Naughty Dog Releases Statement About TLOU 1’s Building Shaders

Naughty Dog has heard gamers' plight about The Last of Us' (TLOU) shaders and other issues.

The popular video game developer recently addressed gamers' complaints about the newly released PC version of TLOU, though when a solution from it will arrive is still unknown.

The Last of Us games were previously developed and released for PlayStation 3 and 4 consoles, but Naughty Dog and Sony announced in Dec. 2022 that a PC version would come on Mar. 28 following a short delay from its original release - Mar. 3., per The Verge and Engadget.

Naughty Dog's Response To TLOU's Issues

Naughty Dog said in a statement it made on its official Twitter account that it is aware of gamers' concerns regarding the many issues of the PC port of TLOU and that it is "actively investigating" the multiple issues gamers have reported to it.

A quick look at the company's Known Issues webpage showed that Naughty Dog is indeed busy investigating the following issues with the game:

• Loading shaders (presumably building shaders) takes longer than expected
• Performance and stability are degraded while shaders are loading in the background
• Older graphics drivers lead to instability and/or graphical problems
• Game may be unable to boot despite meeting the minimum system requirements
• A potential memory leak

However, while the company will continue to update gamers on the issue, its team is prioritizing working on the game's updates, and it will address the game's issues in upcoming patches.

The Last Of Us Part 1 PC version Building Shader Issue

Gamers worldwide have been excited about playing Naughty Dog's first The Last of Us game on their PCs since the company announced the game's PC port in Dec. 2022. With the popularity of the HBO TV show of the same name, the news of a PC port of the first game means gamers who don't have a PlayStation console could now enjoy the game as well.

However, most gamers, if not all, are more than disappointed with the game they waited for. Gamers have been review-bombing the game's PC port on Steam due to its many technical issues, such as inconsistent frame rates, frequent and regular crashes, long load times, and poor optimization, per Eurogamer.

The one thing gamers hated about the game the most was the building shaders that took hours to load. According to Dot eSports, the issue, which is connected to the game's poor optimization for PC, not only made the game take long hours to load but also made playing the game almost impossible due to the graphics issues it presents, per PCGamesN.

If the game doesn't have the chance to fully load its building shaders and gamers straight up play the game without restarting it first afterward, the game would be a graphical nightmare, with Sarah and her bedroom looking like a "psychedelic nightmare" and Joel's beard may look like it comes from a Deus Ex artwork.

The issue affected all gamers who played the game even if their PCs met the game's minimum requirements.