Fatal error in ShaderCompileWorker - mismatched shader version

Development Getting Started & Setup
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1

Using UE5.3.1 from one day to the next, without changing anything, my project can’t be opened anymore because UE gives me a fatal error in ShaderCompileWorker due to a mismatched shader version.

error
error833×190 13.4 KB

Things I’ve tried:

  • Updating to 5.3.2
  • Updating my graphics drivers
  • Deleting all saved/intermediary etc folders
  • Validating the UE5 install
  • Entirely uninstalling and reinstalling UE5 (this was the “answer” to a previous occurrence to this error on these forums) but this did nothing
    EDIT: These were and are all engine versions downloaded through the Epic Lauchner, no custom builds

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

1 Like
2

Exact same error, appears only when I use Vulkan. Even on a new empty project. Switching to DirectX helps.
Tried to re-installed engine, cleaned AppData, update drivers - nothing works.

I’m running UE 5.3.2 on Window 11 22621.3007. With RTX 4050 Laptop, driver 551.23.

3

In source code the error happens here:

void VerifyFormatVersions(TMap<FString, uint32>& ReceivedFormatVersionMap)
	{
		for (auto Pair : ReceivedFormatVersionMap)
		{
			auto* Found = FormatVersionMap.Find(Pair.Key);
			if (Found)
			{
				if (Pair.Value != *Found)
				{
					ExitWithoutCrash(FSCWErrorCode::BadShaderFormatVersion, FString::Printf(TEXT("Mismatched shader version for format %s: Found version %u but expected %u; did you forget to build ShaderCompilerWorker?"), *Pair.Key, *Found, Pair.Value));
				}
			}
		}
	}

But it doesn’t help much.

4

I managed to at least open my project again by adding these lines to DefaultEngine.ini

[/Script/WindowsTargetPlatform.WindowsTargetSettings]
DefaultGraphicsRHI=DefaultGraphicsRHI_DX11
TargetedRHIs=PCD3D_SM5

and commenting out the other lines referring to PCD#D_3D_SM6 and such.

I can at least open my project (phew!) and it coughs up on startup:

Missing Project Settings!
Shader Model 6(SM6) is required to use Virtual Shadow Maps. Please enable this in:
Project Settings → Platforms → Windows → D3D12 Targeted Shader Formats
Virtual shadow maps will not work until this is enabled.

I had previously had to set RHI to Vulcan because 5.3 kept crashing my GPU.

If you had similar issues, the above should at least help you rescue your project. Once it’s open you can play with the Virtual Shadow Maps settings (which I wasn’t even using) and targeted formats.

Why this just occurred from one day to the next when nothing about my set-up changed overnight is very curious and caused me a good morning of stress and doom-scrolling thinking I had lost months of work.

5

Hi guys, has anyone found a solution or cause of his problem? I am facing the exact same issue without other option to switch RHI to DX instead of Vulkan but for our project since it is Linux based I need to have everything on Vulkan…wondering if someone has figured it out what is causing this issue - Thanks

6

Facing the exact Same issue here , Did anyone find any fix for this yet?
If so your help would be much appreciated :smile:

1 Like