The latest Nvidia drivers are compatible with SpaceEngine again, so this fix is no longer needed. Simply download driver version 344.65 or newer and delete the cache folder of your SE installation. The original post remains below for reference.
Good news Nvidia users! Razum on the Russian forum figured out a method to fix the SpaceEngine executable to restore compatibility for the latest Nvidia drivers. All credit goes to him for doing this first.
The download is a .zip archive containing two files: SpaceEngine.exe (the fixed file), and SpaceEngine.exe.bak (an unmodded backup of the original). Extract these files to your SpaceEngine/system/ folder, overwriting the original. After this, delete the cache folder (SpaceEngine/cache/). If you want to stop using the modded .exe for some reason, delete/move/rename it, and rename SpaceEngine.exe.bak to remove the .bak extension, resulting in SpaceEngine.exe.
Note: the fix is a simple hack that circumvents the problem which causes incompatibility, it's not a "proper" fix or miracle cure. So no warranty, no guarantees, use at your own risk, etc.
Early tests show different results for different users: one GTX 750 user and one GTX 980 user have reported that this doesn't work for them, and one user each of GTX 570, GTX 760, and GTX 480 report that it works fine with no issues. Clearly more data is needed So please! If you use this fix, please make a post stating what card you're using, what driver version you have, whether the fix worked for you, and what issues you had (if any).
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GTX 480, driver 344.48, fix works perfectly, no issues
Something like the above example would be great. Thanks!
Since pretty much everyone is reporting success with this fix, you can disregard the above paragraph now.
Fixes for older versions of SE are included below:
working OK here, maybe a few lag spikes when generating worlds where it would be fine otherwise. Working with stock installation and with shaders tweaks.
Can anyone confirm if fix works for 2x580s (SLI) in win7x64SP1? Also how to install and use this fix?: 1st install 34x.xx driver and than install this or vice versa? thanks I confirm it works almost flawlessly with 2gtx580s sli and driver version 344.48. I use the following customization in NVIDIAs 3D settings for the modified spaceengine.exe:
n0b0dy, it states clearly in the opening post how to install it. Just replace your existing SpaceEngine.exe file with this one. What you do with your graphics drivers doesn't matter. As for whether it will work with your setup, just download it and see. It doesn't take much time.
Quotechromatic9 ()
performance loss and stutters
Try to turn threaded optimization off for SE in Nvidia control panel (or Nvidia Inspector, etc.), and in SE open the console and type "set maxthreads x" where x is something less than the number of threads you're currently using. This may fix performance issues.
All forum users, please read this! My SE mods and addons Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
Edited by HarbingerDawn - Wednesday, 29.10.2014, 14:22
GeForce 610M, Driver version 344.48 working perfectly in every aspect, except for one: now some stars "became" blue hypergiants with no luminosity. In the image you can see a star that is supose to be type 'M6 V' according to the star's catalog script.