Why does the game compile shaders every time you launch it?

[Sgt.Platypus]

Its made it impossible for me to run. I have one of those 13th Gen Intel CPUs that ♥♥♥♥♥ the bed when doing shader caching. I can get through the compiling if the desktop resolution is at 720P but nothing above. And it looks aweful since its a 2160P screen. Normally I will drop the resolution low to get through shader compiling of games and then set it back to native resolution after and its fine, but not this game. What can I do?

[Ztreak]

Took me about 25 minutes to do shader caching first time with an i7 9700k. After that it verifies the cache each time i start the game, but it only takes about 10-15 seconds.

This is on 1440p.

Most likely does it to have a good cache at all times.

[Viper]

It does not compile them.it verifies them which takes about 10 seconds.It only compiles them first time.

[Insolentius]

For me, shader verification lasts just as long as shader compilation (around 10 minutes - i5 12400f). This is with the game-ready drivers for Veilguard. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Starfield also performs a shader verification step before starting, and it lasts about 5 seconds.

[Doctor Hades]

Took about 8 or 9 minutes on my i5-13600KF to compile the shaders the first time. With subsequent loads, it just verifies them which takes around 15 seconds.

[Insolentius]

I'm not sure which of these helped, but now the shader verification is significantly shorter (around 20 seconds instead of 10 minutes). I deleted everything from AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache, and I also deleted the cache folder from AppData\Local\BioWare\Dragon Age The Veilguard.

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by Viper:

It does not compile them.it verifies them which takes about 10 seconds.It only compiles them first time.

For you

For many others, verifying still takes a long time.

Upwards of 5 minutes for me, on an SSD.

[Toran Blackwater]

Originally posted by Insolentius:

I'm not sure which of these helped, but now the shader verification is significantly shorter (around 20 seconds instead of 10 minutes). I deleted everything from AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache, and I also deleted the cache folder from AppData\Local\BioWare\Dragon Age The Veilguard.

Thanks man, gonna try that. I noticed deleting the shader cache in the game folder didn' t work really, as the game didn't restart shader generation.

Same happened when un- and reinstalling the game. Instead of generating new shaders, the game simply verified the shaders.

i9-13900k (BIOS updated for faulty Intel micro algorithm)/RTX3080ti

[doriangray556]

same problem here

[kaggen]

It happens to me everytime I start the game on a different PC. It COMPILES the shaders again, not checking. Checking only takes like 10 seconds, but compiling takes 10 minutes on my PC with an i5 10600k, maybe 5 min on the other PC with a i9 13900K.

[deggial27]

Same problem here, says verifying shaders each time game is launched but it is likely compiling again as it takes a good 7min or so which is what it did on first launch.

[robertoface]

Same and same again. Every time. Running a stopwatch out of curiosity, currently is at 17 minutes. All in all I've easily spent upward of 3 hours just gawping at this load screen.... likely more.

[Defective Dopamine Pez Dispenser]

Something is amiss if it's compiling every launch. That definitely shouldn't be happening. What though, I have no idea. Mine has never done a full compile after the first launch. The only time it should is if the cache is deleted, either manually, or when you do a driver update. It should only be doing the much faster verifying shaders step.

[Subset6]

Yah it does it, but its takes like 4 seconds after the very first time, which took 4 min. Every subsequent launch it starts at 98% then 4 seconds later its done.

[Gadzooks]

Originally posted by Subset6:

Yah it does it, but its takes like 4 seconds after the very first time, which took 4 min. Every subsequent launch it starts at 98% then 4 seconds later its done.

Interesting. Every subsequent launch for me it starts around 30% and takes nearly as long to verify every percent up to 100 as it did from the start.

[Siruss]

Compiling shaders is a shader cache. This is GPU related and is stored on your VRAM there which is computer specific.

If there are game updates or you update your graphics card driver, you will need to re-compile the shaders. If you completely power off your PC (unplug it) that also clears the cache.