Unable to initialize game

Hello!

Thank you for contacting us. Since this is a bug report, I'm moving your ticket to our support page, where our QA team will take care of you.

Kind Regards

Keen Software House

Hello Harlery,

Thank you for reaching out and for sharing the log files.

After reviewing the logs, it appears the issue may be related to DirectX. Since you have already updated your OS and GPU, please ensure that there are no pending OS updates related to DirectX. If everything is up to date, try reinstalling the DirectX End-User Runtime from this link to fix any missing or corrupted DirectX files.

Once you've done that, follow these steps as well;

Verify your game files in Steam

• Right-click on Space Engineers in Steam Library → Properties → Installed Files → Verify Integrity of Game Files (wait till all files are verified completely)

Delete SpaceEngineers.cfg file

• It means your game configuration will be deleted
• You can access your SpaceEngineers.cfg by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

Delete ShaderCache folder

• Same access as SpaceEngineers.cfg

Launch the game from Steam and check if the issue persists.

If the issue continues, open AMD Radeon Settings → Switchable Graphics → Add SpaceEngineers.exe → Set to High Performance.

Relaunch the game and see if the issue is resolved. If the issue persists, please send us the latest log files.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Unfortunately this did not seem to work, I still receive the same message to update windows and drivers. I followed the steps to try reinstalling diretx but received a message than an equivalent or newer version was already installed, so no action was taken. I then attempted to remove the files D3D12 from the sys32 folder and try again, after restarting my machine and attempted the install again. This time new components were installed and initialized but I failed to write down the names of what was installed. I restarted my machine again and moved on to remove the .cfg files but they did not appear in the spaceengineers folder in the roaming directory, nor did the shadercache folder. I then moved on to assign spaceengineers.exe to high performance priority in both the windows graphics settings and amd adrenaline software, neither of which seemed to have any effect. One thing I have been noticing is that when the game starts, the cursor appears to flash multiple times before the unable to initialize message appears as though some process is attempting to start and failing multiple times. I have attached multiple screenshots as well as crash logs and VRageRender logs that are also generated

[SOLVED] Space Engineers Crashing on Startup – “Please apply Windows updates and update to latest graphics drivers”Problem: Game crashes immediately on launch with a message instructing to install Windows updates, graphics drivers, and a link to an outdated .NET Framework page. Despite having the latest Windows 10 updates and AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT drivers, the game would not launch.

Symptoms:

• Space Engineers crash with .NET Framework or graphics-related errors.
• Log showed:
  VRageRender.MyRenderException: Please apply windows updates and update to latest graphics drivers. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Globalization... expected to contain an assembly manifest.
  
• DISM and SFC showed errors related to corrupted system files that couldn’t be repaired.

1. Verified game files via Steam.
2. Updated .NET Framework to latest (4.8.1).
3. Updated AMD GPU drivers (RX 5500 XT).
4. Uninstalled conflicting SDKs.
5. Tried DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth — Failed with error 0x800f081f.
6. Mounted and used various Windows install ISOs (via Media Creation Tool and UUPDump) to provide a repair source — Still failed.

1. Downloaded the Windows 10 ISO via Media Creation Tool.
2. Mounted the ISO and ran setup.exe from within Windows.
3. Selected “Keep personal files and apps” during installation.
4. Let Windows complete the in-place repair install (took ~30–60 mins).
5. After reboot, ran:
   sfc /scannow
   ✔ Output: “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.”
   
6. Launched Space Engineers — it worked!

• Error 0x800f081f usually means DISM cannot find source files to repair corrupted system components.
• Even fully updated systems can develop low-level corruption that only an in-place repair install can fix.
• No data or apps were lost during this repair.
• This fix also improved system stability.

• After the repair, update any optional drivers or Windows features if needed.
• Back up your system now that it’s stable.
• Use DISM + SFC regularly to check integrity.

Hope this helps anyone struggling with the same issue! 🙏

Hello Engineer,

Thank you for sharing how you resolved the issue!

We appreciate the follow-up. I’ll go ahead and close the ticket now.

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department