Valve continues to improve Linux Vulkan Shader Pre-Caching

Recently we wrote about a new feature for Linux in the Steam Client Beta, where Steam can now sort out Vulkan shaders before running a game. With the latest build, it gets better.

The idea of it, as a brief reminder, is to prepare all the shaders needed for Vulkan games while you download and / or before you hit Play. This would help to stop constant stuttering seen in some games on Linux, mostly from running Windows games in the Proton compatibility layer, as native / supported Linux games would usually do it themselves. Just another way Valve are trying to get Linux gaming on Steam in all forms into tip-top shape.

Here's what's changed in the latest Steam Beta:

Linux Shader Pre-Caching

• Added support for merging NVIDIA per-thread cache files after processing new Vulkan pipelines and after a game exits
• Adjusted core count of background Vulkan pipeline processing to a quarter of logical cores by default
• Changed processing tasks to idle priority
• Updated Vulkan layer API version

Want to try out the latest Steam Beta? Go into Settings on Steam and it's on the first section you see:

Steam will then restart to do the update.

Will be great when this is rolled out to everyone, as it's a very clever way to get around the Proton shader stuttering issue using the open source Fossilize library and Vulkan layer.