Schedule I Lag and Low FPS: What TVGS Optimized
Short version: TVGS has tuned Schedule I performance in most updates since v0.4.1. It claims 10-15% (v0.4.1), 5-10% (v0.4.4) and 20-30% (v0.4.6) more FPS in its own testing, each against a different baseline. v0.4.7 (Oct 9, 2026) adds memory savings and less stutter for late-game saves, with no FPS figure. Below: every official entry by version, a symptom guide, and fixes two or more guides agree on.
Short answer: as of Oct 24, 2026, the default version of Schedule I is v0.4.7, which left open beta on Oct 9, 2026. TVGS has put performance work into most updates since v0.4.1 (Nov 2, 2025). Its biggest claim is for v0.4.6, which it says gave a “20-30% performance boost” in its own testing. If your game still lags on a current version, the symptom guide and the fixes below are where to start.
Community-verified, not personally tested. The PC fixes in the last section come from public guides, and we did not run them on our own machine. The version table comes from TVGS’s own Steam announcements, which we last checked on Oct 24, 2026. Every percentage in this page is TVGS’s own number, not an independent measurement.
What TVGS says it optimized, by version
Dates are when the Steam post went up (UTC). Quotes are word for word.
| Date | Version | What TVGS wrote | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2025 | Patch #5 | “Implemented NPC effects culling at a certain distance to improve performance.” | Early launch patch. |
| Apr 3, 2025 | Patch #6 | “Added ‘cleartrash’ command. Useful if you’re experiencing performance drops due to lots of trash items.” | One line here; details in our crash guide. |
| Aug 27, 2025 | v0.4.0 | “Turned off JSON pretty-print for the trash save file, offering a reduction in file size.” | TVGS says smaller file, not faster game. |
| Sep 27, 2025 | v0.4.0f8 | “Fixed excessive graffiti-related network traffic causing connection issues.” | Multiplayer. |
| Nov 2, 2025 | v0.4.1 | “…it should all add up to provide a decent (10-15%) boost framerate.” Items include “Tweaked occlusion settings for more aggressive culling.” and “Changed a lot of calculations to be on-demand instead of every frame.” | TVGS’s wording is “should”, not a test result. |
| Nov 18, 2025 | v0.4.1f12 | “Fixed the lag spike that occurred as the loading screen closed.” “Refactored a lot of networking code to minimise bandwidth usage.” | Loading spike; multiplayer bandwidth. |
| Dec 26, 2025 | v0.4.2 | “Staggered some tick functions to reduce recurring lag spikes.” “Optimized employee logic to reduce unnecessary pathfinding calculations.” | Aimed at periodic hitches. |
| Feb 2, 2026 | v0.4.3 | “Fixed various occlusion culling bugs.” “Fixed various built objects not culling when distant.” | Culling fixes, no percentage. |
| Mar 19, 2026 | v0.4.4 | “In our testing, FPS seems to be 5-10% higher compared to the previous version of the game.” Also “Refactored some employee code to reduce stuttering.” and “Fixed frame spike when the first vehicle pathfinding calculation occurs.” | TVGS’s own testing. |
| Aug 1, 2026 | v0.4.6 | “In our testing, these changes have resulted in a 20-30% performance boost, as well as noticeably less visual pop-in.” | TVGS’s own testing. Details in the next section. |
| Sep 19, 2026 | v0.4.7 beta | “This should result in several-hundred megabytes saved in memory use for late-game saves.” | Kept in the full release on Oct 9. |
| Oct 9, 2026 | v0.4.7 | “Stored items are now pooled instead of instantiated and destroyed, mitigating stuttering in late-game saves with many employees.” “Fixed frame drops/stuttering when pouring water or additives into a pot or grow bed.” | Full release. Neither line was in the beta post until it was edited on Oct 9. No FPS figure. |
Do not add these percentages up. The three numbers (10-15%, 5-10%, 20-30%) come from three different TVGS statements, each compared with “the previous version” at that time or described loosely. TVGS did not publish the PC, settings or scene it tested, and it did not say how the three relate. We do not give a combined figure because the posts do not support one. What the posts do show is that performance work appeared in many consecutive updates, not that your FPS will rise by any set amount.
What v0.4.6 changed in detail
v0.4.6 has the longest performance list. The beta post (Jul 9, 2026) and the release post (Aug 1, 2026) carry the same entries. Some of them, word for word:
- “Implemented new light source culling solution.”
- “Added new shadow optimization tool that reduces/culls shadows at a certain distance.”
- “Property contents culling is now staggered over several frames to minimize stuttering when approaching/leaving a property.”
- “Turned off baked occlusion culling (its calculations were actually more expensive than just rendering everything).”
- “Adjusted the compression format of lots of audio files to minimize CPU spikes due to decompression at runtime.”
- “Stripped lots of shader variants to minimize memory use.”
- “Scripts using repeating checks now stagger their logic instead of running everything in a single frame.”
- “Fixed CPU/memory spike due to audio sources subscribing to an event on enable/disable.”
v0.4.6 is also the update that added controller support, so a guide from before August 2026 predates both. See what v0.4.6 added for controllers, including what Valve’s Steam Deck report says about the default graphics configuration.
Find your symptom
Only symptoms with a matching TVGS entry get a version. Where there is none, we say so.
| Symptom | What TVGS has written | If you are on an older version |
|---|---|---|
| Low FPS everywhere | Optimization work in v0.4.1, v0.4.4 and v0.4.6 (table above). Largest claim: v0.4.6. | Update to v0.4.6 or later first. |
| Stutter when you walk into or out of a property | v0.4.6: “Property contents culling is now staggered over several frames to minimize stuttering when approaching/leaving a property.” | This line first appears in the v0.4.6 beta (Jul 9, 2026). Earlier versions do not have it. |
| Regular hitching every few seconds | v0.4.2 (Dec 2025): “Staggered some tick functions to reduce recurring lag spikes.” v0.4.6: “Scripts using repeating checks now stagger their logic…” | v0.4.2 or later. |
| Hitch right after a loading screen | v0.4.1f12 (Nov 2025): “Fixed the lag spike that occurred as the loading screen closed.” | v0.4.1f12 or later. |
| Lag or connection trouble in multiplayer | The entries are about network traffic, not frame rate: v0.4.0f8 graffiti traffic, v0.4.1 and v0.4.1f12 network changes. In the v0.4.1 post TVGS wrote “I’ve discovered that a lot of the connection issues in multiplayer are likely due to bandwidth limits being exceeded - I’ve made an effort in this update to mitigate this, but there’s still some more work to do.” | v0.4.1f12 or later. We found no TVGS entry that claims to fix low FPS for a client in co-op. |
| Stutter in a late-game save with many employees | v0.4.7: “Stored items are now pooled instead of instantiated and destroyed, mitigating stuttering in late-game saves with many employees.” | v0.4.7 or later. |
| Frame drops when you pour water or additives into a pot or grow bed | v0.4.7: “Fixed frame drops/stuttering when pouring water or additives into a pot or grow bed.” | v0.4.7 or later. |
| Game gets slower the longer you play | No entry says so directly. The nearest are memory entries: v0.4.6 “Stripped lots of shader variants to minimize memory use.”, the v0.4.7 mixed-products memory saving for late-game saves, and the v0.4.7 fix for a memory leak when you exit to the menu. TVGS does not link any of them to slowdowns. | See the v0.4.7 section below. |
| Steam Deck performance | TVGS said in April 2025 it would use the Deck as its “performance benchmark” (v0.3.4). No Deck-specific FPS figure in any post we read. | See controller support for the current rating. |
If the game freezes or closes rather than just running slowly, that is a different problem. See Schedule I keeps crashing, which also covers the v0.4.6 shader and memory entries and the v0.4.7 memory line in more detail. If it hangs on a loading screen, see infinite loading screen.
v0.4.7 (as of Oct 24, 2026)
The v0.4.7 open beta went up on Sep 19, 2026, and the full release followed on Oct 9, 2026. As of Oct 24 it is TVGS’s latest announcement. Its performance-related lines, word for word from the release post:
- “Optimized how icons are generated and saved for mixed products.” and “This should result in several-hundred megabytes saved in memory use for late-game saves.”
- “Improved how NPC ragdolls work so that the physics components are not created until they are actually needed, preventing unnecessary physics overhead.”
- “Fixed several trash LODs to reduce pop-in.”
- “Stored items are now pooled instead of instantiated and destroyed, mitigating stuttering in late-game saves with many employees.”
- “Fixed frame drops/stuttering when pouring water or additives into a pot or grow bed.”
- “Optimized graffiti undo memory use.”
- “Fixed runtime-generated icons not being cleared when exiting to menu, resulting in a memory leak.”
The first three were already in the beta post when we read it in early October. The last four were not: they appeared when TVGS edited the beta post on Oct 9, the day of the full release. So a guide or video about the v0.4.7 beta from before Oct 9 does not cover them. TVGS gives no FPS figure for v0.4.7. Everything else in the update is on our v0.4.7 page, and the beta-to-default timeline shows it took 20 days to reach default.
Save warning if you roll back. The beta post said: “If you switch back to the default version of the game after playing this beta, any appearances that have been converted to the new format will not load properly.” The release notes don’t repeat this warning. Our reading, not confirmed by TVGS: the same applies to a save played on v0.4.7 that you later load on v0.4.6. Back up your save folder before you test fixes, and do not roll back to v0.4.6 to fix lag with a converted save.
Older advice, and what has changed
- “Clear the trash.” The
cleartrashcommand was added in Patch #6 (Apr 3, 2025). Guides from April 2025 describe it, and Game Rant’s guide says trash “can put a load on your PC”. It is still the only trash-related performance entry TVGS has written. In v0.4.0 (Aug 27, 2025) TVGS also “Turned off JSON pretty-print for the trash save file, offering a reduction in file size.” - Editing
Trash.json. A MiniTool guide from Apr 2, 2025 describes emptyingTrash.jsonby hand, with the game at v0.3.3f12. TVGS has not written anything about editing that file, and it has not said whether the file’s size affects frame rate. We make no claim either way. - Settings lists written for v0.4.0 or earlier. Guides dated before Nov 2025 predate the v0.4.1, v0.4.4 and v0.4.6 optimization posts above, so their FPS numbers were measured on older builds.
Fixes that two or more independent guides agree on
Only fixes found in at least two separate guides from different sites are listed. Pages that copy each other’s wording count as one. None of these fixes is mentioned in TVGS’s posts. Update the game first, then try them one at a time.
1. Turn off overlays
Game Rant (Apr 13, 2025): “Overlays are helpful but may cause issues in certain early access games, like crashes or stutters.” It suggests turning off the Steam and Discord overlays. MiniTool (Apr 2, 2025) lists the Steam overlay: Steam > Settings > In Game > turn off “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”. GamerBlurb (Mar 31, 2025) adds the Discord overlay and recording or sharing overlays in GeForce Experience or Adrenalin.
2. Try turning V-Sync off (it is not the same for everyone)
MiniTool says some players fixed stuttering by turning V-Sync off. GamerBlurb says to turn V-Sync off in the in-game settings, and adds “Some players get better results with V-Sync on, but try both.” Test both and keep whichever feels smoother.
Not listed
Left out because they do not meet the two-source rule: individual graphics options and an FPS cap (one guide each), and forcing the game onto a dedicated GPU (only one guide written for this game).
What this page does not cover
Mods, third-party “optimizer” programs and unconfirmed in-game rumors are not covered. This page is about what TVGS has written and fixes that two guides agree on.
Still lagging?
Check your version first (Steam > Properties > Betas), then match your symptom above. We will update this page when TVGS posts its next update.