I’m not writing this to be pedantic but to help new students as this section is outdated and the course owners should look to refresh this as it’s a bit confusing.
The resource link does not show where the Unreal Learning kit is and there is no mention in course steps to acquire it.
I recommend going to your Epic Game launcher, switch to the Market place and search for both the Stylized Character kit and the Unreal Learning kit, they are both free and can be added to your Vault.
Unreal 5.03 is available now so the section at @3:00 about converting is no longer relevant and the sub menu options for converting is in a different place making this video out of date
When launching the Unreal Learning Kit for the first time, it took over 10 minutes to load the level. I wrote this info why waiting for the project shaders compile. Is this normal? if so then this should be mentioned as I thought the program had crashed.
The rest of it seems ok and I was able to shadow what was being instructed
Regarding the third part: it isn’t just you. It took about 10 minutes for me, too – it was stuck at 45% on the “Compiling Shaders” part, just like yours.
I am also writing this while the shaders are compiling Shaders do tend to take a while, it’s just how it is. One way to tell that the editor hasn’t frozen is to observe the ellipsis at the end as it keeps changing how many periods it has, even when the number of shaders left remains the same
[Edit: changed crashed to frozen as that’s more accurate]
Agreed there needs to be a tiny update and little disclaimer about loading times. Allows one to progress stress free without switching back and forth shouting “COME ON COMPUTER!” while the instructor proceeds and you remain stuck. Thank the god of games for the pause button…
ADDING LINK CONTENTS HERE - in case the article becomes unavailable
Summarised Solution
Add ShaderCompileWorker.exe to antivirus exclusions or temporarily disable real-time scanning.
Increase shadercompileworker.exe priority in task manager or engine config files
Full Solution Steps
Antivirus Exclusions
We need to exclude the process shadercompilerworker.exe from the antivirus real-time scanner. If you look at the task manager while compiling shaders in UE5, you may notice that your antivirus is using a lot of CPU power or actively scanning. This shows it’s interfering with the process and thus slowing it down. How to exclude processes depends on your antivirus program so this tutorial will focus on Windows Defender.
Open windows defender
Click Virus & Threat Protection
Under Virus & Threat Protection Settings, Click “manage settings”
Scroll down to Exclusions and select “Add or remove exclusions”
On the next window select “Add an Exclusion” then choose “Process”
Under process name type “ShaderCompileWorker.exe”
You can also add another process for “UnrealEditor.exe”
Increase Process Priority
A temporary solution is to do this in the task manager while the process is running. We prefer a permanent fix so follow these steps to increase shadercompileworker.exe priority for all future shader compilation.
Navigate to the path C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.0\Engine\Config and open BaseEngine.ini.
Search for WorkerProcessPriority and set its value to 0, which is normal. By default, it’s set to -1, which is below normal.
This should be enough to see a drastic change. All your future shader compilation tasks should be at least 5x faster than before.
If you want an even bigger boost and you have a lot of CPU cores, you can change the variable; PercentageUnusedShaderCompilingThreads , to a lower value. A lower number or percentage means unreal engine should use more CPU cores when compiling shaders.
So, this works for other projects, but it seems not for this one in particular.
What worked for me in the end was to go to …\UE_5.1\Engine\Config, open BaseEngine.ini and find NumUnusedShaderCompilingThreads. This is set to 3 by default, but if set to 0 it will make your CPU use all its threats when compiling the shaders.
Shaders do tend to take a while, it’s just how it is. One way to tell that the editor hasn’t frozen is to observe the ellipsis at the end as it keeps changing how many periods it has, even when the number of shaders left remains the same
