Some more updates and I hope someone can make sense of any of this.
In UE4 I imported the starter content. I COULD ACTUALLY USE a texture from that pack and drop it onto my material. This worked fine. I could even use said material in my scene.
However, as soon as I try to use either a texture I downloaded from the unreal marketplace or my own texture, it just looks white:
So, starter content works everything else doesnt.
In UE5 its even weirder. I also imported the starter content and the materials within the content drawer preview just fine. As soon as I open up a material the ShaderCompileWorker.exe process shows up in the task manager and UE freezes for a few seconds. After the process disappears UE unfreezes again. However as soon as I pan the view when looking at the material to include the textures it freezes for good and doesnt unstuck anymore.
So this works:
But if I now move the view slightly to the left it freezes, ShaderCompileWorker.exe shows up again but this time after the process disappears UE does not unfreeze again.
What makes this EVEN MORE WEIRD is that I can actually USE the material in the viewport.
When applying the material it again freezes for a few seconds but after that everything is fine. I can move the camera around, I can move the object, but as soon as I open up the exact same material that shows up in the viewport and try to look at it, I get a crash again.
One thing I remember is that I encountered this error and used the ‘dirty’ fix from post 5. Could that be related? Seems weird though because it doesnt look like anyone else on that thread has the problem that I have.
Anyway, at this point Im getting somewhat frustrated and Im close to begging for someone more experienced than me to look into this 