How to Fix Silent Hill: Townfall Crashes and Stuttering

After the PC release of Silent Hill: Townfall, players encountered several technical issues. The most common complaints include persistent microstuttering despite a stable frame rate, crashes on AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, black screens, loading freezes, and double controller inputs. Some of these issues have already been acknowledged by the developers, while others still require temporary workarounds. In this guide, we've collected the main ways to fix technical problems in Silent Hill: Townfall.

Before troubleshooting, make sure your PC at least meets the minimum system requirements. Townfall runs on Unreal Engine 5 and is fairly demanding even on modern hardware.

With this configuration, the developers target approximately 30 FPS at 1080p on Low settings.

As usual, we recommend starting with the general fixes below before moving on to a specific problem. Do not apply every method at once. After each change, launch the game and check whether it helped.

Before troubleshooting a specific issue, restart your computer and fully close Steam. Launch everything again and check whether the problem reappears. Yes, this is basic advice, but after a driver update, a stuck game process, or a failed shader compilation, a simple restart is often enough.

NVIDIA users should install the latest Game Ready Driver through the NVIDIA app or download it from the official website. AMD users should do the same through AMD Software. Do not rely solely on the Update Driver button in Windows Device Manager, as it often fails to find the newest version.

Next, verify the game files. In Steam, open your Library, right-click Silent Hill: Townfall, then select Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files. Steam will redownload any missing or corrupted data.

If the problem started after a crash or failed update, try running the executable as administrator. Locate the game folder through Steam, open the properties of the exe file, and enable the corresponding option under the Compatibility tab. You can also temporarily disable fullscreen optimizations there.

Update Windows 11 and install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages for x64 and x86. DirectX 12 is included with modern versions of Windows, but damaged optional components or Visual C++ libraries can still prevent games from launching correctly.

While troubleshooting, temporarily disable third-party overlays from Steam, Discord, NVIDIA, and monitoring software such as MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner. You do not need to uninstall them. If Townfall starts working normally after one of these applications is disabled, turn the others back on one at a time to identify the conflict.

You should not completely disable your antivirus or firewall either. Instead, add the Silent Hill: Townfall folder to the Windows Security exclusion list and allow the game's executable through the firewall.

On laptops and PCs with two graphics adapters, make sure Townfall is running on the dedicated GPU. Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics, add the game's exe file, and select High performance.

If none of the above helps, only then should you consider a full reinstall. After uninstalling the game, check whether a damaged game folder was left behind, restart your PC, and reinstall Townfall.

This is one of the most common issues with the PC version. Microstuttering can occur even on flagship GPUs such as the RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 paired with powerful modern processors. The FPS counter may remain high, but the image periodically hitches while moving through locations.

The first thing we recommend is waiting for shader compilation to finish. Townfall performs part of this process in the background, and you can see its progress in the graphics settings. If you start a new game immediately after launching, compilation will continue during gameplay and cause additional stutters. Simply wait for the process to finish. Shaders may need to compile again after a graphics driver update, so the first launch can once again be noticeably rougher than subsequent sessions.

Keep in mind that completing the initial shader compilation does not guarantee perfectly smooth gameplay. Players report microstutters when entering new areas for the first time, while revisiting previously explored locations often eliminates the issue.

We would not recommend dropping graphics settings from maximum to high just to combat these microstutters. Some users report that disabling ray tracing, V-Sync, or even lowering the overall graphics quality barely changes anything. If the game maintains a normal frame rate but stutters specifically when entering a new area, your GPU's raw performance is probably not the cause.

On NVIDIA graphics cards, you can also try temporarily disabling NVIDIA Reflex. We found reports from players who managed to reduce stuttering this way. Another option is to enable Ultra Low Latency Mode and V-Sync in the NVIDIA Control Panel while disabling V-Sync inside the game.

It is also worth noting that NVIDIA Smooth Motion does not fix microstuttering. According to reports from owners of different GPUs, the feature either does not work in Townfall or simply generates additional frames on top of already inconsistent frame pacing.

If stuttering continues every time you pass through the same area even after shader compilation has fully finished, the only option may be to wait for updates. The problem also occurs on high-end systems, so endlessly lowering graphics quality is unlikely to help in this case.

Following numerous player reports online, the developers separately confirmed an issue causing repeated crashes on AMD graphics cards. As a temporary workaround, they recommend disabling ray tracing in the graphics settings. After making the change, fully restart the game and test the same scene or save where the crash previously occurred. If the crashes stop, leave ray tracing disabled for now. The developers are already investigating the issue together with AMD.

Also make sure to update your AMD driver to the latest version. If the crashes began immediately after installing a new driver and Townfall had been stable before, you can also try performing a clean reinstall of the AMD driver package.

For NVIDIA graphics cards, the developers primarily recommend installing the latest driver. Townfall has known issues with older driver versions, which can cause not only reduced performance but full crashes to desktop.

Download the latest version through the NVIDIA app or official website, install it, and restart your PC. Do not be alarmed if you notice fresh stuttering on the first launch after updating: the game may start compiling shaders again.

If you already have the latest driver, temporarily disable the NVIDIA overlay, ray tracing, and NVIDIA Reflex. This is not an official universal fix, but the combination can help rule out several common sources of Unreal Engine 5 instability.

If Townfall closes with an Unreal Engine process crash, start with the usual steps: verify the game files, update your graphics driver, and disable ray tracing. After that, try disabling Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.

Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Change default graphics settings and disable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. Then restart Windows. If this makes no difference, you can turn the option back on.

You should also check your paging file. It is best to let Windows manage it automatically. Open Advanced system settings → Performance → Advanced → Virtual memory and enable automatic management of the paging file size. There is no need to manually enter random values based on formulas from online videos.

We also recommend checking how much free space is left on both your system drive and the drive where the game is installed. Unreal Engine makes extensive use of temporary files and cache data, so an SSD that is almost completely full can cause unnecessary problems.

For some players, crashes are accompanied by a DXGI_ERROR_INVALID_CALL error. The message may show unusual resolution values along with an AllowTearing parameter. As a temporary workaround, open Windows display settings and set the interface scaling to exactly 100%. Then sign out of your Windows account or restart the computer before launching the game again.

If this works, the problem is most likely related to how the game handles display parameters. After future patches, you can try restoring your preferred display scaling.

If nothing happens after launching the game through Steam, or the process appears for a few seconds and then closes, start by verifying the game files and updating your graphics driver. Then try running the EXE file directly from the game folder as administrator. This can help determine whether the problem is related to Steam itself.

Disable the Steam, Discord, and NVIDIA overlays and close unnecessary monitoring and cloud-sync applications. Then add the game to the High Performance application list in Windows graphics settings.

Check the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 and x86 Redistributables. If the packages are already installed, the official installer will offer a Repair option. Use it, restart your computer, and try launching the game again.

If the game has never launched successfully, also check your operating system. Silent Hill: Townfall officially requires Windows 11 x64 and DirectX 12. Forcing the game to run in older Windows 7 or Windows 8 compatibility modes should be left as a last resort, since they are not part of the game's supported configuration.

If Townfall opens but freezes on a loading screen, give the game a few minutes during the first launch. Shader preparation may be happening in the background after installation or a driver update, and force-closing the game will only cause the process to start again. If waiting does not help, restart Steam, verify the game files, and disable third-party overlays. Then try loading an earlier save instead of the most recent one, especially if the freezing started after a particular story scene.

As an additional measure, you can clear the Steam Download Cache. Open the client settings → Downloads → Clear Download Cache. You will need to sign back into your account afterward.

Do not rush to delete the DirectX shader cache just because of normal microstuttering. After clearing it, Townfall will have to rebuild the cache, which can make the first few minutes of gameplay even worse. This method is best reserved for cases where the cache may have been corrupted by a crash or driver change.

If the game launches but you see a black screen instead of the menu, we recommend waiting for the initial loading process and shader compilation to finish. This can take five to ten minutes. Then press Alt+Enter to switch between fullscreen and windowed modes. Sometimes the image disappears because fullscreen mode failed to initialize correctly.

Next, disable fullscreen optimizations in the exe file properties, update your graphics driver, and assign Townfall to the High Performance GPU through Windows settings. If the black screen appeared after changing graphics options, try resetting the game's settings and launching it again. If the problem persists, verify the files through Steam and only then consider reinstalling.

First, you need to distinguish between ordinary hardware performance limitations and microstuttering. As a rough example, if the counter shows 100 FPS but the image freezes every few seconds, lowering the resolution or graphics quality is unlikely to solve the problem. If the frame rate is consistently low, however, reducing graphics settings can genuinely help.

In that case, we recommend disabling ray tracing and using DLSS, FSR, or TSR. Even the official recommended system requirements target 4K at 30 FPS on High settings with an upscaler set to Balanced, so running at native resolution is likely to be unnecessarily demanding.

Next, lower the most performance-intensive settings gradually instead of switching the entire preset from maximum to minimum. Test the same scene after every adjustment so you can determine what is actually limiting your system. If GPU utilization seems unusually low while CPU usage is high, check background processes and shader compilation. Players have specifically reported CPU usage spikes during microstutters.

We've given this issue its own section because the developers have already provided a temporary workaround. If a single button press triggers an action twice or menu navigation behaves incorrectly, disable Steam Input for Townfall.

To do this:

The developers have explained that the issue is related to Steam functionality. A fix was already available in a Steam test build, so once the client is updated, this workaround may no longer be necessary.

Recently, there have been more reports of a bug where the camera suddenly flies off to a random location during a story cutscene, and character controls do not return after the scene ends. The same issue can also occur immediately before the final boss.

The community has not yet found a reliable fix. The simplest workaround is to load your most recent save and replay the short section. If the issue repeatedly occurs in the same place, verify the integrity of the game files and close third-party overlays before trying again.

Some users report hearing a short high-pitched squeal after closing certain interface screens, such as the quest journal. To troubleshoot it, first try switching your audio output device, disabling additional spatial audio effects, and checking the device's standard sample rate. If the sound occurs exclusively after using a particular interface element regardless of the audio device, it is most likely a bug in the game itself.

Townfall launched with a number of technical issues, some of which simply cannot be fixed on the user's side. This is particularly true for Unreal Engine 5 microstuttering when entering new areas for the first time and some random crashes. The developers have already published official recommendations for several issues and continue working on the PC version's performance.

If you have tried all of the basic fixes, waited for shader compilation to finish, updated your driver, verified the game files, and ruled out conflicts with third-party software, there is little value in endlessly changing Windows system settings. Restore any experimental settings you changed and wait for a patch.

For AMD users, the most important temporary workaround right now is to disable ray tracing. NVIDIA users should prioritize updating their graphics drivers.