Troubleshooting

Microlandia uses WebGPU for rendering, which offers the best performance on modern hardware. Some GPU drivers have issues with WebGPU, though — if you run into problems, the options below can help.

Common issues

Black screen (menus work but no city visible)

This means the 3D renderer failed to initialize, but the UI layer is fine. The most likely fix:

1. Try --webgl — this switches the 3D renderer to WebGL2, which works on a wider range of GPU drivers. Add it as a Steam launch option (see below).
2. If that doesn't help, try --disable-gpu-compositing.
3. Update your graphics drivers to the latest version.

Game freezes for several seconds during gameplay

Periodic freezes (10–60 seconds where the game appears stuck then resumes) are usually caused by the GPU process crashing and restarting. Try these in order:

1. Try --webgl — the WebGL2 renderer avoids the WebGPU code path entirely and often resolves freeze issues.
2. Update your graphics drivers — very new and very old drivers are the most likely to have WebGPU issues.
3. If you have --in-process-gpu in your launch options, remove it. In-process GPU mode runs all graphics on the main thread, which causes severe freezes.

Game crashes on launch (GPU error)

Try these in order:

1. --webgl — bypasses WebGPU entirely.
2. --disable-gpu-compositing — disables GPU compositing while keeping GPU acceleration.
3. --disable-gpu — disables GPU hardware acceleration entirely.
4. --software-rendering — last resort, very slow but works on any system.

Poor framerate / low FPS

Open the in-game Settings (Menu → Settings) and try:

• Lower the Render Scale to 0.75 or 0.5.
• Disable Shadows.
• Set Anti-aliasing to FXAA or Off.
• Lower Particle Quality.

You can check which renderer is active at the top of the Graphics section in Settings (WebGPU or WebGL2).

Steam overlay appears white or doesn't render (Windows)

Try --disable-direct-composition. If the overlay still doesn't work, try adding --disable-direct-composition-video-overlays.

Steam overlay doesn't appear (Linux)

The game defaults to X11 (via Xwayland) which supports Steam's overlay hooks. If you're using --force-wayland, the overlay may not work — try removing that flag.

Display/rendering glitches on Wayland

The game defaults to X11 for consistent GL behavior. For native Wayland, pass --force-wayland, but be aware this is less tested.

Controller not detected

Try --experimental-hid to enable the fallback HID gamepad detection for controllers not recognized by the standard Gamepad API.

Controller causing issues / unwanted gamepad input

If a connected controller is sending phantom inputs or interfering with mouse/keyboard play, use --disable-gamepad to disable all gamepad support. The game will behave as if no controller is connected.

All launch options

Renderer

GPU process

Windows-specific

Linux-specific

Other

How to set launch options

Steam

1. Right-click Microlandia in your Steam library → Properties
2. In the General tab, find Launch Options
3. Type the flags you want, e.g. --webgl

Standalone (itch.io / direct download)

Pass flags directly when launching from a terminal:

./run.sh --webgl

On Windows, you can create a shortcut and add flags to the target field.

City backups

Microlandia automatically saves up to 10 rolling backups of each city. If a save becomes corrupted or you want to revert, you can restore from a backup.

Backup locations

Backup files are named <city-id>.<timestamp>.microlandia, sorted newest-first by the timestamp.

Restoring a backup

1. Close the game.
2. Open the backups folder for your platform (see above).
3. Find the backup you want — pick the most recent file whose timestamp predates the problem.
4. Copy it into the db folder (same parent directory, sibling of backups) and rename it to match the original city file (remove the timestamp portion).
5. Relaunch the game.

Still stuck?

Join our Discord and describe your issue — we're happy to help.