Unity 6 spamming error about areaShadowAtlas

Unity Engine
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1

I’ve updated my 2022.2.21 HDRP project straight to Unity 6000.0.11f1. Everything in editor works fine so far, but as soon as I go into playmode, the console is spammed with this error (and rendering breaks):

InvalidOperationException: The UNKNOWN_OBJECT_TYPE ComputeShadowCasterCullingInfosJob.shadowManager.cachedShadowManager.areaShadowAtlas.shadowsPendingRendering has not been assigned or constructed. All containers must be valid when scheduling a job.
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) Unity.Jobs.LowLevel.Unsafe.JobsUtility.Schedule_Injected(Unity.Jobs.LowLevel.Unsafe.JobsUtility/JobScheduleParameters&,Unity.Jobs.JobHandle&)
  at Unity.Jobs.LowLevel.Unsafe.JobsUtility.Schedule (Unity.Jobs.LowLevel.Unsafe.JobsUtility+JobScheduleParameters& parameters) [0x00000] in <1aa1cb9cf6694c2497abc532d802d5d9>:0 
  at Unity.Jobs.IJobExtensions.Run[T] (T jobData) [0x0001e] in <1aa1cb9cf6694c2497abc532d802d5d9>:0 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowCullingUtils.ComputeCullingSplits (UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowInitParameters& hdShadowInitParams, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDLightRenderDatabase lightRenderDatabase, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowRequestDatabase shadowRequestDatabase, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowManager shadowManager, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowSettings shadowSettings, UnityEngine.Rendering.CullingResults& cullingResult, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDProcessedVisibleLightsBuilder processedVisibleLights, Unity.Collections.NativeArray`1[T] outPerLightShadowCullingInfos, Unity.Collections.NativeArray`1[T] outSplitBuffer, System.Int32& outTotalSplitCount) [0x002ef] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\Lighting\Shadow\HDShadowCullingUtils.cs:130 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline.CullShadowCasters (UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext renderContext, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowInitParameters& hdShadowInitParams, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDShadowManager shadowManager, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDCamera hdCamera, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDProcessedVisibleLightsBuilder processedVisibleLights, UnityEngine.Rendering.CullingResults& cullingResult) [0x00065] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\Lighting\LightLoop\LightLoop.cs:1325 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline.PreprocessVisibleLights (UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext renderContext, UnityEngine.Rendering.CommandBuffer cmd, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDCamera hdCamera, UnityEngine.Rendering.CullingResults& cullResults, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.DebugDisplaySettings debugDisplaySettings, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.AOVRequestData& aovRequest) [0x0004d] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\Lighting\LightLoop\LightLoop.cs:1361 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline.PrepareLightsForGPU (UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext renderContext, UnityEngine.Rendering.CommandBuffer cmd, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDCamera hdCamera, UnityEngine.Rendering.CullingResults cullResults, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDProbeCullingResults hdProbeCullingResults, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.DebugDisplaySettings debugDisplaySettings, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.AOVRequestData aovRequest) [0x0013d] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\Lighting\LightLoop\LightLoop.cs:1707 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline.ExecuteRenderRequest (UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline+RenderRequest renderRequest, UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext renderContext, UnityEngine.Rendering.CommandBuffer cmd, UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.AOVRequestData aovRequest) [0x003ed] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\RenderPipeline\HDRenderPipeline.cs:2798 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.HighDefinition.HDRenderPipeline.Render (UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext renderContext, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] cameras) [0x00588] in .\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition\Runtime\RenderPipeline\HDRenderPipeline.cs:2395 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.RenderPipeline.InternalRender (UnityEngine.Rendering.ScriptableRenderContext context, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] cameras) [0x0001c] in <1aa1cb9cf6694c2497abc532d802d5d9>:0 
  at UnityEngine.Rendering.RenderPipelineManager.DoRenderLoop_Internal (UnityEngine.Rendering.RenderPipelineAsset pipelineAsset, System.IntPtr loopPtr, UnityEngine.Object renderRequest, Unity.Collections.LowLevel.Unsafe.AtomicSafetyHandle safety) [0x00041] in <1aa1cb9cf6694c2497abc532d802d5d9>:0

After exiting play mode, there is a hard crash.

I’m not using any AreaLights in my project. There is definitely no AreaLight in my scene. Adding area lights (with shadow rendering/caching active) does not help unfortunately. Deleting the Library folder didn’t help either.

I’ve tried 2023.1.20f1 instead, and ran exactly into the same problem (except there is no hard crash when exiting the editor). The 2023.2.20f1 version doesn’t work either, but it throws a different error (null reference in ReflectionProbeTextureCache.NewRender(), see here).

Is there anything I could do to force initialize the areaShadowAtlas? Copying the HDRP package and removing the areaShadowAtlas entirely fixes the issue, but I was hoping there is a smoother solution available?