Unreal Engine 5.8 gains support for Advanced Shader Delivery on PC
It’s not perfect, but it’s a big step forward for Unreal Engine 5.8
Epic Games has added support for Microsoft’s Advanced Shader Delivery feature in Unreal Engine 5.8. This lets developers prepare shaders for compilation on supported GPU families, so they can be pre-built and downloaded before players launch games on compatible Windows 11 PCs. This can reduce lengthy game shader compilation steps at launch and reduce stutter during gameplay.
Epic’s new ASD (Advanced Shader Delivery) tools can generate State Object Database (SOBD) files from a “cooked” game build and submit them to the Microsoft Store. Epic Games Store support for ASD is planned for early 2027. Using these SOBD files, Precompiled Shader Database files can be generated for specific GPU families, allowing compatible storefronts to send them to compatible player machines.
A step forward, but not perfect
Right now, Unreal Engine 5.8’s support for Advanced Shader Delivery is limited. It currently does not support ray tracing PSOs, which limits the tool’s usefulness. The tool also supports only GPUs that support DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6 and requires compatible GPU hardware and drivers.
This technology works alongside Unreal Engine 5’s existing shader compilation features. Even with precompiled shaders, games can still compile shaders at runtime when needed. While precompiled shader packages can reduce lengthy launch times, an incomplete shader package can cause stutters during gameplay. Developers need to prepare complete shader databases to prevent shader-compilation stutter in their games.
Shader Compilation Stutter is a common problem within Unreal Engine games. The good news is that Epic Games appears to be working on the issue. That said, shader compilation is only one potential cause for stutters within Unreal Engine games. Even if Epic Games fixes this issue, it will only address one of the main causes of “Unreal Engine Stutter”. The other major causes are mostly related to streaming and game traversal.
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