Issue with game locking up

Ondrej Borz ●

Hello Jared,

Thank you for reaching our forum and for the detailed description.

The symptoms you describe - stable FPS but temporary input freeze, actions executing after a short delay - suggest that the simulation thread is stalling briefly while certain events are processed. The fact that it coincides with distant spawns, tutorial popups, or use of symmetry mode could point to short spikes in simulation load or memory handling.

To help narrow it down, could you please try the following:

Check World Size & Complexity – If possible, temporarily reduce the number of grids or large constructions in range. This can help determine whether new entity spawns are contributing to the freeze.
Disable Tutorial Hints – In the game options, turn off the "Show Good.bot hints" see if the issue still occurs when approaching spawn areas.
Test Without Symmetry – Try building without symmetry mode for a while to see if the freeze only occurs when symmetry is active.
Review Mods (if any) – If you are running mods, try reproducing the issue in a clean, unmodded world.

If nothing from the list above would work/get the game running better for you, please try our general workarounds. These are:

Verify your game files in Steam - right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files
Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file - (it means your game configuration will be deleted) - you can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.
Delete ShaderCache folder - same access as above
Back up your whole Space Engineers Roaming folder and delete it
Restart Steam
Reinstall VC Redist 2017
Update graphic drivers
Reinstall the game
Make sure your operating system is fully updated

If nothing from the list would work for you, and you will be still experiencing the problem to the same extend, please share us the game log from any affected game session.

You can access your log files by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

If possible, note the exact in-game time when the freeze occurred so we can cross-check in the logs.

If you can capture a short recording showing the moment the freeze happens, that would be very useful for pinpointing the cause.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Hello Jared,

Thank you for reaching our forum and for the detailed description.

The symptoms you describe - stable FPS but temporary input freeze, actions executing after a short delay - suggest that the simulation thread is stalling briefly while certain events are processed. The fact that it coincides with distant spawns, tutorial popups, or use of symmetry mode could point to short spikes in simulation load or memory handling.

To help narrow it down, could you please try the following:

Check World Size & Complexity – If possible, temporarily reduce the number of grids or large constructions in range. This can help determine whether new entity spawns are contributing to the freeze.
Disable Tutorial Hints – In the game options, turn off the "Show Good.bot hints" see if the issue still occurs when approaching spawn areas.
Test Without Symmetry – Try building without symmetry mode for a while to see if the freeze only occurs when symmetry is active.
Review Mods (if any) – If you are running mods, try reproducing the issue in a clean, unmodded world.

If nothing from the list above would work/get the game running better for you, please try our general workarounds. These are:

Verify your game files in Steam - right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files
Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file - (it means your game configuration will be deleted) - you can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.
Delete ShaderCache folder - same access as above
Back up your whole Space Engineers Roaming folder and delete it
Restart Steam
Reinstall VC Redist 2017
Update graphic drivers
Reinstall the game
Make sure your operating system is fully updated

If nothing from the list would work for you, and you will be still experiencing the problem to the same extend, please share us the game log from any affected game session.

You can access your log files by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

If possible, note the exact in-game time when the freeze occurred so we can cross-check in the logs.

If you can capture a short recording showing the moment the freeze happens, that would be very useful for pinpointing the cause.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Reply URL

1

Jared Paez ●

To help narrow it down, could you please try the following:

Check World Size & Complexity – If possible, temporarily reduce the number of grids or large constructions in range. This can help determine whether new entity spawns are contributing to the freeze.
Disable Tutorial Hints – In the game options, turn off the "Show Good.bot hints" see if the issue still occurs when approaching spawn areas.
Test Without Symmetry – Try building without symmetry mode for a while to see if the freeze only occurs when symmetry is active.
Review Mods (if any) – If you are running mods, try reproducing the issue in a clean, unmodded world.

If nothing from the list above would work/get the game running better for you, please try our general workarounds. These are:

Verify your game files in Steam - right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files
Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file - (it means your game configuration will be deleted) - you can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.
Delete ShaderCache folder - same access as above
Back up your whole Space Engineers Roaming folder and delete it
Restart Steam
Reinstall VC Redist 2017
Update graphic drivers
Reinstall the game
you have a wide set of instructions so this reply will be a bit lengthy
I've made the world as small as possible, and deleted all the grids in the current world. (still happened but maybe reduced in frequency)
I've disabled tutorial hints, and they still occurred. No noticeable change in frequency
Tested with and without, when it seems to happen most is turning it off and on, noticed that when the block preview is ghosted into an existing grid it sometimes can be triggered.
Tested with and without mods, seems to happen more with mods but the world I was in had a lot active.
I've verified game files, haven't deleted the cfg yet
Nor the shadercache
haven't tried backing it up and deleting the roaming folder.
Restarted steam a lot as I switch between devices.
I haven't reinstalled vc redist
graphics drivers were updated recently though my system has not let auto-updates run but when I did a manual install it did not change it.
reinstall has happened already
Someone in the discord suggested bringing grass rendering down to its lowest setting possible and it still occurred i will look into deleting the cfg and the roaming files

To help narrow it down, could you please try the following:

Check World Size & Complexity – If possible, temporarily reduce the number of grids or large constructions in range. This can help determine whether new entity spawns are contributing to the freeze.
Disable Tutorial Hints – In the game options, turn off the "Show Good.bot hints" see if the issue still occurs when approaching spawn areas.
Test Without Symmetry – Try building without symmetry mode for a while to see if the freeze only occurs when symmetry is active.
Review Mods (if any) – If you are running mods, try reproducing the issue in a clean, unmodded world.

If nothing from the list above would work/get the game running better for you, please try our general workarounds. These are:

Verify your game files in Steam - right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files
Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file - (it means your game configuration will be deleted) - you can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.
Delete ShaderCache folder - same access as above
Back up your whole Space Engineers Roaming folder and delete it
Restart Steam
Reinstall VC Redist 2017
Update graphic drivers
Reinstall the game
you have a wide set of instructions so this reply will be a bit lengthy
I've made the world as small as possible, and deleted all the grids in the current world. (still happened but maybe reduced in frequency)
I've disabled tutorial hints, and they still occurred. No noticeable change in frequency
Tested with and without, when it seems to happen most is turning it off and on, noticed that when the block preview is ghosted into an existing grid it sometimes can be triggered.
Tested with and without mods, seems to happen more with mods but the world I was in had a lot active.
I've verified game files, haven't deleted the cfg yet
Nor the shadercache
haven't tried backing it up and deleting the roaming folder.
Restarted steam a lot as I switch between devices.
I haven't reinstalled vc redist
graphics drivers were updated recently though my system has not let auto-updates run but when I did a manual install it did not change it.
reinstall has happened already
Someone in the discord suggested bringing grass rendering down to its lowest setting possible and it still occurred i will look into deleting the cfg and the roaming files

URL

1

Ondrej Borz ●

Hello Jared,

thank you for your reply.

Since it's been already some time, can I please ask, what is the current situation on your side?

Are you still experiencing the problem after trying any of our suggestions, or those from Discord, as you are mentioning it?

If the issue is fixed, please let us know, so we can close the thread.

If you are still experiencing it, please provide new information about the current state. Also please include the requested things - log, video etc...

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Reply URL

1

Jared Paez ●

Unfortunately this is still going on, I ran the game last night after a full reinstall after having completely removed the game and all leftover files, eventually I did get a performance error of "scene too complex", which I've never gotten on this pc before. Ultimately I'm not sure why it went from working fine to this, but I'm out of ideas if a full uninstall re-install cycle doesn't fix it, i'm not sure what will because this is essentially the only game with these performance issues surfacing, even SE2 which on the surface is far more graphically demanding

URL

1

Ondrej Borz ●

Hello Jared,

Thank you for your reply.

I’m sorry to hear that the issue is still ongoing on your side.

As mentioned before, in order for us to investigate this problem further, we will need the log files, a video (if possible), and any other information or files you can provide - including any of the affected worlds and steps to reproduce the issue, if there are any.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Kind regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Reply URL

1

Jared Paez ●

Helo Ondrej, apologies for the delay. I haven't been able to get into this issue as readily as I'd have liked. Here is the log file that was generated the last time I played.

Files:

Reply URL

Issue with game locking up

Replies (4)