Big Walk VRAM Crash Fix: How to Stop Video Memory Outage in 12-Player Sessions
Few co-op games have grabbed my attention this year quite like Big Walk. House House once again proved they know how to build memorable multiplayer experiences, creating a huge sandbox where communication is just as important as exploration. The proximity voice chat feels natural, puzzles encourage actual teamwork instead of everyone doing their own thing, and wandering across the world with eleven friends can create some genuinely hilarious moments.
Unfortunately, there is one problem that keeps showing up once those giant 12-player lobbies fill up.
Many PC players are suddenly getting “Out of Video Memory,” “Video Memory Exhausted,” or various DirectX 12 allocation errors before the game instantly crashes back to the desktop. Sometimes it starts with small stutters. Sometimes textures begin loading slowly. Other times everything looks perfectly fine until the game simply disappears without warning.
If you’ve experienced this, you’re definitely not the only one.
After digging through community reports, hardware discussions, and plenty of player feedback, it becomes pretty clear that large multiplayer sessions expose one of Big Walk’s biggest technical weaknesses. The good news is that there are several proven fixes that dramatically improve stability while we wait for future optimization patches.
This guide explains why these crashes happen and how to reduce or completely eliminate them.
Why Does Big Walk Run Out of Video Memory?
Small multiplayer sessions usually perform surprisingly well.
With only two, three, or four players connected, your graphics card has a relatively manageable workload. It only needs to keep a handful of character models, animations, environmental effects, physics interactions, and voice-related systems active.
Everything changes once twelve people enter the same world.
Every player introduces additional cosmetics, movement animations, environmental interactions, dynamic lighting calculations, and streaming requests. Instead of loading one small section of the world, the engine constantly prepares nearby assets as multiple players spread across different regions.
That means your GPU is suddenly handling:
- Multiple high-quality character models
- Continuous texture streaming
- Larger environmental asset pools
- Additional shadow calculations
- More physics updates
- Simultaneous world synchronization
The biggest issue isn’t necessarily raw GPU performance.
The real bottleneck appears to be VRAM management.
Numerous community reports suggest Big Walk currently struggles to recycle texture data efficiently during long multiplayer sessions. Instead of releasing unused assets quickly enough, memory usage continues climbing until the graphics driver can no longer allocate additional resources.
Once VRAM reaches its limit, DirectX 12 throws an allocation failure and Windows closes the game.
Even graphics cards with 12 GB or 16 GB of VRAM have encountered this issue, proving that available memory alone isn’t always enough if allocation management goes wrong.
Solution 1 — Increase Your Windows Paging File
This sounds unrelated to graphics memory, but it’s one of the most effective workarounds available right now.
When VRAM becomes overloaded, Windows attempts to shift temporary data into virtual memory. If the paging file is too small, the operating system quickly runs out of space and terminates the application.
Here’s how to increase it:
- Search for Advanced System Settings.
- Open the Performance settings.
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Click Change under Virtual Memory.
- Disable automatic management.
- Select the SSD where Big Walk is installed.
- Choose Custom Size.
- Set the Initial Size to 16384 MB.
- Set the Maximum Size to 32768 MB.
- Save the changes and restart Windows.
While this won’t magically increase your VRAM capacity, it gives Windows considerably more breathing room whenever memory usage spikes during heavy multiplayer activity.
Solution 2 — Increase the Texture Streaming Budget
One interesting discovery from experienced Unreal Engine users involves adjusting the engine’s texture streaming behavior.
By default, Big Walk appears to enforce conservative streaming limits that may become problematic when twelve players continuously load new environments.
Locate the following directory:
%localappdata%
Navigate to:
Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
Open Engine.ini and add the following lines:
[TextureStreaming] poolSizeVRAMPercentage=0 r.Streaming.PoolSize=0
Save the file afterward.
Many players also recommend setting the file to Read Only so game updates or launches don’t overwrite the changes.
These values tell the engine to dynamically determine available VRAM instead of relying on a fixed streaming pool, reducing “out of budget” memory allocation failures for many systems.
Solution 3 — Reduce the Biggest VRAM Hogs
One thing I noticed while testing is that Big Walk doesn’t actually need Ultra settings to look fantastic.
Its visual style relies far more on clever art direction than insanely detailed textures.
Lowering just a few options can dramatically reduce memory consumption without making the game look noticeably worse.
I recommend changing the following settings:
| Graphics Setting | Recommended Value | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Texture Quality | High or Medium | Reduces VRAM usage significantly. |
| Shadow Quality | Medium | Lowers dynamic shadow memory usage. |
| View Distance | Medium | Reduces long-range asset streaming. |
| LOD Quality | Medium | Limits simultaneous high-detail models. |
Interestingly, dropping textures one level usually produces the largest improvement while preserving most of the game’s visual quality.
Solution 4 — Completely Reinstall Your Graphics Driver
Updating drivers isn’t always enough.
Installing new NVIDIA or AMD drivers over old ones sometimes leaves behind corrupted files, outdated shader caches, or registry entries that interfere with DirectX 12 memory allocation.
Using Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) performs a completely clean removal before installing the newest driver.
Recommended procedure:
- Download DDU.
- Download the latest graphics driver directly from NVIDIA or AMD.
- Restart Windows in Safe Mode.
- Run DDU.
- Select Clean and Restart.
- Install the freshly downloaded graphics driver.
- Restart your PC once again.
This procedure has solved countless DirectX-related crashes across many modern PC games, not just Big Walk.
Solution 5 — Disable Every Overlay You Don’t Need
Overlay software is convenient until it isn’t.
Every overlay injects itself into DirectX rendering.
Individually they don’t use much memory.
Stack several together, however, and things become far less stable.
Before launching Big Walk, disable:
- Discord Overlay
- Steam Overlay
- NVIDIA ShadowPlay
- AMD Adrenalin Overlay
- MSI Afterburner
- RivaTuner Statistics Server
Many players don’t realize they’re running three or four overlays simultaneously.
Removing these extra hooks often frees both VRAM and system memory while reducing compatibility problems.
Other Small Tweaks Worth Trying
If crashes still happen, a few additional adjustments may help.
- Verify the game’s files through Steam.
- Close browsers with hardware acceleration enabled.
- Restart the game after every few multiplayer sessions.
- Avoid recording gameplay while troubleshooting.
- Keep Windows fully updated.
- Close unnecessary background applications before joining large servers.
None of these individually fixes the memory leak, but together they can improve overall stability.
How to Fix Big Walk Black Screen on Startup and Launch Crashes (2026 Guide)
Quick Reference Fix Table
| Fix | Primary Benefit | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Increase Paging File | Prevents memory allocation failures | ★★★★★ |
| Edit Engine.ini | Improves texture streaming behavior | ★★★★★ |
| Lower Texture Settings | Reduces VRAM usage | ★★★★☆ |
| Clean Driver Installation | Eliminates DirectX conflicts | ★★★★☆ |
| Disable Overlays | Frees GPU resources | ★★★☆☆ |
| Close Background Apps | Reduces memory pressure | ★★★☆☆ |
Is This Actually a Hardware Problem?
Honestly, not for most players.
If your system comfortably runs other modern DirectX 12 games but crashes specifically during crowded Big Walk sessions, the evidence strongly points toward the game’s current memory handling rather than failing hardware.
That doesn’t mean every crash is identical.
Systems with only 6 GB or 8 GB of VRAM naturally reach the limit sooner, while players running multiple overlays, browser tabs, recording software, RGB utilities, and monitoring applications simultaneously make the situation even worse.
Reports from owners of RTX 4070, RTX 4080, RX 7800 XT, and other high-end graphics cards suggest the game’s streaming system still needs additional optimization from the developers.
Hopefully future updates improve asset cleanup, reduce unnecessary memory retention, and smooth out long multiplayer sessions.
Big Walk Navigation Guide: How to Not Get Lost and Secret Tricks to Find Missing Teammates
Final Thoughts
Big Walk is one of those rare multiplayer games that feels genuinely fresh. Exploring its massive world with a full squad of twelve players creates moments that are difficult to replicate anywhere else. Unfortunately, those same crowded adventures are exactly where the current VRAM issues become most noticeable.
The combination of expanding your Windows paging file, adjusting the texture streaming configuration, lowering the most memory-intensive graphics settings, performing a clean graphics driver installation, and disabling unnecessary overlays has already helped many players enjoy far longer sessions without crashing.
Until House House releases official optimization updates, these fixes remain the best way to keep your adventures running smoothly. If you’re planning an evening filled with puzzle-solving, voice chat chaos, and exploring every corner of Big Walk with a full lobby, spending a few minutes applying these tweaks is well worth the effort.
