Options

This page describes the global options that are valid for all Space Engineers games, including display and screenshot resolution, graphic quality, audio volume, keybindings and other controls. Game Options also include, for instance, experimental mode, UI transparency, UI language, Steam Cloud, and crosshairs.

Click Options on the Main screen to open the Options menu. In game, you can access it from the pause screen by pressing Escape.

• Note the UI tab next to the General tab, it’s easily overlooked.
• Note that there are additional World Settings that apply to individual games.
  

Game Options

General

• Language
• Building mode (creative mode only): Whether clicking places a single block, a line of blocks, or a plane of blocks. Similar to the Ctrl+Drag LMB and Ctrl+Shift+Drag LMB shortcuts.
• Experimental mode - Enables advanced features like scripts. Only available from the main screen for all games, setting cannot be edited while a game is running.
• Show control hints - Show keybind advice in game. Recommended for beginners.
• Show Good.Bot hints - Show hints in game. Recommended for beginners.
• Reset Good.Bot Hints - Show all hints again as if it was the first day.
• Show rotation hints - While in block placement mode, show an overlay with arrows and rotation keybinds.
• Enable Steam Cloud - This option used to store and synchronise saved games in the Steam Cloud, and was used for example when moving data from one PC to another, but it's buggy. Also interferes with Workshop blueprint saving, so it's best to switch it off.
• Enable Trading - Allows in-game Trade offers from nearby players in multiplayer. If disabled, your character auto-ignores all trade requests on multiplayer servers.
• GDPR Consent Agreement - Privacy policy consent for the European Union
• Mod.io Consent - Optional consent for use of the mod.io workshop
• Enable Area interaction - Allows interactions with objects without having to place the crosshair on them directly. Switch this off if you often end up grinding the wrong block than what you thought you were aiming at.

UI

• Show crosshair: Choose from the following options:
  • always hidden
  • always visible
  • visible with HUD (press tab)
• Ironsight switch state: Toggle or hold. Let's you choose whether pressing the secondary action key toggles aiming down sights (zooming in) with a weapon, or whether you have to hold the key.
• Select a hit type (enemy, friendly, headshot, kill, or grid) and then select a custom crosshair color and transparency for this type.
• UI scale
• UI opacity - The user interface is opaque by default. Moving the slider to the right means 100% opaque.
• UI background opacity - A more transparent UI (by moving the slider to the left) lets you see what happens around you even while you adjust settings in the Terminal.
• HUD background opacity - A more transparent HUD (by moving the slider to the left) lets you see more of the game environment.

Display Options

• Video adapter - If you have multiple graphic cards, select the best GPU here.
• Window mode - Choose either fullscreen window, window, or fullscreen.
• Video mode - Select your preferred screen resolution. The recommended one is marked with asterisks.
• Screenshot size multiplier - Even if you cannot play in the highest resolution, you can take high-quality screenshots in 2x, 4x, or even 8x resolution of the current window size. Use (F4 key) to take the screenshot, it will be saved into %appdata%\SpaceEngineers\Screenshots.
• Vertical sync - Whether you want the game to sync with the refresh rate of your screen to resolve possible visible distortions, at the cost of slower performance.
• Capture mouse - Whether the game should capture the mouse pointer in "Window" and "Fullscreen Window" Mode.

Graphics Options

Tip: Using the "extreme" graphics quality is not recommended for actual gameplay.

• Quality presets - choose from low, medium, high, custom.
  • Model quality
  • Shader quality
  • Voxel quality
  • Texture quality
  • Shadow quality
  • Light quality
• Anti-aliasing - Renders with soft, less jaggy edges.
• Anisotropic filtering - Improves the look of textures at a distance.
• Field of view - How wide your viewing angle should be. Typically 60 degrees for console games viewed on TVs, and 90-100 degrees for PC games where one sits closer to the screen.
• Flares intensity
• Grass draw distance - Higher distance looks better but decreases performance.
• Grass density - Higher density looks better but lower density makes it easier to spot ore deposits.
• Tree draw distance - Higher distance looks better but smaller distance increases performance.
• Ambient occlusion - More natural looking shadows, but more performance heavy.
• Enable damage effects - Particle effects such as sparks and smoke indicate damaged blocks.
• Enable Post-Processing - Extra effects such as Bloom, Vignette, Chromatic Abberation, Visor.

See also Nvidia Ansel.

Audio Options

• Music volume
• Sound volume
• Enable voice chat in multiplayer
• Voice chat volume
• Push to talk
• Mute when inactive - silence the game when the game window loses focus when you tab out
• Enable Doppler effect
• Speed based ship sounds - uncheck for realistic sounds
• Use contextual music (build music, fight music, space music, mystery music, or calm music)
• HUD warnings - Suit voice gives additional audio warnings when oxygen/health/power are low.

Controls

Lets you change the default Key Bindings. There are several categories of controls:

• Controllers - 3rd person zoom speed, controller, mouse sensitivity, inverted axes, deadzone, etc.
• Movement - WASD, rotate, crouch, sprint, roll, strafe, jump...
• Systems/Interactions - Use, helmet, shoot, reload, broadcasting, power, light, chat, inventory, terminal, Inertial Dampers, jetpack, respawn.
• Block placement - Toolbar config, rotations, painting, symmetry, Build Planner, ...
• Toolbars - Equip items from toolbar slots, unequip, switch toolbars
• Miscellaneous - Pause, Voxel Hands, Parking, Color Picker, Contracts, Voice Chat ...
• View - Spectator Mode, Spectator Tool, take screenshots, HUD, Signals, free look...

Credits

Cool peeps.

How Do I Back Up my Custom Options?

To back up your options, go to the hidden directory "%appdata%\SpaceEngineers\" in Windows Explorer and back up the file SpaceEngineers.cfg.

How Do I Reset All Options to Their Defaults?

To reset all Space Engineers options and keybonds/controls to default settings, delete the .CFG file:

1. Close the game.
2. In the Windows Explorer, go to the hidden folder "%appdata%\SpaceEngineers".
3. Delete the ''SpaceEngineers.cfg'' file.
4. Restart the game.