Troubleshooting

Microlandia tries WebGPU by default. If the game won't start or the city doesn't render, try the steps below. For the launch-options reference, see the bottom of this page.

The launch options below apply to Windows and Linux, starting with 2.0.1.6768. Older 2.0.1 builds may not forward every option. The new Windows sandbox default and --enable-sandbox opt-out are planned for a later update. On macOS, use the in-game Graphics settings; Chromium launch options do not apply.

Common issues

The game won't launch

1. Let Steam finish updating the game, then try launching with an empty Launch Options field. Fully quit the game between attempts.
2. Update your graphics drivers.
3. On Linux, right-click Microlandia in Steam → Properties → Compatibility. Make sure "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" is off. Use the native Linux build, including on Steam Deck.
4. Try --webgl as a launch option to skip WebGPU.
5. On Windows, compare the sandbox options below, one at a time.

If Windows reports that the WebView2 Runtime is missing, install it from Microsoft, then relaunch. Graphics flags cannot fix a missing runtime.

Windows sandbox options

In 2.0.1.6768, Windows uses WebView2's normal sandbox settings. To test whether sandboxing affects startup, compare these three launches, fully quitting between them:

1. An empty Launch Options field, as your baseline.
2. --disable-gpu-sandbox, which disables only the GPU process sandbox.
3. --no-sandbox, which disables sandboxing for the renderer, GPU and utility processes. Use it on its own for this comparison.

Remove the option to return to this build's defaults. These are tests for a possible cause of startup failures, not a confirmed fix for every graphics problem. Linux already starts with --no-sandbox, so adding either sandbox-disabling option there will not provide the same comparison.

Upcoming Windows update: the game will request --no-sandbox by default. In builds with that update, --enable-sandbox will restore normal sandboxing, and --enable-sandbox --disable-gpu-sandbox will let you test disabling only the GPU sandbox. The opt-out is Windows-only and is not available in 2.0.1.6768. It takes priority even if --no-sandbox is also present.

Black screen — menus visible, no city

This can involve the 3D renderer or how its output reaches the screen. Try one change at a time:

1. --webgl switches the 3D renderer to WebGL2.
2. --disable-gpu-compositing bypasses Chromium's GPU compositor.
3. On Windows, --webgl --opengl tests OpenGL instead of the usual Direct3D backend.
4. On Linux, ANGLE OpenGL is already the default. Try --webgl --no-use-gl-angle to let Chromium choose its GL backend, or --webgl --disable-features=Vulkan to compare without Vulkan.
5. Update your graphics drivers.

Avoid --disable-gpu and --disable-webgl as recovery options: they can prevent the 3D scene from rendering.

Periodic freezes during gameplay

Long freezes followed by recovery can happen when the GPU process stalls or restarts.

1. Try --webgl to compare with the WebGPU renderer.
2. Update your graphics drivers.
3. If you have --in-process-gpu set, remove it. That option can make GPU stalls freeze the whole application.

Poor framerate

Open in-game Settings → Graphics:

• Check which renderer is active (top of the Graphics panel). If WebGPU runs poorly on your system, try --webgl.
• Lower Render Scale to 0.75 or 0.5.
• Disable Shadows.
• Set Anti-aliasing to FXAA or Off.
• Lower Particle Quality.

Steam overlay glitches (Windows)

Try --disable-direct-composition. If only the video parts of the overlay are broken, the more targeted --disable-direct-composition-video-overlays may be enough on its own.

How to set launch options

Start with an empty field, then try one example at a time. Fully quit the game and relaunch after each change. Record which options helped; remove options that did not. The examples on this page are alternatives, not a list to paste together.

Steam

1. Right-click Microlandia in your Steam library → Properties.
2. Under General, find Launch Options.
3. Type the flag(s), e.g. --webgl. Multiple flags are space-separated.

Standalone (itch.io / direct download)

On Linux, run ./run.sh --webgl from the game's folder. On Windows, edit a shortcut to microlandia.exe and append flags to the Target field, after the closing quote around the executable path. The same options work in Steam and standalone builds.

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 (above).
3. Pick the most recent backup whose timestamp predates the problem.
4. Copy it into the db folder (sibling of backups) and rename it to match the original city file (drop the timestamp portion).
5. Relaunch the game.

Troubleshooting launch options

Windows and Linux forward Chromium switches, including options with values such as --use-angle=d3d11. Whether a switch takes effect depends on the platform and runtime. The options below are useful comparisons; see how to set them.

Both platforms already request --ignore-gpu-blocklist, --disable-domain-blocking-for-3d-apis and a 30-second GPU watchdog timeout. Linux also defaults to X11/Xwayland, ANGLE OpenGL, Vulkan enabled and sandboxing disabled. Windows uses the runtime's default graphics backend; OpenGL and composition workarounds are opt-in.

Choose either --webgl or --webgpu. If both are present, --webgpu wins, except that --in-process-gpu and Linux's native Wayland mode force WebGL2.

The old Electron option --experimental-hid is not available in the 2.0 Windows and Linux builds.

Still stuck?

Join our Discord and include your operating system, GPU model, game version and build number, and the exact launch options you tried. If the game shows a copyable error report, include that too. Tell us whether it never opens, opens to a black screen, or fails when loading a city.