Does anyone else's steam deck randomly download nothing?

[Trava]

Seems like every time I boot my steam deck lately it's downloading essentially nothing for half of my games. 45 downloads this morning with just nothing... Shader issues maybe?

[Haruspex]

Not shader "issues". Shader cache. These are very frequent, usually very small updates that contain precompiled shader data. They allow your games to run better on the Deck. Without them, the game would have to take the DirectX graphics calls and translate them to Vulkan on the fly, which introduces overhead that presents itself in the form of stutter.

[Trava]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Not shader "issues". Shader cache. These are very frequent, usually very small updates that contain precompiled shader data. They allow your games to run better on the Deck. Without them, the game would have to take the DirectX graphics calls and translate them to Vulkan on the fly, which introduces overhead that presents itself in the form of stutter.

I assumed so but I consider it an issue when they kind of redownload every day? Even for games verified and unverified it seems to be every morning 20/50 games will just update like this. I assumed it was cause my harddrive was so full or either as you say the small update or the cloud refreshing but yes it's not a issue for me just very random
Thanks for help

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Trava:

I assumed so but I consider it an issue when they kind of redownload every day? Even for games verified and unverified it seems to be every morning 20/50 games will just update like this. I assumed it was cause my harddrive was so full or either as you say the small update or the cloud refreshing but yes it's not a issue for me just very random
Thanks for help

I believe everyone playing on Linux via Steam Proton are actually contributing to this shader cache. Any time someone generates new shader cache in a game without it, it gets added to the total shader cache, which you'll then download later.

I will say that after 3.5, the shader cache downloads aren't nearly as big as they used to be.

[Trava]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by Trava:

I assumed so but I consider it an issue when they kind of redownload every day? Even for games verified and unverified it seems to be every morning 20/50 games will just update like this. I assumed it was cause my harddrive was so full or either as you say the small update or the cloud refreshing but yes it's not a issue for me just very random
Thanks for help

I believe everyone playing on Linux via Steam Proton are actually contributing to this shader cache. Any time someone generates new shader cache in a game without it, it gets added to the total shader cache, which you'll then download later.

I will say that after 3.5, the shader cache downloads aren't nearly as big as they used to be.

That's really cool. I quit pc gaming in 2019 and came back to I with a deck and honestly it's the most hassle free experience I've had in years. I was always having never ending issues with Windows and getting wound up. It's incredible what valve have done with this thing. Having such a blast playing my library anywhere

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Trava:

Originally posted by Haruspex:

I believe everyone playing on Linux via Steam Proton are actually contributing to this shader cache. Any time someone generates new shader cache in a game without it, it gets added to the total shader cache, which you'll then download later.

I will say that after 3.5, the shader cache downloads aren't nearly as big as they used to be.

That's really cool. I quit pc gaming in 2019 and came back to I with a deck and honestly it's the most hassle free experience I've had in years. I was always having never ending issues with Windows and getting wound up. It's incredible what valve have done with this thing. Having such a blast playing my library anywhere

I would probably recommend enable GPL pipeline on non CPU bottlenecked games

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/mesa-graphics-drivers-23-1-0-out-now-with-radv-gpl-enabled/

You do not need to download shader cache since this pipeline compiles fast.

[Mahjik]

The shader update process is not working as desired right now. No, you shouldn't get shader updates for the same game multiple times a week especially when the GPU software nor the game is changing. It happens once are twice a year and Valve fixes it.

[shadowscion]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Not shader "issues". Shader cache. These are very frequent, usually very small updates that contain precompiled shader data. They allow your games to run better on the Deck. Without them, the game would have to take the DirectX graphics calls and translate them to Vulkan on the fly, which introduces overhead that presents itself in the form of stutter.

usually very small, but also sometimes huge... no man's sky and warframe are multiple gbs

the size isn't even really the issue, it's the distribution. there is no reason for these updates to happen every day, unnacceptable tbh