This guide will be regularly updated as a ‘live’ player’s manual. Be sure to revisit for the latest information.

Quick Link: Latest Change Log

System Requirements

Sins of a Solar Empire II is only supported on Microsoft Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit).

Installation via Epic Games Store

To install via the Epic Games Store, follow these steps:

1. Download the Epic Games Store client from - https://store.epicgames.com/

2. Create an Epic account or login to your existing account (when prompted).

3. For non-owners -

   1. Purchase a copy of Sins of a Solar Empire II by searching for it in the store.

   2. Upon purchase, the Epic client will prompt you to install the game. If you miss this, skip to the owners section below.

4. For owners -

   1. Look in your Library view for Sins of a Solar Empire II and click to install.

5. Wait for the installation to finish and you’re good to go!

Installation via Steam

To install via the Steam client, follow these steps:

1. Download the Steam client from - https://store.steampowered.com/about/

2. Create a Steam account or login to your existing account (when prompted).

3. For non-owners -

   1. Purchase a copy of Sins of a Solar Empire II from https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575940/Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_II/ or by activating your Steam Key in the client via the link on the lower-left corner.

   2. Upon purchase, the Steam client will prompt you to install the game. If you miss this, skip to the owner's section below.

4. For owners -

   1. Look in your Library view for Sins of a Solar Empire II and click to install.

5. Wait for the installation to finish and you’re good to go!

Game Settings

Game settings can be found at any time via the hamburger menu button in the upper-right of the screen. We won’t go through every option, but here are the highlights:

Graphics

Rendering Device

• Display Mode: Defaults to Virtual Fullscreen. Can optionally be set to Resizable Window.

• Variable Frame Rate: Allows the game to render as fast as possible (aka V-Sync off when disabled).

• Frame Rate Limit: Only works if Variable Frame Rate is enabled. Limits your maximum FPS to what you set to save power. Set to 0 to indicate no limit.

Post Processing

• Bloom: Renders a glow effect around bright areas to simulate additional light.

• Refraction: Bends light caused by various effects such as intense heat to create visual distortions and ripples.

• Antialiasing: Helps to reduce jagged edges on models.

Lighting

• Shadows: When enabled, causes objects to block light, darkening the areas behind them.

• Shadow Quality: Determines the size of the shadow map that’s used. Decrease to improve performance.

• Dynamic Lights: Allows various elements in the game to emit light in real-time which interacts with all other elements (i.e., weapons fire lighting up objects as the shot passes by).

• Dynamic Light Quality: Determines the maximum number of possible simultaneous light sources. Lower to increase FPS.

Effects

• Effect Counts: Determines the maximum number of particle effects that will be drawn. Lower this to increase FPS.

Skybox

• Use Only Dark Skybox: Disabled by default. When enabled, your games will only use a black, starry background with no nebula or other ambient light (apart from the star).

Sound

Contains sliders to control both the Master and specific types of sound.

User Interface

Core

• Layout and Scaling: Will vary depending on your Windows desktop resolution. Adjust this dropdown to either shrink or enlarge the game UI.

• Clip Cursor to Window: Locks your mouse cursor to the game window if you have multiple monitors or play in a resizable window.

• Language: Allows you to override the language setting read in from Steam/Epic clients.

Camera

• Screen Edge Panning: Disabled by default. If used, the camera will pan if the mouse is near the edge of your screen/window.

• Zoom to Cursor: If disabled, the game will no longer zoom to where your cursor is located on screen.

• Zoom to Unit Tolerance: Controls the distance to cursor at which the camera will zoom into a nearby unit. Set to 0 to fully disable.

• Invert Camera - Horizontal/Vertical: Disabled by default. Let’s you invert how the camera moves along the horizontal and/or vertical planes.

• Camera Rotation/Pan Speed: Lets you fine tune how quickly the game camera will rotate and pan across the screen. Higher numbers will increase the speed.

• Zoom Speed: Adjusts how quickly the mouse wheel will zoom the camera in/out. Higher numbers will increase the speed.

• Slow Zoom Speed: Adjusts how quickly the mouse wheel will zoom the camera when Slow Zoom is enabled (hold Shift while using the mouse wheel).

• Right Click Tolerance: Since the right mouse button is used for both actions and camera movement, this setting will let you control when the camera starts moving instead of other user actions.

Tooltips

• Advanced Tooltips: Disabled by default - hold the ALT key to view. When enabled, advanced tooltips will be shown by default. Presents more detailed game information on various objects.

Main View

• Always Show Planet Names: Disabled by default. When turned on, each gravity well’s name will appear above it in the tactical view.

• Always Show Orbital Paths: Disabled by default. When enabled, each gravity well that moves in its orbit over time will display a blue arc. The length and direction of the arc displays the direction of the gravity well’s orbit and where it will be in 10 minutes of game time.

• Use Alliance Colors: Disabled by default. When enabled, the UI will use Alliance Colors instead of Player Colors (Green vs Red). This makes it much easier in larger games to see who’s allied vs is not allied.

• Show Mesh Outlines: Renders a thin outline around selected or mouse-overed units to make them more visible.

Miscellaneous

• Cluster Orbital Structures: Enabled by default. Clusters orbital structures next to each other when auto-placed (holding CTRL or via the Planet Screen). When disabled, orbital structures will be randomly placed in the gravity well.

• Partial Selection Stacking: When enabled, the Select Window will split up stacks of units instead of using a full stack.

• Auto Add First Fleet: Creates an empty Fleet in the Bookmark Bar at game start for you. Note that Vasari players will always have their first fleet populated given their unique starting conditions.

• Wide Move Spacing: Controls how far ships will separate when moving as a group.

Key Bindings

Change key bindings to whatever works best for you.