NVIDIA Inspector & Shaders?

[JackSwyr]

This was posted on another forum, I was just wondering if this was true and if it is why?

It is necessary to clear the shader cache if you change graphic settings outside of P3D. The shaders will get rebuilt as soon as you start P3D again. This is a common and safe procedure. It is also recommended if you change environment textures like the REX4 textures.

Skipping clearing the shader cache after changing graphic settings in NI may result in degraded performance.

[Saul]

Hi Jack,

Yes, that sounds about right. We also recommend clearing out the shader cache when changing setting inside P3D as this can also have an effect. The Shader cache is quiet dependent on the setting is was built with, both internal and external settings.

Please Note to those who are new to this. the location of the Shader cache is

• for v3.x %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
• for v2.x %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

And under NO circumstances should you delete the contents of the ShadersHLSL folder located in the main install directory.

[JackSwyr]

Thank you Saul!

When you say %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

Do you mean in the % signs the path like this?

Users\Jetline\Local\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2? Or something like that as I'm not on my PC right now.
Not sure what the % % means.

[JackSwyr]

This was also asked:

Just to clarify: do you delete the \Shaders file, then process the NI & P3D changes, in that sequence?

Then fire up P3D, which builds a new \Shaders file that incorporates the changes you have made?

[Mike LM]

JackSwyr -

In the file explorer, you can type "%localappdata%" into the top bar (where it shows you the breadcrumbs of your current directory) and it will take you to the appropriate location. You'll need to delete the shaders folder when Prepar3D is not running, and then it will rebuild them for you when you launch it next.

- Mike

[JackSwyr]

What is breadcrumbs?

When you say type in "%localappdata%"

So do I type in the quotes or just the % and what's between them?

[MikeB54]

Jack,

I'm not sure you want the technical details, but in Windows anything between two % signs is what is called an environment variable. They are set automatically by Windows and some applications. In this case the %LocalAppData% on my machine represents the C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\ folder. Replace Mike with the user name you use to log on to your machine.

In the address bar at the top of Windows Explorer (it's called File Explorer in Windows 10) you would put exactly what Saul said - %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3 - including the % signs.

Mike

[JackSwyr]

Thanks Mike, first I would love to know why this is the only forum I have ever been on where I do not get email notifications when someone replies to a post I made despite my checking the box for instant notifications. So I called AT&T and they said any forum that doesn't sign an agreement with Yahoo this will happen.

Okay, thank you for replying to my question, I appreciate it.