How to Set Up a Space Engineers Dedicated Server: The Complete Guide

What a Space Engineers dedicated server needs

The Space Engineers dedicated server is a separate program from Keen Software House, and Keen gives it free to everyone who owns the game. It runs without graphics or sound, so the machine can spend all its power on simulating your world: every ship, station, rotor and thruster. These are the figures from Keen's dedicated server guide:

• System: a Windows PC with .NET Framework 4.8 or newer and the Visual C++ 2013 and 2017 redistributables. The server cannot run on a console.
• CPU: 3.2 GHz with 3 logical cores at minimum, 4.5 GHz recommended.
• Memory: 6 GB at minimum, 10 GB recommended.
• Network: 5 Mbps, and a static IP if people outside your home should find it.
• Disk: about 8 GB for the server itself, plus room for saves, logs and mods (official wiki).

Keen's official wiki adds that a machine below the minimum still runs the server, but forces Experimental mode on. The game talks over UDP, and the default port is 27016. Every server instance needs a port of its own, so a rented server often uses a different one. If you turn on the Remote API for VRage Remote, it listens on a separate port with its own security key (admin tools).

Host it yourself or rent a server: an honest comparison

Running the server on your own PC is free and a good way to learn the tool. Keen's guide boils down to these steps:

1. Install Space Engineers Dedicated Server from Tools in your Steam library, or with SteamCMD as app 298740: steamcmd.exe +login anonymous +force_install_dir C:\SEDS +app_update 298740 +quit.
2. Run SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe from the DedicatedServer64 folder, choose Local/Console and press Continue to server configuration.
3. Pick a new world from a scenario or one of your saved worlds, fill in the server name and world name, set your options and press Save & start.
4. To keep it running after a reboot, run the tool as administrator and press Add new instance: that instance runs as a Windows service. Give each instance its own port.
5. For friends outside your network, forward UDP 27016 (or your own port) on your router to that PC and allow it in the Windows firewall.
6. Keep it current. The Maintenance tab has Auto Update and Auto Restart, which need the server tool to stay open. To stop the server and save the world, use taskkill /IM SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe; adding /f kills it without saving.

Keen Software House lists GTX Gaming as the official server host for the Space Engineers PC version. If your crew wants a world that is always up, our Space Engineers server hosting runs the same dedicated server for you, with the control panel described below.

Setting up your server in the GTX game panel

A GTX Space Engineers server is created the moment your order goes through, and the first install takes up to 15 minutes. This is the order we suggest for the first evening:

1. Log in to the game panel at gamepanel.gtxgaming.co.uk with the login from your welcome email and open your server.
2. Press STOP before you change any file, as every one of our guides does.
3. Open Configuration Files. SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg opens in the Config Editor with the server and world name, password, admins and the crossplay switches. Sandbox_config.sbc belongs to the loaded world and holds its session name and mod list.
4. Pick your world: a fresh one from a scenario, or your own save uploaded over SFTP (worlds and scenarios).
5. Add mods if you want them: the Steam Workshop button on a PC-only server, mod.io IDs on a crossplay server (mods). Torch and Tebex come from the Mod Manager.
6. Press START and watch the Web Console until it prints Game ready... Press Ctrl+C to exit. Then copy your address from CONNECTION INFO: always use the full address, because your port may not be 27016.

PC-only or crossplay: choose before you build

Space Engineers has crossplay between PC (Steam and the Microsoft Store), Xbox and PlayStation. Keen added PC and Xbox crossplay in update 197.1 in February 2021, together with the Epic Online Services (EOS) server list and mod.io support; PlayStation has been part of Keen's releases since 2023. On a dedicated server crossplay is a choice of network: Steam for a PC-only server, or Steam + Console through EOS. The choice decides what the world can run:

To switch crossplay on in the GTX panel (full steps in our crossplay guide):

1. Press STOP and open SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg under Configuration Files in the Config Editor.
2. In the Crossplay section, tick Enable Crossplay and Console Compatibility.
3. Select Steam + Console [EOS] so every platform can connect, press Save & Exit and START.

Keen's server applies a few console rules of its own. Since update 1.206 (April 2025) the dedicated server turns Console Compatibility off by itself when the world's mods add up to more than 3 GB, or when no PCU block limits are set. A server in Experimental mode is also hidden from console players who play in safe mode. If the server will not start after you switch crossplay on and the Web Console says World contains too many planet types, the world is not console compatible: generate a new one from a scenario with [CONSOLE] in its title.

Server and world settings that matter

Keen's server tool splits the options into server settings (who can join and how) and game settings (the rules of the world). On GTX you find both under Configuration Files. The server settings first:

• Server name: the name in the server list.
• World name: the world the server loads, also shown in the list.
• Password: locks the server; on crossplay as a hash and salt.
• Steam Group ID: any value other than 0 hides the server from everyone outside that Steam group (find the 64-bit ID).
• Admins, banned, reserved: lists of 64-bit Steam IDs.
• Remote API: port and security key for VRage Remote.

World settings work as they do in the game, with one twist: on a dedicated server you can type any number, but Keen says values outside the in-game range are not tested and are officially unsupported. These are the ones that matter most on a busy server, with the defaults from Keen's official wiki:

• Total PCU: the performance budget of the whole world, shared out to factions and players. Default 100 000 (what PCU is).
• Block Limits: caps what each player can build. Keen's tool limits by block pair name (the default) or by tag, so a limit of 6 pistons can cover every piston variant. Console Compatibility needs them set.
• View Distance: 15 km by default; the wiki suggests 5 to 10 km for low-end machines and warns against long distances in dense asteroid fields.
• Floating Object Limit: how many loose items and bits of debris can float at once, 100 by default.
• Enable In-Game scripts: lets Programmable Blocks run scripts. Off by default.
• Auto-save and Max Backup Saves: how often the world saves itself and how many of those saves are kept in the save folder.

Recent updates added server-side switches too: Economy 2 (May 2026) made the stored-grid timings configurable on dedicated servers, and Prosperity (July 2026) lets server owners decide whether stored grids can be pulled from very distant locations.

Worlds and scenarios: new, uploaded and Workshop

A dedicated server runs one world at a time: either a new world generated from a scenario, or a save you bring with you. Mods belong to the world, so generate the world first and add the mods after it: a newly generated world starts without them.

Start a new world

Pick a scenario for the new game and start the server so it generates the world. On a crossplay server, use a scenario with [CONSOLE] in its title, not one marked (PC).

Upload your own save

1. Press STOP, set the world name in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg to the exact name of the world you are bringing, and press START so the server generates a world with that name.
2. Press STOP again, connect over SFTP and open the Saves\ folder. Delete the new world's folder and upload your whole world folder in its place.
3. Press START. The server loads the world named in its config, which is now yours.

On Windows your own worlds are in %AppData%\SpaceEngineers\Saves\, one folder per world. Rather not do it yourself? Order the World Migration Addon in the client area and our team imports the world for you (upload guide).

Workshop scenarios on a crossplay server

A crossplay server cannot download Steam Workshop content, so a Workshop scenario has to be uploaded by hand: its files go into Mods, its world goes into Saves, and the paths inside the save's Sandbox.sbc are pointed at your server's folder. Our RollCage 2022 Race DS guide walks through one example step by step.

Admin: Alt+F10, VRage Remote and promoting players

As admin you get the Admin Screen, which Keen's wiki compares to "god mode": creative tools, ignoring PCU limits to paste a stuck grid back, cycling through the biggest or fastest grids, trash removal and the full entity list. How you become admin depends on the server type:

VRage Remote is Keen's own remote admin app. It comes with the dedicated server as VRageRemoteClient.exe and connects through the server's Remote API with the address, port and security key. It shows the simulation speed, the global chat, connected, kicked and banned players, grids, characters, floating objects, planets and asteroids, and its Admin tools tab works like the Admin Screen. Keen's admin guide says players from every platform can be managed this way. Treat the security key like a password: anyone with it, your address and your port can run your server (connect to VRage Remote).

Full steps for both server types are in how to become admin. Make yourself admin before you open the server to the public, and take a backup before you touch trash removal or delete grids in bulk.

Mods: Steam Workshop and mod.io

Space Engineers mods come from two places, and Keen's rule is simple: Xbox players can only use mods hosted on mod.io, so a server for console players, or for a mix of PC and console, runs mod.io mods only. A PC-only server can use the Steam Workshop. Keen's server tool writes each mod as Service:Mod ID, for example Steam:1234567890 or mod.io:1234567890.

PC-only server: Steam Workshop

1. Press STOP and make sure your world is already generated.
2. Open Steam Workshop in the game panel, find the mods you want and press Install. Details opens a mod's Workshop page first.
3. Press START. Players' games download the mods when they connect.

Read a mod's page before you add it: some mods need other mods, and a mod that has not been updated since the last Space Engineers update can stop the world from loading (Workshop mods guide).

Crossplay server: mod.io

1. Press STOP and find each mod's ID on the Space Engineers mod.io site, next to the publisher's name.
2. Open Sandbox_config.sbc under Configuration Files and find the empty <Mods /> tag near the end.
3. Replace it with a <Mods> block holding one <ModItem> per mod: <Name> is the ID plus .sbm, <PublishedFileId> is the ID and <PublishedServiceName> is mod.io.
4. Save and press START. The first start takes longer while the server downloads the mods.

The mod.io guide has the full block to copy, with one and three mods. Keep the console limit in mind: above 3 GB of mods, Keen's server switches Console Compatibility off.

Torch and server plugins (third party)

Keen's dedicated server can load server-side plugins itself, but most communities that want plugins use Torch. Torch describes itself as "a community-made Space Engineers dedicated server" with a server window, in-game chat and commands without joining, an entity manager, a config editor and its own plugin system. It is third-party software: its site says it is not affiliated with Keen Software House.

On a GTX server you add Torch and its plugins without copying files by hand (Torch and plugins guide):

1. Press STOP, open the Mod Manager, install Torch and press START.
2. On a crossplay server, also open Torch.cfg under Configuration Files, enable its Crossplay option and press Save & Exit.
3. To add a plugin, press STOP, open Torch Plugins, paste the plugin's full URL and press Execute.
4. Press START and let the server run once, so the plugin writes its config file (for example Essentials.cfg), then edit that file in the File Manager with the server stopped.

The plugin most servers start with is Essentials, which Torch's site calls a core plugin: votes, custom commands, ranks and permissions, and the !cleanup commands our clean-up guide uses. Not every plugin needs Torch: the Tebex webstore plugin installs from the Mod Manager on its own (Tebex guide).

Backups, restarts and updates

Space Engineers worlds grow for months, so a backup is the one thing you will be glad of after a bad mod, a plugin update or a clean-up that went too far. The game keeps a few auto-saves inside the save folder (Auto-save and Max Backup Saves in the world settings), and on GTX you have full server backups on top:

• Before a big change: press STOP, Backup Server, then START (back up your server).
• To roll back: STOP, Restore Server, pick the dated backup and the type of restore, Execute. Everything after that backup is replaced (restore a backup).
• To keep a copy at home: the Backup Manager, with its own password, lets you download any dated backup (download backups). We normally keep backups for up to six months.

Restarts keep a long-running server fresh. A Scheduled Restart task every 6 hours suits most servers and every 4 hours suits busy or heavily modded ones (automatic restarts). Tasks run on the server machine's clock, so check its time before you pick the hour.

Updates: Keen ships major updates a few times a year (Economy 2 in May 2026, Prosperity in July 2026) with hotfixes after them, and our servers update with Keen's releases. After an update, an outdated mod or plugin is the usual reason a world will not load, so check those first. A reinstall is the last resort: it deletes every server file, though your backups are kept (reinstall guide).

Performance: sim speed, PCU and RAM

The number to watch is simulation speed. At 1.0 the physics runs in real time; below that, everything on the server slows down for everyone at once. VRage Remote's monitoring tab shows it. What pulls it down is what players build: grids, rotors, pistons, thrusters, drill arrays, turrets, scripts and floating debris. Keen measures that cost in PCU (Performance Cost Unit): every block has a PCU value, weapons cost the most, and each multiplayer world has a total that is shared out to factions and players. On consoles an armour block costs 2 PCU instead of 1.

Keep sim speed up

• Set Total PCU and Block Limits to what your server can carry, rather than switching them off.
• Clear out what nobody uses. The Admin Screen's trash removal deletes debris grids automatically, and the Essentials !cleanup commands remove grids by block type, owner or size. Run !cleanup scan first, keep builds marked with a beacon with notype beacon, and back up first: a clean-up cannot be undone (clean-up commands).
• Find the worst grids: the Admin Screen can sort the entity list by PCU and cycle through the biggest grids.
• Keep the view distance sensible and restart on a schedule.

RAM and CPU

• Keen's minimum: 6 GB RAM, 3.2 GHz, 3 logical cores.
• Keen's recommendation: 10 GB RAM, 4.5 GHz, 3 logical cores.
• Every GTX plan: up to 10 GB RAM included, 10 to 200 slots.
• GTX RAM tiers: 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 32 and 64 GB.

Our rule of thumb: a 10-slot vanilla world is comfortable on the included RAM, a modded server or a bigger community should step up a RAM tier, and a large public server with heavy scripts does best with 16 GB or more plus a CPU priority upgrade. The live graphs and Activity and Stats show your memory use at the busiest hours. RAM, CPU priority, hardware and slots can all be changed later in the client area without losing the world (upgrade your RAM).

Troubleshooting a Space Engineers server

Most problems show up in the Web Console or the Log Viewer: the last lines before a failure usually name the world, mod or plugin at fault. These are the common ones:

Still stuck? Open a support ticket with the last lines of the log; our team is there 24/7.