What's wrong with Unreal Engine? / DirectX12 and shader compilation issue

[Moshugaani]

I'd rather take longer loading times with shader compilation happening before gameplay, than stutter during gameplay! Shader compilation stutter absolutely ruins a first gameplay experience.

[BlindBison]

Sadly it’s not even just Shader Comp stutter that’s become commonplace for PC ports. Many games also have genuine asset streaming or camera animation stutter as well. Stutter in general has become an awful problem that needs to get squashed. Sadly it seems publishers, devs, and/or the engine maker themselves (EPIC in this case) don’t really care. Feelsbadman

[HiteshKumar-bptf]

Finally someone who made a video about this Issue epic should work on this issue look at re engine it works well from start throughout to ending doesn’t matter what’s happening on the screen

[robertsharp]

the stutter I see in most UE games does NOT get better the second time I run through the same area. for example I can run through the same area in Jedi Fallen Order over and over and the stutters happen in the exact same spots. and it is NOT just loading areas as many will say as these stutters may only be seconds apart. SW Jedi Fallen Order, The Observer, The Sinking City, The Outer Worlds and most other UE games no matter what DX version have some stutter that cannot be avoided. in some cases it is random but in some other cases all the stutters are easily reproducible in the same spots. heck even the original Outlast on UE 3 has drops for no reason it seems.

[evilpotatoman]

As an unreal dev, I am contemplating making every object in the game load on the screen before the player loads in, it works but implementing it for every object will give me cancer.

[doltBmB]

Shaders have always needed to be compiled since they were introduced to realtime graphics in dx8 (2000). But stuttering from it is a new problem. Why? Low level API's like Vulkan and DX12. In the old dx/gl runtimes this stuff was handled automatically by the driver, and the driver was of course optimized to give a smooth experience back then. Now developers have to make their own solutions from scratch, and the simplest way leads to stuttering. Consoles don't have the problem since all consoles have the same gpu you can pre-compile the shaders. PC gamers are second-rate citizens in the gaming world. When a developer uses an off-the-shelf game engine like unreal, they shift the responsibility onto the engine, and don't expect that there is something wrong with the engine by default, so they just leave it, since the console certification passed they don't care anymore.

[hamsterultraviolence]

>Unreal Engine logo
>Crysis Remastered on the background
xd

[MTaye]

Found out that the shader compilation stutter fix for Stray is the same as with It Takes Two and only works with the DX11 version of the game.
Step 1. Open with a text editor and add the following lines:


r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1

Step 2. Use the command line argument -dx11 when running the game executable or, better yet, create a shortcut. Example: -dx11

Congrats, no stutters. Step 1 might not be necessary for this game, but it's absolutely necessary for It takes Two. If you wanna be sure the first time, do both steps.
You can also clear the NVidia DXCache folder if you want to be extra sure it works:

[InnerFury]

it shall be noted that shader compilation stutter can also occur in dx11 as with chernobylite as shown in the video and shadow warrior 3, its not api bound for anyone confused by the videos dx12 focus. otherwise, thanks for making people aware #stutterstruggle

[Tbjbu]

which asset pack is used at the start of the video?

[ostrava]

Callisto Protocol is a great example of your video....

[tcchip]

Jedi: Fallen Order on PC was a miserable experience for me because of the repeated stuttering, no matter what settings I used. The game had no problem running at 60fps maxed out, but the constant stuttering was ruining my experience. I wanted to do a completionist run but ultimately I just uninstalled it as soon as I finished the story.

[nlknarf]

Is there no setting to enforce compiling on game started before loading any level? I think most prefer to wait 5 minutes than getting consistent frame drop during gameplay.

[dangir]

I've always wondered why it's not possible to download the already compiled shaders of a user who finished the game?and it has the same gpu and video driver as me

[sokol]

Great video. I hope they fix this many devs are dropping thier in house engine for UE5.

[Ssquire]

I'm glad others notice how bad stuttering has gotten. It's like trying to watch a movie on bluray with a scratched disk. We shouldn't have to play games that are broken and immerision breaking every 5 seconds. I hope it gets fiixed in the near future.

[AdamKiraly_d]

Using the PSO cache should be mandatory for any unreal game using dx12, but a lot of people apparently do know about it.

[couchpotato]

Nothing change about unreal engine. Unless steam implements shader cache like they do on steam deck most unreal engine games will have shader stutter. The Callisto Protocol is a good example.

[connorjade]

Is this issue available in cry engine too?

[withmygoodeyeclosed]

Dead Space 2023 is also riddled with stutters, on both PC and console. It really breaks the immersion :(.
Not sure if it's the shaders in this game though, it does an optimization at first run.
But the framegraph can look similar as to what you showed here happening to UE games.