The day we've all been waiting for right? Apex Legends from Respawn and EA has now been officially Steam Deck Verified.
Absolutely huge news for both Linux desktop gaming with Proton and for the Steam Deck, to have one of the biggest and easily best battle royale games now fully Verified. It's hard to properly express just how big this is — simply massive. Just on Steam it's constantly in the top 10 most played, with a peak player count today alone of 281,993 people.
You can see it happen on SteamDB, plus it now already shows on the Steam store directly as a Verified title and on the Steam Deck clearly too.
I've already been playing it for several days now, as have many others and I've shown it off plenty live on the GamingOnLinux Twitch channel, which led to some fun moments.
You can also see some of my early preview Steam Deck gameplay below (from before the shader cache was full, it's now really smooth):
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Here's a newer video to show off the performance:
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Game Features:
- A Roster of Legendary Characters — Master a growing roster of powerful Legends, each with their own unique personality, strengths, and abilities that are easy to pick up but challenging to truly master.
- Build Your Crew — Choose your Legend and combine their unique skills together with other players to form the ultimate crew.
- Strategic Squad Play — Whether you're battling on a massive, floating city in Battle Royale or dueling in close-quarters Arenas, you'll need to think fast. Master your Legend's unique abilities and coordinate with your teammates to discover new tactics and powerful combinations.
- Innovative Combat — Master an expanding assortment of powerful weapons and equipment. You'll need to move fast and learn the rhythms of each weapon to get the most out of your arsenal. Plus, change it up in limited-time modes, and get ready for a boatload of new content each season.
- Ever-expanding Universe — Apex Legends takes place in an immersive universe where the story continues to evolve, maps change each season, and new Legends keep joining the fight. Make your mark on the Apex Games with a multitude of distinctive outfits, and join the adventure!
Play free on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Whew, good job I stayed up late to work on another guide video, funnily enough for EA on Steam Deck too - what are the chances? :)
8 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Mar 9, 2022
I go to download this on Desktop and it's 81GB, is the SteamDeck version slimmer?
Im still going to try it, it looks really fun but IMA need to free up some space first o_O
Im still going to try it, it looks really fun but IMA need to free up some space first o_O
3 Likes, Who?
Holy shit!
It's happening! It's actually (officially) happening!
Long live to the Steam Deck!!!
It's happening! It's actually (officially) happening!
Long live to the Steam Deck!!!
7 Likes, Who?
RichardYao Mar 9, 2022
It needs a mature DXVK state cache and gamemode to run smoothly or else you risk stutter issues. You can get a mature DXVK state cache here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/t5xrho/dxvk_state_cache_for_fixing_stutter_in_apex/
Most can get away with just the cache, but some need both. I was in the group that could get away with just the cache until today when I had stutter issues. Now I use gamemode with it too.
It can also benefit from latencyflex, but that seems like a pain to set up. It would be nice if Valve integrated it with Proton.
Last edited by RichardYao on 9 March 2022 at 1:48 am UTC
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/t5xrho/dxvk_state_cache_for_fixing_stutter_in_apex/
Most can get away with just the cache, but some need both. I was in the group that could get away with just the cache until today when I had stutter issues. Now I use gamemode with it too.
It can also benefit from latencyflex, but that seems like a pain to set up. It would be nice if Valve integrated it with Proton.
Last edited by RichardYao on 9 March 2022 at 1:48 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
RichardYao Mar 9, 2022
I go to download this on Desktop and it's 81GB, is the SteamDeck version slimmer?
Im still going to try it, it looks really fun but IMA need to free up some space first o_O
It is huge on steam too. Having a filesystem that does transparent compression might somewhat reduce space requirements, but Steam does not consider that when calculating needed free space, so you still need that amount free to install it.
3 Likes, Who?
RichardYao Mar 9, 2022
Now we have official confirmation :)
It is not quite official. This indicates that it passed Valve’s testing. It does not mean that EA has made a long term commitment to allow Linux users to play Apex Legends.
However, I am optimistic that this will go longer than the month we had around 2020 when people could play with a patched version of wine that ran the EAC kernel module into the wine server.
Last edited by RichardYao on 9 March 2022 at 2:01 am UTC
6 Likes, Who?
At last, the time has come, I am so happy!
Thanks Respawn, thanks Valve, thanks community, thanks GOL!
Thanks Respawn, thanks Valve, thanks community, thanks GOL!
1 Likes, Who?
If I understood properly, what is changed is that Valve just verified what we already know, or there is more?
0 Likes
Is it some fun playing on one's own, not paying anything and ignoring squads and whatever?
0 Likes
You don't get any more official than it having EAC hooked up by the developer directly, with Steam clearly stating it's Verified.Now we have official confirmation :)
It is not quite official. This indicates that it passed Valve’s testing. It does not mean that EA has made a long term commitment to allow Linux users to play Apex Legends.
However, I am optimistic that this will go longer than the month we had around 2020 when people could play with a patched version of wine that ran the EAC kernel module into the wine server.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 9 March 2022 at 9:49 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
You don't get any more official than it having EAC hooked up by the developer dorectly, with Steam clearly stating it's Verified.
Couldn't have picked a better word to typo.
1 Likes, Who?
Now we have official confirmation :)Being steam deck verified isn't an official announcement from EA that they support it, right?
1 Likes, Who?
Having such big title working on Linux is pretty big. Been playing it and after the shader cache is built, it works pretty nicely!
0 Likes
teablossom Mar 9, 2022
Finally an excuse to play Apex! ^^
2 Likes, Who?
Now we have official confirmation :)Being steam deck verified isn't an official announcement from EA that they support it, right?
The developer had to willingly flip the switch for EAC to support Linux. So... Maybe this is about as official as it gets.
2 Likes, Who?
The developer had to willingly flip the switch for EAC to support Linux. So... Maybe this is about as official as it gets.
That sounds more "official" than having it deck verified by Valve, but I assume the work done to activate EAC will need to be kept up to date, and the game may not work with future updates of the game.
When did Valve say that verified means they will keep making it working? Verified is just a handy way to categorize which games users can expect to play well on the deck, and how serious it will be taken by game developers depends on the success of the Steam Deck, as it's pushing those games forward to the users.
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I assume the work done to activate EAC will need to be kept up to dateThey'll have to . . . mark the checkbox again, because marking a checkbox only holds for so long?
Presumably the EAC people will have to keep EAC-on-linux up to date for it to keep working, but I don't think that's individual game developers' problem. Maybe they'll want to try it on Linux again every so often, like whenever they upgrade to a new EAC version or something, so they'll know if they have to call EAC support and complain.
1 Likes, Who?
RichardYao Mar 9, 2022
You don't get any more official than it having EAC hooked up by the developer directly, with Steam clearly stating it's Verified.Now we have official confirmation :)
It is not quite official. This indicates that it passed Valve’s testing. It does not mean that EA has made a long term commitment to allow Linux users to play Apex Legends.
However, I am optimistic that this will go longer than the month we had around 2020 when people could play with a patched version of wine that ran the EAC kernel module into the wine server.
Steam telling us it is verified just means that it passed compatibility tests. It does not imply anything about developer intentions. See Valve’s own documentation:
Games that check these four boxes are Deck Verified.
Input
The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed.
Display
The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280x800 or 1280x720), have good default settings, and text should be legible.
Seamlessness
The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller.
System Support
If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support.
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/verified
The verified status does nothing to indicate a long term commitment by the developer to keep EAC Proton support enabled.
That said, I am optimistic that support will last longer than it did last time since the developer itself enabled this, but it just takes one executive decision to undo this.
Last edited by RichardYao on 9 March 2022 at 8:13 pm UTC
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