Fix Star Wars Zero Company Crashes by Clearing the Shader Cache

You’re three minutes into a round of Star Wars Zero Company and the screen freezes. Then the crash reporter pops up: “Low Level Fatal Error” or “GPU Crash Dump Triggered.” You’ve updated your drivers, turned off Discord overlays, and verified game files. It still crashes. The most overlooked cause of these failures isn’t your GPU driver or a rogue background app — it’s a corrupted shader cache. Shader compilation stutters, repeated crashes, and even the notorious crash reporter can almost always be traced back to a mangled cache. Clearing it should be your first real troubleshooting step, not your fourth.

Summary

This guide takes that position and defends it: the shader cache is the primary source of instability in Star Wars Zero Company on PC. We’ll show you why, how to fix it, and then layer on the other optimizations that actually matter. One strong counterargument exists — that GPU driver updates alone fix the problem — and we’ll dismantle it in a single paragraph.

The Shader Cache Problem – Why It Breaks Everything

Star Wars Zero Company uses modern DirectX 12 and a complex shader compilation pipeline. When you first launch the game, the engine compiles shaders — small programs that tell the GPU how to render lighting, shadows, and particle effects. These compiled shaders are stored in a cache so the next launch is faster. But the cache can easily become corrupted: a failed driver update, a sudden crash during compilation, or even a Windows update that alters the GPU driver model can scramble these files.

A corrupted shader cache leads to repeated shader compilation every time you restart the game. This not only causes long load times but also triggers the “stuck on loading screen” error. Worse, if the engine attempts to load a corrupt shader entry, it can cause a full-on crash to desktop — often accompanied by the Star Wars Zero Company crash reporter. Clearing the shader cache forces the game to rebuild everything fresh, eliminating the source of the instability.

Concrete detail: The shader cache is stored in a system folder — for Nvidia GPUs, it’s typically at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\NVIDIA Corporation\GLCachecodecodecodecodecodecode. AMD and Intel store it under similar paths. The cache can balloon to 2–3 GB, especially after multiple driver versions. Windows Disk Cleanup’s “DirectX Shader Cache” option can clear it safely in one click.

Why Driver Updates Don’t Always Fix It

The strongest counterargument is that many players see immediate improvement after updating their GPU driver. So driver updates must be the real fix, right? Not exactly. Most driver updates include a new shader compiler version. When you install a new driver, Windows often clears the old shader cache as part of the process — but not always. If the driver update coincidentally triggers a cache cleanup, the crashes stop. If it doesn’t, the corrupted cache remains and the problem persists. The driver update itself isn’t the solution; the incidental cache clearing is. That’s why a targeted cache clear works every time, while driver updates are hit or miss.

How to Clear the Shader Cache – The Right Way

Here’s the exact process, pulled from verified troubleshooting sources. Do not skip steps or use third-party cleaner tools.

Open Windows Disk Cleanup. Press Win+R, type cleanmgrcodecodecodecodecodecode, and select your system drive (usually C:).
Click “Clean up system files.” This reveals additional options.
Scroll down and check “DirectX Shader Cache.” You might see several hundred MB to a few GB selected.
Click OK. The cache is removed. Restart your PC.
Launch Star Wars Zero Company again. The first launch will take longer because shaders are rebuilt. Do not interrupt it.

That’s it. Do this before you try anything else except a basic restart and disk space check.

Other Fixes That Address the Real Bottlenecks

Clearing the shader cache solves the most common crash type — but low FPS and stuttering after the cache is fresh point to other issues. Here are the ones that actually make a difference, prioritized by impact.

Increase Virtual Memory (Paging File)

Star Wars Zero Company is a large open-world game that can use 12 GB or more of RAM during intense firefights. If your system runs out of physical RAM, it dumps data to the paging file. A small or fragmented paging file creates stutter and can trigger “out of memory” crashes.

Search for “Advanced system settings” in Windows.
Click Settings under Performance, then the Advanced tab.
Under Virtual memory, click Change.
Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size.”
Select your fastest drive (SSD), choose “Custom size,” and set initial and maximum to 1.5x your RAM. For 16 GB, set both to 24576 MB.
Click Set, then OK. Restart.

This doesn’t prevent shader cache issues, but it prevents the second leading crash cause: running out of memory during shader compilation.

Set Launch Options for Stability

The source material repeatedly recommends forcing DirectX 11 or windowed mode. This is especially useful if the game crashes on the menu or refuses to launch.

In Steam, right-click Star Wars Zero Company > Properties > General.
Under Launch Options, enter -dx11codecodecodecodecodecode. This forces the game to use DirectX 11 mode, which avoids the shader compilation issues of DirectX 12 — but you lose some graphical features.
If it still crashes, replace -dx11codecodecodecodecodecode with -windowed -nobordercodecodecodecodecodecode. This forces the game into borderless windowed mode, which bypasses full-screen optimizations that can cause driver timeouts.

Real-world nuance: DirectX 12 shader compilation is the source of the “stuck on compiling shaders” freeze. Running the game in DX11 avoids that entirely, at the cost of slightly lower visual quality. For players with mid-range GPUs (GTX 1060, RX 580), DX11 often runs smoother anyway.

Disable Overlays – But Only the Problematic Ones

We’re not going to tell you to turn off all overlays. That’s lazy advice. Instead, test one at a time. The three most likely to cause stutter and crashes in Star Wars Zero Company are:

Nvidia App overlay (formerly GeForce Experience) – Can cause “GPU Crash Dump Triggered” errors.
Discord overlay – Known to cause frame-time spikes when the game calls certain DirectX functions.
Xbox Game Bar – Windows built-in overlay can interfere with full-screen exclusive mode.

Leave Steam overlay on — it rarely causes problems. Turn off the others one by one, launching the game after each change, until the crashes stop.

Verify Integrity of Game Files – But Understand What It Does

Steam’s verification tool checks that every file in the game folder matches the manifest. It does NOT fix corrupted shader cache or Windows system files. But it does fix a small subset of crashes caused by partial downloads or corrupted patch data.

Run it anyway, but don’t expect it to solve shader issues. The process takes 2–5 minutes and costs nothing.

To run it: Steam Library > right-click Star Wars Zero Company > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files.

FAQ – Real Questions About Star Wars Zero Company Crashes

Q: Why does the game crash with “Low Level Fatal Error” right after launching?

A: This error almost always means a shader compilation failed. Clear your DirectX shader cache using Windows Disk Cleanup, then restart. If that doesn’t work, add -dx11codecodecodecodecodecode to your Steam launch options to bypass DX12 shader compilation entirely.

Q: I updated my Nvidia driver and the game still crashes. What now?

A: The driver update didn’t clear your existing shader cache. Use Windows Disk Cleanup to remove the cache manually. After that, run sfc /scannowcodecodecodecodecodecode in an admin Command Prompt to repair any corrupted system files that the driver update might have left behind.

Q: Should I run the game as administrator?

A: Yes, but only after you’ve done the shader cache fix. Right-click the game’s EXE file (find it via Steam > Manage > Browse local files), go to Properties > Compatibility, and check “Run this program as an administrator.” This prevents permission-related file writing errors during shader compilation.

Q: Can low virtual memory cause crashes even if I have 16 GB of RAM?

A: Yes. During shader compilation plus heavy combat, the game can use 14+ GB of RAM. If your paging file is set to a small default size, the system runs out of virtual address space. Increase it manually to at least 1.5x your physical RAM, as described above.

One Final Edge Case – Very High-Refresh Monitors

This nuance isn’t covered in the standard guides. If you have a 144 Hz or higher monitor and Star Wars Zero Company keeps crashing right as you enter combat, the problem might be the game engine’s frame-rate limiter interacting with the shader cache. Try capping the frame rate to 60 FPS in your GPU control panel (not in-game) before clearing the cache. The shader compilation pipeline in certain Unreal Engine versions has a bug that causes a crash when the frame rate exceeds 120 FPS during loading. After the cache is rebuilt and the game is stable, you can raise the cap back up. This is an oddball fix, but it works for a surprising number of players with high-refresh displays.

Don’t reach for a full reinstall. Don’t blame your hardware. Start with the shader cache. That’s where the battle is lost — and won.

Why does the game crash with “Low Level Fatal Error” right after launching?

This error almost always means a shader compilation failed. Clear your DirectX shader cache using Windows Disk Cleanup, then restart. If that doesn’t work, add `-dx11` to your Steam launch options to bypass DX12 shader compilation entirely.

I updated my Nvidia driver and the game still crashes. What now?

The driver update didn’t clear your existing shader cache. Use Windows Disk Cleanup to remove the cache manually. After that, run `sfc /scannow` in an admin Command Prompt to repair any corrupted system files that the driver update might have left behind.

Should I run the game as administrator?

Yes, but only after you’ve done the shader cache fix. Right-click the game’s EXE file (find it via Steam > Manage > Browse local files), go to Properties > Compatibility, and check “Run this program as an administrator.” This prevents permission-related file writing errors during shader compilation.