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Valve has released a new Beta for the Steam Deck and Steam Desktop that improved numerous bugs, and for Steam Deck makes the performance menu a little easier to understand.

Changes for the Steam Deck:

General

  • Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 109.0.5414.120.
  • Updated the quick access performance menu with descriptions for each setting, including how they affect the system and the expected power/performance/visual quality tradeoffs.
  • Fixed a case where the sdcard was set as the default install location on reboot.
  • Fixed a case where the network status icon would fail to render for virtual networks.
  • Fixed store button on main menu remaining disabled in Family View even if store permissions were granted to the account.

Steam Input

  • Fixed occasionally creating an extra virtual controller that is non-responsive.

Here's an example of the new performance menu descriptions:

This is really great, because the option names by themselves are not easy for a lot of people to understand, and this should just help make the features more accessible. The menu itself also has fancy new icons:

For Steam Desktop here's the Beta changes:

General

  • Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 109.0.5414.120
  • Fixed issue where clicking on Voice Chat invitation notifications did not open chat

Big Picture Mode

  • Improved the display in the "Controller Configuration" tab when there are no controllers attached or the active controller is opted out of Steam Input

Remote Play

  • Greatly improved performance when using hardware encoding with AMD video cards on Windows

SteamVR

  • Improve layout and imagery for some of the dialogs that show up when launching VR games.
  • Clicking on items in the control bar (e.g. a download in progress) will correctly switch to the Steam tab
  • Show reloading message when SteamVR quits before reloading the Steam window
  • Steam now only reloads every fifth time that SteamVR quits

Linux

  • Known issue: when dismissing a dropdown menu, the steam client may incorrectly start blocking mouse input.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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5 comments

shimmy Jan 19
Still no sign of proper resolution scaling. Sigh.
Pengling Jan 19
QuoteThis is really great, because the option names by themselves are not easy for a lot of people to understand, and this should just help make the features more accessible.
And they look to be well-written, too - what a great feature to have. That's something that will help PC-gaming as a whole, in the bigger picture.
KerrWasHere Jan 19
Update broke most of Decky and the apps installed inside of it as well
Justin_S Jan 19
Quoting: KerrWasHereUpdate broke most of Decky and the apps installed inside of it as well

Decky is working fine for me with the Decky prerelease update channel. Also you may need to do a second full reboot of the steam deck after the steam update like I did. But should work after that.
Botonoski Jan 20
It'd be nice if on initial setup they gave you the option to disable all explainers. It's nice for new users, but returning users, like if they release a Deck 2 which I will certainly buy, it'll all just be unnecessary.
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