An interesting SteamOS update just before and now it's time for the Steam Client Beta! Valve have been putting in the effort lately for sure.
Here's the relevant bits from the changelog for us:
They also fixed an issue with the Steam client becoming sluggish, if it couldn't connect to their error and crash-reporting servers.
The new shader cache system they have sounds rather interesting for sure. A lot of games have a slightly longer loading time on the first run (or whenever you update your drivers) as they setup a shader cache. You can also experience lots of stuttering in games when entering a new area, as it builds it up. It sounds like now, Valve will ship pre-warmed shaders for games. Useful for SteamOS, since they generally control the driver versions and it could help loading time and performance on SteamOS directly. It doesn't just affect SteamOS though, since this is in the actual Steam client itself. I'm sure if I'm wrong on this, you will happily point it out in the comments. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Here's the relevant bits from the changelog for us:
- Updated STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES logic to still prefer Steam Runtime libraries if they are more recent than the host system
- Updated Vulkan loader in Steam Runtime to version 1.0.54, which provides all the extensions currently needed for SteamVR
- Added support for shader cache management on supported drivers (Mesa 17.1 and NVIDIA 381.26.08 or 384.59). Shader caches for games launched by Steam are placed in separate folders next to their Steam Library folder and are deleted when each game is uninstalled, or when switching drivers or graphics cards. Individual shaders are tracked and catalogued by the Steam servers in preparation for distributing pre-compiled shaders. This tracking can incur slight additional bandwidth use. The system can be disabled by setting the environment variable STEAM_ENABLE_SHADER_CACHE_MANAGEMENT=0
They also fixed an issue with the Steam client becoming sluggish, if it couldn't connect to their error and crash-reporting servers.
The new shader cache system they have sounds rather interesting for sure. A lot of games have a slightly longer loading time on the first run (or whenever you update your drivers) as they setup a shader cache. You can also experience lots of stuttering in games when entering a new area, as it builds it up. It sounds like now, Valve will ship pre-warmed shaders for games. Useful for SteamOS, since they generally control the driver versions and it could help loading time and performance on SteamOS directly. It doesn't just affect SteamOS though, since this is in the actual Steam client itself. I'm sure if I'm wrong on this, you will happily point it out in the comments. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The shader cache seems to be working pretty good. At least two games were suffering greatly from these long loading times; Deadfall Adventures and Painkiller.
You'll still need to build the shader cache at the very first launch, but this time the shader cache is kept and no longer deleted when you reboot.
Borderlands 2 seem to be also benefit from this.
You'll still need to build the shader cache at the very first launch, but this time the shader cache is kept and no longer deleted when you reboot.
Borderlands 2 seem to be also benefit from this.
2 Likes, Who?
I hope they keep this behavior for SteamOS, because I believe it can cause problems on a conventional distro were users are costumed in changing video drivers all the time.
0 Likes
DamonLinuxPL 26 Jul 2017
The shader cache seems to be working pretty good. At least two games were suffering greatly from these long loading times; Deadfall Adventures and Painkiller.
You'll still need to build the shader cache at the very first launch, but this time the shader cache is kept and no longer deleted when you reboot.
Borderlands 2 seem to be also benefit from this.
Yes, I remember when Leszek Godlewski released Painkiller for Linux. In early loading time takes ages especialy on AMD GPU... on NVIDIA faster but still too long. After patch it load much faster but still longer than other games. First game launch even now takes much times. But this is not game issue but UE3... and AMD because compilation shaders on amd gpu in this tame is very hardly. Now should be better.
So good idea to have it.
1 Likes, Who?
I hope they keep this behavior for SteamOS, because I believe it can cause problems on a conventional distro were users are costumed in changing video drivers all the time.
Why should this cause problems?
If you change video driver, the old cache should become invalid, get deleted and replaced.
1 Likes, Who?
I hope they keep this behavior for SteamOS, because I believe it can cause problems on a conventional distro were users are costumed in changing video drivers all the time.
Cashing is done on per card basis, also when new driver comes, it is discarded.
Also people don't really change drivers that much.
0 Likes
Individual shaders are tracked and catalogued by the Steam servers in preparation for distributing pre-compiled shaders.Wow, they can actually go ahead an make the biggest distributed (shader) compiler (cache) on the world... Just hash and upload the hashes and binaries, and those with the highest matching scores can be used by others (to prevent foul play).
0 Likes
". Shader caches for games launched by Steam are placed in separate folders next to their Steam Library folder and are deleted when each game is uninstalled, or when switching drivers or graphics cards. Individual shaders are tracked and catalogued by the Steam servers in preparation for distributing pre-compiled shaders. This tracking can incur slight additional bandwidth use. The system can be disabled by setting the environment variable STEAM_ENABLE_SHADER_CACHE_MANAGEMENT=0"
Shader cache, in other words, once the game was loaded once, it will run (or load( faster the next time you play, right?
" Individual shaders are tracked and catalogued by the Steam servers in preparation for distributing pre-compiled shaders."
in other words, if someone already played the game on your video card , you will not need to run it once, to make it faster the next time, since someone already did that.
i got it right?
Shader cache, in other words, once the game was loaded once, it will run (or load( faster the next time you play, right?
" Individual shaders are tracked and catalogued by the Steam servers in preparation for distributing pre-compiled shaders."
in other words, if someone already played the game on your video card , you will not need to run it once, to make it faster the next time, since someone already did that.
i got it right?
0 Likes
Can the shader cache shorten the everlasting startup of Deus Ex Manking Devided ?
0 Likes
Can the shader cache shorten the everlasting startup of Deus Ex Manking Devided ?For the very first launch, I doubt it. Feral was already using for their games a shader cache management of their own (ex: in .local/share/feral-interactive/Deus Ex Mankind Divided/driver-gl-shader-cache).
Interesting though, now is no longer used (as in gl-shader-cache is no longer created and the steam one used instead).
0 Likes
[quote=DamonLinuxPL]
For example, after initial launch I have only a 11MB cache for Borderlands, but 52MB for Painkiller and 104MB for Deadfall.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 26 Jul 2017 at 3:12 pm UTC
Yes, I remember when Leszek Godlewski released Painkiller for Linux. In early loading time takes ages especialy on AMD GPU... on NVIDIA faster but still too long...Yes, many games were having the same problem, but it was painfully obvious on these two games because they were using "an insane amount of shaders" (Leszek own words).
For example, after initial launch I have only a 11MB cache for Borderlands, but 52MB for Painkiller and 104MB for Deadfall.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 26 Jul 2017 at 3:12 pm UTC
0 Likes
AskQuestionsLater 26 Jul 2017
Last time (the only time!) I started Deus Ex: Mankind Divided it took over 10 minutes (AMD FX8350, GeForce 1060) before getting to the menu. I played for 20 minutes and it crashed. So I started up Rocket League in less than 10 seconds and played that...
0 Likes
linuxjacques 26 Jul 2017
The beta from yesterday does not start on my Fedora 25 system.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
0 Likes
The beta from yesterday does not start on my Fedora 25 system.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
This is probably: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5099
Just remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password until that bug is closed.
0 Likes
linuxjacques 26 Jul 2017
The beta from yesterday does not start on my Fedora 25 system.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
This is probably: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5099
Just remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password until that bug is closed.
Thanks! That must be it. I'll try this when I get home.
0 Likes
LinuxGamesTV 26 Jul 2017
The beta from yesterday does not start on my Fedora 25 system.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
This is probably: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5099
Just remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password until that bug is closed.
I have the same problem on opensuse Tumbleweed and remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password don't works. I must delete the Steam folder and don't opt in the beta again.
I'm on Nvidia Driver 381.22, maybe i must update the driver.
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 26 Jul 2017 at 11:01 pm UTC
0 Likes
I had the same problem on tumbleweed, starting steam with STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0 fixed the issue for me.The beta from yesterday does not start on my Fedora 25 system.
Starting it from the command line shows a segfault and then uploading the crash dump to ... somewhere.
Not sure what's the best way to recover.
This is probably: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5099
Just remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password until that bug is closed.
I have the same problem on opensuse Tumbleweed and remove the config.vdf file and make sure not to save your password don't works. I must delete the Steam folder and don't opt in the beta again.
I'm on Nvidia Driver 381.22, maybe i must update the driver.
1 Likes, Who?
Last time (the only time!) I started Deus Ex: Mankind Divided it took over 10 minutes (AMD FX8350, GeForce 1060) before getting to the menu. I played for 20 minutes and it crashed. So I started up Rocket League in less than 10 seconds and played that...
woow 10 min is pretty insane, but yeah it took me 4 min to compile the shaders when there was game update or driver update on the first run. second run was much faster with 20 sec only. Dying Light has one also, but not that long, about 2 min on the first run
0 Likes
LinuxGamesTV 27 Jul 2017
......
...
I had the same problem on tumbleweed, starting steam with STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0 fixed the issue for me.
Ok i will try it.
[Edit]
Ok this will work. Thx.
[/Edit]
Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 27 Jul 2017 at 12:48 pm UTC
0 Likes
Well, that was a fun update!
Updated my Fedora 26 (last updated a week or so prior to full release) and poof steam dead.
Thankfully running this worked:
$ export STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0
$ steam
Thanks for the tip guys!
Updated my Fedora 26 (last updated a week or so prior to full release) and poof steam dead.
Thankfully running this worked:
$ export STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0
$ steam
Thanks for the tip guys!
0 Likes
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