(Steam) Games crashes on start-up since new patch (fix: change DX12 to DX11)

Hi everyone!

Ever since the new engine update, my game freezes when starting.
I can see the GGG intro, and then it freezes.

Checking the client log, it seems like a background process for shader loading crashes, which freezes the entire game process.

Things I tried:
- Update GPU drivers
- Verify files via steam
- Reinstall the game

Short bit from the client log to show the error:

2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323609 2c672544 [DEBUG Client 26096] [DXC] Add include to cache: shaders/reprojector.hlsl
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323609 2c672544 [DEBUG Client 26096] [DXC] Add include to cache: shaders/rendertargetscaler.hlsl
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323609 2c672544 [DEBUG Client 26096] [DXC] Add include to cache: Shaders/SamplerDeclarations.inc
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323609 2c672544 [DEBUG Client 26096] [DXC] Add include to cache: Shaders/CommonDeclarations.inc
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323671 641f3b67 [INFO Client 26096] Build cde84b82da648f6615482a3dffc9cf59d01b6025432ab176172c0c6ef8a13d75 PostProcess D3D12 ps_dx12 PostProcessPS DETAIL_LEVEL=0
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323687 a4161050 [INFO Client 26096] [DXC] Successfully loaded "dxcompiler.dll"
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323703 a4160c79 [CRIT Client 26096] [DXC] Shader compiled with errors: PostProcess:110:10: fatal error: 'Shaders/Include/Util.hlsl' file not found
#include "Shaders/Include/Util.hlsl"
^

2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323703 e806c998 [CRIT Client 26096] [DXC] Failed to compile shader (error)
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323703 327596f8 [INFO Client 26096] [SHADER] Missing precompiled shader PostProcessPS. Add '//PRECOMPILE target EntryPoint' lines in hlsl file.
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323718 641f3b67 [INFO Client 26096] Build cd3178894780afe25b24b744a6bc7910c62e14c5a482ab19d20ac579ddae136e Shaders/SMAA_main D3D12 vs_dx12 EdgeDetectionVShad SMAA_PRESET_ULTRA=1
2023/07/24 22:21:12 670323718 a4160c79 [CRIT Client 26096] [DXC] Shader compiled with errors: SMAA_main:110:10: fatal error: 'Shaders/SMAA.hlsl' file not found
#include "Shaders/SMAA.hlsl"





System components:
- Windows 10
- X670 AORUS ELITE AX
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

I don't want to post my client log/dxdiag here publicly, so if anyone from the Support Team reads this, feel free to e-mail me, and I'll respond with the full contents.

If anyone has more ideas what I could try, I will gladly try them and report back.


Update: Got messaged by staff, and they recommended a few things in this thread here. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3072628
What worked for me was the config reset. So I started testing a bit how many options I can change until it breaks again.
My results: I can use all of my old settings, if I change from DX12 to DX11 in the options/config. Re-enabling DX12 in the game options will force it to freeze and not start again.