Steam Adds Support For The Single-File Mesa Shader Cache

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam Adds Support For The Single-File Mesa Shader Cache

It was less than one month ago that Valve developers added a new "single file" cache option for Mesa as an alternative to its existing multi-file cache. Valve now with their latest Steam for Linux beta is supporting this new single-file cache for faster performance...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Mesa-Single-File-Cache

[birdie]

Both Windows and Linux cannot handle shader cache - applications/drivers/Mesa create cache files to never delete them.

In Linux I've just disabled the cache altogether:

rm -rf ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache && touch ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache

Under Windows I've moved it to a RAM disk.

[user1]

I understand this way both LLVM and ACO will benefit from faster compile time performance?

[Michael]

I understand this way both LLVM and ACO will benefit from faster compile time performance?

The shader cache is to bypass recompiling the shaders.

[Brisse]

Both Windows and Linux cannot handle shader cache - applications/drivers/Mesa create cache files to never delete them.

In Linux I've just disabled the cache altogether:

rm -rf ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache && touch ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache

Under Windows I've moved it to a RAM disk.

In Windows there is a utility to free up disk space which clears out the shader cache, but it has to be run manually from time to time. Pretty stupid way to handle things if you ask me.

[user1]

The shader cache is to bypass recompiling the shaders.

Yeah I know, I just thought smaller cache size will result in slightly better compile time performance

[Mez']

A bit of pragmatism...

Is there a specific launch option to add to the game in order to make use of this?

[skeevy420]

A bit of pragmatism...

Is there a specific launch option to add to the game in order to make use of this?

According to them, just a Mesa build from at least this commit.

[Mez']

According to them, just a Mesa build from at least this commit.

Thanks. I thought I remembered adding a launch option for the multi-file one.
But actually it was a box to tick (might be by default since then) in Steam settings, called Shader pre-caching.

And if you haven't upgraded to Mesa 21.1 yet, there's always the environment variable solution:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...gle-File-Cache

[skeevy420]

Thanks. I thought I remembered adding a launch option for the multi-file one.
But actually it was a box to tick (might be by default since then) in Steam settings, called Shader pre-caching.

And if you haven't upgraded to Mesa 21.1 yet, there's always the environment variable solution:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...gle-File-Cache

Yeah....the ole bandwidth button