Hello, Hello! for anyone who may encounter this error. I come back bearing solutions. so this error happened to me most likely after changing my pc parts (the cpu specifically) and or updating windows and the drivers of my graphics cards here are the specs in case you have a similar build:
on UE_5.3
i9 13900k
Asus maximus hero z790
4090 graphics card
corsair vengeance ram, I don’t think the amount matters but 128gb in case
so now on to issues and solutions interestingly enough these solutions extend to any one receiving an error where while building shaders on load the editor crashes and says “crash inside compiler” but well get to that in a moment.
the error that has to do with mesh utilities and the skeletal mesh utilities common is due to the program not being able to read and validate a skeletal mesh within the project. this can be seemingly frustrating given that the skeletal mesh could be located within the level that your editor opens to.
to get around this and prevent your project from crashing on load because of the above error. navigate to your Project folder and then to the Config folder and open the Default Engine file and change the editor startup map and game default map. to do this simply type in any name you see fit this will force the editor to open a new blank level thus avoiding the error since the skeletal mesh is not located within the level.
now if you have loaded into the level you should now be able to access your content browser open that up and navigate to folders containing your skeletal meshes. right click a click a skeletal mesh and click asset actions → and then Validate assets and dependencies. proceed to do this for each skeletal mesh within the project you may still experience crashes while validating this seemed to be unavoidable however with enough attempts eventually the asset will be validated (not very graceful but hey it works). then once everything has been validated you should be able to load back into the level good as new (or usual).
now onto the shader compiler error/ level still crashing:
this is a direct result of lumen as well as well its effects on skin caching, ik frustrating, so the way to fix this can actually vary you can do the method mentioned before and make a new blank level than navigate to project setting and turn anything regarding lumen to none or unticked including raytracing as well as untick skin caching and “GenerateMeshDistanceFields” then restart or you can do so outside of the editor by going to you defaultengine file in your projects Config folder go to
“[/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]” and set the variables manually here’s an example you can copy and paste or edit specifically for your project.
example:
[/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
r.ReflectionMethod=0
r.GenerateMeshDistanceFields=False
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=0
r.Lumen.TraceMeshSDFs=0
r.Shadow.Virtual.Enable=0
r.Mobile.EnableNoPrecomputedLightingCSMShader=1
r.DefaultFeature.AutoExposure.ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange=True
r.DefaultFeature.AutoExposure.ExtendDefaultLuminanceRange=true
r.Streaming.PoolSize =25000
r.DefaultFeature.LocalExposure.HighlightContrastScale=0.8
r.DefaultFeature.LocalExposure.ShadowContrastScale=0.8
r.SkinCache.CompileShaders=False
r.RayTracing=False
r.RayTracing.Shadows=False
r.RayTracing.UseTextureLod=False
r.Lumen.HardwareRayTracing=False
r.PathTracing=False
r.VirtualTextures=False
r.SkinCache.SkipCompilingGPUSkinVF=False
r.SkinCache.SceneMemoryLimitInMB=33347.285156
the globalillumination=0 is setting lumen to none also interestingly enough once you load the project with these and save, or change these settings in the project settings you can then restart the editor go back into the affected level and turn them back on and everything will work as before I’m guessing all of these settings need to be remade in order to work.
any ways cheers hope this works for you if you have any other more graceful ways and less exhaustive procedures let me know have a great life