I'll try some further experiments to see if turning off Autosave (or removing ES3 from my project) fixes the issue, to make sure it's not something else causing this black text bug.

I'll be back in touch when I have an update.

[lcn_mc]

Joel,

Interesting update for you, that I found while doing some experiments: The black text issue is completely resolved if I delete the "Easy Save 3 Manager' game object from the scene where the issue was occurring.

I first tried disabling it (which didn't do anything), then I tried ensuring that no game objects had the Auto Save script (which also did nothing), then I tried disabling the ES3 Auto Save script on the Easy Save 3 Manager game object (which did nothing, neither when the object was active, nor inactive), and finally I tried simply deleting the Easy Save 3 Manager game object as part of turning off auto save completely - and that final step worked.

For the time being, I can work around this issue by simply avoiding auto save as (for better or worse) my game's save data is fairly simple and all I need to do is write a (long) string value, which I can accomplish with ES3 in general.

I'm also not sure that I'll be able to send a repro project, as setting up another scene would require a lot of additional plugin setups/configs, which I don't think I'll have time for at the moment. (That and weeding out any kind of proprietary info.)

I'm hopeful, minimally, the notes above might provide some insight into this phantom 'text turns black' issue and what parts of ES3 seem to be involved with it.

Let me know if there's any other easy data I can provide to help you, like exporting logs or doing some further testing with changed settings.

Thanks!

[Joel]

Hi there,

Unfortunately it wouldn't be possible for me to understand what is happening without a repro case as we've had no other reports of this, but I'm glad you've found a workaround

All the best,
Joel