this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
16 points (100.0% liked)
Gaming
4596 readers
276 users here now
The Lemmy.zip Gaming Community
For news, discussions and memes!
Community Rules
This community follows the Lemmy.zip Instance rules, with the inclusion of the following rule:
- No NSFW content
You can see Lemmy.zip's rules by going to our Code of Conduct.
What to Expect in Our Code of Conduct:
- Respectful Communication: We strive for positive, constructive dialogue and encourage all members to engage with one another in a courteous and understanding manner.
- Inclusivity: Embracing diversity is at the core of our community. We welcome members from all walks of life and expect interactions to be conducted without discrimination.
- Privacy: Your privacy is paramount. Please respect the privacy of others just as you expect yours to be treated. Personal information should never be shared without consent.
- Integrity: We believe in the integrity of speech and action. As such, honesty is expected, and deceptive practices are strictly prohibited.
- Collaboration: Whether you're here to learn, teach, or simply engage in discussion, collaboration is key. Support your fellow members and contribute positively to shared learning and growth.
If you enjoy reading legal stuff, you can check it all out at legal.lemmy.zip.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Every driver update? There goes my idea to compile while the game is downloading.
40 minutes??? Wtf?
I have a Skylake CPU. I know if Microslop goes through with this, it'll just be another "oh sorry, can't run this software on your hardware. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Please buy a new computer. Also SafeBoot and Intel for some reason."
... forty minutes?
Good lord.
I think the longest amount of time I've spent compiling shaders on a Steam Deck is for Cyberpunk 77, and it can't have been much more than 10 minutes.
... Either that or trying to get a Switch emulator to properly pre-compile shaders.
But anyway: This is an unaviodable thing that has to be done when the game relies so heavily on GPU shaders.
You have to actually generate those shaders, before you can use them, and that's gonna be specific to your hardware.
So what MSFT is doing here is just pre-compiling them for I guess ... every game they offer, with every Nvidia GPU/driver update, and then having a cloud system that allows you to download them instead of compiling them on your end.
So basically its kinda like downloading a game + hardware specific driver, sort of.
Also, I... I'm not sure, but I don't think Steam does this.
Yeah, its indicated that shader compilation is happening in the 'Download' section, but so are 'File Operations' - aka, cleaning up loose files and doing memspace management ...
I am pretty sure you are just actually compiling the shaders on your own hardware, its just visualized to the user as a step in the 'Download' section, to get across the idea that the game isn't ready to be played untill all those steps are complete.
Or, you can change a setting somewhere, and it just skips that step so that it isn't part of the initial 'Download' process, and instead occurs the first time you hit play, or, after any game/driver update that has delta'd the shader code.
Shaders are definitely downloaded on the Steam Deck. Don't know about other hardware though.
https://pulsegeek.com/articles/shader-pre-caching-on-steam-deck-real-benefits/
Ok, so, its kind of both:
So, at least with Vulkan/Steam Deck/Steam on Linux, you may be downloading various prebuilt components, and you may be pre-caching/pre-compiling local files based off of those prebuilt components, and the game/gpu/driver.
I'm not entirely sure if the Steam Download section actually distinguishes between these two different kinds of procedures, it may, and I just haven't noticed, because normally it is fast enough that I don't pay attention.
Not played enshrouded in a while, should play again sometime. Ideally play some coop too
Only got better 😍