Nick,

In the settings you posted you have 'open GL SOFTWARE' checked... this always caused me to crash out of VUE instantly...   Did you try HARDWARE open GL?  Was it a problem for you?  What are your machine's specs?

 (plus, working w/ ecosystems crashes for me if I add a new species into the mix, or if I do any major change, then try to rotate the camera... boom... bye bye Vue5i... I think that's why I UNCHECK 'apply texture maps to plans' in the option box.)

also, maybe try enabling background draw thread, and increase the slider to be greater than your instant draw?  (I'm not hopeful about this option, but it's worth a shot.)