[2.1.20] No error code for running out of VRAM on load

[Powerscooter]

Hey there,

when running out of VRAM while booting up the game, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated error code. This alone wouldn't be a huge issue but the player randomly gets 4 or 5 different errors ranging from

- Sprite xyz not found (demolisher head etc)
To
- Videocard removed

The first error leads to players verifying game files and perhaps even reinstalling, the second leads to players checking or even switching out hardware.

Factorio is played on many low end devices, often with integrated graphics and it's quite easy to run out of VRAM with just space age or a few mods.

[Rseding91]

I’m not sure there’s anything that we can realistically do differently about this. We already detect any errors the underlying GPU gives us when trying to allocate textures and show them as errors. The GPU just doesn’t give reliable errors when running low on VRAM and fails in random places in random ways, resulting in what you’re experiencing.

To make things worse, it’s different per operating system.

[Powerscooter]

I suspected it was a technical limitation, thank you for the quick answer!