Realsense D435 in Gazebo

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I am trying to simulate a Realsense D435 in Gazebo 9, running ROS Melodic in Ubuntu 18.04.

I am using the ROS Wrapper from Realsense and the plugin from here.

Importing the _d435.urdf.xacro and _d435.gazebo.xacro files into my own xacro, I should be able to use the camera in Gazebo and see several topics being published. My file is

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot name="realsense2_camera" xmlns:xacro="http://ros.org/wiki/xacro">
  <xacro:arg name="use_nominal_extrinsics" default="false"/>
  <xacro:include filename="$(find realsense2_description)/urdf/_d435.urdf.xacro" />
  <xacro:include filename="$(find realsense2_description)/urdf/_d435.gazebo.xacro" />

  <link name="base_link" />
  <xacro:sensor_d435 parent="base_link" use_nominal_extrinsics="$(arg use_nominal_extrinsics)">
    <origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
  </xacro:sensor_d435>
  <xacro:gazebo_d435 camera_name="camera" reference_link="camera" topics_ns="rs" depth_optical_frame="depth" color_optical_frame="color" infrared1_optical_frame="ired1" infrared2_optical_frame="ired2" >
  </xacro:gazebo_d435>
</robot>

However, running like this causes Gazebo to crash at startup, while loading the plugin (at least it's after some text messages from the plugin). Looking at the _d435.gazebo.xacro file, I changed it slightly to include the gazebo reference when entering the plugin:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<robot xmlns:xacro="http://ros.org/wiki/xacro">

  <xacro:macro name="gazebo_d435" params="camera_name reference_link topics_ns depth_optical_frame color_optical_frame infrared1_optical_frame infrared2_optical_frame" >

    <!-- Load parameters to model's main link-->
    <xacro:property name="deg_to_rad" value="0.01745329251994329577" />
    <gazebo reference="${reference_link}">
      <self_collide>0</self_collide>
      <enable_wind>0</enable_wind>
      <kinematic>0</kinematic>
      <gravity>1</gravity>
      <!--<mu>1</mu>-->
      <mu2>1</mu2>
      <fdir1>0 0 0</fdir1>
      <!--<slip1>0</slip1>
      <slip2>0</slip2>-->
      <kp>1e+13</kp>
      <kd>1</kd>
      <!--<max_vel>0.01</max_vel>
      <min_depth>0</min_depth>-->
      <sensor name="${camera_name}color" type="camera">
        <camera name="${camera_name}">
          <horizontal_fov>${69.4*deg_to_rad}</horizontal_fov>
          <image>
            <width>1920</width>
            <height>1080</height>
            <format>RGB_INT8</format>
          </image>
          <clip>
            <near>0.1</near>
            <far>100</far>
          </clip>
          <noise>
            <type>gaussian</type>
            <mean>0.0</mean>
            <stddev>0.007</stddev>
          </noise>
        </camera>
        <always_on>1</always_on>
        <update_rate>30</update_rate>
        <visualize>1</visualize>
      </sensor>
      <sensor name="${camera_name}ired1" type="camera">
          <camera name="${camera_name}">
          <horizontal_fov>${85.2*deg_to_rad}</horizontal_fov>
          <image>
            <width>1280</width>
            <height>720</height>
            <format>L_INT8</format>
          </image>
          <clip>
            <near>0.1</near>
            <far>100</far>
          </clip>
          <noise>
            <type>gaussian</type>
            <mean>0.0</mean>
            <stddev>0.05</stddev>
          </noise>
        </camera>
        <always_on>1</always_on>
        <update_rate>30</update_rate>
        <visualize>0</visualize>
      </sensor>
      <sensor name="${camera_name}ired2" type="camera">
        <camera name="${camera_name}">
          <horizontal_fov>${85.2*deg_to_rad}</horizontal_fov>
          <image>
            <width>1280</width>
            <height>720</height>
            <format>L_INT8</format>
          </image>
          <clip>
            <near>0.1</near>
            <far>100</far>
          </clip>
          <noise>
            <type>gaussian</type>
            <mean>0.0</mean>
            <stddev>0.05</stddev>
          </noise>
        </camera>
        <always_on>1</always_on>
        <update_rate>30</update_rate>
        <visualize>0</visualize>
      </sensor>
      <sensor name="${camera_name}depth" type="depth">
        <camera name="${camera_name}">
          <horizontal_fov>${85.2*deg_to_rad}</horizontal_fov>
          <image>
            <width>1280</width>
            <height>720</height>
          </image>
          <clip>
            <near>0.1</near>
            <far>100</far>
          </clip>
          <noise>
            <type>gaussian</type>
            <mean>0.0</mean>
            <stddev>0.100</stddev>
          </noise>
        </camera>
        <always_on>1</always_on>
        <update_rate>30</update_rate>
        <visualize>0</visualize>
      </sensor ...