2018’s Sea of Thieves is an action-adventure open-world multiplayer video game that has been developed by Rare Ltd and published by Microsoft Xbox Game Studios. It’s available for Windows and Xbox consoles only that have received plenty of positive reviews for its stunning graphics & excellent gaming experience. However, just like other titles, this game also has issues. Sea of Thieves Textures Not Loading issue on PC/Xbox Consoles is one of them.
According to several reports online, it seems that plenty of Sea of Thieves players are encountering the texture not loading issue on both the Windows and Xbox consoles. This particular issue appears suddenly due to some unexpected reasons that affected players are unable to find out easily. Whereas some reports are claiming that installed SoT on a hard drive may take a while to load all the in-game textures completely in some cases. Well, let’s check it.
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Fix: Sea of Thieves Textures Not Loading on PC/Xbox Consoles
This is troubling players since it got released back in 2018 when it started with some tiny details to take extra few seconds to complete the texture loading. Then things got worse and almost every time the textures started getting long enough to load. The regular things or items in the game such as ship cosmetics, clothes, weapons, world objects, etc are included in this chaos. So, either the textures don’t load or take too much time for sure.
1. Try Changing HDMI Cable
First of all, you should try changing the HDMI cable on the PC or console to the monitor/TV to check whether the connectivity glitch is causing the texture not loading issue or not. Sometimes changing an HDMI cable can easily fix display-related issues or in-game lags or even texture loading issues.
2. Disable CPU/GPU Overclocking
Make sure to disable the CPU or GPU overclocking on your PC to ensure there is no issue with the bottleneck because incompatibility conflict can easily trigger crashes, lags, slow loading of textures, and more. You should always try to use the default factory clock speed of both the processor and graphics card on the PC to get an optimal performance whatsoever.
3. Pause Background Downloads
It’s highly recommended to stop or pause the background download task on your gaming device whether you’re using a PC or an Xbox console. If your internet connection is giving you a limited data speed per second and one or more background downloads are running at the same time while gaming then the slow loading issue or slow texture loading issue may appear a lot. Don’t run downloads or installation processes in the background while playing games.
4. Check the Internet Connection
As this is a multiplayer online video game, the chances are high that somehow your internet connection is troubling you while the in-game resources are loading at their peak timing. That means when the in-game graphics or textures are higher to load, your poor or unstable internet connection is failing to perform. Make sure to contact your internet service provider for the same and increase the data speed or just upgrade the package.
If in case, you’re using the wireless (Wi-Fi) network then try using the wired (ethernet) network or vice versa to check whether the texture not loading issue is still bothering you or not. If you’re using the Wi-Fi network primarily then make sure to perform a power cycle on the Wi-Fi router to check if the problem has been fixed or not. Just power off the router > Unplug the power cable > Wait for a minute and then reconnect the power cable > Turn on the router.
5. Update Graphics Driver
You should try checking for the graphics driver update on your Windows PC and installing the latest version to ensure no update is pending at your end. An outdated or missing graphics driver can trigger issues with properly functioning graphics-intensive programs. To do that:
- Right-click on the Start Menu to open up the Quick Access Menu.
- Click on Device Manager from the list to open the interface.
- Now, you’ll need to double-click on Display adapters to expand it.
- Then right-click on the dedicated graphics card name you’re using to bring the context menu.
- Next, click on Update driver > Choose Search automatically for drivers.
- The system will automatically check for the available update.
- If an update is available, it’ll automatically download and install the latest version.
- Once done, make sure to restart your PC to apply the changes.
If you cannot find any update, then make sure to head over to the official graphics card website and search manually for the latest update. If a new version is available, just download the file on your PC and install it. Whatever graphics card you use, jump to the link below as per the manufacturer.
6. Disable NVIDIA ShadowPlay
You should try turning off the Nvidia ShadowPlay feature on the Nvidia GeForce Experience app to ensure there is no issue with the game texture loading. Nvidia ShadowPlay allows you to record and share high-quality video games, take screenshots, and perform live streams with your friends just like an overlay app. So, disabling it on the Windows PC may come in handy.
- Open the Nvidia GeForce Experience app.
- Click on Settings > Click on the General tab.
- Now, locate the Share option and disable it.
- Make sure to save changes and reboot the PC.
7. Delete Game Cache Data
It’s also possible that the corrupted or outdated game cache data files on the computer or console may be troubling the in-game textures to load properly. So, you can delete the game cache data by following the steps below to fix the issue.
For PC:
- Press the Windows+R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- Now, type %ProgramData% and hit Enter to open the ProgramData folder on the installed Windows drive.
- Then Delete the Steam folder from the list > Once done, make sure to reboot the system.
For Xbox Console:
- Exit the Sea of Thieves game first.
- Next, select My games & apps > Select See all.
- Make sure to highlight the Sea of Thieves game.
- Select Manage game and add-ons > Scroll down to Saved data.
- Choose the Delete all button and confirm it.
- Wait for the process to complete and relaunch the game to check for the issue.
8. Reboot Shader Cache on PC
Several Sea of Thieves players has reported that rebooting the shader cache on the computer for the particular game did fix the lagging or texture slow loading issue up to some extent. To do so:
- Launch the Steam client > Go to Library.
- Click on Sea of Thieves from the list of installed games.
- Now, go to the in-game Settings menu.
- Go to the Graphics tab > Scroll down to the bottom and click on Restart Shaders Compilation.
- The Sea of Thieves game will re-install the shaders cache.
- Finally, reboot the PC to apply changes.
9. Turn Off Nvidia DLSS Mode
Such graphical issues may be caused due to NVIDIA’s DLSS feature. Make sure to turn it off in the Display section of the in-game settings menu to reduce graphical glitches or visibility issues, etc. However, if somehow the DLSS Mode isn’t visible in the menu, then you can modify the game’s .ini file by following the steps below:
- Please copy-paste the game’s .ini file to another location as well before performing the following steps because it may cause some issues with the game in some cases.
- Go to Windows File Explorer and copy-paste the following path into the field:
%localappdata%\Sea of Thieves\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
- Now, open the file which is named GameUserSettings.ini.
- Press the Ctrl+S keys to open the search and then look for DLSSMode. Make sure to change from the DLSSMode=On to DLSSMode=Off.
10. Tweak Field of View
Well, increasing the Field of View (FOV) will increase the FPS count drastically which will improve the graphical issues whatsoever. You can find out the Field of View option in the Sea of Thieves game settings menu. Just drag the slider according to the hardware performance to check which setting suits perfectly for your game. Meanwhile, you should also set other graphical settings to low or medium which may reduce graphical glitches or texture loading issues.
11. Use DX11
It’s also worth recommending playing the Sea of Thieves game on your Windows PC using the DirectX 11 (DX11) version instead of DirectX 12. According to the Sea of Thieves developers, the game is well optimized for DirectX 11. If in case, your system is already running the DirectX 12 version then try launching the Sea of Thieves game on the Steam client to check for the issue. If in case, you’re not finding out the option then perform the following steps:
- Open the Steam client > Go to LIBRARY.
- Locate and right-click on the Sea of Thieves game.
- Click on Properties > Select GENERAL from the left pane menu > Type -dx11 under the Launch Options.
- Now, simply go back and launch the game. If prompted, click on the radio button next to the Play option of Sea of Thieves.
12. Adjust Texture Settings
You can also adjust the in-game texture settings from the game menu by following the steps below:
- Open the Steam launcher > Go to Library > Click on Sea of Thieves from the left pane.
- Click on Play to launch the game > Once you’re inside the game, click on Settings.
- Go to Display > Set Textures to Epic > Set Texture Streaming Poolsize to 7000.
- If it’s already set to 7000 then reduce it to 2000 and then set it again to 7000 to change effects.
Now, your Sea of Thieves game textures and graphics quality should be improved a lot.
13. Increase Virtual Memory
You should try increasing the virtual memory on your PC to check for the issue and whether it has been fixed or not. Sometimes the lack of free memory in the system may cause such issues. To do so:
- Click on the Start menu > Click on Control Panel.
- Click on Performance and Maintenance > Go to System.
- From the Advanced tab, click on Settings under Performance.
- On the Advanced tab, click on Change under Virtual memory.
- Under Drive [Volume Label], click on the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
- Under Paging file size for the selected drive, click on System Managed Size > Click on Set.
- If this option hasn’t been flagged previously, restart the PC after flagging it.
- If the system paging file size is used to be System Managed then under Paging file size for selected drive, click on Custom size.
- Now, type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box.
- Finally, click on Set > Restart the PC to apply changes.
14. Verify and Repair Game Files
If none of the methods worked for you then you should verify and repair the files of the installed game via the Steam client to fix several issues. Sometimes corrupted or missing game files on the PC may trigger in-game crashes, lags, stutters, slow texture loading issues, and more. To do that:
- Launch Steam > Click on Library.
- Right-click on Sea of Thieves from the list of installed games.
- Now, click on Properties > Go to Local Files.
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
- You’ll have to wait for the process until it gets completed.
- Once done, just restart your computer.
That’s it, guys. We assume this guide was helpful to you. For further queries, you can comment below.