How to fix Satisfactory 1.0 crashing on launch

Nobody wants to come face-to-face with a crash error when launching a game for the first time, especially if it’s Satisfactory on its 1.0 release.

Game crashes can happen for a myriad of reasons, and you may not know why they happen or how to fix them. From online games like Apex Legends to single-player titles like Hogwarts Legacy, crashes are more normal than you may think.

If you’re trying to jump on Satisfactory, whether you’re playing alone or on a dedicated server, you may be struggling to even launch the game. Here’s how you can fix Satisfactory’s launch crashing issues.

“An Unreal process has crashed” Satisfactory error causes

While attempting to launch Satisfactory, an open-world factory builder, you may have received a pop-up of a crash report that says “An Unreal process has crashed.” You’re not alone, and even if it wasn’t an Unreal issue, players around the world are having the same problem.

This can most often be due to your PC attempting to run the game on DirectX 12 API instead of DirectX 11, which is better for older machines. Your GPU could be trying to run the game on DirectX 12 but failing due to it being older technology.

Otherwise, if it’s not due to the API you’re using, crashes can happen with faulty files in your game, or perhaps it wasn’t installed correctly.

How to fix Satisfactory crashes

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Changing to DirectX 11

The first solution that should fix crashing on launch is to make Steam launch Satisfactory with DirectX 11 instead of 12. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Right-click Satisfactory in your library and select Properties.
2. Under General, type “-dx11” (excluding the quotations) under Launch Options.

Now Satisfactory should automatically launch using DirectX11 instead of the newest 12 version.

You can still make this work if you’re playing on Epic Games. Here’s how it’s done through the Epic Games Store:

1. Find Satisfactory in your library.
2. Select the three dots beside the title and choose “Manage.”
3. Go to “Launch Options” and check the box.
4. Type “-dx11” (excluding the quotations).

Update drivers

Sometimes the solution is just to update some of your drivers. I’d prioritize updating your graphics driver first, as it can be one of the many reasons for games struggling to run if they require high-fidelity graphics.

You can do this through GeForce Experience if you have a NVIDIA GPU, or with AMD Adrenalin Edition if you have an AMD one. Intel driver updates can be found online through Google searches.

Verify integrity of game files

Another easy way to try and fix your crashing problems is by verifying the integrity of your game files. You can easily do this through Steam by following these steps:

1. Right-click Satisfactory in your library and select Properties.
2. Under “Installed Files,” select “Verify integrity of game files.”

If you’re playing Satisfactory through the Epic Games Store, here’s how it’s done:

1. Find Satisfactory in your library.
2. Select the three dots beside the title and choose “Manage.”
3. Click on “Verify.”

Other than these three solutions, your last case scenario should be to uninstall and reinstall Satisfactory. Honestly, the crashing issues are most likely due to the DirectX API problem, so you shouldn’t even have to try out any of the other fixes.