Allow/disallow shaders cache on a per game basis

[Nyalnara]

Title should be descriptive enough.

Depending on the hardware configuration for linux but non-SD users, some games do benefit from shader pre-cache and pre-compiling, some absolutely don't, and disabling the functionality for those would result in significantly lower bandwidth usage.

For context, I'm running Arch so graphic stack is updated quite often, which means redoing the whole cache thing. Remnant 2 got a small cache (500MB) but it does result in skipping something like 5-10 minutes at game-launch. Warframe got a huge cache (21GB) but having it disabled results in slightly longer mission loads here and there, and/or small stutters from time to time in mission. As you can guess, I'd like to activate the feature on one but not the other.

Thank you for reading!

[Wolf Knight]

that is a game developer decision, not a steam decision. if you have suggestions for a game, post in that games forum.

[William Shakesman]

These shader caches are managed so hard by Steam that it is impossible to get Steam to let you delete them

[Nyalnara]

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

that is a game developer decision, not a steam decision. if you have suggestions for a game, post in that games forum.

No it's not?
It is linux specific, but in the Steam settings, "Downloads", at the the bottom you've got an option to let steam download the shaders cache. Maybe said cache is generated by game devs, but the option to download these is absolutely managed by Steam, and I just want to not enable that download for all 97 games I've got installed atm, but only for the 3 I've got that do actually need it for performance reasons. Last I forcibly cleaned the shader's cache (just turn the option off then on) it was above 80GB. 80GB that will periodically download again, and again, and again. I do not pay for data, but it is not a fiber connection and it is thus still quite annoying.

[Mr. Slave]

Pre Compiled Shader Caches are only available on Linux and Proton / Steam Play by the looks of it. These are usually in place to reduce some issues in games, But sometimes the Pre-Compiled Shader Cache causes more issues (Such as large cache sizes or performance issues related to it)

You can currently only turn it off globally for your games.

You can manually delete the cache, but Steam will try and redownload it on Launch...

[RedLightning]

I would rather have the option to select on a per game basis. I have a couple of games that the cache does very little to benefit, while others it helps greatly.

A game like Shipbreaker doesn't need to spend forever making a cache (downloading and processing it each time), as a minor stutter is not going to break the flow.

Pinball on the other hand benefits from it. Would rather have it on for that, as a minor stutter breaks the game I'm playing more often than not.