Atomic Heart launched with positive reception from critics and players alike. However, PC players have been reporting issues with the game, like Unreal Engine crashes, lack of a FOV slider, no HDR, and more. Also, PC players report experiencing Fatal Error crashes while playing Atomic Heart, and the following are the fixes.
Fatal Error Fixes You Can Try
According to Atomic Heart players, they are experiencing the Fatal Error crash with the following error message.
LowLevelFatalError [File:Unknown] [Line: 897] Tried to create a Gfx Pipeline State without Vertex Shader
You are experiencing the error for multiple reasons, and the following are the fixes.
Force DirectX and Use Windowed Fullscreen
Players have been able to fix the Atomic Heart Fatal error crash by forcing the game to use DirectX 11 and Windows Borderless. Right-click the game in Steam library > properties > General > type -dx11 under launch options and close the window. Launch the game, go to video settings, and set Borderless Winowed for display mode. This will fix the Fatal error crash.
Disable Overclocking
Overclocking your GPU can result in games crashing with Fatal error, which might be the case with Atomic Heart. If you have overclocked your GPU, revert it to its default GPU clocks.
However, some GPUs are factory overclocked. In that case, open Nvidia Control Panel > Help > Debug mode. This will allow the |GPU to use the reference clocks from Nvidia instead of overclocked clocks, fixing the Atomic Heart Fatal error crash.
Stop Using Flawless Widescreen
As I mentioned before, Atomic Heart doesn’t feature a FOV slider which is a problem for players using Ultrawide monitors. We listed some FOV fixes for the game, and one of them is using the Flawless Widescreen application. Turns out, for some players, this app is causing the Fatal Error crash. Open the application and uncheck the ‘scanning fix’ in the settings, and the Fatal error crash will be fixed. If Atomic Heart is still crashing, stop Flawless Widescreen, and the issue will be fixed.
Lower Graphics Settings
Players report that Atomic Heart crashes at a specific point in the game with Fatal Error or LowLevelFatalError message. For some players, the game crashes as soon as it launches. This is due to the game’s graphics settings. Lower the graphics settings to the lowest possible options. Play the game to get past the point where Atomic Heart crashes, then bump up the settings.
For those who can’t reach the settings due to Atomic Heart crashing at launch, open GeForce Experience > select Atomic Heart > click on the Custom settings icon next to the ‘optimize’ button > drag the slider to performance > click apply > click optimize. This will change the game settings to the lowest options available. Launch Atomic Heart, and it won’t crash at launch with a Fatal error or LowLevelFatalError message.
That is all for our fixes for the Atomic Heart Fatal error crash. Check our Atomic Heart HDR guide to enable HDR in the game. Also, see our hub for commonly occurring PC errors and their fixes if you are experiencing errors with other PC video games or PC.