How To Setup Cemu Shader Cache Guide

If you’re looking for a guide on how to setup Cemu shader caches, chances are you’re already somewhat aware of what these caches do. In case you don’t know yet, the Cemu emulator uses cache files known as shader caches that are created as you play through Wii U games.

Cemu is the best Wii U emulator that you can use and it utilises shader caches allow the emulator to render game quickly on-screen, keeping performance high and stopping games from having visual issues.

One cool feature of Cemu is that instead of having to play through all Wii U ROMs first for the emulator to create the shader cache itself, you can simply use a collection or pre-compiled shaders which other users have dumped to files. Cemu can use these pre-compiled shaders just like it would had you played the game locally before.

Downloading these shader cache files and using them is actually very simple and in this guide we’ll be breaking down how you can get this setup in just a matter of minutes.

How To Use Shader Cache In Cemu?

Before getting started, we mentioned this already in our Cemu setup guide tutorial, but newer versions of the Cemu emulator work with Vulcan graphics and asynchronous shaders meaning that if your computer’s graphics card can handle it, you might want to try instead using the Vulkan approach to see if you get better performance.

Where To Find Cemu Shader Caches?

• In your web browser, head to https://chriztr.github.io/cemu_shader_and_pipeline_caches/
• Find the game and region you need to download the caches for and then click the download icon on the far right

Where To Add Shader Cache Files?

Once you have downloaded the shader cache files for the games you need:

• First, go ahead and extract the downloaded .zip file
• Take the extract .bin file and copy it to the following location found in the Cemu emulator’s shaderCache folder:
  /shaderCache/transferable/
• Now when you launch the game associated with the shader cache file that you’ve added, Cemu should automatically begin to compile the shaders for you

Troubleshooting Shader Cache Issues

If Cemu doesn’t seem to be using the shader cache file that you have added to the emulator’s shader cache folder, you’ll want to try the following steps to resolve the issue:

• Go into the shader cache folder for Cemu in /shaderCache/transferable/
• Delete all of the shader cache files in the folder
• Now boot up Cemu and start the game that you want to load the shader caches for
• Play through it for a few minutes, allowing the emulator to generate some shader caches of its own
• Close the Cemu emulator and go back to refresh the /shaderCache/transferable/ folder
• You’ll notice that Cemu has created a new .bin file for the game
• Go ahead and copy the exact name of the shader cache that Cemu created for the game
• Now rename the downloaded .bin shader file that you are trying to use to the name of the .bin shader file that Cemu automatically created for the game
• Place this renamed file into the /shaderCache/transferable/ folder
• Boot up Cemu and the game and you should now see it use the shader cache file as expected

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Clear Shader Cache In Cemu?

You can easily clear the Cemu emulator’s shader cache files by simply opening up the Cemu emulator’s folder on your computer and going to shaderCache > transferable. In the transferable folder, any of the shader cache files that you delete from here will be cleared from Cemu.