#3973 Game Stuck on 'Initializing Shaders' Post Update

Dead by Daylight

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Bug: Game Stuck on 'Initializing Shaders' Post Update

This issue is a duplicate of #3024 Game Freezes on 'Initializing Shaders' Screen After Update 9.6.0.

This is nothing to worry about. This report has been linked to the original issue and will act as a vote for it. Any media attached to this report will be accessible from the original issue.

Bug #3973

Game Stuck on 'Initializing Shaders' Post Update

Performance

Status:	Duplicate
Added by:	Dicas on June 3, '26
Reported for:	9.6.2
Actual Result:	Infinitely waiting in the "Initializating shaders" screen
Expected Result:	Take a few minutes to do all the shaders processing and then go directly to the menu
Severity:	Major
Reproducibility:	Always
Platform:	Steam
Additional Notes & Comments:	Not set

Steps to Reproduce

No steps to reproduce

Explanation

Game stuck on "Initializing Shaders" after a game update, driver update or reinstall.

Initializing the game for the first time after a reinstall, game update, or driver update makes the game stay stuck on the “initializing shaders” screen until you alt+f4 out and open it again.
I left the game open for HOURS and was still stuck on this screen.
It seems it doesn't happen if you add the -dx11 option on Steam. (which honestly, if the game is using dx12 by default is very stupid since almost every single game, outside of AAA, still considers it unstable to be set by default because of the wild amount of hardware that the game runs, it should not be the default option for DBD or, at least, have an option in-game or before starting the game to set back to dx11)

This happens on both the normal branch and the “Hotfix-gpu” branch.