Sandustry Crash and FPS Fixes
The workarounds the developers published for crashes, low frame rate and stutter — what each one costs you, and which to try first.
GamePrimer EditorialUpdated Verified
Crashing? Add the launch option --sandustry-no-overlay-gpu-flags. Low frame rate or a
broken Steam overlay? Use --in-process-gpu instead. If you are on NVIDIA and crashing
mid-game, turn off the NVIDIA in-game overlay first — that one costs you nothing.
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:
--sandustry-no-overlay-gpu-flags--in-process-gpuUse 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:
- Turn off the in-game overlay. Open GeForce Experience settings, or press Alt + Z to reach the overlay menu, and switch it off.
- Fully close the NVIDIA App and the NVIDIA Control Panel. Not minimised to tray — closed.
- 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.
Where your logs are
The v0.5.3 hotfix added proper logging, and 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.
These are workarounds, not fixes
The developers describe these as potential workarounds that may not resolve the issue for everyone, which is a fair way to describe a game two days into Early Access. The underlying work is happening on their side; these are what you can do in the meantime.
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
