Following the customary beta tests, Valve have released a new SteamOS update that adds “initial” support for the forthcoming Steam Machine, that unconscionable hybrid of desktop computer and videogame console, feared by man and god alike. It’s one, small step along the road to the new hardware’s (delayed) release this summer, at which point we will probably discover that it costs eleventy thousand pounds per unit.
Those genAI-driven RAM shortages, eck! Are there any precious metals left in the ground, at this point? Somebody needs to go shoot down an asteroid full of gold and silicon in the next couple of months. If you could drop it squarely on Sam Altman’s house, that’d be useful too. But I digress.
The new SteamOS patch makes a number of changes that are good for Steam Deck users right now, and also good for Steam Machine buyers in the future. Let me cherry-pick a few. The update allows for “substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections”. Filthy virtual motorists like Mark ‘Wheely Loves Cars’ Warren can relish the prospect of “improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode”.
Partly care of a switch of Linux display server protocol, the update also adds support for external HDR displays and VRR displays, together with better scaling for Desktop mode on TVs, and a fix for “several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode”. They’ve also tuned up the performance and stability of the SteamOS graphics driver, and added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller.
What else? Steam Deck LCD and OLED have new BIOSes. The LCD is getting preliminary support for hibernation, while the OLED charging light now changes to green when it reaches your preferred charge limit, rather than only at 100%. Nice to have.
Looking away from Steam hardware, the SteamOS update has “improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms” and “greatly improved video memory management on discrete GPU platforms”. You can read the full patch notes over on Steam itself. As is generally the case, the comments are full of people declaring that the update has broken more than it has fixed – let us know if you have trouble. The major thing missing from the picture here is any obvious prep for Steam Frame, Valve’s new VR doohickey.