How to fix Satisfactory Unreal Engine crash on launch

Satisfactory is currently experiencing a surge in player count, with its 1.0 version finally released after years of early access. However, many players are being plagued by an error causing the game to crash at launch, so here’s everything you can do to fix the Unreal Engine crash in Satisfactory.

The Unreal Engine crashing error has been haunting the Satisfactory community for a while, with players asking for help on the Steam forum as far back as 2020. Now that we’re out of early access, however, Coffee Stain Studios has addressed several optimization issues and bug fixes including this error. 

If you’re still experiencing this error, there are a few steps you can use to solve it.

How to solve the Unreal Engine crashing error in Satisfactory

Verify integrity of game files

This is the first step you should try when facing any error while playing Satisfactory, or, for that matter, any game on Steam or Epic Games. This process goes through every game file and identifies any corrupted or missing files. After that, it reinstalls or fixes those files, which can often solve any issues you might be having.

If you’re on Steam, do the following:

• Right click on Satisfactory in your Steam library.
• Go to Properties.
• Go to Installed Files
• Click on Verify integrity of game files
• Wait for it to finish and try launching the game again.

If you’re using the Epic Games launcher, do the following:

• Open your Epic Games library and identify Satisfactory.
• Click on the three dots next to the game’s size.
• Click on Manage.
• Click on Verify.
• Wait for the process to finish and try running the game again.

Run the game using DirectX 11

Even though DirectX 12 was released back in 2015, its predecessor, DirectX 11, still runs some games and applications better. This is especially true in the case of older GPUs. If you have an older graphics card or are running into this error even after you’ve verified your game files, you can always switch to DirectX 11.

While you can change this in the game’s settings, what if you can’t launch the game in the first place? Fret not, and follow these steps:

• Locate Satisfactory in your Steam library.
• Right-click on it.
• Click on Properties.
• Look under the General tab. You’ll notice a text field with Launch Options written above it. 
• Type -dx11 in that field.
• Try running the game again.

Remove or Update all mods 

Satisfactory has a small but active modding community, with many players making mods for the benefit or entertainment of others. However, these mods can sometimes interfere with the game’s core files, resulting in the Unreal Engine crash error. 

The best solution is to either update every mod to its latest version, or run the game without mods to see if it solves the issue.

Other fixes and troubleshooting

While the methods listed above should solve your problems in most cases, sometimes it’s as simple as having the latest version of Windows and your GPU drivers. Alternatively, you can check for new versions of Visual C++ Redistributable or DirectX itself.

As Satisfactory’s full release is attracting more and more players every day, developer Coffee Stain Studios continues to address various bug reports over on their QA website, as stated by their Steam community post.