Startup Arguments

In the Steam version of SE, it is possible to set certain game startup behaviours and path settings as your default.

Usage

1. Open Steam.
2. In the game list, right-click Space Engineers and select Properties.
3. In the window that opens, go to the General tab.
4. Find the Launch Options field and enter one or more arguments of your choice. Each argument starts with a hyphen. Separate several arguments by a space. For example: -nosplash -skipintro

Alternatively, if you start the game from the Windows commandline, enter your custom arguments right after the executable, for example:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Bin64\SpaceEngineers.exe" -nosplash -skipintro

Important: In the following, when you see words in braces, such as <param>, it means you must replace them by a value of your choice. Don't include the < and > characters. For more info on this, see Command Line Interface: Command description syntax.

Startup arguments

Choose one or more of the following options:

• -skipintro no longer plays the intro video with the loud harpsichord.
• -nosplash no longer shows the splash image before the game window appears.
• -appdata <path> sets the path to store game saves etc. in a folder of your choice. The appdata folder is where SE saves logs and your settings, save games, blueprints, etc. It's %APPDATA%/Space Engineers on your C drive by default. Use this argument if want to store your SE data on another drive or in another folder.
• -suppressLoadingDialogs skips the warning popup when loading a world that has an outdated or non-existent binary cache for its .sbc (the cache is a file with .sbcB5 suffix).
• +connect <IP address> immediately connects to the specified game server at the IP address.

For startup arguments specific to Dedicated Servers, visit Setting up a DS: Command Line Tool

Unknown or not recommended

• -coldstart precompiles the game for your CPU to avoid it being compiled in realtime (JIT). This is automatically done every time the game updates (you'll see the ngen.exe requesting to run) or if ColdStart.txt is missing from appdata. You should not need to use this argument manually.
• ms-xbl-multiplayer:// likely used by xbox live to connect to another player or a server.
• +connect_lobby <id> likely used by steam to connect you to a player that you clicked "join game" on.
• -generateDx11MipCache likely generates mip cache for all game textures, not something players should be using. The mip cache is used to show an approximate color while the texture streams in.
• -video_record takes screenshots 60 times a second and stores them in the Recording folder in SE's appdata folder, and turns off some occlusion checks. Might require V-sync to be on to function.
• -verboseNetworkLogging likely spams log with all sorts of details on sending or receiving packets
• -render_sync
• -report <logpath>
• -reporX <logpath>
• +launch_scenario <path> looks for a campaign at the path (unclear if it wants a folder or a file).
• +launch_scenario_instance <path> has priority over +launch_scenario, unclear what the instance part means.
• +launch_scenario_cross_platform likely sets the created lobby as cross-platform.