Shader caches
- This page contains Shader Cache sets to download for specific games
A shader cache is a collection of GPU specific programs known as shaders that get stored in your computer's auxiliary memory for quick retrieval (as you play your game).
Modern consoles and their games make heavy use of precompiled shaders specific to their GPUs, and these shaders can't be run natively on PC hardware, so they need to be translated or recompiled. The simplest way to do this is to recompile them at runtime, but that's slow and can cause stuttering every time a new shader is loaded in the game. A mitigation to this stuttering is to compile the shaders asynchronously to the emulator, but this has its own drawback in that in the time it takes to compile the shader, the effect in-game that relies on it won't be shown.
Another approach is to cache the system's raw shader pipeline and then compile the shaders before the game even starts. The only drawback here is that someone has to play through the game atleast once to 'build' a cache that can be used by others. This page provides files to pre-built caches for seamless use while playing your games.
When an emulator updates the way it handles shaders, it may break compatibility with previous shader caches; for this reason, the shader version is listed below.
Note: Please compress your shader caches with 7-Zip or WinRAR before uploading them.
Contents
Cemu
Put files in <cemuFolder>\shaderCache\transferable\
Newer versions of Cemu leverage Vulkan 1.2 and asynchronous shaders in a way that it may be preferable on modern GPUs to use async shaders instead of a shader cache, so try enabling that before hunting for shader caches. The current shader version is 150, but Cemu is backward-compatible from version 149 (Cemu version 1.7.0, 2017/05/16) Cemu 1.25.0+ is not backward-compatible with any prior transferable cache.
| Game | Link(s) | Shader Version | Shader Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayonetta 2 | Download | 149 | 1210 | |
| Captain Toad Treasure Tracker | Download | 149 | 2146 | |
| Devil's Third | Download | 149 | 4421 | |
| Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze | Download | 149 | 1950 | |
| Fast Racing NEO | Download | 149 | 1776 | |
| Fatal Frame 5 | Download | 149 | 1023 | |
| Hyrule Warriors | Download | 149 | 1222 | |
| Kirby and the Rainbow Curse | Download | 149 | 3004 | |
| Mario Kart 8 | Download | 149 | 12029 | |
| Mario Party 10 | Download | 149 | 1235 | |
| Mario Tennis | Download | 149 | 1230 | |
| New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U | Download | 149 | 886 | |
| Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge | Download | 149 | 868 | |
| Pikmin 3 | Download | 149 | 2423 | |
| Splatoon | Download | 149 | 6790 | |
| Star Fox Zero | Download | 149 | 384 | |
| Super Mario 3D World | Download | 149 | 4212 | |
| Super Mario Maker | Download | 149 | 584 | |
| Super Smash Bros. WiiU | Download | 150 | 4765 | |
| Tekken Tag Tournament 2 | Download | 149 | 1980 | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Download | 149 | 9674 | |
| Download | 150 | 6500ish shaders, 11000 vulkan pipelines | Incomplete, this is meant for Vulkan users (the cache above will still work with Vulkan) so they don't have to build pipelines. Don't try to combine the pipelines with another cache, as they are incompatible. | |
| Download | 150 | 9627 shaders, 32609 vulkan pipelines | Almost perfect, JPN version of Breath of the Wild for the Cemu 1.25, other region versions can use the OpenGL shaders, change its name, for example, change 9300 to 9500. The Vulkan pipelines will increase with your hardware driver update. | |
| Download | 150 | 9430 shaders, 56354 vulkan pipelines | US version of zelda breath of the wild game played through with Cemu version 1.26.2f using Vulkan Graphics API, this is the entire shaderCache folder. | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD | Download | 149 | 2635 | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD | Download | 149 | 11835 | |
| Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE | Download | 149 | 2438 | |
| Xenoblade | Download | 149 | 17592 | |
| Yoshi Wolly World | Download | 149 | 5002 |
RPCS3
Put the raw and pipeline folders in <RPCS3Folder>\cache\<gameSerial>\ppu-<hash>-EBOOT.BIN\shaders_cache\
Current shader version is v1.94 (2022/12/11)[1]
| Game | Link(s) | Shader Version | Shader Count | Renderer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God of War III | Download | v1.94 | 9330 | Vulkan | |
| Guitar Hero 5 | Download | v1.94 | 1485 | Vulkan | |
| Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock | Download | v1.94 | 1953 | Vulkan | |
| Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time | Download | v1.93 | 1191 | Vulkan | |
| Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus | Download | v1.93 | 1150 | Vulkan | |
| Rock Band 3 Deluxe | Download | v1.94 | 1280 | Vulkan | |
| Skylanders Giants | Download | v1.94 | 2831 | Vulkan | |
| The Beatles: Rock Band | Download | v1.94 | 721 | Vulkan |
Xenia
Put the files in <XeniaFolder>\cache\shaders\shareable
Current shader version is 20220720[2]
| Game | Link(s) | Shader Version | Renderer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost Odyssey | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | 100% Full Playthrough (Discs 1-4)
Xenia Canary Build December 25 2022 (9f0d3d4) |
| Gears of War 2 | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | Full Playthrough of Main Campaign |
| Gears of War 3 | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | Full Playthrough |
| Gears of War Judgment | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | Full Playthrough Judgment/Aftermath |
| Red Dead Redemption | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | Full Playthrough of Main Campaign and Undead Nightmare |
| WET | Download | 20220720 | DX12 ROV | Full Playthrough of Main Campaign |
Citra
Put files in <user>\shaders\opengl\transferable\
Current shader version is 1 (2019/09/07)[3]
| Game | Link(s) | Shader Version | Shader Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Crossing: New Leaf | Download | 1 | 1403 |
| Mario Kart 7 | Download | 1 | 299 |
| New Super Mario Bros. 2 | Download | 1 | 1308 |
| Pokemon: Ultra Sun | Download | 1 | 703 |
| Super Mario 3D Land | Download | 1 | 1379 |
| Super Smash Bros. 3DS | Download | 1 | 3312 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D | Download | 1 | 426 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D | Download | 1 | 2211 |
| Tomodachi Life | Download | 1 | 10123 |
Erm...what the sigma?
