Fixing N4 black empty window

Problems between the N4's link with the Universal Acqua Engine (or UAE) can generate errors and crashes in the N4 or libraries. If you have in mind to change the factory settings, be careful; wrong paths can cause serious problems and troubles in the product performance.

Below are details on how to solve N4 link problems with the Universal Acqua Engine (or UAE) and some typical errors in users who decide to change the factory settings.

Before proceeding with the N4 installation on the Aquarius Desktop application, we recommend you carefully check the Aquarius Desktop application settings in the installation tab.

When you load an N4 instance in your audio host (DAW or NLE), N4 will call the Universal Acqua Engine (or UAE); if the Universal Acqua Engine path is declared wrongly, N4 will load a black empty window. To fix this behavior, the best procedure is to uninstall and delete your N4 and libraries content completely, and then set correctly the installation path on the Aquarius Desktop application to finally reinstall N4 with a correct and valid path for the Nebula4folder on macOS or nebulatemprepository folder on Windows.

NOTE: We suggest using the factory default path for N4, custom path(s) could not work for diverse reasons.

You can verify if the black window issue is related to a wrong path by checking in the Nebula4 folder path declared in the N4.XML file with the tag DATAPATH on the macOS operating system. The DATAPATH tag is not in use on Windows operating systems anymore, and the nebulatemprepository folder is declared in a Windows registry key.

For example, the Windows registry key should be for the factory default path:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acustica Audio]
"N4TempRepository"="c:\\nebulatemprepository\\"

This means the nebulatemprepository folder path is "c:\nebulatemprepository\" without the quotes.

List of typical N4 and the UAE ((Universal Acqua Engine) errors:

1. Wrong settings between Aquarius Desktop application and the N4 Windows registry key: The link between the N4 plug-in in the N4.XML file is done through a key in the Windows registry; if the path information is different between the Aquarius Desktop application and the Windows registry key. N4 cannot load the UAE (Universal Acqua Engine). This problem was described in detail at the beginning of this solution. Be very careful; the wrong settings can cause serious problems in the operation of the product.
2. Wrong settings between Aquarius Desktop application and the N4 XML file in macOS operating systems: The link between the N4 plug-in in the N4.XML file is done through a path in the DATAPATH tag if the path information is different between the Aquarius Desktop application and the N4.xml. N4 cannot load the UAE (Universal Acqua Engine). This problem was described in detail at the beginning of this solution. Be very careful; the wrong settings can cause serious problems in the operation of the product.
3. An incompatible file system on macOS and Windows operating systems: The file system where the N4 shared repository folder, and also UAE, is located operating system's main drive must have the same file system.
   Avoid using case-sensitive file systems because they are not supported. Keep in mind that help desk agents do not provide support for operating system configurations.
4. Incompatible paths using special characters or spaces on macOS and Windows operating systems: The N4 repository folder's path must not contain any special characters (click here for more details) or spaces. Keep in mind that help-desk agents do not provide about customs paths settings.
5. Path(s) with permission problems on macOS and Windows operating systems: The path where the N4 repository folder is located must have the appropriate permissions. Keep in mind that help desk agents do not provide support for operating system configurations.

The Acustica Audio single point of contact (SPOC) is the Acustica Audio help-desk portal. In order to access to Audio help-desk portal go to the Acustica Audio website and then to the support section. We do not provide help, assistance, or support via social networks, public forums, or through our email accounts.