Troubleshooting Guide

Having trouble getting the game to run correctly? Here's a list of common problems and fixes.

Game Client

Game is crashing

Did you recently update Vintage Story? Vintage Story releases new updates several times each year. Normally updates add new features and fix older bugs, but very occasionally something breaks in the process. You could try asking other players on Discord, or if all else fails, try re-installing a previous version of Vintage Story which was stable. If you are playing with mods and you update Vintage Story without also updating the mods, some of the mods may have issues: see the next question!

Do you have mods installed?
We encourage modding Vintage Story - see the amazing mods on the Mod DB. But using 3rd-party mods may possibly cause issues with the game, especially if the mod is not updated for the current Vintage Story game version you are playing. Generally if updating Vintage Story to a new version like 1.16.5, you should also update all of your mods at the same time (though, some mods are fine with game updates). Checking that mods aren't the source of the problem is a good place to start. See if an update for the mod is available, generally you should use the latest version. Check the Mod DB comments and forum page for the mod, or talk to other players using the mod. If disabling mods, you should keep the Vintage Story "vanilla" mods enabled, that's Creative, Essentials and Survival!

Tip: If there's a crash report and in the report the top line of the code ends with _patch0 or similar (look for the word patch!) then it's probably a mod issue.

Are you on the latest Graphics drivers?
Updating graphics drivers may help if there are visual issues or graphics (OpenGL) related crashes. Vintage Story uses many OpenGL features. Vintage Story also makes heavy use of shaders.

Do you have enough hard disk space?
The game will crash if you run out of disk space during a save, and likely also corrupt your savegame. A Vintage Story savegame varies in size depending on how much of the map you have explored, it could be a few GB in size.
If you update game versions, and the 'remapping' dialog pops up asking if you want to make a backup (backup enabled by default), make sure you have plenty of disk space free for the backup, the backup process will need a lot of space on the hard drive where your Temp files folder is located.

NullReferenceException in Entity*.FromBytes()
Load your savegame in repair mode, fly to the crashing spot, leave the world and run the game normally again.

Out of Memory exception
The game needs around 4 GB of free RAM to run smoothly, or more than that if you use integrated graphics (because it uses system memory as GPU memory). You can try to free up memory by closing all other applications, setting the in-game viewing distance lower, setting the music volume to 0 and set RAM optimization to "aggressive" in the game's graphics settings. If your computer does not have 4 GB of free RAM, you can perhaps still play on minimum settings, for example a view distance of 96 or less.

A graphics card can also run out of memory, causing the game to crash. Possible causes include: other active games or processes on your computer which also use graphics card resources (including some webpages or video players); two copies of Vintage Story running at the same time; a previous hard crash of any game or application such that graphics resources were not properly freed (try re-starting your system!); ultra-high view distances; fancy shader mods. If it happens repeatedly without any of these causes and even after re-starting your system, then try reducing graphics settings in Vintage Story: you can access the settings from the Main Menu before starting the game.

Pro tip: Some extreme gameplay actions and settings (e.g. fast travel across the map, with 1024 view distance and other settings maximised; huge modlists) could make the game run out of memory even on a powerful PC with plenty of RAM. If this is you, try setting up your game as a dedicated local server on your own PC, and connect to it (127.0.0.1) as if connected to a multiplayer game: this helps with performance on extreme settings because the server and the game client then each have their own memory space. Or set up a multiplayer server on a separate system.

System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: '!!0[]
Please install the .net Runtime 4.6.2

Screen Freezes

If you sometimes experience screen freezes after playing for a few seconds or a few minutes (can be an issue with some Intel Iris or Intel HD integrated graphics, common on modern laptops) try switching off some of the visual effects like God Rays, SSAO, Bloom and Foam & Shiny Effect in the game's graphics settings - or generally just try easier graphics settings like "Low". The graphics settings are accessible through Settings in the main menu, before you start playing a game. There appears to be no specific cause for these screen freezes, just that the laptop's GPU is overwhelmed. The game is intended to run well and be fully playable on standard laptops, as long as the graphics settings are suitable. There is no shame in using "Low" or "Medium" graphics settings on a laptop, the game still looks great with these settings.

If your screen freezes but the mouse still works, you may still be able to exit the game by hitting the Esc key, then moving your mouse pointer to the center of the screen where the 'Save and Exit Game' button would normally be seen - try clicking around that area and listening for a button-click sound. You may then also need to exit the main menu by looking for the Quit button on the left side of the menu screen in the same way.

Game Runs Slow

• Lower the quality settings in the Graphics options. Really. Lower them right down, make sure performance is OK at low settings, then increase / re-enable individual settings to see if the performance you want can be maintained.
• In the Graphics options, the game can run slow if the resolution is higher then 100% (check that first!) High view distances, God Rays, SSAO and high quality shadows all have a big effect on framerate.
• The game might be using the wrong videocard. Make sure your monitor is connected to the dedicated graphics card on the back of your PC.
• Modern laptops generally run everything faster if they are plugged in; if unplugged, they slow everything down to conserve the battery.
• On a laptop with both Integrated and High-performance GPU (e.g. Intel and Nvidia) make sure it is using the High-performance GPU. There may be Nvidia Control Panel settings for this. See also NVIDIA Optimus Profile.
• On a Windows 10 laptop, make sure the Windows battery / power mode setting is set to 'Best performance'. Click the battery icon to see this. Especially do not use the 'best battery life' setting, this overrides most other settings on your computer and causes Vintage Story to run very slowly.
• Ensure your system meets the minimum requirements
• Windows Update or Windows Defender might be active in the background doing updates or scans
• You can control a lot of the (possibly unwanted?) background actions of Windows 10 using this tool OOSU10
• Antivirus/anti-malware/firewall programs may be affecting performance
• Close other programs to free up resources. Force unnecessary background programs to exit (or don't let them start at all...)
• Please ensure the system is sufficiently cooled as some systems slow down if they get too hot. (Make sure air vents are not covered and cooling elements and fans are free from dust; if you have a laptop, raise it off the desk slightly so it has better airflow underneath it; do not use a laptop for gaming on a bed or other soft furnishings which hinder cooling!)
• Please ensure a sufficiently rated power supply is used. Gaming on battery power is not recommended on laptops as they might choose to run slower in a lower power mode. If you need to play on battery mode, you can extend the playable battery life by reducing the Max FPS to 30 fps and using VSync mode 'On + Sleep' in Vintage Story's graphics settings.
• Mods can use additional resources: fancy shader mods really need a high-powered gaming rig.
• Check that the system is not overheating or thermal throttling - see Framerate and Performance.
• Please do not run the game from an external drive or network share.
• Running on a virtual machine (VM) may also cause performance issues.
• The game requires 4GB of free memory (RAM), you can look in Task Manager how much you have before you start the game. More RAM than that will not help greatly (except by ensuring that other system processes do not impact on Vintage Story's memory needs). Exception: if you want to run a local Vintage Story server on the same computer - which can help performance - then you need 8GB of free memory.
• Some people have reported that Windows 10 update version 2004 causes lag issues in games (especially in "Game Mode" in Windows Settings); if you have the choice, we recommend Windows 10 version 1903 as the most stable Windows 10 version for gaming.
• If you're playing multiplayer, it's best to be in the same geographic region as the server you are playing on. See next section below.

Multiplayer lag / Host not responding messages

• Vintage Story currently can have latency issues if players connect from a different continent to where the server is hosted
• In game version 1.16.5, there are reports that a mod (we do not know which one!) can cause multiplayer connection issues or disconnects. If playing with a large mod list and you have connection issues and you have control over the mods on the server as well, try reducing the mod list (for both the server and the players) until the issue is fixed: as a start, test whether you can connect to the server with no mods except Vintage Story's "vanilla" mods Survival, Creative and Essential
• If you are the server owner:
  • The Server might be struggling. Be sure to meet the server's minimum requirements. Many concurrent players requires extra hardware. You can also try adjusting the Magic Numbers on the server.
  • Also check out the Debugging page. You can use tick logging (logticks) to perhaps identify the specific cause of lag.
  • Auto-save every few minutes will cause 1-2 seconds of lag when it saves. That is unavoidable if you want to protect the game progression using auto-save (strongly recommended). A fast CPU and a fast solid state disk system can improve this but it will always take some time.
  • Generally use the latest version of the game available: Tyron and team continually make performance improvements and optimisations to Vintage Story, including specific optimisations for multiplayer servers.

Multiplayer connection issues

• Make sure your Firewall does not block internet access for VintagestoryServer.exe
• If you are hosting locally - making a multiplayer server at home, for friends or others outside your home to access - you either need to set up port forwarding on your router or use a VPN, like hamachi

AccessViolation (0xC0000005)

Access Violation error could be triggered for a variety of reasons. A few possible causes:

• Corrupt files
• Out-of-date drivers
• Conflict with anti-virus
• Overclocking processors

Game Servers on Linux

Error: Garbage collector could not allocate 16384u bytes of memory for major heap section.

If your server is on a Linux system, run sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

--- Original version of this page inspired by Staxels Troubleshooting guide.