Shader compilation woes are, to my mind at least, one of the scourges of modern gaming. Nothing brings you out of the experience quicker than unwanted hitches and stutters as a game struggles to compile shaders in the background before they're needed. Microsoft thinks it might have the solution, however, by providing pre-compiled shaders, downloaded at the same time as the game.
Microsoft's DirectX team calls the solution Advanced Shader Delivery, and it works on a relatively simple premise. Essentially, shaders need to be compiled in a GPU-specific format, which is why your PC gets to work building them for your hardware when a game first runs, or when entering a new area.
