Callisto Protocol’s PC patch tested: shader compilation stutter fixed, but issues remain

Callisto Protocol launched to a mixed reception – the game itself was recommended by Eurogamer – but only the Xbox and PC versions of the game debuted with fairly severe technical issues, with the PC version being the worst of all thanks to severe shader compilation stutter even on extremely powerful machines. With patches to fix these issues now available, the most recent of which was deployed on 7th December, we went back into the game to assess the situation – was shader compilation fixed? And do other issues still persist?

Firstly, yes – nearly all shader compilation stutter that we experienced in the first 30 minutes of the game has now been eliminated. We can’t guarantee that all shader compilation stutters are gone beyond this, but we would at least expect this to be the case! This fix makes the game much more enjoyable, as dramatic tension isn’t broken by severe hitching when new objects or effects appear, but things aren’t quite perfect yet.

The stutter has been fixed by a lengthy shader precompilation step in the game menu, but this unfortunately proceeds without any visual indicator to judge its progress. While precompilation is occurring, the game’s frame-rate is understandably low, which makes the menu quite unresponsive. Ideally, an indicator of some sort would be added to the main menu so you can see how much progress has been made, or at least that shader compilation is still ongoing – then you could leave it on the menu and do something else for a few minutes, then come back and know it was complete.

Read more