Steam Deck Client and SteamOS Updates For a Hot Summer

The Deck has received two Steam Deck Client Beta updates in the past week (here and there). There are two types of updates:

• The Steam client beta itself, that you can activate by going into: Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.
• The SteamOS beta, that needs to be activated in: Settings > System > OS Update Channel.

Note that the latest changes introduce a new way to activate… updates, so that you can ignore the above in the future:

• Added a new Steam Deck software update channel selector – there are now three options:
• Stable: Recommended experience for most users. This option will install the latest stable Steam Client and SteamOS.
• Beta: Testing for new Steam features. Updates frequently. This option will install Steam Client Beta and the latest stable SteamOS.
• Preview: Testing for new Steam and system-level features. Updates frequently. You may encounter issues. This option will install Steam Client Beta and the SteamOS Beta.

Let’s see what else the updates brings:

Asian Language Support

One of the most important features is the additional of Asian language input support (keyboards), namely for:

• Simplified Chinese (Pinyin),
• Traditional Chinese (Pinyin, Zhuyin, and Cangjie),
• Japanese (along with a Kana keyboard)
• Korean

This is probably one of the key requirements before shipping anything to such parts of Asia. Who knows, now Valve may decided to give us a tentative date for shipping Decks to Japan, before 2033 if possible? People are getting stressed out here, better ship it sooner than later.

External Display Support Improvements

External displays were finicky until now, with improper resolution settings and the like. Looks like things will be better from now on:

• Added an option to scale the Steam Deck user interface for external displays
• Added a toggle for automatic scaling of the Steam Deck user interface for external displays

Adaptive Light Improvements and Scheduled Night Mode

This feature was re-enabled, and now we also get a better slider to tweak it further:

• Improved Adaptive Brightness slider user experience
• Added a scheduled night mode feature, allowing players to choose if and when they’d like night mode to automatically turn on

Steam Input

• Added missing Deck buttons for Gyro Enable and Button Chord options
• Added support for game-bundled Virtual Menu icons in the in-game Deck UI
• Misc performance improvements

Fixes

• Fixed flatpak Chrome closing improperly when quit through Steam
• Fixed on-screen keyboard showing up under the Steam or Quick Access menu
• Fixed some native Linux games not exiting when force-quit through Steam
• Added button to clear entered text in search bar
• Fixed several crashes related to managing screenshots
• Fixed several crashes related to non-Steam shortcuts

That’s it for now! Don’t forget to check out what are the latest games validated for the Steam Deck!

BoilingSteam lets you access our content for free, but writing articles is a constant investment. We don't use ads or sponsporship, help us make our activities sustainable by donating via Patreon or LiberaPay if you prefer it anonymous. You can follow what we do via our newsletter, our RSS feed, our Mastodon profile or our Twitter feed. We also have Peertube, Youtube and LBRY channels. If you'd like to chat, you can also find us on #boilingsteam:matrix.org. (what is Matrix?)