The newly launched Returnal sees player don their shooting cape in order to take down their enemies in this action-filled, science-heavy game. Housemarque, the developers, have released the game for PS5 only with highly visual graphics and an intense story.
Nevertheless, there have been some persistent problems faced by a lot of players, including fatal errors. While there is no one reason as to why this is happening, the most common issues include the likes of expired drivers, bad game files, incompatible software, and more. In that regard, the following guide will help players in solving this fatal error problem through some commonly used methods.
Returnal: How to fix the fatal error problem
Stop the popup window on Steam
Players have to turn on their Steam client and move to Settings. There is the In-Game tab where you will have to cancel out the box titled “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.” In this way, you can disable the popup window that Steam presents every time during the game, thereby reducing the instances of a fatal error.
Upgrade your graphics drivers
A common problem area that can affect a number of games. Players will have to go to the website of their graphics card provider and check for the most recent drivers. If they are present, you will have to download them and restart the game again.
Verify the game files
An easy fix for players which will require you to check the worthiness of the game files. You will have to get inside your Steam client and open the Game Library. Once you have located Returnal, right-click on it and choose Properties.
Check the Local Files tab which will have the option of “Verify Integrity of Game Files…“If there is any file missing or bad, it will update it accordingly and make the game run smoothly without a fatal error.
Insert commands into the Engine.ini file
A tricky solution that needs a very specific sort of lines to be entered. You will have to get out of your game and click on the Windows + R keys together. Type in %AppData% and after that, head to Local. Once there, go to \Returnal\Steam\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor. You will find the Engine.ini file which will need the following commands to be included:
[SystemSettings] r.Streaming.Boost=1 r.FastVRam.EyeAdaptation=1 r.bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=1 r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=0 r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1 r.Streaming.MaxEffectiveScreenSize=0 r.Streaming.UseFixedPoolSize=1 r.Streaming.PoolSize=6144 r.Streaming.MipBias=0 r.Streaming.DefragDynamicBounds=1 r.HLOD.DistanceScale=1.5 r.HLOD.MaximumLevel=1 r.MaxAnisotropy=16 r.ViewDistance=2 r.ViewDistanceScale=2.0 r.LandscapeLODDistributionScale=2 r.LandscapeLOD0DistributionScale=2 foliage.MaxOcclusionQueriesPerComponent=128 foliage.MinInstancesPerOcclusionQuery=65536 grass.DensityScale=0.75 foliage.DensityScale=1.0 r.Shadow.MinResolution=2048 r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2048 r.Shadow.FadeResolution=2048
Validate your steam game files
Open the game library in the Steam client and right-click on Returnal. Choose Properties and go to the Local Files tab. Once you check the integrity of the game files, the problem should be fixed. If it is not resolved, you can uninstall the Epic Game installer and download it back again.
Thus, those are all the popular solutions to the fatal error in Returnal. If you fail to fix the issue using the aforementioned methods, players can connect with the support team and they can suggest some highly specific solutions. There are a lot of things and missions to be discovered in Returnal as players progress through.
Last Updated on February 20, 2023
A FIFA junkie who can also mix it up with Call Of Duty and racing games. GTA was his first love. Now can be found spending time between writing on what he plays and playing what he will write on.