diff --git a/servers/rendering/renderer_rd/renderer_compositor_rd.cpp b/servers/rendering/renderer_rd/renderer_compositor_rd.cpp
index b9bda9329e9e55..73c6927cabbcba 100644
--- a/servers/rendering/renderer_rd/renderer_compositor_rd.cpp
+++ b/servers/rendering/renderer_rd/renderer_compositor_rd.cpp
@@ -315,10 +315,11 @@ RendererCompositorRD::RendererCompositorRD() {
 			WARN_PRINT_ONCE("Platform supports less than 48 textures per stage which is less than required by the Clustered renderer. Defaulting to Mobile renderer.");
 		}
 	} else if (rendering_method == "forward_plus") {
-		// default to our high end renderer
 		scene = memnew(RendererSceneRenderImplementation::RenderForwardClustered());
 	} else {
-		ERR_FAIL_MSG("Cannot instantiate RenderingDevice-based renderer with renderer type " + rendering_method);
+		// Fall back to our high end renderer
+		ERR_PRINT(vformat("Cannot instantiate RenderingDevice-based renderer with renderer type '%s'. Defaulting to Forward+ renderer.", rendering_method));
+		scene = memnew(RendererSceneRenderImplementation::RenderForwardClustered());
 	}
 
 	scene->init();