How to Fix "Hardware not supported for Volumetric Materials" in Cities Skylines 2

Hey friend! Are you having issues running Cities Skylines 2 on your PC? Getting annoying errors about "Hardware not supported for Volumetric Materials"? Don‘t worry, I‘ve got you covered!

As a long-time fan of the Cities Skylines franchise and a tech geek who loves tinkering with games, let me walk you through how to properly diagnose and fix this error step-by-step.

What Does "Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials" Mean in Cities Skylines 2?

Let‘s first understand what this error actually means.

Volumetric materials refer to advanced graphical effects that make fog, smoke, clouds and other elements look more realistic and immersive in a 3D game.

According to Colossal Order, the developers of Cities Skylines 2, volumetric effects require at least 4GB of video memory (VRAM) on your GPU.

So if you see this error message, it likely means your graphics card simply doesn‘t have enough VRAM to handle the resource intensive volumetric lighting and materials in the game.

This could happen due to a few reasons:

Your GPU is too old and wasn‘t designed for advanced effects
Outdated drivers need upgrading
Graphics settings set too high for your hardware
Background apps eating up resources

Not to worry though, with a few smart tweaks, we can get the game running smoothly again!

Minimum and Recommended System Requirements

Before we jump into solutions, let‘s quickly go over the official minimum and recommended specs for Cities Skylines 2:

Minimum Requirements:

Windows 10 64-bit
Intel Core i5-2300 | AMD Ryzen 3 1200
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB | AMD Radeon RX 580 4GB
25GB storage space

Recommended Specs:

Windows 10 64-bit
Intel Core i7-6700K | AMD Ryzen 5 3600
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB | AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB
25GB SSD storage

As you can see, a fairly powerful gaming PC is needed, especially for all those visually impressive volumetric effects. A modern mid-range GPU with 4GB+ VRAM is mandatory.

Ideally 16GB system RAM helps too for smooth city building simulations. And installing the game on a fast SSD reduces load times.

Now let‘s get your PC ready to run Cities Skylines 2 lag-free!

How to Fix "Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials" Error

Based on my own experience getting this error in Cities Skylines 2 and researching online forums, here are all the solutions that can help resolve it:

1. Update Your Graphics Drivers

First, make sure your NVIDIA or AMD graphics drivers are fully up-to-date. Recent drivers contain optimizations specifically for new game releases.

For NVIDIA cards, open GeForce Experience and click on Drivers > Check for Updates. Install the latest Game Ready driver.
For AMD cards, go to the AMD website, find your graphics card model and download the latest driver.
Use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to do a clean uninstall before installing new graphics drivers.

Updated drivers can definitely help fix errors like this and improve stability in Cities Skylines 2.

2. Lower Graphic Settings In-Game

If the latest drivers don‘t resolve it, the next step is reducing the graphics settings within Cities Skylines 2.

This eases the load on your GPU and VRAM usage. Try these tweaks:

Set overall Quality to Medium or Low presets first.
Disable Volumetric Fog completely.
Turn Cloud Quality to Low and disable Cloud Shadows.
Reduce Anti-Aliasing, Post FX and Texture Quality.
Lower Resolution Scale to 75-50% of your monitor‘s native resolution.

Experiment with each setting to find the right balance between visuals and performance for your system. This can very likely fix the "Unsupported Hardware" error.

3. Modify the Settings.coc File

Cities Skylines 2 stores hardware configuration files in Documents\Colossal Order\Cities Skylines 2.

Open the Settings.coc file and change:

"VolumetricsQualitySettings" to {
    "enabled": false
}
"ShadowsQualitySettings" to { 
"enabled": false
}

This disables volumetric fog and shadows completely. Save the file and launch the game again.

4.Verify Integrity of Game Files

Corrupted game files can also cause this error randomly. If you bought Cities Skylines 2 on Steam, verify integrity of game files to fix it.

Right click the game in your Library > Properties > Local Files > Verify Integrity of Game Files.

Steam will scan and re-download any missing game content files.

5. Close Background Apps

Heavy background apps running in the system tray can eat up RAM, CPU and GPU resources needed for Cities Skylines 2.

Use Task Manager (CTRL + Shift + Esc) to view background processes. Close any unnecessary apps before launching the game.

6. Disable Overlays

Similarly, many third party gaming apps add overlays that can conflict with games. Disable overlays in apps like Discord, MSI Afterburner etc.

7. Upgrade Graphics Card

If you have an older GPU that barely meets the minimum specs, consider upgrading to a new graphics card:

NVIDIA RTX 3060 or better
AMD RX 6600 XT or better

Newer gen cards have dedicated hardware support for volumetric effects and more VRAM.

An entry level modern GPU like the RTX 3060 with 12GB VRAM will run Cities Skylines 2 smoothly.

8. Get More RAM

Having 16GB or 32GB RAM instead of the minimum 8GB also helps immensely with games like Cities Skylines 2.

If you have memory headroom, the game can utilize it to load more assets and textures easily. Consider upgrading to 16GB DDR4 RAM sticks.

Additional Tips to Boost Game Performance

Aside from fixing errors, try these tips as well for better FPS and performance:

Set Windows Power Plan to High Performance.
Disable in-game VSync, use Frame Rate Limiter instead.
Overclock your GPU safely using MSI Afterburner.
Close background apps and processes.
Add Cities Skylines 2 to NVIDIA Control Panel 3D Settings.
Set Preferred Refresh Rate to Highest Available.
Run a FPS counter like MSI Afterburner to monitor performance.
Set Monitor Technology to Fixed Refresh in NVIDIA Control Panel.
Play on lower resolution like 1080p if struggling at higher resolutions like 1440p.
Install latest motherboard BIOS update and chipset drivers.

Optimizing your system like this reduces stuttering and can gain you valuable FPS.

Summary

Dealing with errors like "Hardware Not Supported for Volumetric Materials" in Cities Skylines 2 can be frustrating. But with some targeted troubleshooting, we can get to the bottom of why it‘s happening and how to fix it.

I hope this detailed guide gives you all the tools to resolve this error and enjoy building the city of your dreams in Cities Skylines 2 lag-free. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Now get ready to relive all the city-building fun of the classic Cities Skylines enhanced to new heights in the long-awaited sequel. Happy gaming!