Launch options

Launch options are command line arguments (parameters) for Client.exe that change the game. Most of these are not intended for use by players.

Access

To add these options follow one of these instructions.

For standalone client

1. Create a shortcut for Client.exe
2. Right click the shortcut
3. Select Properties
4. Navigate to Shortcut tab
5. Add options to the Target: "...\Path of Exile\Client.exe", after the quotes

For Steam version

1. Open Steam
2. Navigate to Library tab
3. Right click Path of Exile
4. Select Properties
5. Navigate to General tab
6. Click Set Launch Options...

Command lines

• Multiple command lines should be separated by a space.
• Some of the following options may not work for Steam version.

Command	Notes
--nologo	Disables the animated intro along with the sound.
--nodx9ex	Disable Direct3D 9Ex mode.
--waitforpreload	Wait for preloading to finish during startup. This causes the game to not finish the initial loading screen until it has fully loaded all of the stuff that would otherwise be background-loaded during the first moments of play.
--noasync --nopreload	Do not preload art assets on startup and disable background loading threads. Completely disable the asynchronous loading changes introduced in version 2.3.0.
--require-launch	Require that the user press the launch button in the launcher before entering game.
--nopatch	Do not attempt to patch.
--fail	Fail horribly.
--garbage-generation <generations> -gc <generations>	The number of generations to keep around when running garbage collection. While this feature fixes out of memory (EOUTOFMEMORY or Unable to Map File) crashes it significantly increases loading time between zones. Valid values are 1 or 2. e.g. -gc 2
--nosound -ns	Disables the creation of the audio device. Helps with sound related crashes.
--softwareaudio -swa	Forces use of generic software audio device. Fixes a bug with Creative sound cards causing game crashes.
--login-port <port number> -lp <port number>	The login server port. e.g. -lp 3724
--patching-server <server> -p <server>	The patching server that should be patched from. e.g. pathofexile.com:3724
--patching-auth -pa	Override basic auth used for patching content.
--prev-proc-id <process id>	Before running wait for this process id to exit.
--use-defaults -ud	Will always use default settings set in the settings.cpp
--adapter:<adapter number>	Selects a video adapter. Do not use this command, but instead use your graphics driver menu, or set this by right-clicking on the Path of Exile shortcut and choosing to run the game with the dedicated graphics card. e.g. --adapter:0 selects the first adapter
--profiler	Enable GPU graph profiler. Untested / Developer option.
--success-event	(internal, undocumented) The handle to an inherited event object that will be signaled when startup has successfully been completed. Untested / Developer option.
--resourcelogcreate	Enable logging of any thread resource creation. Untested / Developer option.
--resourcelogslowresolve	Enable logging of slow resource resolve. Untested / Developer option.
--resourcelogmainresolve	Enable logging of main thread resource resolve. Untested / Developer option.
--language -lang	Sets the language based on the given language name or language code. Untested / Developer option.
--testing-master -tm	(internal, undocumented) The testing client that should be connected to send status messages. Untested / Developer option.
--disable-client-switching -dcs	Disables the automatic client switching that occurs when the wrong client is started for the current user DirectX setting. Untested / Developer option.
--crash-upload	Crashes the game executable before calling its main routine or communicating with the Steam API. Instead, the game will generate an error report and send it to GGG. Developer option.

Version history

Version	Changes
3.0.0	Added --nologo. [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.]
2.4.2	We now use D3D9 Ex mode on Windows Vista and above which substantially improves memory usage and game window resize speed under DirectX 9. You can disable this with --nodx9ex if you encounter problems.
2.4.0	--experimental-frame-optimizations option has been removed. Its functions have been added to the core game.
2.3.3	This patch introduces an opt-in beta test for the new multithreaded engine features that should significantly improve game performance for most users. Frame rate increases are most significant when there are a lot of entities in the scene. This means situations with large amounts of combat should have much more stable frame rates. Do not expect significant increases in frame rate in non-combat situations. To enable this, you need to add --experimental-frame-optimizations to the Path of Exile command line.
2.3.0f	Added --noasync command-line parameter to completely disable the asynchronous loading changes introduced in version 2.3.0. The --nopreload mode now works the same way as --noasync. The asynchronous loading is turned off but data is preloaded correctly (resulting in long loading screens, but no stuttering). You should remove --nopreload and add --noasync to your shortcut for future compatibility.
2.3.0e	Added --waitforpreload.