Cities: Skylines 2’s Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials error has been giving players major headaches ever since the sequel launched, leading them to wonder if it can be fixed.
Cities: Skylines 2’s Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials error is particularly egregious due to how it seems to appear when starting the game. This prevents those affected from actually reaching the menu and, by extension, playing the game at all. If you’ve been looking forward to the second entry in the series, it’s easy to see why you’d want a fix as soon as possible.
Cities: Skylines 2 Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials Error
Reports of Cities: Skylines II’s Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials error seem to predominantly target older GPUs.
Although the reasons behind its appearance may vary it could mean that certain hardware simply doesn’t support the technology or at least the way in which it’s implemented in the sequel.
While this would normally imply that buying a new graphics card would be the only way to fix the issue, there are several things you could try before you consider an upgrade.
“With older Nvidia cards the best chance to get passed this is to try with the Nvidia GeForce experience to create settings appropriate before launching the game. This can also happen if your operating system is older than win10,” a developer wrote on the Paradox forums.
Using GeForce Experience to determine the settings used by the title seems to have worked for at least a few users, so it’s certainly worth giving a shot.
If that doesn’t work, another potential fix for Cities: Skylines II’s Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials error involves a bit of old-school game file editing.
Follow this path, C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\LocalLow\Colossal Order\Cities Skylines II, and you should spot a file named Settings.coc.
Open it using a text editor such as Notepad, and search for the line that reads “Game.Settings.VolumetricsQualitySettings.” Make sure the “enabled” line above it is set to false.
By the looks of it, this disables the volumetric materials that cause the error, allowing you to reach the main menu and further tweak the game’s settings.
If you’re having trouble running the game at a decent frame rate, the team behind it has admitted that performance isn’t quite where it needs to be, suggesting a handful of settings you should prioritize lowering first.
With a handful of potential fixes for Cities: Skylines II’s Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials error now covered, also check out our articles on GeForce Now support and rotating buildings.
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