Mac black screen with sounds only

Hi,

Game downloads and installs ok but when run through Steam all i get is a black window with the tweeting bird sounds. I have tried the following:

1. deleting and resintalling
2. changing to Beta version and back again
3. removing steam overlay
4. running outside of steam straight from the terminal

There are a few people i can see with the issue from Reddit etc so any help would be appreciated. I have many hours to waste and will have to go outside if the game wont work! (ARGH)

 

What's your operating system version?

 

Latest version 10.11

 

I have the same problem. It works on my mac mini but not on my macbook pro

 

Hi, I'm one of the guys from the reddit thread on this issue. I've got the same issue as OP.

I have updated my Macbook Pro to the latest operating system version, all my drivers are up to date, and I far exceed the minimum requirements listed for the game. But the game still won't do anything except the black screen with birds chirping. I was previously playing the game via Wine on the same machine, if that is relevant.

I've tried:

• Deleting local content, closing steam, redownloading, and reinstalling with no success.

• Verifying the game cache with no success.

• Fiddling with the steam overlay options with no success.

• Fiddling around with setting launch options with no success.

So basically I've tried everything I can think of, and I'm considering just continuing to play the game via Wine, even though that seems absurd given that there is now an official Mac version out.

 

We haven't been able to reproduce this ourselves yet, but we're looking into it. Can you tell me if there's anything recorded in ~/StardewValley/ErrorLogs ?

EDIT: And could you link the reddit thread? I couldn't find it myself and the more information the better

 

I'm having the exact same issue as white___velvet. Also, I don't have an ErrorLogs folder/file.

 

Thanks.

I kinda misspoke; there really isn't a "thread" on reddit so much as people asking for help in a couple different places post-launch. And all the ones I personally saw were just saying the same things.

Looking through my local game content via Steam, I don't have any file or folder named "ErrorLogs" or anything similar. Again, the game doesn't ever actually crash, so maybe it just doesn't generate an error log?

Not sure if relevant, but I found some people who had a similar issue with the Windows version and fixed it by doing the following: "go to %appdata%, find the Stardew Valley folder and delete the file called startup_preferences and restart the game." I've no idea what the Mac equivalent would be, however.

 

I have the same problem. Black screen with background sounds. Can't play

 

Same problem here - black window w/ bird sounds. Running on a MacBook Pro Retina Early 2013, Mac OS X 10.11.6.
--- Post updated ---

Hmm, this is interesting - running the app as root (e.g "sudo ./StardewValley.bin.osx" from the app's directory) causes it to work normally, without the sudo gives the black screen. So it appears there's some permissions/privilege issue that's blocking the graphics...

 

Can confirm that running as root works for me as well. Didn't get into the guts of the game but hit main menu with no issues when run using sudo

 

I also got it working with sudo.

 

Running as root also worked for me. Glad to know there is a workaround

But I'd still rather not have to launch the game as root every time I want to play. Any chance there is a way to get it working just via clicking Play on Steam?

 

Yea I can get it running on root as well.

 

Running things as root is generally not a good idea, so i'm considering it more of a troubleshooting datapoint than a valid workaround at the moment.

Also of note: When running normally (not with sudo as root) the steam overlay DOES show up.

 

under /Users/[username]/.config/StardewValley/ is a file named startup_preferences but deleting it doesn't do anything

 

I found the problem! Or my problem at least -- you were very close here. Hopefully this will help otheres: the .config directory in my homedir was owned by root. Moving it aside ('sudo mv -i ~/.config ~/.config.disable') fixed the issue -- the game would launch normally from steam! I tested recreating an empty .config owned by root afterwards, and the behaviour reverted to the black screen - so definitely the issue for me.

I suspect this root-owned .config dir predated installing Stardew Valley - it also contained files for "Dwarf Therapist" -- a Dwarf Fortress helper app that I haven't used in quite a while.

 

for those of you having this problem can you

a) check for this "root" .config folder (it should NOT be owned by root that is really bad). The folder should be owned by your user.
b) failing that from the terminal

export MONO_LOG_LEVEL=debug
Run StartdewValley manually form the terminal It will probably be in .steam/steam/steamapps/common/Stardew\ Valley\
Then post the results on pastebin or something similar. That will help us diagnose the issue.

 

Is it as simple as GetInfo to establish folder ownership?
If it is owned by root then will that require any changes by the user? Or is this just fort information right now?

 

Thanks a million friend!

This fixed my issue as well; the game now launches normally from Steam with no issues. My folder, interestingly enough, also contained some old Dwarf Therapist files from when I played DF years ago.