Found out that the shader cache preparation setting was killing my framerate

[KitKatCake]

Pretty much title. I've been playing EDO for over a month now and performance was always choppy around concourses and settlements. Spawning in the level was fine, but gradually the frames were dipping down in the 20s when looking at certain spots (glasses, banners, some reflections.
So I decided to mess with the settings and apparently the shader cache preparation on startup setting was messing with the shaders somehow, because after I disabled it the game started running butter smooth, around 60 frames on average.

So if this post helps you, reader, gain some extra stability for Oddysey, I'm glad I was of help.

 

[robbyp]

So, that part is pre compling the shaders, and then caching the results to disk, so that when you next load ED they dont need to be recompiled.

It's a standard method to speed up loading when you have thousands of shaders like ED does.

So I'm sorry. I dont believe it is a sensible thing to do.

 

[CMDR Is Fat]

So, that part is pre compling the shaders, and then caching the results to disk, so that when you next load ED they dont need to be recompiled.

So then they are compiled and cached and only need recompiling when you next install new drivers?

So I'm sorry. I dont believe it is a sensible thing to do.

You already said they dont need to be recompiled, why wouldnt it be a sensible thing to do?

If disabling it means the game is working better for someone more power to them.

 

[robbyp]

They are recompiled when frontier decide a material change is made. Driver, code, etc.

I cant believe that disabling this optimisation can make a difference during play. They are going to be compiled one way or another. All your going to do is to slow down initialisation.

Hence I do not recommend this.

 

[alexzk]

Pretty much title. I've been playing EDO for over a month now and performance was always choppy around concourses and settlements. Spawning in the level was fine, but gradually the frames were dipping down in the 20s when looking at certain spots (glasses, banners, some reflections.
So I decided to mess with the settings and apparently the shader cache preparation on startup setting was messing with the shaders somehow, because after I disabled it the game started running butter smooth, around 60 frames on average.

So if this post helps you, reader, gain some extra stability for Oddysey, I'm glad I was of help.

I think I told you yday - clean cache ... I think there are at least 3 caches - steam, nvidia, elite itself.

Try to enable option back as it should be recompiled already.

 

[KitKatCake]

I think I told you yday - clean cache ... I think there are at least 3 caches - steam, nvidia, elite itself.

Try to enable option back as it should be recompiled already.

Resetting shader cache and re-enabling the option in game does not help, only keeping it off seems to eliminate the awful drops I was getting.

 

[alexzk]

Resetting shader cache and re-enabling the option in game does not help, only keeping it off seems to eliminate the awful drops I was getting.

Try to delete file "GpuTableList.xml" (something like that name, not exact). It is placed in products/odessey/ where exe is. Removing this file forces GPU check and should force shaders compilation too.

 

[Bonsaipanda]

Confirmed. Massive (and I mean MASSIVE) fps boost from turning the cache OFF. My hunch is that the SSD that Elite is sitting on chokes on the tiny file fragments that get read from the cache.

 

[KitKatCake]

Confirmed. Massive (and I mean MASSIVE) fps boost from turning the cache OFF. My hunch is that the SSD that Elite is sitting on chokes on the tiny file fragments that get read from the cache.

Glad it helped

 

[Alec Turner]

I'd be curious to know, from those who've turned it off and experienced an improvement, whether turning it back on again makes things worse again. I'm wondering whether regenerating all the shaders afresh is the key but that once you've done that you can cache them again. Surely in general all that turning them off means is that you have to wait at the beginning for that "preparing shaders" progress wheel rather than simply have the game load the precompiled shaders. But once the shaders are prepared (either way) and the game starts, I still struggle to understand what the difference would be. That said, totally gonna try this myself.

 

[Morbad]

I didn't personally see any improvement in the areas I still find problematic, but I wouldn't categorically rule out the possibility of the game's shader warming causing issues.

Anyway, if you have issues with it enabled, completely clearing the shader cache (Windows, GPU drivers, and Steam, if you use it, all have their own) and deleting the game's GPUWorkTable.xml file should be the first diagnostic step.

 

[Frop]

No changes here.

 

[Bonsaipanda]

After changing the setting, on a settlement I get nice moments of full 60fps and occasional dips to 20ish, with the average running around 40fps. Other graphics settings have 0 effect to performance (max difference is +-3fps with the shadow settings).

Previous average was about 18-29fps with dips to 8fps. This is with i7 7800X + 1080GTX + 32GB of quad channel memory.
Something definitely changed - also, when I walk out of the ship immediately after landing, the game runs for a good 10 seconds with fluid 60fps (doesn't matter where I look) and then starts stuttering and lags down to 38fps with spikes up to 60fps when I turn my head. It's weird and clearly something is still broken (or just not supported on my CPU).

 

[KitKatCake]

After changing the setting, on a settlement I get nice moments of full 60fps and occasional dips to 20ish, with the average running around 40fps. Other graphics settings have 0 effect to performance (max difference is +-3fps with the shadow settings).

Previous average was about 18-29fps with dips to 8fps. This is with i7 7800X + 1080GTX + 32GB of quad channel memory.
Something definitely changed - also, when I walk out of the ship immediately after landing, the game runs for a good 10 seconds with fluid 60fps (doesn't matter where I look) and then starts stuttering and lags down to 38fps with spikes up to 60fps when I turn my head. It's weird and clearly something is still broken (or just not supported on my CPU).

The shader system that the game is using is just flawed, and it needs more work. Don't worry, it's not your system. Even Nvidia Now is struggling to keep above 50-55 frames on decent settings.
For me something just breaks during gameplay, which renders concourses almost unplayable. It also makes the GPU spike to 100% usage when this happens, and the only fix is to exit to menu and restart. Settlements run fine, it only stutters when AI ships park or AI spawns in.

 

[forbiddenlake]

I didn't personally see any improvement in the areas I still find problematic, but I wouldn't categorically rule out the possibility of the game's shader warming causing issues.

Anyway, if you have issues with it enabled, completely clearing the shader cache (Windows, GPU drivers, and Steam, if you use it, all have their own) and deleting the game's GPUWorkTable.xml file should be the first diagnostic step.

For anyone else googling how to remove the ED shader cache and not finding anything except this topic, the file is at Elite Dangerous/Products/elite-dangerous-odyssey-64/GpuWorkTable.xml, and yes, delete it.

 

[varonica]

The shader system that the game is using is just flawed, and it needs more work. Don't worry, it's not your system. Even Nvidia Now is struggling to keep above 50-55 frames on decent settings.

I have everything on high and a constant 144fps, there seems to be a difference between players on whether this has an effect of not on performance which is why these sorts of things are hard to track down. FWIW I have had that setting on since buying the game in 2015, I am currently running on a new PC with a fresh install of Odyssey using Nvidia and it's solid 144fps everywhere, space, concourse, settlements, planet surfaces etc. I did notice some slowdown on my old install on the old computer, but that was having overheating issues to it's really hard to say what was causing the slowdown but mainly I think overheating was the issue there, it was really bad even to the stage of thermal shutdown (hence the new PC). But it may be that people who have had the game installed longer are experiencing problems with old stuff hanging about from previous updates and a fresh install after clearing out every trace of the old install may fix it. As I said, fresh install, no problems here.