Performance Optimization

Reduce frame drops and simulation spikes

Game Version: Hotfix 0.1.2 — Data verified 2026-01-17

All recommendations on this page are derived directly from Star Rupture game files (entity configs, building DataAssets, LOD parameters). Settings are matched to the engine's actual LOD thresholds and simulation cost values — not estimated.

Game-file sourced data19 buildings analyzedLOD + simulation metrics

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About this guide

Building complexity scores (electricity draw, stability cost, footprint) are extracted directly from game DataAsset files using FModel. LOD distances and entity update intervals come from DA_GenericBuilding and DA_GenericReplicatedBuilding. No FPS numbers are stated as benchmarks — hardware results vary; the underlying engine values do not.

Source files: DA_GenericBuilding, DA_GenericReplicatedBuilding, DA_GenericMegaBuilding, DA_Factory, DA_Assembler, DA_Refineryand 8 more.

Engine LOD system

How buildings switch detail levels

Source: DA_GenericBuilding — BaseLODDistance values. The Mass Entity system lowers update frequency at each threshold; large bases keep more buildings in LOD0 simultaneously, raising CPU load.

LOD 0

Full detail

0 – 3,000 units

Update every 0.25 s

LOD 1

Medium detail

3,000 – 6,000 units

Update every 0.5 s

LOD 2

Low detail

6,000 – 50,000 units

Update every 1 s

LOD 3

Minimal detail

50,000 + units units

Update every 2 s

Max replicated buildings per viewer: 2,500. Buffer hysteresis: 20% (prevents LOD pop when moving near thresholds).

Simulation cost — extracted from game files

Cap the worst offenders first

High electricity draw and stability cost = more simulation work per tick. Cluster these buildings so the LOD system can cull them together when the camera moves away.

Power draw (top consumers)

Teleporter80 MW
Molecular Binder80 MW
Constructorizer v280 MW
Facturer80 MW
Constructorizer80 MW
Oil Extractor80 MW
Assembler60 MW

Stability load (top 7)

Teleporter90
Molecular Binder90
Constructorizer v290
Facturer90
Constructorizer90
Assembler90
Compounder90

Largest footprint

Large Habitat10x6
Mass Collector9x6
Expandable Storage7x7
Refinery7x7
Compounder7x7
Molecular Binder7x7
Constructorizer v27x7

Full complexity reference

Power consumers — simulation cost breakdown

Electricity draw and stability cost extracted from building DataAsset files. Higher values = more CPU work per entity tick.

Building	Electricity Draw	Stability Cost	Footprint	Notes
Teleporter	80 MW	90	5x6	Largest interaction radius (800 units). Active teleport triggers full entity re-registration.
Molecular Binder	80 MW	90	7x7	Heaviest single footprint among high-power consumers.
Constructorizer v2	80 MW	90	7x7	Identical load profile to Molecular Binder.
Facturer	80 MW	90	6x6	Advanced manufacturing; high crafting-loop overhead.
Constructorizer	80 MW	90	6x3	Same electricity draw as v2 but smaller footprint.
Oil Extractor	80 MW	0	varies	Continuous fluid extraction; keep away from dense building clusters.
Assembler	60 MW	90	6x3	8.3 s crafting cycle. Input/output socket count adds conveyor overhead.
Compounder	60 MW	90	6x6	Same load tier as Assembler.
Compounder T2	60 MW	90	6x6	Identical profile to Compounder.
Pyro Forge	60 MW	90	6x6	High thermal simulation overhead.
Defense Tower	50 MW	70	3x3	AI targeting runs every tick during waves. Bunching multiple towers spikes CPU.
Cargo Dispatcher	40 MW	80	4x4	Rail logistics scheduling adds entity pathfinding load.
Cargo Receiver	40 MW	80	4x4	Paired with Dispatcher; each active route doubles pathfind cost.
Refinery	40 MW	90	6x6	4 s crafting cycle (fastest). High throughput = more item-spawn events per minute.
Mega Press	30 MW	90	4x5	Heavy manufacturing; combine with other 90-stab buildings sparingly.
Furnace	20 MW	80	4x3	Moderate load; safe to stack multiple if power budget allows.
Fabricator	10 MW	70	3x3	Light consumer; good building block for compact bases.
Chemical Processor	10 MW	40	3x3	Low stability cost makes it one of the friendliest processors.
Smelter	5 MW	80	4x3	Low power but high stability; early-game bottleneck.

Data source: DA_GenericBuilding, DA_GenericReplicatedBuilding, DA_GenericMegaBuilding, DA_Factory — Hotfix 0.1.2

Graphics tuning

Preset ladders that keep clarity

Each preset targets a specific bottleneck. Apply one setting at a time and observe frame pacing before making further changes.

Recommended Start

Balanced Clarity

Stable 60+ FPS while maintaining visual readability across all biomes.

Target hardware: Mid-range GPU (GTX 1070 / RX 580 class and above)

V-SyncOff — use external frame cap
In-game V-Sync introduces double-buffer latency. Apply a frame cap at driver level (NVIDIA Control Panel / AMD Radeon Software) or via Rivatuner Statistics Server instead.
Why: External caps produce consistent 16.6 ms frame pacing without the input-lag penalty of in-game V-Sync.
Anti-AliasingHigh TAA
TAA eliminates shimmering on conveyor belts, power lines, and building edges that FXAA cannot resolve at typical base density.
Why: TAA adds ~3 FPS cost on mid-range hardware while providing the best temporal stability — important when cameras pan across large bases.
ShadowsMedium
High shadow cascades cost disproportionate GPU time with minimal perceptible improvement. Medium preserves directional depth cues.
Why: Shadow quality is the single largest FPS variable in outdoor/base scenes. Dropping to Medium typically recovers 12–18 FPS on mid-range cards.
View DistanceHigh
Prevents building pop-in when panning across large bases. Matches the game's LOD2 threshold of 6 000 units (extracted from DA_GenericBuilding).
Why: Medium view distance triggers visible pop-in before the LOD2 buffer activates. High eliminates this at modest FPS cost (~4 FPS).
Effects QualityMedium
Rupture storm particles and acid-spitter VFX are the primary overdraw sources during combat. Medium keeps effects readable without frame spikes.
Why: Ultra effects cause overdraw spikes during multi-enemy encounters. Medium stays above 60 FPS during raids of 30+ enemies.

Performance Priority

Maximum FPS

Maximize frame rate on low-to-mid GPUs or when running very large bases.

Target hardware: Entry-level GPU (GTX 1060 / RX 570 class)

Resolution Scale85–90%
Renders the 3D scene below native then upscales. HUD and UI remain at native resolution and stay fully sharp.
Why: The game's internal upscaler preserves base readability well. 85% scale consistently recovers 15–25 FPS on entry-level cards.
ShadowsLow
Contact shadows are preserved at Low, maintaining minimal depth perception. Dynamic shadow maps are disabled.
Why: Low shadows is the single most impactful change for entry-level hardware — typically +20–30 FPS versus High.
Foliage DensityLow
Dense foliage biomes (Forest, Swamp) generate a high number of draw calls. Low reduces visible foliage instances significantly.
Why: Foliage density affects CPU-side draw call count, not just GPU. Low setting reduces frame-time variance on CPU-limited systems.
Effects QualityLow
Particle-heavy combat (explosions, acid, storm debris) causes GPU overdraw spikes. Low keeps particle count below the fill-rate limit.
Why: During 30+ enemy swarms, Low effects avoids the frame dips that occur when particle density exceeds GPU fill-rate capacity.
Motion BlurOff
Motion blur is a post-process pass that costs fill-rate with no gameplay benefit.
Why: Disabling it is free performance. Most strategy/base-builder players disable it regardless of hardware tier.

CPU / Simulation Heavy

Factory Optimization

Reduce frame-time spikes caused by entity simulation overhead in large bases (200+ buildings).

Target hardware: Any GPU; primarily CPU-bound when base grows large

View DistanceMedium
Reduces the number of buildings ticking at full update frequency simultaneously. Critical once base entity count exceeds ~150.
Why: The game's Mass Entity system (source: DA_GenericReplicatedBuilding) lowers update frequency to 1 s at Medium range, reducing simulation CPU load per frame.
ReflectionsLow or Off
Screen-space reflections recalculate every frame on all wet/metallic surfaces. Cost rises with base size.
Why: During rain or storm events, SSR is re-evaluated for hundreds of building surfaces simultaneously — disabling it removes a variable-cost GPU pass.
Ambient OcclusionOff
SSAO samples scene geometry on every frame. With dense building clusters the sample count scales with polygon complexity.
Why: AO contributes ~5–7 FPS cost in complex base geometry. The visual difference in a top-down factory view is minimal.
Texture StreamingOn
Prevents VRAM exhaustion when panning across large bases with many distinct building materials.
Why: Without streaming, loading all building textures simultaneously can exhaust VRAM and cause hitching on cards with 6 GB or less.
Frame Cap58 or 117
Cap slightly below monitor refresh rate (58 for 60 Hz, 117 for 120 Hz) for consistent frame pacing.
Why: Uncapped frames produce variable frame-time intervals that manifest as micro-stutter even at high average FPS. A sub-refresh cap eliminates this.

Base layout

Layout rules to avoid simulation spikes

Derived from LOD thresholds and entity update costs in game files. Apply these before reducing render settings.

Cluster high-stability buildings together
Buildings with stabilityCost 90 (Teleporter, Molecular Binder, Assembler, Refinery, Facturer, Compounder, Pyro Forge) each contribute full simulation load. Placing them within a 300-unit cluster allows the LOD system to cull them as a single group when the camera moves away, reducing active entity count.
Data: Stability values from buildings.json — extracted from game files
Group on one power rail
Keep base within a compact radius
The game's LOD2 boundary activates at 6 000 units from camera (source: DA_GenericBuilding). A base spread beyond that radius forces the engine to maintain multiple LOD zones simultaneously, increasing the active entity count and per-frame update budget.
Data: LOD distances from DA_GenericBuilding (BaseLODDistance)
Target < 6 000-unit radius
Minimize rail and belt segment count
Each rail and conveyor segment is a separate physics entity that ticks every frame. The game's entity system (MassEntityConfigAsset) processes each segment individually regardless of load state.
Data: Mass entity trait structure from DA_GenericReplicatedBuilding
Use direct feeds over long rail runs
Consolidate idle storage containers
Each container with item contents maintains an inventory-change listener in the simulation. Storage Depot v.1 (2x2) and v.2 (3x3) both draw 5 MW each; Expandable Storage draws 60 MW. Consolidating into fewer containers reduces both power draw and per-frame listener overhead.
Data: Electricity values from buildings.json
Merge idle storage, power off empty depots
Balance cooling before stacking processors
The temperature simulation (CrMassTemperatureTrait) runs on every tick for each building. Processors with high CoolingCapacityUsing (Assembler: 150, Refinery: 60, Compounder: 60) require active cooling or the simulation continues evaluating overheat states each tick even when idle.
Data: CoolingCapacityUsing values from DA_Assembler, DA_Refinery
Place coolers before dense production zones
Prefer Pressure or Solar v.2 for power
Pressure Power Generator (1 000 MW, 0 stability cost) and Solar Generator v.2 (1 000 MW, 70 stability cost) produce maximum power with the lowest per-unit simulation overhead. Wind Turbine v.1/v.2 have constant rotating-animation ticks that add GPU overhead near the camera.
Data: Electricity output and stabilityCost from buildings.json
Replace Wind Turbines with Pressure/Solar where possible

System tweaks

Safe launch and driver changes

All options are reversible. Test one change at a time.

Launch parameter: -USEALLAVAILABLECORES
Star Rupture uses Unreal Engine's Mass Entity System which is highly multi-threaded. Adding -USEALLAVAILABLECORES to Steam launch options ensures the thread pool spans all logical CPU cores.
Add to Steam launch options
External frame cap instead of in-game V-Sync
Apply a frame cap at the driver level (NVIDIA Control Panel: 'Max Frame Rate', AMD Radeon Software: 'Frame Rate Target Control') or via Rivatuner Statistics Server. In-game V-Sync uses double-buffering which adds at least one frame of latency.
Driver-level cap preferred
Shader cache: rebuild after major patches
After game updates, allow the shader cache to fully rebuild before benchmarking. The initial session after a patch will stutter as shaders compile on demand. Clearing the cache prematurely resets this process.
Let it rebuild naturally
Disable third-party overlays during gameplay
Overlay software (Discord, GeForce Experience, Xbox Game Bar) hooks into the render pipeline and can add 2–8 FPS overhead. Monitoring overlays with lightweight rendering (e.g., hardware-only stat overlays) have minimal impact.
Test each overlay individually
Install on SSD or NVMe
The game streams large base environments and uses texture streaming extensively. Mechanical HDD seek times cause loading hitches when the camera pans across areas outside the preloaded zone. SSD reduces hitching; NVMe eliminates it for typical base sizes.
SSD strongly recommended

Common misconceptions

What players often get wrong about performance

These are frequently repeated tips that contradict actual engine data.

Myth

More storage buildings always improve logistics

Reality

Each storage container with items holds an active inventory listener in the simulation. More containers with small item counts increases simulation overhead compared to fewer fully-loaded containers. Consolidate storage for better frame times.

Source: Inventory size values from buildings.json; MassEntityConfigAsset trait structure

Myth

Raising view distance always improves visibility without cost

Reality

Higher view distance forces buildings beyond LOD2 (6 000 units) to run at LOD1 (3 000-unit) update frequency, increasing the number of fully-simulated entities per frame. This has the largest impact on CPU-limited systems with large bases.

Source: DA_GenericBuilding LODParams: BaseLODDistance[2] = 6 000

Myth

Wind Turbines are the best power source because of high output

Reality

Wind Turbine v.1 and v.2 have continuous animation ticks (AnimRotSpeed: 3.0, AnimDuration: 5.0 from DA_WindPowerGenerator) that add GPU vertex processing overhead. Pressure Power Generator and Solar Generator v.2 deliver equal or greater output with lower per-frame GPU cost.

Source: Electricity values and animation parameters from DA_WindPowerGenerator and buildings.json

Myth

The Teleporter only costs FPS when actively used

Reality

The Teleporter (80 MW, stabilityCost 90, interaction radius 800 units) registers a persistent interaction zone that the entity system scans every tick, even when idle. One Teleporter adds to simulation overhead continuously.

Source: DA_Teleporter: Radius = 800.0, electricity.value = 80 from buildings.json