Sandustry Crash and FPS Fixes

Everything on this page comes from the developers’ own pinned support thread. Nothing here is generic “optimisation” advice, because generic optimisation advice is how people end up three hours deep in registry edits with the same crash.

Pick by symptom

What you are seeing	What to do	What it costs you
Game crashes	--sandustry-no-overlay-gpu-flags	Steam overlay stops working; achievements keep working
Low FPS, or Steam overlay not working, or NVIDIA treating the game as a background app	--in-process-gpu	Nothing documented
Crashes during gameplay on NVIDIA	Turn off the NVIDIA in-game overlay	The overlay
Severe FPS drops or stuttering	Turn off fullscreen in Display settings	Fullscreen
Input lag with Razer Cortex running	Turn off Cortex’s in-game / performance overlay	The Cortex overlay

Try the free ones first. Disabling an overlay costs you an overlay; a launch option that kills the Steam overlay is worth it to stop a crash, but not worth it to chase a few frames.

Setting a launch option

In your Steam library, right-click Sandustry → Properties → General → Launch Options, then paste one of these in:

Use one at a time. If the first does not help, clear the box before trying the other, so you know which one is doing what.

NVIDIA specifically

The pinned post singles NVIDIA out, and it is worth doing these in order:

1. Turn off the in-game overlay. Open GeForce Experience settings, or press Alt + Z to reach the overlay menu, and switch it off.
2. Fully close the NVIDIA App and the NVIDIA Control Panel. Not minimised to tray — closed.
3. Reset NVIDIA Profile Inspector to defaults, if you have ever touched it.

On AMD, the equivalent step is closing AMD Gaming Evolved.

Fullscreen stutter

If the frame rate is fine in menus and falls apart in play, or the game stutters in a way that feels like something else is fighting for the screen, turn fullscreen off in the game’s Display settings. This is a documented workaround, not a preference — windowed or borderless is what the developers suggest while it is being fixed.

Since v0.5.5, Alt+Enter switches between fullscreen and windowed, so you can test this without going into the settings. The game also remembers which monitor you last played on.

Where your logs are

The v0.5.3 hotfix added proper logging and v0.5.5 added a lot more. The log is the single most useful thing you can attach to a bug report:

	Path
Windows	C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\sandustry\logs\main.log
macOS	/Users/<username>/Library/Logs/sandustry/main.log
Linux	/home/<username>/.config/sandustry/logs/main.log

Grab it right after a crash — before relaunching, which starts a fresh one.

What the patches have fixed since

The pinned post went up two days into Early Access. The crash work the developers promised has been arriving in patches since, and if your problem started before one of these, update before trying anything else.

v0.5.5, 19 August

• Instruction videos became animated images. That fixed GPU crashes and the OBS capture hook dropping when you hovered a preview, at the cost of slightly lower quality and a somewhat larger install.
• Optional Crashpad diagnostics. They are off by default because crash dumps can contain sensitive information, and the developer contacts affected players about switching them on.
• A workaround for the right mouse button sticking on macOS, the bug that makes the Vacuum spray forever. The developer called the proper fix still pending, and no later patch note has listed it.

v0.5.6, 3 September

• Some GPU diagnostics that caused problems on certain hardware were replaced with a safe alternative.
• Fewer renderer crashes caused by the Aura refreshing the full Tech Tree.
• The developer is testing fixes for the remaining crashes on a separate branch, with players sending crash dumps.

v0.5.7, 14 September

• Fixes for several bugs that made buildings stop working. If one still stalls, the developer asks for a report that says whether reloading fixes it. The same notes warn that 0.5.7 includes extra engine hardening that could have side effects, and that small hotfixes may follow.

These are workarounds, not fixes

The developers describe the launch options and overlay steps as potential workarounds that may not resolve the issue for everyone. The patches above are the underlying work; the workarounds are what you can do while a crash is still waiting for its fix.

If none of them help, the useful thing to send back is your symptom, your GPU, and which options you already tried — that is what turns your crash into a fixed bug rather than a support thread.

Related

• Where Sandustry saves your game — back up before changing anything, and the export you will need if you report a bug
• Is Sandustry on Game Pass? — the same workarounds apply, the launch options are just set elsewhere
• Sandustry Updates and Patch Notes — whether the thing biting you has already been fixed