SOLVED: Kitten Space Agency freezes and crashes at Planet Renderer - Compiling Shaders

[JuLLz3]

Hi,​

​

unfortunately, I can't get KSA to work. I would appreciate every bit of help and ideas you got for a solution.

​

​

Game Version​

2026.4.18.4206

Operating System​

Windows 10

Hardware​

- Mainboard: ASUS Prime X370 Pro
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 580 (Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
- RAM: 32GB DDR4

Install Location​

K:\Program Files\Kitten Space Agency - ahwoo.com

What's Happening?​

After installing the game, I open the KSA.exe, leave the configuration settings at default, click start KSA and wait. It loads a lot of stuff and then at "Planet Renderer | VRAM: ~7 GB / ~7 GB | Compiling Shaders" it freezes and after approximately one minute it crashes and Windows tells me the program doesn't function.

Already Tried​

I already checked drivers, reinstalled KSA twice, made an exception for Windows Defender for the folder and opened KSA.exe as administrator.

EDIT: Tried to lower all graphic settings to the minimum/lowest – Game behaves the same way, only difference is that the game now freezes and crahes at "Planet Renderer | VRAM ~3,27 GB / ~7 GB | Compiling Shaders".

Logs​

22:31:16.729 INFO loaded settings from C:\Users\JuLLz3\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml
22:31:17.391 DEBUG Found dedicated compute queue family at index 1
22:31:17.394 DEBUG Multi view supported: True
22:31:17.395 DEBUG Ray query acceleration structure support:False
22:31:17.524 INFO Swapchain created with 3 images
22:31:17.875 DEBUG Kitten Space Agency (KSA) v2026.4.18.4206 initialized
22:31:17.894 INFO found mod 'Core'
22:31:17.991 DEBUG found system 'Sol'
22:31:18.018 DEBUG found system 'SolDense'
22:31:18.019 DEBUG found system 'SolLite'
22:31:18.019 DEBUG found system 'Test'
22:31:18.430 INFO loaded Situation Template 'Gemini7StartingSituation'
22:31:18.432 INFO loaded Situation Template 'RocketStartingSituation'
22:31:18.432 INFO loaded Situation Template 'HunterStartingSituation'
22:31:18.432 INFO loaded Situation Template 'BanjoStartingSituation'
22:31:18.432 INFO loaded Situation Template 'PolarisStartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'Gemini7StartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'RocketStartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'HunterStartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'BanjoStartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'PolarisStartingSituation'
22:31:18.674 DEBUG loaded system 'Sol'
22:31:18.771 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'Gemini7StartingSituation'
22:31:18.771 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'RocketStartingSituation'
22:31:18.771 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'HunterStartingSituation'
22:31:18.771 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'BanjoStartingSituation'
22:31:18.771 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'PolarisStartingSituation'
22:31:18.771 DEBUG loaded system 'SolDense'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'Gemini7StartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'RocketStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'HunterStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'BanjoStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'PolarisStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 DEBUG loaded system 'SolLite'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'Gemini7StartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'RocketStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'HunterStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'BanjoStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 INFO loaded Instance of Situation Template 'PolarisStartingSituation'
22:31:18.772 DEBUG loaded system 'Test'
22:31:18.779 INFO registered language 'Englisch (Vereinigte Staaten)'


Thanks in advance for your help.



EDIT (SOLVED): Thanks a lot to @Maxi & @MrAndroPC for the solution.

Solution for this issue:

Ground Clutter setting seems to be the issue here.
Go to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and change:
groundClutter = true
to
groundClutter = false

Solved for me. Issue happened even for Earth Only system.

 

[Maxi]

Hi, thanks for providing all the details

The current Versions of KSA need to load a lot of Textures etc. into VRAM for it to work and your game seems to crash because the game is filling that completely on your current settings.

Your RX 580 has 8 GB of VRAM total, of which ~1 GB is consumed by probably Windows itself and other applications like maybe Discord, leaving you about 7 GB for KSA.

But dont worry because there are lots of people running the Game on that amount of VRAM

​

1. The (most likely) first Fix i would try is just to lower the graphics settings.​

When you launch the game, the configuration window appears before loading with dropdowns for graphics settings like texture and shadow quality.

Set everything to more medium settings like 2k. If it still freezes, drop lower. Dont worry because it will still look great

If the configuration window does not appear (because "Always Show" was unchecked at some point), open C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.tomland In the [System] section, set selectSystemOnStart = true, save, and relaunch.

Please report back if it works and have fun playing!




Small Note if the game does take a long time to load on the first startup instead of crashing. It might just work fine as well:
Some Users with AMD cards have reported issues with the Game taking long to load on the first startup of each new version. All subsequent program launches should go fine afterwards.
The shaders get cached, so the second launch is much faster.
There seem to be issues with AMD drivers for shader compilation and they might take a bit longer to compile. The devs do have a contact at AMD that they try to fix this with

 

[JuLLz3]

Hi, thanks for providing all the details

The current Versions of KSA need to load a lot of Textures etc. into VRAM for it to work and your game seems to crash because the game is filling that completely on your current settings.

Your RX 580 has 8 GB of VRAM total, of which ~1 GB is consumed by probably Windows itself and other applications like maybe Discord, leaving you about 7 GB for KSA.

But dont worry because there are lots of people running the Game on that amount of VRAM

​

1. The (most likely) first Fix i would try is just to lower the graphics settings.​

When you launch the game, the configuration window appears before loading with dropdowns for graphics settings like texture and shadow quality.

Set everything to more medium settings like 2k. If it still freezes, drop lower. Dont worry because it will still look great

If the configuration window does not appear (because "Always Show" was unchecked at some point), open C:\Users\<YourName>\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.tomland In the [System] section, set selectSystemOnStart = true, save, and relaunch.

Please report back if it works and have fun playing!




Small Note if the game does take a long time to load on the first startup instead of crashing. It might just work fine as well:
Some Users with AMD cards have reported issues with the Game taking long to load on the first startup of each new version. All subsequent program launches should go fine afterwards.
The shaders get cached, so the second launch is much faster.
There seem to be issues with AMD drivers for shader compilation and they might take a bit longer to compile. The devs do have a contact at AMD that they try to fix this with

Hi Maxi,

thanks a lot for your fast and detailed reply.

I actually forgot to add that to the list of things I already tried, but I already tried to lower all the graphic settings for the exact reason you described.
I just did it again and the game behaves the same way. I lowered all the graphic settings to the minimum/lowest and the only difference is that the game now freezes and crahes at "Planet Renderer | VRAM ~3,27 GB / ~7 GB | Compiling Shaders".
Still, good to know that KSA has problems with AMD hardware.

Any other ideas?

 

[Maxi]

hmm ok

The Problem is that the logs sadly did not output any other useful information / error log.

Can you maybe check if this provides a better error log?:

check Windows Event Viewer (Win+R > eventvwr > Windows Logs > Application > "Find" (on the right side panel of the window if you are using windows 10) -> KSA") for entries with source ".NET Runtime" or "Application Error" around the time you tried to launch

 

[Maxi]

if this does not provide an better error log, this might help since they also had an AMD related Issue:

M

Post in thread 'Loading stuck on Planet Renderer'

Apr 9, 2026

Ground Clutter setting seems to be the issue here.
Go to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and change:
groundClutter = true
to
groundClutter = false

Solved for me. Issue happened even for Earth Only system.

• MrAndroPC

• 

 

[JuLLz3]

hmm ok

The Problem is that the logs sadly did not output any other useful information / error log.

Can you maybe check if this provides a better error log?:

check Windows Event Viewer (Win+R > eventvwr > Windows Logs > Application > "Find" (on the right side panel of the window if you are using windows 10) -> KSA") for entries with source ".NET Runtime" or "Application Error" around the time you tried to launch

Here I got three logs for the last start of KSA:
Note that since I'm from Germany the logs are in German. If you need me to translate anything just say it.


LOG 1:

Protokollname: Application
Quelle: Windows Error Reporting
Datum: 01.05.2026 00:00:32
Ereignis-ID: 1001
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene: Informationen
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: Juliens-Hauptquartier
Beschreibung:
Fehlerbucket 1654432889606125078, Typ 4
Ereignisname: APPCRASH
Antwort: Nicht verfügbar
CAB-Datei-ID: 0

Problemsignatur:
P1: KSA.exe
P2: 2026.4.18.4206
P3: 68fa0000
P4: coreclr.dll
P5: 10.0.25.52411
P6: 68fabec4
P7: c0000005
P8: 0000000000367bba
P9:
P10:

Angefügte Dateien:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD03E.tmp.dmp
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD33C.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD38B.tmp.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD399.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD3D9.tmp.txt

Diese Dateien befinden sich möglicherweise hier:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_KSA.exe_52c06dec20b9c8c202eebdd386f5df9a8474769_5a16affe_4657b37a-2a1f-404e-9516-43afd3d78b0b

Analysesymbol:
Es wird erneut nach einer Lösung gesucht: 0
Berichts-ID: e6de1abf-b4f9-48ee-89b9-b9812431bfde
Berichtstatus: 268435456
Bucket mit Hash: 98402b11a7afadfba6f5b9f291b23616
CAB-Datei-Guid: 0
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-04-30T22:00:32.5117773Z" />
<EventRecordID>11297211</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Juliens-Hauptquartier</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>1654432889606125078</Data>
<Data>4</Data>
<Data>APPCRASH</Data>
<Data>Nicht verfügbar</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>KSA.exe</Data>
<Data>2026.4.18.4206</Data>
<Data>68fa0000</Data>
<Data>coreclr.dll</Data>
<Data>10.0.25.52411</Data>
<Data>68fabec4</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>0000000000367bba</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD03E.tmp.dmp
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD33C.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD38B.tmp.xml
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD399.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERD3D9.tmp.txt</Data>
<Data>\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_KSA.exe_52c06dec20b9c8c202eebdd386f5df9a8474769_5a16affe_4657b37a-2a1f-404e-9516-43afd3d78b0b</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
<Data>e6de1abf-b4f9-48ee-89b9-b9812431bfde</Data>
<Data>268435456</Data>
<Data>98402b11a7afadfba6f5b9f291b23616</Data>
<Data>0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>


LOG 2:
Protokollname: Application
Quelle: Application Error
Datum: 01.05.2026 00:00:30
Ereignis-ID: 1000
Aufgabenkategorie100)
Ebene: Fehler
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: Juliens-Hauptquartier
Beschreibung:
Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: KSA.exe, Version: 2026.4.18.4206, Zeitstempel: 0x68fa0000
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: coreclr.dll, Version: 10.0.25.52411, Zeitstempel: 0x68fabec4
Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005
Fehleroffset: 0x0000000000367bba
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0x5fe0
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01dcd8ec9a2d2073
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: K:\Program Files\Kitten Space Agency - ahwoo.com\Kitten Space Agency\KSA.exe
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: K:\Program Files\Kitten Space Agency - ahwoo.com\Kitten Space Agency\coreclr.dll
Berichtskennung: e6de1abf-b4f9-48ee-89b9-b9812431bfde
Vollständiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets:
Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist:
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-04-30T22:00:30.2596686Z" />
<EventRecordID>11297210</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Juliens-Hauptquartier</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>KSA.exe</Data>
<Data>2026.4.18.4206</Data>
<Data>68fa0000</Data>
<Data>coreclr.dll</Data>
<Data>10.0.25.52411</Data>
<Data>68fabec4</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>0000000000367bba</Data>
<Data>5fe0</Data>
<Data>01dcd8ec9a2d2073</Data>
<Data>K:\Program Files\Kitten Space Agency - ahwoo.com\Kitten Space Agency\KSA.exe</Data>
<Data>K:\Program Files\Kitten Space Agency - ahwoo.com\Kitten Space Agency\coreclr.dll</Data>
<Data>e6de1abf-b4f9-48ee-89b9-b9812431bfde</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>


LOG 3:
Protokollname: Application
Quelle: .NET Runtime
Datum: 01.05.2026 00:00:29
Ereignis-ID: 1026
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene: Fehler
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: Juliens-Hauptquartier
Beschreibung:
Application: KSA.exe
CoreCLR Version: 10.0.25.52411
.NET Version: 10.0.0
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Stack:
at Brutal.VulkanApi.VkDeviceExtensions.CreateComputePipelines(Brutal.VulkanApi.VulkanHandleWrapper`2<Brutal.VulkanApi.VkDevice,FunctionTable>, Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipelineCache, System.ReadOnlySpan`1<Brutal.VulkanApi.VkComputePipelineCreateInfo>, Brutal.VulkanApi.VkAllocator, System.ReadOnlySpan`1<Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipeline>)
at KSA.Rendering.ComputePipelineWrapper.BuildPipeline(Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipelineLayout, KSA.ShaderReference, Core.Renderer, System.Nullable`1<Brutal.VulkanApi.VkSpecializationInfo>)
at KSA.GroundClutterRenderer.BuildFrameResources()
at KSA.PlanetRenderer..ctor(Core.Renderer, Core.RenderPassState, Int32, KSA.GpuTextureSystem, KSA.Atmosphere.Rendering.CloudShadowsRenderer)
at KSA.Program..ctor(System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyList`1<System.String>)
at KSA.Program.Main(System.String[])

Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name=".NET Runtime" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1026</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-04-30T22:00:29.4980515Z" />
<EventRecordID>11297209</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Juliens-Hauptquartier</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>Application: KSA.exe
CoreCLR Version: 10.0.25.52411
.NET Version: 10.0.0
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Stack:
at Brutal.VulkanApi.VkDeviceExtensions.CreateComputePipelines(Brutal.VulkanApi.VulkanHandleWrapper`2&lt;Brutal.VulkanApi.VkDevice,FunctionTable&gt;, Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipelineCache, System.ReadOnlySpan`1&lt;Brutal.VulkanApi.VkComputePipelineCreateInfo&gt;, Brutal.VulkanApi.VkAllocator, System.ReadOnlySpan`1&lt;Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipeline&gt
at KSA.Rendering.ComputePipelineWrapper.BuildPipeline(Brutal.VulkanApi.VkPipelineLayout, KSA.ShaderReference, Core.Renderer, System.Nullable`1&lt;Brutal.VulkanApi.VkSpecializationInfo&gt
at KSA.GroundClutterRenderer.BuildFrameResources()
at KSA.PlanetRenderer..ctor(Core.Renderer, Core.RenderPassState, Int32, KSA.GpuTextureSystem, KSA.Atmosphere.Rendering.CloudShadowsRenderer)
at KSA.Program..ctor(System.Collections.Generic.IReadOnlyList`1&lt;System.String&gt
at KSA.Program.Main(System.String[])
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

[JuLLz3]

if this does not provide an better error log, this might help since they also had an AMD related Issue:

M

Post in thread 'Loading stuck on Planet Renderer'

Apr 9, 2026

Ground Clutter setting seems to be the issue here.
Go to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and change:
groundClutter = true
to
groundClutter = false

Solved for me. Issue happened even for Earth Only system.

• MrAndroPC

• 

That helped!
I already searched the forum for a solution, but I must have missed that thread.

As the comment says, I just changed groundClutter = true to groundClutter = false at C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and it works now.

Thank you very much @Maxi & @MrAndroPC. Now I can finally enjoy this game myself.

 

[Maxi]

Note thas since I'm from Germany, the logs are in German. If you need me to translate anything just say it.

Haha no problem, i am German as well
The logs should also be readable for any English speakers who happen to come across this thread.

Did you already try the workaround mentioned above
by setting groundClutter = false in C:\Users\YourName\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml
?

M

Post in thread 'Loading stuck on Planet Renderer'

Apr 9, 2026

Ground Clutter setting seems to be the issue here.
Go to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and change:
groundClutter = true
to
groundClutter = false

Solved for me. Issue happened even for Earth Only system.

• MrAndroPC

• 

The stack trace shows the crash happens inside GroundClutterRenderer.BuildFrameResources(), called from the PlanetRenderer constructor.

I just skimmed over the code and believe that that code path should get skipped when groundClutter = false, so this workaround should fix it for you.

 

[Maxi]

That helped!
I already searched the forum for a solution, but I must have missed that thread.

As the comment says, I just changed groundClutter = true to groundClutter = false at C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency\settings.toml and it works now.

Thank you very much @Maxi & @MrAndroPC. Now I can finally enjoy this game for myself.

ok awesome!

Have fun and enjoy the game

Please disregard my previous comment. I sent it at the exact moment as you replied that you already got it to work xD

 

[JuLLz3]

ok awesome!

Have fun and enjoy the game

Please disregard my previous comment. I sent it at the exact moment as you replied that you already got it to work xD

Thanks. Haha, that's what I thought. I hate it when that happens.

I will now also edit the title of this thread to "solved" for anyone in the future who happen to come across this thread with the same issue.