One of the biggest RPG releases of all time on Steam, Baldur's Gate 3 has now been given the Steam Deck Verified badge of approval from Valve.
Valve did also upgrade Proton Hotfix for the game, which they've now set by default which works around some problems from the older version of Proton it was set for during Early Access. So you no longer need to set Proton Experimental on it.
Pictured - Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck.
Seeing it get Verified is a surprise to me though actually, because I really don't think it deserves to be Verified. Playable? Sure, but the defaults given to the game give a really blurry picture thanks to the old AMD FSR it has and quite poor performance at times. Even turning the settings down gives you numerous areas that will drop it below 30FPS which is supposed to be the minimum acceptable performance floor for both Playable and Verified. Things I already mentioned in my original release article.
Even our friends at SteamDeckHQ wrote a bit recently on Deck Verified being problematic on what Valve sets as Verified. As we keep seeing games being Verified that have some big performance issues. Not all the time, the overall number being Verified is largely correct but it does make more of us question how these games are being tested for it.
Anyway, it's Verified now and it does work out of the box on Steam Deck but you really do need to change the graphics settings. I have some suggestions in my previous video on the full release:
Direct Link
There's also no such thing as "Best Settings" because it's highly subjective. Try tweaking it to your own liking.
I've chosen to spend the majority of my time with it on my Linux desktop (which is pretty rare now), because in this case it's just more comfortable and the battery life of BG3 on Steam Deck is quite poor too. Turns out you can also get around Larian's disabling of split-screen for Steam Deck too with a simple Steam launch command, as a Valve developer noted on X (formerly Twitter): SteamDeck=0 %command%
Still, once Larian get a few more patches in and add in AMD FSR 2.2 they said will come in September, it will probably run a whole lot nicer then so I will be keeping a very close eye on it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I can't get the game to launch consistently. It works 1 out of 10-15 times I try to play it. I've uninstalled the game and downloading it again to see if that'll fix the problem.
When the game does launch the audio isn't working and I don't hear any sound at all once the main menu pops up.
I've tried different versions of Proton and verified the files numerous times without success. If you have any ideas what else I can try I'd really appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.
QuoteStill, once Larian get a few more patches in and add in AMD FSR 2.2 they said will come...
Sadly this game is giving me a harsh reminder of why I always wait and enjoy that patient gamer mindset... as excited as I've been for this, a "better" experience is perpetually coming soon until the devs move on.
Performance issues on the Deck aside, I have had so many mechanical, UI, quest, and dialogue bugs that I'm disheartened and about to give up for now. Not just janky (which this game is despite so much EA time and praise) but soft locking, completely immersion breaking. I've ended up in the middle of quests when I suddenly trigger NPC conversations from halfway through ones I haven't started. Or somehow hitting a trigger from behind walls and halfway across a dungeon. I would probably refund if I could. More than a few times combat has bugged out so that I get a turn where I have no option to do anything or even somehow end up in an empty conversation with nobody and cannot get out of it or move on, forcing a reload.
Rant off, I hope others are having a much better time with it than I am. It's just disappointing to me that this is considered both a releasable state and now Verified seems to mean little if anything.
soulsource Aug 7, 2023
Quoting: RaabenI have had so many mechanical, UI, quest, and dialogue bugsThis. As much as I love the game, the bugs are extremely annoying. One really has to save every few minutes, just so one can reload if one runs into a game-breaking issue...
mZSq7Fq3qs Aug 7, 2023
slaapliedje Aug 7, 2023
Quoting: soulsourceHuh, the only bugs I've ran into so far with 6-ish hours of play, is graphical black boxes that kept appearing (this is on my desktop with 7900 XT).Quoting: RaabenI have had so many mechanical, UI, quest, and dialogue bugsThis. As much as I love the game, the bugs are extremely annoying. One really has to save every few minutes, just so one can reload if one runs into a game-breaking issue...
Granted, I lost an hour-ish of play because I ran into a room where a bunch of traps blew me up... and hadn't saved, since newer games tend to autosave every five steps... I need to get back into the habit of saving all the time again.
It's sad that even Larian jumped on the "pay full price for the beta tester privelege" band-wagon.
It's best to just wait a year or so with titles as bis as this. That way you get a smoother experience and maybe even a lower price in the inevitable holiday sale entry.
Arehandoro Aug 7, 2023
Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: soulsourceHuh, the only bugs I've ran into so far with 6-ish hours of play, is graphical black boxes that kept appearing (this is on my desktop with 7900 XT).Quoting: RaabenI have had so many mechanical, UI, quest, and dialogue bugsThis. As much as I love the game, the bugs are extremely annoying. One really has to save every few minutes, just so one can reload if one runs into a game-breaking issue...
Granted, I lost an hour-ish of play because I ran into a room where a bunch of traps blew me up... and hadn't saved, since newer games tend to autosave every five steps... I need to get back into the habit of saving all the time again.
Pretty much my experience, too. Also with the traps xD
Arehandoro Aug 7, 2023
slaapliedje Aug 7, 2023
Quoting: ArehandoroLast night I tried the game on the Deck, connected to the TV, and until FSR 2.2 comes out I will still play on my desktop. There was a weird granular effect that made the experience rather annoying. It was also quite late and having to adapt to the controller was not a fun thing to do.I've noticed that on my desktop, where things randomly become sort of grainy, like a bit of old style film... I actually kind of liked the effect, so kept playing haha.
When reading that the best way to play it on AMD is to use Vulkan, and one would think that's the case for Linux especially... but still it has big graphical issues with Vulkan... kind of sad. Still an annoyingly fun game. Still need to figure out where the Enlarge / Reduce spell is for my Duergar...
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me