Star Wars Jedi Survivor Tested – Huge performance gains with PC Patch 3.5
Shader Compilation Stutters – A problem that shouldn’t exist in Jedi: Survivor
When we first booted up Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, we were greeted with the following screen. The game stated that it was “optimising game files”, implying that the game was pre-compiling shaders to prevent shader compilation stutters in-game. Sadly, this step does not appear to do much, as the game features shader compilation stutters, and the game appears to only make minimal use of CPU resources when it is on screen.Â
Another quirk with this screen is that it is present every time you start Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on PC. This step does needs to be completed every time players start the game, not just when shaders need to be compiled, a job that this screen apparently fails to do. Honestly, we are baffled by this screen, as it seems clear that the team behind Star Wars Jedi: Survivor knew that pre-compiling shaders was an important step, but didn’t go to the effort, or perhaps didn’t have enough time, to do it correctly.
As it stands, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a game that is plagued by shader compilation stutters, something that makes the game feel less fluid and often hampers gameplay. With timing being an important factor in this game’s combat, shader compilation stutters have the potential to ruin the flow of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and result in mistakes that are not the fault of players. It also ruins the flow of cutscenes when random stutters occur.Â
Moving forward, PC developers need to take shader compilation stutters seriously, as these issues can result in perceived performance issues in games regardless of how powerful your hardware is. Developers need to address these stutters before players experience issues during gameplay, and we hope that EA/Respawn was patch Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to address these in-game stutters.Â
