blas_create asserted on IndexBuffer::max_index, which is a DEBUG-ONLY diagnostic: index_buffer_create only scans the index data under DEBUG_ENABLED, and otherwise stores 0xFFFFFFFF as an "unknown" sentinel — both in release builds and whenever a buffer is created without initial data. ERR_FAIL_COND_V_MSG(index_buffer->max_index >= t_in.vertex_count, ...) In a template_release build that reads 0xFFFFFFFF >= vertex_count, which is always true, so EVERY indexed mesh failed to build a BLAS. Nothing reached the TLAS, and raytracing_list_bind_uniform_set then took the process down on a null uniform set: ERROR: The index buffer contains an index that is outside the specified vertex range. at: blas_create (servers/rendering/rendering_device.cpp:362) ... (once per indexed mesh, every frame) ERROR: Parameter "uniform_set" is null. at: raytracing_list_bind_uniform_set (servers/rendering/rendering_device.cpp:6570) Path tracing therefore rendered nothing and then crashed in any exported build, while the editor (DEBUG_ENABLED, real max_index) was fine — which is exactly why this looked like a content bug in specific maps rather than an engine one. Skip the comparison when the value is the sentinel. It remains a real bounds guard wherever max_index is real data. VERIFIED: loading the game with pathtracing_enabled = true went from 6+ BLAS failures per frame plus a crash, to 0 failures and 40 frames survived. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>