BAR options presets showing blank pages

If your saved options presets in Beyond All Reason turned into blank pages and you can no longer create new ones, you are hitting a known issue tied to how the game stores preset data. Here is what to check and how to get back to playing.

Tags: beyond all reason, options presets, blank settings, bug fix, BAR troubleshooting

What happens

Saved presets that worked fine suddenly display empty when opened. The preset list may still show names, but clicking into any preset loads a blank screen. Creating a new preset does nothing or also comes up blank.

This tends to surface after a game update touches the settings system. The underlying config file gets into a state the loader cannot parse, so it renders nothing instead of erroring out visibly.

How to narrow it down

First check whether this is a lobby-level or game-level problem. The BAR lobby and launcher track option presets separately from the running game itself. If presets work in the lobby but not in-game, the issue sits in the game settings file.

If neither works, something corrupted the shared config layer. A clean reset usually resolves this.

Steps to fix blank presets

Close Beyond All Reason and the launcher completely. Make sure no engine processes linger in the task manager.
Open your Spring settings directory. On Windows this typically lives under your user folder in the SpringRTS configuration area.
Back up any file that references presets or option configuration. Copy them to a separate folder before deleting anything.
Delete or rename the corrupted preset file. The game will regenerate it with defaults on next launch.
Relaunch and test. Open options, check if the preset system loads normally.
Recreate your presets from scratch. The old ones are almost certainly unrecoverable if they went fully blank.

When the fix does not work

If presets still fail after a clean config reset, the issue may be a broader engine bug. BAR tracks known bugs on their GitHub repositories. The relevant trackers are the lobby and launcher repository and the main game repository. Players can search for preset-related issues there and file a new report if nothing matches.

When filing, include your engine version, launcher version, and a screenshot of the blank preset screen. The developers use GitHub issues specifically to track and prioritize bugs like this.

Preventing future preset loss

Keep a manual backup of your presets folder before every major game update. A quick copy-paste takes seconds and saves hours of lost configuration work. Players who run custom resolution settings, keybinds, and UI tweaks should treat this like a save file.

Play with people who communicate

Settings issues happen. Getting yelled at over a blank presets screen does not have to. Creed of Champions is built around patient, low-drama learning where new players get help sorting out their setup.

[Crd] The removal of toxicity, the goal of fun and learning, makes for a refreshing spot to play and spend time. It has also made a game with plenty of complexity a bit less daunting to dive into.