Additional Troubleshooting Solutions

[MobiusDigital]

Hello Travelers!

While we're currently working to get an additional hotfix out to help with pressing issues, here are some additional resources to help your gameplay experience in the meantime:

Important note! Your experiences may be different depending on your hardware.

Controller or other input issues

Multiple controllers
• Some users have encountered problems with inputs behaving strangely when there are multiple controllers plugged into their computer. We are working on improving this, but for now Outer Wilds works best with only a single controller plugged in. Try turning off or unplugging all controllers other than the one you intend to use. If the controller still does not work as expected, try different settings for the Gamepad Config option in the Input settings -> Rebind Controls menu.

Steam Controller Settings
• Some users have encountered issues where their controllers have inverted stick movement or otherwise unexpected mappings. Steam has a feature that allows for custom controller settings and profiles, and this can sometimes result in unexpected behavior. Try enabling, disabling, or otherwise changing settings for your desired controller in Steam Settings -> Controller -> General Controller Settings.
  
• You can also try forcing the Steam controller settings on or off for Outer Wilds by right-clicking on the game in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and then changing the Steam Input Per-Game Setting in the General menu.
  
• Alternatively some users have had success with restarting the game in this way, make sure the controller has connected already, do not disconnect controller. Quit the game all the way to the desktop. Re-launch the game with the controller already connected.

High framerate monitors

Adjusting your “maximum framerate”
• Outer Wilds is built around a complex physics simulation designed to run at 60 updates per second. This results in the perception of a maximum framerate of 60 FPS, as the ship, player, planets, and everything else in the game only “move” on those steps. However, it is possible to override the target physics simulation rate for a smooth experience at higher framerates.
  
• To override the physics simulation rate, create a new .txt file named “secretsettings.txt” in your “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\Mobius Digital\Outer Wilds” directory. In that file, add the line “PhysicsRate=120”, where 120 is the framerate you’re looking to achieve. Save the file and re-launch the game.
  
• Changing the physics simulation rate like this is not officially supported (due to it having a significant impact on performance), but should be stable at settings above 30.

Additional vsync settings
• Some users have reported extreme choppiness running at lower framerates on higher framerate monitors. In these cases, it’s possible that changing the vsync count can improve the situation by forcing the game to sync with the monitor at a more regular pace.
  To override the vsync count, create a new .txt file named “secretsettings.txt” in your “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\Mobius Digital\Outer Wilds” directory. In that file, add the line “VSyncCount=X”, where X is the number of frames to sync on (i.e. 1 results in syncing every frame, 2 results in every other frame, 3 results in every third frame). Save the file and re-launch the game.
  
• Changing this setting like this is not officially supported, but should be safe. A value of 0 results in vsync being disabled, and the value cannot go higher than 4.

Launching in borderless fullscreen window mode
• Some users have reported that running Outer Wilds in windowed mode fixed their issues with Outer Wilds stuttering on higher framerate monitors. This setting can be adjusted in Outer Wilds via the Graphics settings menu.
  
• We currently do not have an in-game option for changing the game to borderless windowed, but this can be enabled via the command line option “-popupwindow”. To enable this, right-click on Outer Wilds in your Steam library and select Properties. In the General menu, click Set Launch Options, type “-popupwindow”, and click OK. The next time you launch Outer Wilds, switching to windowed mode should automatically enable borderless windowed.

Crashes

Reporting crashes
• If you’re the type of player to send the developers crash information, please make sure that you include the Unity Player log. This file is located at “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\Mobius Digital\Outer Wilds\output_log.txt”. This file is overwritten every time you launch Outer Wilds, so please make sure you haven’t run the game again since you last crashed if you want us to be able to extract crash info from it! You can send it (and any other crash files that Unity has handed you) to [e-mail].

Overclocking
• Some users have reported that issues with frequent crashing were being caused by overclocked CPUs. Outer Wilds is a very CPU-sensitive game, and reducing your CPU to a more stable clock rate may help.

Recovering corrupted save files
• Outer Wilds keeps automated backups of your save files in “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\Mobius Digital\Outer Wilds\Backup”. If for some reason your save file gets lost or corrupted, the latest good save data from each profile may be recoverable from here. The game will prompt to restore these files if they are missing or unreadable at startup.
  
• If you would like to do this manually, simply copy the items within “Outer Wilds\Backup\<profilename>\” to “Outer Wilds\SteamSaves\<profilename>” and re-launch the game. Of note is that you may have to disable Steam Cloud sync to have this save copying go through. This can be done by right-clicking on Outer Wilds in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and unchecking “Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for Outer Wilds” in the Updates menu. After doing this, copy the backup files to your save profile folder, re-launch Outer Wilds, and once you are done playing, (optionally) re-enable the Steam Cloud sync option.

Hope these help you explorers that have been having issues. Thank you all for your continued patience as we work on addressing them. Keep on exploring! ::)

~Mobius Crew

[NairdaBel]

The controller issues mentioned seem to occur randomly for me. Worth noting that my controller (xbox one, bluetooth) only has a chance to work if i connect it AFTER launching the game. if the controller is already connected on launch, the thumbsticks will not function at all despite the controller being properly identified in the settings menu. the other buttons seem to work fine. If i connect the controller after launching the game the thumbsticks will either work perfectly, or be inverted vertically. this seems to be completely random. though messing with steam input sometimes appears to fix the problem, this may just be coincidence. i hope this may be of some use to someone, and i hope this issue gets resolved soon. having to close the game, disconnect the controller, restart the game, and repeat until success really turns me off from this otherwise amazing game.

[MobiusDigital]

No Main Menu

Additionally, for those having No Menu issues, a useful post by another Steam user:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/753640/discussions/0/2568690229016081614/

[PeaceHaver]

Originally posted by MobiusDigital:

Hope these help you explorers that have been having issues. Thank you all for your continued patience as we work on addressing them. Keep on exploring! ::)

~Mobius Crew

Hello! I've got crash right after launch. I don't even see any picture, just black screen and some music. I'd like to play with crashes every 15 minutes, but I can't,

I've got stock Acer Predator and no problems with any other games. I send a mail with output_log, but what could I do to make it work?

P.S. Solved by -force-d3d12 propertie.

[thompaine]

I have the controller issues (left stick movement inverted, etc), but none of the suggested fixes have had any effect. I only have one controller plugged in (X360 Wired), and I've tried all the Force settings for steam controller.

[TheGreatEmu]

Same here using a Steam Controller. None of the suggested tricks help. Will be refunding this one if a working patch isn't released before my 2 week refund deadline is up.

[Weenie Brandini]

I've tried combinations of all of the troubleshooting for high framerate monitors and it yielded no improvement. I try to make an ideal environment for the game - 60fps cap and disable GSync - but it still micro stutters constantly.

[asciss0rs]

The game is still stuttering and choppy despite all the fixes. (1080/i7-6700k/16gb ram.)

[PeaceHaver]

Originally posted by PeaceHaver:

Originally posted by MobiusDigital:

Hope these help you explorers that have been having issues. Thank you all for your continued patience as we work on addressing them. Keep on exploring! ::)

~Mobius Crew

Hello! I've got crash right after launch. I don't even see any picture, just black screen and some music. I'd like to play with crashes every 15 minutes, but I can't,

I've got stock Acer Predator and no problems with any other games. I send a mail with output_log, but what could I do to make it work?

P.S. Solved by -force-d3d12 propertie.

Another crash was find after that in the stage when game asks for name before main menu. It was solved by shutdown of steam cloud saving.

P.S. No, this ♥♥♥♥ randomly crushes cause of steam_api64.dll so I delete this and run, then download and run - and game works.

P.P.S. And anyway this sht randomly crashes at start. I tired for being tester so I delete this testing program.

[Davok]

Hello guys, the game is not launching via steam and I can't find a solution. Any advice? When I click Play, the game just doesn't start.

[Anvariel]

Replacing the Backup Savefiles had not helped. Game still says that my files are corrupted. :(

[mikegeezy]

Originally posted by MobiusDigital:

No Main Menu

Additionally, for those having No Menu issues, a useful post by another Steam user:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/753640/discussions/0/2568690229016081614/

I had this issue. The suggested fix got me one step further.

Now it shows me the game title but there is no text below it where the menu should be. Also showing me v1.0.7.

Any suggestions?

[[PaLaDiNs]SaReF]

Originally posted by mikegeezy:

Originally posted by MobiusDigital:

No Main Menu

Any suggestions?

Make a refund or wait for the patch.i have the same issue. have been waiting since 19 june, but still nothing.

[Anvariel]

In numbers I lost 20 hours of playtime, but I startet a new game and kept the savefiles in an extra backup folder (should this happen again... It did not).
Overall I had a lot of fun playing from the start again. Found a few more things i wanted to find, so it actually helped the gameflow a lot.

[GMC]

None of these suggestions worked for me, so I refunded. Shame, as I've heard good things about it. Would re-buy if you release a free demo so that I can check that controller support actually works.

[Tame]

Setting Windows to 'High performance' mode pretty much resolves all performance issues for me at 60fps; none of the other suggestions had any affect at all so I reverted all of them.

- Search for 'Power settings' and open 'Power & sleep settings'
- Click 'Additional power settings' on the right side of the window that opened.
- You may need to click 'Show additional plans' to reveal 'High performance mode'.

i5-6600k; 1070ti.

Buttery smooth 99% of the time.

Spotted by Nikhill:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/753640/discussions/0/1644290549105471125/#c2789369598129425531