How to fix a blank screen when opening Lumion?

You just installed Lumion and the problem is that there is a blank screen when you open it. There is no error message to figure out exactly what problem it is like in the image below. So, in this article, iRender will guide you through some ways to fix a blank screen when opening Lumion. Let’s get started!

Let’s jump up to the first way to fix a blank screen. If your graphics card PassMark score is below the minimum requirement like the image below, it does not meet the minimum requirement. In case you try to use this graphics card anyway, you will experience glitches and crashes.

If you think your graphics card meets the requirements, or are unsure, then follow these 3 ways  to send Lumion a Diagnostics Report via the Contact Us button on the Support page.

The Diagnostics Report is a text file that contains hardware and software information about the PC to help diagnose problems. Technical support staff members may ask you to attach a Diagnostics Report to a Lumion Support Center topic from time to time when working to resolve a problem. Here’s the example of a Diagnostics Report.

After that, click on the Files button in the lower right corner followed by the Benchmark button.

Click on the Create diagnostic file button:

Then, a Windows Explorer window will display this folder: \Documents\Lumion [Version]

Wait for a few moments until a file called DXDiag_Lumion.txt appears.

Note: For Lumion 11.3  and newer, the information will be added in a folder named “techsupport” (image below).

Finally, send Lumion Support Center the contents of the techsupport folder or the DXDiag_Lumion.txt file, depending on Lumion’s version. 

Right-click on the Windows Start button and select the Run command:

In the text field of the window that pops up, type “DXDiag” and press ENTER:

Click the button Run 64-bit DxDiag (if this button is shown) and wait for it to restart. DirectX will generate the report and display the following window after a minute or two:

Click on the Save All Information button to save the Diagnostics Report to a dxdiag.txt file.Finally, send Lumion Support Center the DXDiag.txt file.

If you would like to analyze a Diagnostics Report yourself, you can follow the following steps.

The first step is to generate a DXDiag_Lumion.txt file on the relevant computer.

Open the DXDiag_Lumion.txt file in Notepad or any other text editor.

Verify that all available Windows 10 or Windows 11 updates have been installed

Lumion requires that you install the most recent Windows 10 or Windows 11 updates.

• • • • Press CTRL + F and type ‘Operating System‘ to locate this entry in the file.
      • Verify that the date of the latest Windows Build version is from December 2019 or later. For example: Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 19041). (19041.vb_release.191206-1406): ‘191206’ means 2019 December 6.
      • If the latest Windows update is older than that, please install the latest available updates

Verify that the graphics card meets the minimum system requirements

• • • • In Notepad, Press CTRL + F and type ‘Card name‘ to locate this entry in the file. If there is more than one entry (i.e. two graphics cards), you need the name of the card that is connected to the monitor that the Lumion window is running on. The name will either begin with ‘Nvidia’ or ‘AMD’. Any other graphics card name, for example ‘Intel HD’, indicates that it is unsuitable for running Lumion.
      • Use the card name from the Diagnostics Report to verify that it meets the minimum system requirements

Verify that the graphics card driver is recent

Lumion requires that a recent graphics card driver be installed.

• • • • In Notepad, Press CTRL + F and type ‘Driver Date‘ to locate this entry in the file.
      • Please verify that the graphics card driver version is not older than 3 months. For example: Driver Date/Size: 24/02/2022 01:00:00
      • If the date is older than 3 months, please install the latest available graphics card driver version

Verify that there is sufficient System Memory

If render engine runs out of Graphics Card Memory, Windows will allocate more memory in System Memory.

• • • • In Notepad, click at the top of the text. Then press CTRL + F and type ‘Memory‘ to locate this entry in the file.
      • Please verify that the Memory number is higher than the minimum system requirements: (Lumion 9.5 and older: 8 GB; Lumion 10.0 and newer: 16 GB)
      • If the number is lower than the minimum system requirements, please contact the manufacturer of your computer and ask them how to install more System Memory.

Verify that there is sufficient Virtual Memory

• • • • In Notepad, press CTRL + F and type ‘Page File’ to locate this entry in the file.
      • Add the ‘Used‘ number to the ‘Available‘ number to verify that the total number is higher than 51200 (50 GB): For example: Page File: 12448 MB Used, 38892 MB Available
      • If the total is lower than 51200 (50 GB), please follow these instructions to increase the amount of Virtual Memory
      • If you experience issues when rendering complex Projects/Scenes in Lumion, you may need to increase the amount of Virtual Memory to 100 GB or even 150 GB.

Verify that there is sufficient free space on the harddrive(s)

When you save .LS Scene files in Lumion, they are temporarily saved to the folder below before being moved to the destination folder you selected:

Lumion 8.5 and older: (DRIVE):\…Documents/Lumion (VERSION)

Lumion 9.0 and newer: (DRIVE):\…Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Local\Lumion (VERSION)

Examples:

Lumion 8.5 and older: C:\Users\Username\Documents\Lumion 8.0

Lumion 12.0: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Lumion 12.0

Lumion can only save .LS Scene files if there is enough free space on the drive that these folders are located on.

• • • • In Notepad, press CTRL + F and type ‘Free Space’ to locate the entry for the relevant drive in the file.
      • Verify that the number is higher than 30 GB: For example: Free Space: 111.5 GB
      • If the total is lower than 30 GB, please remove some files from the drive to increase the amount of free space to a minimum of 30 GB.

Above are some ways to fix a blank screen problem when opening the Lumion software on your computer. Hope they are useful for you!

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Reference source: Lumion.com