With the recent hubbub about The Calisto Protocol stuttering due to rampant “shader compilation”, I was recently reminded that other recent games (like Horizon Zero Dawn) were also known for shader compilation issues.
What is the game doing that makes it different from other games that just open and play without stutter or compilation?
I also don’t remember anyone making a fuss about this for titles 5 years ago.
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Shader compilation is a process that happens in some video games when the game is first run on a new device. It involves the game’s shaders, which are small programs that run on the graphics processing unit (GPU) and are responsible for rendering certain visual effects in the game. When a game is first run on a device, the shaders need to be compiled, or converted into a form that the GPU can understand and execute. This process can take some time and can cause stuttering or other performance issues during gameplay.
In the past, most games were released on a limited number of platforms, so developers could pre-compile the shaders for those specific platforms. This meant that the game would not have to do shader compilation when it was first run on a player’s device, which helped to avoid stuttering and other performance issues. However, in recent years, the number of different devices and platforms that games are released on has increased significantly. This means that developers can no longer pre-compile the shaders for every possible platform, so the game must do shader compilation when it is first run on a player’s device. This can cause stuttering and other performance issues, which has led to some players and reviewers calling attention to the problem.
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