Steam Version of Substance Designer 15.0.1 doesn't launch

Report · Sep 03, 2025

Steam Version of Substance Designer 15.0.1 does not launch. I see a starting artwork after which nothing hapens. In the task manager, the process can be observed starting out after launch, then marked as "suspended" nad killed. Happens both through the shortcut and via Steam itself.

My specs are:
ASUS x550v

i5-3230M, x64

GeForce GT740M, 2GB, driver version 425.31 (updating is unavailable for this laptop)

RAM 6GB

Win 10 Home Single Language, x64, version 22H2

I understand that my computer is way below recommended specs, but the app is not marked as "unavailable" for this system in Creative Cloud, the way Substance Modeler for example is, and I don't have much choice at the moment. 14.x versions from Adobe.com used to launch just fine, Substance Painter 11.0.3 works just fine. A number of people also reported the same issue on Steam's forums with the same description of the problem (app not launching).

Thanks.

Report · Sep 10, 2025

It sounds like your issue is due to your system not meeting the even the minimum system requirements. I had a similar experience recently with Sampler and had to update my GPU driver to get past the splash screen then a freeze. The hardware in my system exceeds the minimum, and the recommended, by a long way, but the driver still needed to be updated in order for it to run.

Substance Designer now has a new rendering engine, so it is not surprising that an underspec system, that may have coped with the previous versions, does not now run the application correctly.

Both links below state a GPU with a minimum of 8GB VRAM is required.
https://helpx.adobe.com/substance-3d-designer/getting-started/system-requirements.html
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3366300/Substance_3D_Designer_2025/

Dave