Prey bugs: stuttering, black screen, crashes, audio issues, and more [FIX]

Prey is a game that will make your heart beat faster. As a player, you wake board Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of a ground-breaking experiment, but things suddenly go wrong. Hostile aliens take over the space station and you become prey. Have you got what it takes to stay alive?

Prey is a challenging game that will also put your patience and troubleshooting skills to the test. Many players have reported that the game is affected by a significant number of bugs that sometimes severely limit the gaming experience.

In this article, we’re going to list the most common Prey issues, so that you know what to expect in terms of bugs. At the same time, we’ll also add the corresponding workarounds, whenever available.

Prey bugs & fixes

Audio issues

There are many audio issues plaguing Prey. Players report that the audio log keeps repeating itself, sometimes there is no sound at all, or sound is cracking.

My audio log called “Anders has the Key” keeps repeating when the person says “Langley” I cant disable the audio log in the inventory because it keeps repeating.

To eliminate the repeating audio log issue, listen to the whole log inside the inventory. The picture of the log should still be on the HUD, but the annoying “Langley” should be history now.

If there is no sound in the game and you’re using another game language, switch the language to English in the Steam library. Right click Prey, go to Details, select the Language tab and wait for the English language files to download. After this, switch back to your preferred game language.

Low FPS

Prey players also report that the game is sometimes affected by low FPS issues. There are some cases when players get only 20 FPS. If you’re experiencing similar issues, install the latest driver updates for Prey, and close all background apps.

I playing in 4K. When i start in the bedroom is fine at 60fps lock but when unlock the lobby i have 37 on a 1080ti. 3,9ghz and all drivers updated.

Graphics settings keep resetting and the CFG file is missing

Many players complain that the game resets the graphics settings when they apply the changes in Options. Moreover, it appears that the game.cfg file is often unavailable.

have an issue with the graphics settings that keep resetting every time I launch the game, I tried to look for a cfg file to manually set everything and make it read-only but to no avail. i can’t find it anywhere […]

What intrigues me is that I have no cfg file in C:/user/savedgames that everyone is talking about. It is as though the game had never created one. I have reinstalled the game too yet the issue still persist.

Keep in mind that if your Windows username has a special character, the game won’t create the .cfg file and won’t save your graphics options, although it will save your progress. To fix this issue, create a game.cfg file and put in the following values.

— [Game-Configuration]
— Attention: This file is re-generated by the system! Editing is not recommended!

i_useSteamController = 0
sys_spec = 0
r_VSync = 1
r_Fullscreen = 1
r_Width = 2560
r_Height = 1440
r_overrideDXGIOutput = 0
sys_MaxFPS = 144
sys_spec_water = 3
sys_spec_volumetriceffects = 3
sys_spec_sound = 3
sys_spec_postprocessing = 3
sys_spec_physics = 3
sys_spec_light = 3
sys_spec_gameeffects = 3
sys_spec_particles = 3
sys_spec_shading = 3
cl_hfov = 85.000000
r_arkssr = 2
r_arkssdo = 2
r_AntialiasingMode = 3
r_TexMaxAnisotropy = 8
sys_spec_texture = 4
sys_spec_shadows = 4
sys_spec_objectdetail = 4

Texture issues

Gamers report that a lot of objects have awful textures until they come closer to them and look directly at them. The high resolution textures take a lot of time to load, and this makes the graphics looks really blurry.

To fix this issue, turn the texture quality down to Medium, and then higher resolution textures will load much more quickly than on High.

Black screen on launch

Everytime I attempt to launch the game the screen goes completely black and just sits there.

This issue affects both AMD and NVIDIA users. To fix this issue, try rolling back to an earlier driver. Gamers report that this action solves the problem.

Prey crashes to desktop

I have this problem… All day with the same error. “Start the game, choose slot and after the loading screen: PUM! “Prey stopped working” Crash and again to desktop.  All drives updates, all things up to date like directx etc.

Unfortunately, there is no known workaround to fix this issue.

Stuttering

I keep reading the game is silky smooth for everyone, well it was for me up until I arrived in the more open area, like 30 minutes after intro. The game now stutters like crazy whenever im walking between rooms or looking around quickly.

Bethesda confirms that there is a known issue with AMD drivers that can create the frame stuttering.

To fix suttering on Prey, use the following workarounds:

1. Turn textures down to medium. The game will look a bit blurry, but the stuttering issues should be history.
2. If you’re using an NVIDIA GPU, go to Options, and check your V-Sync global settings. Disable the “Use 3d application” option, and this should fix the problem.
3. Roll back to the NVIDIA 381.89 driver
4. Change the game priority in task manager to high.

If you’ve come across other Prey issues, tell us more about your experience in the comment section below. Also, don’t forget to add the corresponding workarounds, if available.

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