Starbound

Starbound

Developers
	Chucklefish Games
Release dates
Windows	July 22, 2016
macOS (OS X)	July 22, 2016
Linux	July 22, 2016
Reception
Metacritic	81
OpenCritic	85
IGDB	87
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Multiplayer

Key points

Modding and Steam Workshop support.

Notable performance issues. See Poor performance / low FPS.

Does not save per user, but in game folder without separate user folders.

General information

Official forums

Official wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Official website
GOG.com
Humble Store
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Steam
Discord (unavailable)

Version differences

Unstable

The Unstable version (included with the game on Steam) is an unstable release that "may destroy your saves and be generally, well, unstable." Updates are usually released to the Unstable version in advance for public testing, before being pushed to the main branch, and Steam Workshop mods cannot normally be accessed by the Unstable version. Between updates, however, the Unstable version is otherwise exactly the same as the standard version.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\storage\starbound.config
Microsoft Store	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Starbound\starbound.config
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game>/storage/starbound.config
Linux	<path-to-game>/storage/starbound.config

The path to the storage directory can be customized by changing the storageDirectory option in the file sbinit.config, which is located in the same directory as the Starbound executable.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\storage\
Microsoft Store	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Starbound\
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game>/storage/
Linux	<path-to-game>/storage/

The path to the storage directory can be customized by changing the storageDirectory option in the file sbinit.config, which is located in the same directory as the Starbound executable.

The storage/player directory contains the save files for all characters/players along with the respective ship worlds and automated backups.

The storage/universe directory contains all planet worlds and systems that have been generated.

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save games are not being stored per user, but are shared between user accounts.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Discord
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

General options

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Resolutions up to 2560x1440.
Multi-monitor		See Multi-monitor.
Ultra-widescreen		See Multi-monitor.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Toggle by pressing F11.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Enabled by default. To disable it see Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS. Physics/AI issues beyond 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Multi-monitor

Modify config[citation needed]
Launch the game and go to Options. Set the resolution to one which is single-monitor and tick Fullscreen. Click Accept and quit the game. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open starbound.xml with your text editor of choice. Modify the value in "maximizedResolution" : [ xxxx, yyyy ], with your desired resolution. Save and close the file.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Instructions[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open starbound.config with your text editor of choice. Change the value labeled Vsync from true to false Save and close the file.

Disable Frame Skipping

Instructions[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open starbound.config with your text editor of choice. Delete the value labeled Maximumframeskip Save and close the file.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		There is no option for this, however some may notice it is enabled when playing in fullscreen mode.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Official Steam Controller bindings only.

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX and music.
Surround sound		Config option at line 5 and 6: "audioChannelSeparation" & "audioChannels"
Subtitles		Everything is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Russian				Fan translation. Steam Workshop page, GitHub. Incomplete.
Spanish				Fan translation, download. Incomplete.
Spanish				Fan translation, download. Incomplete continuation of the previous Spanish fan translation.
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation, Steam Workshop page, Github. Almost all text have been translated. The font mod is required before installing the Chinese translation mod.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play		Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play		Connect by using a local IP.
Online play

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		Dedicated server in both the game directory ("starbound_server.exe") as well as a separate "Starbound Dedicated Server" Steam tool.
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	21025

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Crash at Chucklefish logo

There is an active bug causing this for Windows XP users.^{[citation needed]} Try the fixes below if you are not running Windows XP.

Wait[citation needed]
Many people have encountered this while launching the game for the first time. Simply waiting for it finish loading assets may work. This can take anywhere from 2 minutes to more than 10 minutes.

Resize window[citation needed]
For users experiencing hangups on OS X and Linux, re-sizing the window with your cursor has been shown to help.[citation needed]

Game does not start at all with no error message (Windows)

This may occur due to a DLL file conflict with other installed software, such as Microsoft's IIS web server.

Copy files
Go to <path-to-game>\win32\. Copy the files libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll to <path-to-game>\win32\launcher.

libdirectfb-1.2.so.9: cannot open shared object file

This only applies to Linux users.

Instructions
Open a Terminal. Type the following in one by one: ln -s /usr/lib/libdirect-1.7.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib/libdirectfb-1.7.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib/libfusion-1.7.so.1.0.0 . mv libdirect-1.{7.so.1.0.0,2.so.9} mv libdirectfb-1.{7.so.1.0.0,2.so.9} mv libfusion-1.{7.so.1.0.0,2.so.9} mv {,_}libSDL-1.2.so.0

Access violation

Instructions
Go to <path-to-game>\win32\ Right-click on starbound.exe and select Properties. Select the Compatibility tab and tick Run this program as an administrator. Also in compatibility mode tick Run this program in compatibility mode for: Select Windows 7 and repeat the same steps for starbound_opengl.exe and launcher/launcher.exe. Notes This doesnt work for newer versions of the game.

Poor performance / low FPS

Play in OpenGL mode
If you experience low FPS and FPS drops: Launch the game and click Launch Starbound (OpenGL) on the launcher.

Disable threaded optimization
Go to the Nvidia Control Panel. Set Threaded optimization to Off. Notes This only applies to users who have an Nvidia card.

Unset compatibility mode for Steam
Go to the steam.exe application or shortcut. Right-click and select Properties. Select the Compatibility tab and click Change settings for all users. Untick Run this program in compatibility mode for: and click Apply. Run Steam and launch the game. Notes This only applies to the Steam version of the game.

Delete registry entry
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers. Look for a entry with your path to steam.exe. Delete that entry. Notes If you dont find it there try HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers. This only applies to the Steam version of the game.

libsteam_api.so: cannot open shared object file

This only applies to Linux users.

Verify integrity of game files
Right-click the game in Steam and choose "Properties...". Navigate to the tab "Installed Files". Click on "Verify integrity of game files". Notes This only applies to the Steam version of the game.

Launch via run-client.sh
Go to <path-to-game>/linux/. Run the file run-client.sh.

Launch with updated LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable
Open a Terminal. Navigate to <path-to-game>/linux/. Run the starbound executable as follows: LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:./" ./starbound

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	4.6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Command line arguments

Command	Description
-help	Show help text
-version	Print version info
-bootconfig <bootconfig>	Boot time configuration file, defaults to sbinit.config This path is relative to the directory that contains starbound.exe (Windows), starbound (Linux) or Starbound.app (macOS/OS X).
-logfile <logfile>	Log to the given logfile relative to the root directory, defaults to starbound.log This path is relative to the directory specified by the storageDirectory option in sbinit.config, usually <path-to-game>/storage.
-loglevel <level>	Sets the logging level (debug|info|warn|error), defaults to Info
-quiet	Do not log to stdout, defaults to false
-verbose	Log to stdout, defaults to true
-runtimeconfig	Sets the path to the runtime configuration storage file relative to root directory, defaults to starbound.config This path is relative to the directory specified by the storageDirectory option in sbinit.config, usually <path-to-game>/storage. This argument does not accept any parameters, hence rendering it useless.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP or later
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo	Intel Core i3
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.7 or later
Processor (CPU)	64-bit Intel CPU
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB	4 GB

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Debian Stable or Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or later
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo	Intel Core i3
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM OpenGL 2.1 compatible	256 MB of VRAM OpenGL 2.1 compatible