- Update GPU drivers. Nvidia 555+ / AMD Adrenalin 24.4+. Older drivers crash on the volumetric clouds.
- Verify game files. Steam → right-click Windrose → Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity.
- Force DX12. Launch options:
-dx12. Eliminates the storm-event crash on most rigs. - Cap framerate to 60. Some uncapped rigs crash on the harpoon whale animation.
- Disable Steam Overlay. Overlay hooks conflict with the in-game pause menu.
- Clear the shader cache. Delete
%LOCALAPPDATA%/Windrose/Saved/D3DSCache.
If nothing works
Post a crash log on the Windrose Discord #bug-reports channel. Devs respond to logs that include Windrose/Saved/Logs/Windrose.log.