Final night time was a stressed one for the Steam Deck. Along with an enormous shopper replace for the hand held PC, Valve pushed out a Proton Experimental replace to repair a crashing drawback with video games that use the Ubisoft Join launcher on Steam.
Ubi’s launcher had obtained an replace of its personal, sadly one which interfered with the power of Proton – the layer of software program that helps made-for-Home windows video games run on the Linux-based SteamOS – to maintain it suitable with the Deck. Certainly, identical to the 2K Launcher final yr, with the added irony that the affected video games (which embrace The Division 2, Watch Canine Legion and Ghost Recon Breakpoint) solely arrived on Steam up to now few weeks.
Valve’s repair does require a second of handbook enter, however it’s straightforward sufficient for those who now end up locked out: open the Properties menu of the affected recreation, head to the Compatibility part, examine “Pressure using a selected Steam Play compatibility software” and choose Proton Experimental from the checklist. From my checks this morning, this does the trick, although the anticipated caveats about experimental branches missing full testing will apply. Hopefully this repair makes it strategy to Proton’s secure department asap, as with out it, all you’ll see after launching is that this error display screen:
On a happier be aware, there’s dozens of constructive adjustments within the shopper replace, starting from UI enhancements to bug fixes associated to particular mice and keyboards. Too many to only paste right here, actually, so have a learn of the patch notes for the total checklist. My private spotlight: the Navigation pane within the SteamOS overly is now centered correctly. That all the time bugged me!
Additional cursor keys on the onscreen keyboard is one other good contact, and gyroscope calibration has been upgraded to extra intelligently account for potential drifting. I’ve been curious to attempt gryo controls extra usually, after belatedly watching Staff Fortress 2 YouTuber SolarLight’s video on the topic, in order that enchancment sounds good to me too.
Between this Ubisoft Join difficulty, GTA Trilogy – Definitive Version, and the Useless Area remake, it’s not been the Steam Deck’s greatest month. Even so, it’s good to see fixes for Proton issues pop up as rapidly as they’ve been, right here and for Useless Area particularly. And there’s all the time the 30 greatest Steam Deck video games if you simply wish to play one thing that works out of the proverbial field.