Wayward Performance Guide

This guide was created to help you get the best performance out of the game.

Introduction

Although Wayward is a retro-looking game, there is a lot of complexity going on behind the scenes regarding the world rendering and simulation. We are also limited to a certain extent based on the technology/software that we use to run the game. That being said, performance is something we take seriously and will continue to improve it as we develop the game.

This guide was created to help you get the best performance out of the game.

Hardware Requirements

Please ensure that you meet the requirements of the game as listed on the Steam Store page under “SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS”: Steam Store

While it’s possible that Wayward will run on lesser hardware, we can’t guarantee or support it at this time. These requirements have been fairly consistent since launching on Steam; however, if they do change, this may be simply out of our control due to the increasing depth and feature-set of the game or based on dependent technology/software changing.

GPU Drivers

Make sure that your GPU drivers are up-to-date.

For NVIDIA: https://www.geforce.com/drivers

For AMD: https://support.amd.com/en-us

If you have an integrated GPU (such as Intel HD Graphics), then it’s likely your operating system will handle the driver updates for it. This may not always be the case; however, and can be done manually if desired.

For Intel: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/80939/Graphics-Drivers

GPU Usage

Confirm that Wayward is using your dedicated graphics card. Depending on your settings, drivers, or configuration, Wayward may not be using your discrete graphics card, especially in a laptop scenario where certain applications will use your integrated GPU instead.

If you are on Windows 10, confirming this is relatively easy as the “Task Manager” can now reveal information on GPUs. More information here: https://www.howtogeek.com/351073/how-to-monitor-gpu-usage-in-the-windows-task-manager/

If it is not using your discrete graphics card, forcing it to will vary depending on your card. More information on how to do that for Windows here: https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/force-app-to-use-dedicated-gpu-windows/

For macOS, it is recommended you follow this guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/288346/how-to-tell-which-graphics-chip-your-macbook-is-using-and-switch-it/

For Linux, this will vary a lot based on your flavour/hardware/drivers, and is recommended that you Google your specific configuration.

Disable Acrylic Transparency

New as of beta 2.12.0, there is an option to disable acrylic transparency. Disabling acrylic transparency (checked on in the in-game options), will remove the blur effect that transparent elements have. Doing this will improve performance, especially on lower-end hardware and integrated graphics chips while not impacting the game in a meaningful way.

Disable UI Effects

New as of beta 2.8 (and then renamed in 2.8.1), there is now an option to disable UI effects. Disabling UI effects (checked on in the in-game options), will remove all animations/transition effects for UI elements in the game as well as disable a few other resource-intensive effects. Doing this will improve performance, especially on lower-end hardware and integrated graphics chips while not impacting the game in a meaningful way.

Disable UI Opacity

New as of beta 2.10.8, there is now an option to disable UI opacity. Disabling UI opacity (checked on in the in-game options), will remove all opacity/transparency on UI elements in the game, potentially improving performance on some devices/hardware configurations, and especially on lower-end hardware. It does slightly impact the look and feel of the game, and may make some UI elements a bit harder to parse or understand if you are new to the game.

Disable Steam Overlay

Having the Steam Overlay enabled may have a performance impact on some machines and hardware configurations. You can try disabling this feature to possibly improve performance. To disable the Steam Overlay, follow the steps below:

1. Right-click on the Wayward entry in your Steam library and select "Properties.



2. Uncheck the "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game".



3. Click "X".

New as of beta 2.12.0, there is now an option to disable all overlay support in-game. Disabling overlay support (checked on in the in-game options), will remove the ability for all overlays to interface with the game including the Steam Overlay and other external tools such as Discord, RivaTuner, etc. This will improve performance on most devices/hardware configurations.

Power Mode

There is a power mode option available to set to either "Default", "Low Power" or "High Performance" within the in-game options. Keeping this as the default will attempt to set the power mode as the most suitable for the current hardware configuration and battery status. Changing this setting may impact performance. You will want to set this to "Low" for the best performance and power consumption.

High Performance

Indicates a request for a GPU configuration that prioritizes rendering performance over power consumption.

Low Power

Indicates a request for a GPU configuration that prioritizes power saving over rendering performance. Turning this on will save battery life. Certain UI animations will stop looping after a set amount of loops (usually three) when this is set.

Developer Mode

Enabling the developer mode (in the options) will decrease performance slightly as more things are tracked and logged as you play. Make sure to disable this option if you are having performance issues and had previously enabled it (it's not enabled by default).

GPU Control Panel

Another possible source of performance improvement may come from tweaking settings in your GPU’s control panel. This will vary depending on if you have an AMD/NVIDIA/Intel (integrated) card. For NVIDIA and AMD cards, you can specifically set Wayward to use a different grouping of settings to maximize performance, or simply lower all graphical settings, or choose “Performance” where appropriate on a global level. For Intel chips, this is a global setting only.

More information: https://www.howtogeek.com/175281/how-to-force-graphics-options-in-pc-games-with-nvidia-amd-or-intel-graphics/

Launch Options

Wayward exposes a large number of advanced options that you may try to tweak for better performance. There is a full guide on all the launch options located here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=798938225 under “Opening and editing the launch_options.json”.

Ones of note you may want to test are: inProcessGpu, extraGpuFlags, renderer, angleBackend, forceInProcessGPU, useVulkan. Please follow the guide above on changing these.

Resolution

Increasing the resolution of the game will have a performance impact. You can reduce the amount of resources required to run Wayward by disabling "Fullscreen" mode within the options, and simply sizing the window smaller by dragging a corner of the window to a minimum of 800x600. It is possible running the game in windowed mode may have the opposite effect in terms of performance. You should test to see if this is the case or not for your computer.

Close Console

Leaving the developer console open while playing will lead to performance issues. It is recommended that this remains closed during normal play to improve your CPU performance.

Branches

It's possible that a previous or future release may perform better due to changes to dependent technology/software or fixes we have done on our end. You can test if the development branch or previous version perform better. Please note, there is no compatibility for newer saves on previous versions, so make sure to back-up any important data or saves when switching branches.

More information on switching branches here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=721479594

Compatibility Issues

Electron (what Wayward uses to run the game) has certain compatibility issues. Not all hardware may be compatible with Wayward. To see an up-to-date listing of hardware issues, present in Electron/Wayward, please reference this listing: http://www.waywardgame.com/compatibility

Seeing your hardware/setup on the list does not mean Wayward won't run, or won't ever run, it just means there may be issues that may or may not be fixed in the future.