Horizon Zero Dawn – How to Fix Crashing Problems

I was getting constant crashing issues when playing the game primary during cut-scenes. This is how I fixed my problems.

Guide to Fixing Game Crash

NVIDIA Drivers

I did a clean driver install of GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 451.85 which can be found here:

This driver was released on July 24th and is newer than the version that will download through GeForce Experience.

This will also force the game to recompile the shader cache.

Seldom Crashes Due to Game Trying to Write to Nonexistent Memory Address

  • Open <path-to-game>HorizonZeroDawn.exe in a hex editor.

Search for:

  • C7 04 25 00 00 00 00 A7 DC EA 0D

And replace all instances with:

  • 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90

Make sure to select Hex-Values and not Text-String.


Save the changes.

Special K

  • Download Special K from here.

After downloading and extracting the Special K files open SKIF.exe.

Start the Special K service by clicking on Global Injection > Start Service.

Go back to Steam Game Management tab and scroll down to Horizon Zero Dawn.

Click on the logo to launch the game.

The game wont open the first time because you have to make a few changes to the INI file to get special K to work but you have to run the game with it once for it to generate the INI file.

The ini file is located in:

  • %USERPROFILE%.DocumentsMy ModsSpecialKProfilesHorizon Zero Dawn

You need to change these in the INI file,

  • [API.Hook]
  • LastKnown=64
  • d3d11=false
  • d3d12=true

  • [Render.FrameRate]
  • TargetFPS=60.0
  • SleeplessRenderThread=true
  • SleeplessWindowThread=true

add this to the INI file I added it above the Render.FrameRate section.

  • [Macro.FPS]
  • Ctrl+Shift+1=TargetFPS 60
  • Ctrl+Shift+2=TargetFPS 45
  • Ctrl+Shift+3=TargetFPS 30
  • Ctrl+Shift+0=TargetFPS 0

The person that put out the changes for the INI file to get this working with Horizon also added this note but I could not get the game to work properly in full screen mode.

Fullscreen Exclusive mode is absolutely necessary for sane framepacing in this game. The engine uses double-buffered VSYNC and crashes if you attempt to add additional backbuffers using SK’s swapchain settings.

  • Here is the source for the Special K information.

From now on you will launch the game through the Special K launcher.

Important: no OSD is yet available, to know Special K is loaded pres CTRL+SHIFT+T, you should hear an achievement sound.

In-Game Settings

These are my in game settings.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 8010 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices. My first official job in the game industry started back in 2005, and I'm still doing what I love to do.

2 Comments

  1. so,the game is working now in my potatoe,no crash so far… “complete version gog” the only shit part is that now it optimizes shaders every time. lm tryng to find a way to disable cloulds and water reflexion but wit no luck

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