A fresh Beta update for the Steam Client has rolled out and it seems Valve have begun modernising more parts of the UI, along with Linux fixes.
For the Steam Library, they've now ripped out the old Properties dialog with one that more closely matches their newer design style found elsewhere like with chat settings and they also fixed displaying the coming soon date for a pre-loaded game.
Here's a quick look at what it looks like (click to enlarge) in the new Beta:
There's a whole new design with a sidebar instead of tabs along the top, with a box for launch arguments now just always visible and a whole page just for Compatibility which is where you will find the Steam Play settings now. Overall, it looks nice and sleek and seems to do the job just fine as before. I'm sure it will annoy someone though, change always does.
Just for Linux - Valve also improved the performance of processing incremental Vulkan shader database updates, they fixed several issues around skipped Vulkan shader processing continuing in the background after a game has started and for NVIDIA GPU users they've currently disabled shader processing due to driver issues that are "being looked into". Hopefully NVIDIA will be able to sort that soon to give us all a better experience.
A new networking option was also added:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.P2P connections now may attempt to negotiate a direct connection (punch NAT), if needed, to prevent connections from having very high latency. Added an option in the In-Game settings panel to control when your IP address is shared.
I personally like how they're improving this new layout without need to wait for another major release, the only thing I don't like is the chromium-based browser.
Quoting: Liam DaweI actually had to turn it off, it made my PC freeze up hard with my NVIDIA GPU.
I recently helped my sister (technophobe) set up her first Linux machine. She has an AMD graphics card and... everything just worked. No PPAs, no DKMS, no installing drivers. Wonderful experience with the open source drivers.
I think my next video card will be from AMD.
Quoting: sjr... no DKMS ...
Sounds negative in my ears. :D
I know what you mean, but DKMS made my Nvidia life so easy that I even keep forgetting about it.
Comandante Ñoñardo Dec 11, 2020
Quoting: EikeQuoting: sjr... no DKMS ...
Sounds negative in my ears. :D
I know what you mean, but DKMS made my Nvidia life so easy that I even keep forgetting about it.
Well, DKMS was a big improvement over having to build the drivers yourself. But even better is having them available in-tree, "built in".
Philadelphus Dec 11, 2020
Quoting: setzer22Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.Yikes. I haven't seen that. I have noticed that it processes shaders before launching a game every time, even though I have caching and background processing on. (Or had, in the latter's case. I eventually figured there wasn't any point.)
Quoting: sjrWell, DKMS was a big improvement over having to build the drivers yourself. But even better is having them available in-tree, "built in".I remember the first time I installed an AMD card (upgrading from onboard... SiS, as far as I recall) and it just worked. I knew it would be a less painful experience than on certain other OSes, but I wasn't expecting it to seamlessly boot as if nothing had changed. I think that was the moment I fell in love with Linux.
Mind you, that was back when the open-source AMD driver wasn't very good. But it was enough for what I was doing at the time.
(I've also just realised it was 15 years ago, almost to the day.
)
TangoBaker Dec 12, 2020
I often find myself needing to see some configuration option file and then I have to look up the ID for the game before I can start. A brows compatibility folder just seems like a natural option.
PartyPanguins Dec 12, 2020
Quoting: headless_cyborgI once read somewehere that Steam Beta is not included in Steam HW/SW survey, is that right? I use the stable release channel just because of that.
I use steam beta, and if I remember correctly I've gotten the survey. But now I cannot be 100% certain that I've gotten during use of beta or if was upon reinstall and I have not yet selected beta.
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