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Valve released today a new stable Steam Client update that most Linux gamers have waited for so long as it finally lets you enable hardware acceleration on your system.
The new stable Steam Client update is a major one bringing a fresh new look with modern design elements (dialogs, menus, fonts, and colors), richer notifications, overhauled in-game overlay, updated screenshot manager, new pinning and notes functionality, and a completely revamped Settings dialog.
Linux gamers will be happy to learn that this update makes it possible to enable hardware acceleration on the Steam Client, which finally brings it up to par with the Windows version. When hardware acceleration is enabled in Settings > Interface, you’ll notice snappier animations, scrolling, and a more responsive UI overall.
However, Valve notes the fact that enabling hardware acceleration on NVIDIA GPUs may cause X11 to crash. As such, hardware acceleration will be disabled by default for NVIDIA systems. In addition, Valve says that DPI scaling may not work correctly when hardware acceleration is disabled.
Also for Linux users, the new stable Steam Client update adds a new Compatibility tab in Settings to let you more easily change SteamPlay/Proton settings, improves support for Flatpak apps when listing or adding them as non-Steam shortcuts, and adds the -forcedesktopscaling <float> command line switch to override the window scaling factor.
This release also improves support for the KDE Plasma desktop environment by making use of the system’s global scale factor as configured in your settings and by dynamically updating the Steam Client UI’s scaling factor.
Several other issues have been fixed for Linux gamers for a smoother Steam Client and gaming experience. Check out the release notes for more details.
But there are many other goodies in the new stable Steam Client update, such as a new Game Overview panel in the in-game overlay to get an overview of what’s going on with the game since you last played it and Steam Deck’s updated controller configurator in the in-game overlay when a gamepad is connected.
A new Achievements pop-up is now accessible from the game details page, a new setting lets you choose whether Ready to Play should include streaming and whether the local computer should be the default in details, and there’s support for Mouse4 (Back) as B button in the Big Picture Mode interface.
The new stable Steam Client update is rolling out now to all supported platforms and you can install it by going to the Steam menu and clicking on the “Check for Steam Client Updates” option. Wait for the new version to download and restart your Steam Client to apply the update and enjoy all the goodness.
Last updated 11 months ago
