• Guide

Stalker 2 compiling shaders, explained

Patience pays off as waiting a little now should lead to a better performance while playing.

Aidan O'Brien

November 20, 2024 8:04 AM

GSC Game World

2

If you have just started up Stalker 2 on PC then you will be looking at a slowly ticking up percentage as your shaders compile. Don't worry, though; nothing is amiss.

Stalker 2 compiling shaders, explained

As an Unreal Engine 5 game, compiling your Stalker 2 shaders on initial launch is just something that you need to do, and there is no way around it. How fast it takes will depend entirely upon your PC build, so if you barely meet those minimum requirements, you might need to wait longer than someone with a more powerful machine.

Your game will likely need to do a mild shader compilation each time you launch, but it won’t take long. If this is happening, then it seems likely that your shader cache size is too small for the game in your GPU settings.

If you don’t mind making changes to the shader cache size, you can do the following:

For Nvidia cards

• Open the Nvidia Control Panel
• Go to Manage 3D settings
• Shader Cache Size - change from disabled to driver default or driver default to a larger size.

For AMD cards

• Open the AMD Software
• Choose Gaming
• Go to Global Graphics
• Ensure Shader Cache is set to AMD Optimized

One important thing to keep in mind is that each patch for the game, or update to your drivers, is likely to force a fresh shader compilation as well, which can be a little annoying, but there isn’t really any way around it.

For the curious, the reason you want to compile your shaders like this in the first place is that it cuts out the need to do it as you encounter those same shaders in the game, which reduces issues like stuttering and hitching in games.

If you need more help with the ups and downs of survival in the Exclusion Zone, check out our Stalker 2 page.

Aidan O'Brien

Contributing Guides Editor

Hailing from Ireland, Aidan has been conditioned by local weather conditions to survive hours at his PC grinding through whatever game is offering the lowest possible drop rates for loot. He thinks the easiest way to figure out what fans of games want to read is to just be a fan of games. You can normally find him logged into Warframe, Destiny, or a gacha game. You can reach out to him on X @scannerbarkly.