Performance

"What can I do to improve my game's FPS? It lags very much. But my computer is great, so what gives?"

How to improve Starbound's performance? This question is frequently asked, and this page will provide 100% of what we know.

Why does Starbound lag
Starbound (by itself, even without any mods) is very poorly optimized. It only uses 1 CPU core. It also doesn't use GPU (all graphics are calculated by CPU). So regardless of how good your computer is, you might still run into problems.

However, things like ITDs can also contribute to the lag. See below.

Methods that work
These methods are known to improve game speed:
 * Turn off vsync
 * How: find the file  within your Starbound directory. Edit it, replacing the line   (which is slow) with   (which is faster).
 * Why it helps: 99% of games don't suffer from vsync being enabled (in fact, it's better for them), because vsync is normally done by GPU. But Starbound doesn't use GPU, so having vsync means "your CPU needs to do more work".
 * Less zoom
 * How: in game options, dial it down 2x to 3x, etc.
 * Why it helps: Less things for game to draw.
 * Use 32-bit Starbound instead of 64-bit Starbound (Windows-only)
 * How: When opening the game through Steam, choose "Play Starbound (32-bit)"
 * Why it helps: 64-bit Starbound has a known memory leak. It slowly gets worse every time some Lua script adds/removes items in chests, etc. For some reason 32-bit Starbound doesn't have this memory leak.
 * If you have Linux, run Starbound on Linux
 * Why it helps: Starbound was originally developed on Linux, and apparently it was optimized for Linux more than it was optimized for Windows. It is known to run better on Linux with the same hardware.

Methods that might work
Disclaimer: these methods are only theoretically helpful. It's not proven that they help. Their impact may be negligible or non-existent.


 * Mods that decrease the complexity of graphics/animations/parallax (not giving any links to them).
 * Why they might work: if something animated was replaced by something non-animated, the game has less to draw.
 * Negative impact: less pretty.
 * Mods that decrease rendering distance (e.g. turn off torches, etc. outside the player's view).
 * Why they might work: Every light source requires extra calculations. Less rendering distance = less light sources.
 * Negative impact: you might actually need the light from out-of-screen sources (to see on your home base, in tile-protected dungeons, etc.). These mods can cause "non-rendered area" to be sometimes seen by player ("I sit in the captain's chair, and half of my ship visually disappears" kinds of problems).

Methods that absolutely never work

 * Any "fps improver" and "thread increaser" mods - these are placebo. They don't work.
 * Why they can't work: Starbound mods simply don't have the engine access that would allow them to "increase threads", etc. Any mod that claims to do so is lying/fraudulent. It doesn't matter how plausible it sounds: they are incorrect or lying.

Self-inflicted lag
99% of "Starbound is slow" problems are Starbound's fault, but here are some situations when the player makes the game slower:
 * Using non-throttled Item Transference Devices
 * Why is this slow: because ITDs try to move items several times per second. Every time they need to check ALL slots of ALL input/output chests.
 * Impact: very, very high. Having even 5-10 non-throttled ITDs will decrease performance of the game. With 20 your game will lag to a halt.
 * How to fix: use Configurable 3-State Cycler (its page explains how) with your ITDs. It will drastically (by more than 10 times) reduce CPU usage by each ITD.
 * Using too many Watchers
 * Why is this slow: Starbound needs to run calculations in every loaded part of the map, and Watchers keep more of the map loaded. Having several necessary Watchers is ok, but if you place a ton of them, it will slow down the game.
 * Lots of tethered pets, NPCs, farm beasts nearby
 * Why is this slow: each of them needs some calculations. It's probably ok for 20 Mooshi cows, but 100 of them will lag.
 * Nearby chests with many weapons, saplings, mech parts, etc. (especially bad on player's ship)
 * Why is this slow: Each time such chest appears in the loaded area of the map, Starbound runs "buildscripts" (Lua scripts that run when some item "appears" in the game) for every single item in that chest. Because weapons, saplings, etc. all have buildscripts, having a chest with 128 weapons is not something that you want on your base/ship. Basic resources (crafting materials, liquids, blocks) don't cause this problem, because they don't have buildscripts.
 * How to fix: move chests with weapons/saplings, etc. to some far away area (ideally onto another planet).
 * Broken mods, or far too many mods
 * Why is this slow: Errors require your game to process and attempt to resolve them. More mods adds more chance for incompatibilities, and adds more scripts for the game to keep track of.
 * How to fix: Read Incompatible, and check your mods. If you're using 200+ mods, consider whether you need them all (races you're not playing, etc.). Try to avoid mods which haven't been updated prior to the current version of Starbound (1.4.4), and those which are especially script-heavy.

Other best practices

 * Avoid functional machinery on player's ship. If one planet lags because of many extractors/sifters/centrifuges, then it's just that one planet. If your ship lags, it's a much bigger problem.
 * Keep storage on player's ship to a minimum (because all buildscripts run every time you beam up, and because every stored item increases the size of your shipworld, which is not good, especially in multiplayer). Having a locker with EPPs and EPP Augments is ok, but don't have 20 chests with everything up there.
 * If you build large automated factories, have them on different planets (not on the same planet as your main base, so that it wouldn't lag because of those factories).

If Starbound takes 5+ minutes to start
You probably have unpacked mods (e.g. if you have installed FU from GitHub). Mods load significantly faster from .pak file (see Starbounder: Modding Basics for how to pack/unpack mods), especially with HDD. With SSD this is less relevant (the game loads very quickly even with unpacked FU). Steam Workshop files are packed automatically, before download.
 * Each release of Frackin' Universe comes with a .pak file already prepared.