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Valve released today a new stable update to its Steam Client for all supported platforms that introduces the highly anticipated Big Picture mode from the Steam Deck UI, as well as other improvements.
If you’re an avid Linux gamer, you probably already heard that Steam Client is getting a brand-new Big Picture mode ported from the Steam Deck UI. Of course, Steam Deck owners are familiar with it by now, but now everyone can enjoy the Steam Deck UI on their personal computers.
During the past several months, Valve tested the new Big Picture mode by releasing several beta versions of the Steam Client. While the new stable version includes the updated Big Picture mode, it’s not enabled by default.
To enable the new Big Picture mode, you will have to run the Steam Client with the -newbigpicture argument (you can do that by hitting Alt+F2 and typing steam -newbigpicture or modifying the Steam shortcut on your desktop) or by passing the-gamepadui argument to automatically start the Steam Client in the new Big Picture Mode.
In addition to the new Big Picture mode, which is already a huge change, the new Steam Client update also adds various improvements like reduced client startup times for those with big game libraries, updated “Steam News” popup dialog, and support for a Nintendo-style layout (flips the A/B and X/Y buttons) for all controller types.
Also new is a feature called Gyro Enabling, by adding a “Touch” option to controllers that don’t have capacitive touch sensors. “Moving joysticks out of their deadzone now counts as a “Touch”,” said Valve in the release notes.
Of course, there are also the usual bug fixes to address a browser crash on Linux, VR flags not showing up in app details for some games, broken circular download progress indicator in the game entry list, Downloads page crash when starting in offline mode, as well as glyphs for third-party Nintendo controllers while streaming.
Also fixed is an issue causing OpenXR app images to not be displayed properly in SteamVR, an issue where launching a game would take longer to start if no network connection was available, as well as a bunch of issues related to the sign-in UI.
The new Steam Client update will download and install automatically the next time you start the app. However, you can also manually update your Steam Client by accessing the “Check for Steam Client Updates” option from the Steam menu.
Last updated 1 year ago
