The Last of Us Part 1 building shaders issue, explained

Well, well, well, Naughty Dog. Get it, cause it’s a well? Naughty Dog is neck deep in a well of complaints by PC gamers that have waited for ages to play The Last of Us Part 1, after it has supposedly launched. If you’ve tried to play The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, you have already been acquainted with the building shaders screen. But what is causing the building shaders issue?

PlayStation exclusives have had their fair share of issues transitioning to PC (looking at you, Horizon Zero Dawn). Even Naughty Dog could not pull off a smooth PC launch, as PC players are hitting a roadblock in The Last of Us Part 1 before they’ve played a minute of the actual game.

Related: The Last of Us Part One PC Requirements

Here’s everything you need to know about the building shaders process in The Last of Us Part 1.

What is the building shaders issue in The Last of Us Part 1?

When you launch The Last of Us Part 1 for the first time, you will notice a small sign in the bottom right corner that reads “building shaders” and a certain percentage right next to it. Simply put, the closer that number is to 100, the sooner you’ll play your game.

But what does “building shaders” actually mean? Well, building shaders is The Last of Us Part 1 syncing with your PC, and more specifically your GPU.

Is the building shaders process taking longer than normal?

It’s important to understand that it’s normal for this process to take a while the first time through.

However, normal would be considered a few minutes at most. Tons of The Last of Us Part 1 players are reporting “building shaders” screens that last for hours. Some are even concerned about their ability to refund the game on Steam because the wait time would cause them to go over the maximum amount of playtime that allows a refund on the client.

What is causing The Last of Us Part 1 building shaders issue?

The Last of Us Part 1 building shaders issue is more than likely a result of poor optimization and not rooted in your PC configuration. This is both good and bad. It’s good because it will be fixed eventually via patch notes, and it’s bad because you can’t do anything about it until that patch comes.

Related: Is The Last of Us Part 1 crashing on PC? Try these fixes

If you are certain your PC is more than capable of running The Last of Us Part 1 but you have been looking at the building shaders screen for an hour, you can update your GPU drivers and try again. It’s not guaranteed to help, but hey, it won’t hurt either.