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Unreal editor launch profiling finds overhead in secure hash methods

larstofus.com 5 min read Editor score 6/10

The author looks beyond obvious shader-compilation hotspots while profiling Unreal editor startup and identifies unnecessarily secure hash methods as an optimization target. The approach is a useful reminder to investigate obscure costs, though this excerpt omits the implementation and measured gains.

What

An Unreal editor launch optimization replaces SHA1 with xxHash when hashing shader source code.

How

The change required updating places where hashes were stored or passed; stored hashes became 8 bytes instead of 20.

Why it matters

Using a fast, non-cryptographic hash for non-sensitive shader source can avoid unnecessary hashing work.

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