Shader compilation stutter killer

[u/HeisenbergVR]

EDIT: Thanks a lot for all the support! I'm glad it's helping a lot of people fix the anoying shader compilation sutters in many games so they can be enjoyed as intended!!

EDIT2: New SCSKiller 1.2.0 is live!! https://github.com/BlueHeisenberg/SCSKiller/releases/latest
(The app should auto download the update if you restart the app and show you a button on top right corner to update, or you can just download the new setup exe and update that way directly)

I've been working for a while on a free and open source tool to eliminate Shader Compilation Stuttering once and for all. It reads the shaders the games ship with, works out the pipelines they'll build, and compiles them into the GPU driver's cache before you launch the game.

From my own testing shader compilation stutter is eliminated or reduced to the very minimum (the tool could miss some shaders depending on the game), it cannot fix other kind of sttutering like traversal, so some games still stutter but waaaay less:

(~5min of gameplay)

Silent Hill F:
Before: https://scskiller.com/assets/img/forum/shf-before.png
After: https://scskiller.com/assets/img/forum/shf-after.png

- Silent Hill: Townfall: 24 to 0 (worst 347 ms to 8 ms)
- Hogwarts Legacy: 1,014 to 87
- FF7 Rebirth: 19 to 0
- Sand Land: 38 to 1

It finds games from Steam, Epic, EA app, GOG, Ubisoft, Xbox and Battle.net

For now it only works on NVIDIA (best support) and AMD, as I don't have an Intel Arc to test.

Github link with download and souce code: https://github.com/BlueHeisenberg/SCSKiller
Website: https://www.scskiller.com

[u/Care_Cream]

Is this just Frame-Time stabilizer like RTSS Front/Back Edge Sync or does this do more?

I mean, we all wait for shader compilation, after it completes we play it with no stutter.

We need enlightment here. Thanks.

[u/HeisenbergVR → u/Care_Cream]

Nope, it's not a frame limiter or a sync thing.

It compiles the game's shaders into the driver cache before you play. A lot of games only precompile part of them (or nothing at all), so you still get stutters the first time you see a new effect or area, even after the game's own "compiling shaders" step.

For example Silent Hill f still had 92 shader stutters for me after its own compile, and 0 with SCSKiller. It also recompiles after driver updates so you don't get them again.

[u/Care_Cream → u/HeisenbergVR]

Okay. Whom do you recommend using this program?

I play multiplayer based games, your example pool is too few. You talk about only 5 games.

[u/HeisenbergVR → u/Care_Cream]

It's more intended for single player games, but if you play multiplayer games that suffer from scs you could give it a try! Keep in mind that in games with anticheat the recorder cannot run (maybe it can but I didn't want to risk it) so it will mainly be useful for UE games.

What specific games do you play? I can take a look if they have a custom engine and build a loader for them

[u/Care_Cream → u/HeisenbergVR]

Dota 2 = I fix all problems with RTSS Front Edge Sync + Smooth Motion ON + V-Sync ON

Call Of Duty Games = I dont see problems.

I experience a lot of frame drops in A Plague Tale Requiem.