Unreal Engine 5.8 adds support for Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery to remedy stuttering issues

Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) technology from Microsoft is being integrated into Unreal Engine 5.8 to tackle stuttering issues plaguing PC gaming. Epic Games recently updated Unreal Engine's official documentation, highlighting the addition of a built-in command-line tool in UE 5.8 that supports ASD. This new feature aims to alleviate shader compilation stutter by offloading the workload from local PCs to remote servers, utilizing two key technologies: the State Object Database (SODB) and the Precompiled Shader Database (PSDB).

During game launch, shaders are traditionally compiled into GPU-specific code by the GPU driver, generating Pipeline State Objects (PSOs) that store the necessary GPU configuration state. The ASD Tool, included with Unreal Engine 5.8, can generate an SODB from a cooked Windows game build, containing shader and PSO data for a specific game build.

Third-party digital storefronts can leverage these databases to compile and distribute shader data for various GPU families and driver versions, potentially reducing shader compilation stutter.

However, ASD Tool currently supports only Direct3D 12 games using Shader Model 6, and developers must generate updated SODBs whenever shaders are modified in new game builds. Epic Games warns that ASD and ASD Tool are supplementary to existing Unreal Engine features, such as PSO precaching and bundled PSO caches, and advises developers to keep PSO caching enabled alongside ASD Tool.

While there is no single solution to stuttering, game studios can submit their compiled SODBs directly to the Microsoft Store, with Steam and the Epic Games Store support expected in early 2027.

Users must install up-to-date graphics drivers for ASD-based solutions, but the technology is anticipated to support gaming-capable GPUs from multiple vendors, including PCs and mobile devices.