We Were Here Tomorrow: shader compile crash, rainbow blocks and AMD stutter on launch

Three launch-day reports on We Were Here Tomorrow: a first-launch crash at 51% of shader compilation, rainbow blocks where the fog should be, and AMD stutter - and the one publisher reply.

Answer: Three launch-day reports: a first launch stopping at 51% of shader compilation before the Unity loader closes it, rainbow blocks where the fog should be, and bad stutter on a 9800X3D with a 9070 XT. Only one drew a publisher reply: Julian TMG says some players fixed the shader crash with the -force-d3d11 option.

Version scope

Launch-day Steam threads and the store requirements panel, read 22 Oct 2026

Game status

Released

Platforms

PC

Hub directory

We Were Here Tomorrow

Verified

2026-10-22

Updated

2026-10-22

The three reports, in the players' own words

One thread, written in Russian, describes the first launch rather than normal play: "При первом запуске доходит до 51 процента компиляции затем вылезает прогрузка Unity 6000.3.и дальше много цифр и закрывается" - at first launch it gets to 51 percent of compilation, then the Unity 6000.3 loader comes up, then a lot of digits, and it closes. A second player in the same thread reports the same 51 percent point and a hang that spreads to the Windows task manager.

Another reports graphics that are not right rather than a crash: "I am seeing pixilated color blocks sparkle rainbow colors alllllll over. cant fix. unplayable. Anyone else? Known solutions? Almost like the volumetric fog renders as rainbow pixels instead of as fog."

The third is about frame pacing on AMD hardware: a 9800X3D with a 9070 XT, very bad stutters, and a frametime graph that ran from a high of 250 to a low of 2 fps. The same post asks for FSR 4 support, or at least FSR 3 so that AMD's own driver can upgrade it automatically. A later reply says the same setup gives constant stutters down to 20 fps from over 200.

What the developer actually answered

One of the three has a publisher reply, and it is the one that matters most to read. In the shader-compilation thread the developer account Julian TMG wrote that some players have resolved the crash by loading the game with DirectX 11 instead of DirectX 12, gave the launch option to add -force-d3d11 in the Steam properties, and invited players to send their player logs into the Discord so the tech team can look at them. That is the publisher's own posted answer, on 22 October 2026, to the launch-day symptom of the first launch dying at 51 percent.

The other two have no studio reply. The rainbow-blocks thread had no replies at all when it was re-read, and the AMD thread's three replies are all other players, one of whom has the same 9800X3D and 9070 XT setup.

Where the publisher says problems are collected

The pinned developer FAQ says there is a known-issues list on the support page, support.totalmayhemgames.com, mirrored in their Discord server, and that the team is aware of these issues and they will be patched very soon. That list is where a confirmed fix for the rainbow blocks or the AMD stutter would be recorded, and it is where a report goes if the symptom is not already listed.

What the published configuration actually asks for

The store lists a 64-bit machine on Windows 11. The minimum is an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or equivalent, 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB or equivalent, with DirectX 12, a broadband connection and 25 GB of storage. The recommended tier steps up to a Ryzen 5 5600X or equivalent, 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 3060 or equivalent, with the same DirectX 12 and storage figures. The listing is a Windows configuration and says nothing about what a given shader-compilation pass or a given frame-time graph will do on a particular machine.

One small difference worth naming, because it is the kind of thing that gets misread: the store badges the game Partial Controller Support, while the developer FAQ says the games in the series are playable with a controller. Both statements are published and both are left as they are; the controller answer is on the co-op partner page, not here.

What to check first, in the order the publisher points you

First, if the first launch dies at 51 percent of shader compilation, use the option the developer posted: -force-d3d11, which runs the game on DirectX 11 instead of the DirectX 12 the store lists. Second, read the known-issues list on the support page, because the developer says that is where recognised problems are collected and that the ones there will be patched very soon, and the same page is where a report goes if the symptom is not on it.

What this page does not claim

No fix, no patched build, no frame-rate promise and no requirement check is claimed here beyond the -force-d3d11 launch option the developer posted themselves. The sources read for this page contain three player reports, one publisher reply, a publisher pointer to a known-issues list, and a published specification. That is the whole record on 22 October 2026.