Fubarberry

For those who don't know, the deck has three update channels: stable, beta, and main. The main channel has been on version 3.6 while stable and beta are both on 3.5.

The main channel just recently changed to 3.7 though. This is most significant because this likely means we'll start to see 3.6 make it's way into the beta channel, and then eventually released for stable.

Some improvements likely coming in the 3.6 update are mura improvements (fixing Samsung display OLED models) and changing swap files over to ZRAM.

Fallout 4 just got updated with a "next-gen" update that got the game Steam Deck verified, fixed bugs, and added some new content.

However one of the ways they got the game verified was by disabling the game's launcher by default, the same launcher that is the only way to change graphical settings.

You can re-enable the launcher by changing your steam launch settings to SteamDeck=0 %command%

• Fixed an issue causing no sound output in games that open and close audio devices quickly like Super Blood Hockey
• Stability and security improvements

This combines updates .18 and .19 from the beta channel. Valve is usually more specific about what "stability and security" fixes include. Between being oddly non+specific and the fact that they pushed this update out as quickly as they did, I have a suspicion they were fixing a significant security issue. So probably best to update as soon as you're able.

The sound fix will be nice for affected games as well. I know Dishonored 2 would lose audio after the deck went to sleep, and that's fixed now. I can't confirm if it was actually this patch that fixed it though, but it's a great fix to have regardless.

Here's the official patch notes

Also all the other windows 95 games: Hover, Chip's Challenge, pipedream, that one with the lion and the mouse.

Honorable mention to the maze screensaver.

I was browsing the Decky store and came across the following new plugins:

• MagicBlack - Turns your whole screen black with a convenient hotkey press. On OLED models this will turn off all the screen pixels, letting you effectively turn the screen off for downloads and other uses. A different plugin called Reshade Deck has been working on similar functionality through adding screensavers to it's plugin, but I'm not sure if that's made it to the stable plugin version yet.

• IsThereAnyDeal - when browsing Steam games on the deck, will check IsThereAnyDeal and show you the lowest price at the bottom of the screen.

• Brightness Bar - when turning the brightness up and down by using the `STEAM/QAM + LS/RS up/down' shortcuts, this will display a bar to show what the brightness level is. Looks just like the volume bar shown when changing the volume, and feels like something that should have already been part of the UI.

To view decky plugins from desktop, you can view the stable plugins here and testing plugins here. If you specifically want to find the github page for a specific plugin (for more details, bug report, etc) go to this page and click on the specific plugin you want.

• Fixed an issue causing no sound output in games that open and close audio devices quickly like Super Blood Hockey.
• Stability and security improvements.

Pretty short list, although I've run into some games with audio output cutting off, so if this fixes it I would be pretty happy with it.

There is also a recent Steam Client Beta update:

• Fixed gamepad controls intermittently not working in store browser
• Fixed crash when playing back certain media in Steam music player
• Fixed some causes of steamwebhelper crashes

No Rest for the Wicked is an upcoming ARPG from the devs behind the Ori games. From what I understand, it focuses on a slower more methodical play style than other ARPGs like Diablo.

Moon Studios co-founder Gennadiy Korol said on Xwitter that we can expect around "30-40fps" on the Steam Deck, depending on the quality settings. There are some dips to "20-25fps" and some cinematics might make that number "dip more". But thanks to their "Game Simulation", the game runs at a locked 60fps, so "the game input for the precision combat remains super responsive!". Korol goes on to say that this info isn't "official-official" yet and that they'll continue to work on performance over time.

"Image quality, performance dips and memory will be further improved as we will be patching and improving the game in the future. I really love how this game feels with Deck's locked 40fps screen and our 60fps game simulation and responsive input. So hopefully we'll be able to get to that locked 40fps target sometime after launch."

Here's the game's steam page, it launches in early access roughly 2 hours after this post.

Edit: early impressions for the game are out, and performance is much worse than how it was portrayed. I would recommend waiting for further optimization and fixes before picking it up unless you play to play on a much beefier PC.

Based on the Very Low preset, which looks at an average of 30 FPS with 1280x720 resolution, we are looking at an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU, Nvidia GTX 960, 8gb RAM, and 75GB of hard drive space.

...

For reference, Street Fighter 6 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth have similar minimum requirements, and both play exceptionally well on the Steam Deck, so that's a huge boost to confidence!

I'm interested in hearing both about if you still use the default carrying case that comes with the deck, and if you use any kind of protective clip-on case such as the Killswitch, JSAUX Modcase, or other.

almost 50% better frame rates, which made playing at 90 FPS throughout the game possible on low settings and playing at Ultra quality settings at 30 FPS a possibility as well.

The game also uses less power now while running at a higher frame rate.

Controller experience is also reportedly a lot better:

The gamepad [changes] are fantastic and allow you to use the inventory menu and others much more easily, making playing on the Steam Deck 10x better.