Vulkan API – Feedback, Known Issues, and FAQ

Hello all,
This thread is for feedback and issue reports related to the Vulkan rendering backend in BeamNG.drive.
Vulkan was first introduced in version 0.23. You can read the original announcement here:
https://beamng.com/game/news/announce/introducing-vulkan-api

Since its introduction, Vulkan has received many renderer improvements, including better memory handling, texture streaming, and additional debugging support. We would still like to hear your feedback, but please review the guidelines below before posting.

Posts that do not follow the guidelines may be removed or merged.

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Posting guidelines
Before posting, please make sure to:

• Update your GPU drivers to the latest stable version.
• Check if you have any pending OS updates.
• Update the game to the latest version, including hotfixes.
• Disable all mods and test again.
• Check if the issue occurs in Safe Mode.
• If the issue is Vulkan-specific, also test using Vulkan Mode (Safe Mode + extra debug data).
• If the game does not start after switching to Vulkan, switch back to Direct3D 11 and attach your log when reporting.

When reporting:

• Check if the issue has already been reported. If you have additional information, reply to the existing report instead of creating a duplicate.
• Be clear about what exactly is happening and when it happens.
• Describe how to reproduce the issue, if possible.
• Attach screenshots or video for visual issues.
• Attach beamng.log whenever possible, especially for crashes, startup issues, or rendering errors.
• If the issue is related only to a specific place on the map, press ALT+O and share the generated URL.

Reporting template:
The issue you’ve noticed:
(Describe what is happening. Attach screenshot or video if useful.)
This happens when:
(Describe how to trigger the issue if you can. This helps us reproduce it on our side.)
My specs are:
(Include OS version, CPU, GPU, RAM, graphics driver version, selected graphics API, and any relevant display/HDR/VR setup.)
Logs:
(Attach beamng.log. If possible, use Vulkan Mode with extra debug data.)

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Known Issues
(as for 25.05.2026)

• Slowdowns or crashes when the game is using more VRAM than available.
• Minor graphical issues.
• Crash when generating imposters on some configurations.
• Out of memory protection is disabled when the GPU has less than 6GB VRAM. This is because some levels use almost 4GB VRAM to load just non-streamable data. In those situations, the game would never load textures.

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FAQ
1. Which GPUs are supported by Vulkan API?
BeamNG requires a Vulkan-capable GPU with the modern Vulkan features used by the renderer. A GPU simply advertising “Vulkan support” does not always guarantee that it supports all required features.
As a general guideline:

• NVIDIA: Maxwell / GTX 900 series or newer is recommended. Some older Kepler GPUs may expose Vulkan, but may not support all required features reliably.
• AMD: GCN-based Radeon GPUs and newer generally support Vulkan, but newer drivers are strongly recommended.
• Intel: Newer integrated and dedicated GPUs may support Vulkan, but older Intel GPUs often do not meet BeamNG’s overall rendering or performance requirements.

If Vulkan fails to initialize, update your GPU driver first. If it still fails, use Direct3D 11 and attach your log when reporting the issue.

2. My game does not start after switching to Vulkan. What should I do?
Try the following:

• Update your GPU driver.
• Install pending Windows updates.
• Start the game in Safe Mode.
• Try Vulkan Mode (Safe Mode + extra debug data).
• Clear cache: Clear Cache.
• Switch back to Direct3D 11 or Direct3D 12 if Vulkan still fails.

When reporting the issue, please attach beamng.log. The log usually contains the Vulkan device name, driver version, supported extensions, missing features, and device creation errors.

3. Why does Vulkan fail on my GPU even though other Vulkan games work?
Different games use different Vulkan features. BeamNG’s Vulkan renderer requires a modern low-level rendering feature set.
A GPU or driver may support Vulkan in general, but still be missing a feature required by BeamNG. In that case, Vulkan may fail to initialize and you should use Direct3D 11 12 instead.

4. What is the difference between Vulkan, Direct3D 12, and Direct3D 11?

• Vulkan and Direct3D 12 are modern low-level graphics APIs. They support newer renderer features such as texture streaming.
• Direct3D 11 is the older compatibility backend. It is useful on systems where Vulkan or Direct3D 12 are unstable, but it does not support texture streaming and other render features requiring Shader Model 6

If you are unsure which backend to use, try Vulkan. If you experience crashes or rendering issues, switch to Direct3D 11 as a fallback.

5. Does Vulkan support texture streaming?
Yes. Texture streaming was introduced for Vulkan in update 0.37.
Texture streaming allows the engine to load texture mip levels on demand instead of keeping every texture at full resolution in VRAM at all times. This helps reduce VRAM pressure and improves scalability in large scenes.

6. Why do textures look blurry or take time to sharpen in Vulkan?
This is usually related to texture streaming, Texture Quality, VRAM pressure, or storage speed.
Possible causes include:

• Texture Quality is set to Low or Lowest, or Texture Quality is set to Normal on a low VRAM GPU.
• The game is close to its VRAM budget and cannot load higher-resolution mip levels.
• The storage device is slow, delaying texture streaming.
• A mod or level uses very large textures.
• A mod is using non-DDS textures.

When VRAM usage is high, the engine may prefer lower-resolution textures over running out of VRAM and crashing.

7. Does Vulkan work with older mods?
In most cases, yes. Mods should generally work across rendering APIs.
Always test without mods before reporting a Vulkan issue.

8. Does Vulkan support VR?
Vulkan can be used with VR/OpenXR setups, but compatibility depends heavily on the OpenXR runtime, GPU driver, headset software, and required Vulkan extensions.

If reporting VR-related Vulkan issues, include:

• Headset model.
• OpenXR runtime.
• GPU and driver version.
• Whether SteamVR, Meta/Oculus, WMR, Virtual Desktop, or another runtime is used.
• beamng.log.

9. Will Vulkan replace Direct3D 11?
Yes. Direct3D 11 is planned to be deprecated in the near future. After that, it will only remain available through a separate Steam branch containing the last game version with Direct3D 11 support.

10. What information is most useful when reporting Vulkan bugs?
Please include:

• beamng.log.
• GPU model.
• GPU driver version.
• Windows version.
• Selected graphics API.
• Whether Safe Mode was tested.
• Whether Vulkan Mode with extra debug data was tested.
• Steps to reproduce.
• Screenshots or video for visual issues.
• ALT+O location URL if map/location-specific.

 

This seems to be a duplication of:

I'll rewrite it to be more clear then

 

What's the NVIDIA driver version? Which version of OS do you have? Please remember to always give as much information as you can.

 

What's the GPU, driver version, please attach log to your post.

 

Please update the driver to the latest one. It should fix the issue. However Pascal series might be unstable, thanks for testing old driver

Thanks for the report. We'll look into it.

You can find the log in AppData/Local/BeamNG.drive/0.23 folder

Could you attach a log from Vulkan Safe Mode option in Support Tools? It will help us identify the issue.