We have just shipped an updated Steam Client to the Preview/Beta channel.

General

• Second round of Steam startup performance improvements following shipping of prior round in public client

• Fixed some cases the Steam Service Error dialog was showing incorrectly if you quit/restarted Steam quickly

• Fixed another error displaying dates for our friends in British Columbia.

• Fixed Steam Frame native-only content showing as installable on Windows.

• Fixed the layout of the volume slider in the voice chat context menu

• Output volume settings for friends in voice chat will now persist between Steam sessions rather than resetting on restart

• Fixed a bug that caused some native non-steam games to fail to launch.

Desktop Mode

• Fixed Vulkan games hanging after alt-tab.

Steam Input

• Fixed NCAA Football 27 not getting the game configuration applied at game startup

This update is for the SteamOS Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > System Update Channel.

These notes contain all changes since the current stable SteamOS 3.8 release, with the changes added since the previous 3.9 preview releases noted below

General

• Fixed performance issues in STAR WARS: Galactic Racer on resume from suspend on Steam Machine

• Fixed an issue that could lead to GPU errors in The Crew Motorfest

• Fixed audio issues on hotplug of certain monitors in a multi-monitor setup

• Improved support for Steam Frame wireless adapter

• Security and stability updates

Developer

• Reintroduce support for Android binder IPC

General

• Updated Arch Linux base

• Updated Desktop Mode from Plasma 6.4.3 to Plasma 6.7.3

  • For more information, see
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.7.0/
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.5.0/

• Fixed a bug causing hidden WiFi networks to fail to connect on the first attempt

• Fixed Steam Remote Play not working on Steam Machine when booting with no external display connected

• Fixed "Disable Frame Limiter" toggle not working when VRR is enabled

• Fixed the frame limiter incorrectly applying to VR titles when streaming from Steam Machine to Steam Frame

• Fixed loss of input if a launcher window is accidentally dragged around in Game Mode

• Fixed an issue causing frame limits to result in lower than intended FPS on certain external displays

• Fixed issues with suspend/resume on systems with RDNA1 or RDNA2 based dedicated GPUs

• Fixed a system crash when launching Forza Horizon 6 on Legion Go 2

• Added preliminary support for Legion Go 2 brightness control

• Fixed an issue causing certain games (incl. ELDEN RING and DARK SOULS™ III) to fail to run on recent Panther Lake Intel CPUs

• Worked around a firmware issue on some ASUS devices causing excessive fan speed upon waking from sleep

• Fixed boot screen corruption on Intel PTL+ devices

• Security and stability updates

Misc

• Updated the bootloader to improve compatibility with certain motherboards

• The Desktop Mode lockscreen is no longer prevented from being explicitly enabled in settings (but remains off by default)

• Fixed logging in to Desktop Mode via RDP with system users when enabled

Developer

• Switched WiFi backend to wpa_supplicant by default for new installations, improving compatibility with various WiFi networks

  • Enhanced wpa_supplicant to support fast WiFi reconnect on resume from sleep, previously only available in the iwd backend

  • Known issue: Existing installations will continue to use iwd unless manually enabled in Developer Settings

• Linux kernel rebased on Linux 7.2

• Added preliminary support for hibernation, not yet exposed in Game Mode UI

  • Enhanced Linux kernel hibernation support to enable interrupting hibernate requests and fixed various driver issues

• Various scripts and packages have been renamed from `steamos-` to `holo-`, with aliases to the former names where appropriate

• Improved support for running SteamOS as a VM guest with accelerated graphics (virtio-gpu, venus)

• Updated included renderdoc version

We have just shipped an updated Steam Client to the Preview/Beta channel.

Steam Achievement Sets

A new way to organize, track, and complete a game's achievements. Read more details in the announcement.

• Games can now organize and group achievements for base game and DLC content

• DLC achievements can be added via sets without breaking game completion

• Completed achievement sets remain completed when new sets are added

• Achievements and sets can be archived if they are seasonal or can no longer be achieved

• Updated Achievements page and achievement rollup displays

General

• Notifications settings layout has been changed to be easier to work with on all screen sizes

• Fixed multiple edge cases that could cause memory leaks in game streaming and controller code

• Multiple general stability improvements and fixes for rare crashes affecting small numbers of users

• Fixed an error displaying dates for users in British Columbia

Library

• Improved offline support for the activity feed and fixed cases where it could previously skip loading some events.

Linux

• The Steam client is now a 64bit application.

• The Steam client now runs inside a Steam Runtime container.

  • This will help the Steam client provide a more consistent experience across multiple distributions. This is the same technology used by Steam games.

• Fixed a case where Steam updater UI would fail to show for some users.

Remote Play

• Added a "Display Style" setting to allow stretching and zooming when the stream is a different aspect ratio than the client display.

Steam Controller Firmware

• Fixed an issue where shutting down a controller while docked to the puck could cause it to turn back on

Accessibility

• Background art will appear on the home screen when High Contrast is enabled

We have just shipped an updated Steam Client update to the Stable channel.

Home Screen

• Added a new 'Big Art Mode' option for the home screen. This can be enabled in Settings > Home.

• Added Personal Calendar to the Recommended tab on the home screen.

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Screensavers

• Added a new screensaver feature, accessible in Settings > Customization. There are two screensavers available:

  • The default is a game art slideshow that can be configured to show artwork from recently played games and your recent in-game screenshots.

  • A retro inspired bouncing logo screensaver

• Custom screensavers are also supported. Similar to startup movies, they can be placed in directories at ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/screensavers/. You can use the bouncing logo screensaver (in the steamui/screensavers directory) as an example to get started.

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General

• Added notification about the current user when waking from sleep, if there have been multiple recent users. The notification can be activated to switch users and dismisses immediately on any other input. This notification can be toggled from the Notification Settings.

• Added confirmation step to "exit VR" and "switch to desktop mode" power menu actions, and removed it from "sleep".

• Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game.

• Added confirmation dialog/user switching ability when waking from sleep would require kicking an active session elsewhere.

• Added "Default to Desktop Mode" toggle to System settings.

• Added support for keyboard glyphs in the footer when using mouse/kb to interact with Big Picture Mode

• Added delaying dimming the screen or displaying the screensaver when the Steam Store, web browsers or other apps request to disable monitor sleep and screensavers while playing video.

• Added a setting to disable the screensaver when in game

• Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork.

• Improved the layout of the QAM Voice Chat tab, added a mute toggle to the volume sliders, and fixed the link from the tab to the active chat to focus the textbox when opening to the chat window

• Improved the text layout in achievement notifications when the name, description or both wrap across multiple lines.

• Improved download speeds on high latency connections.

• Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power

• Pressing the controller's system button will request the TV to switch to the Steam Machine as the active source (the connected TV must support HDMI CEC)

• The 'System Report' dialog is now more responsive when displaying and uploading the gathered system report.

• Windows binaries registered as non-steam games will now run in Proton by default.

• Using a physical mouse to click on text input will no longer bring up the On-Screen Keyboard

• When waking from sleep with a game running but the account now playing elsewhere:

  • Provide an option to exit the local game.

  • Go back to sleep if there is no input for 60 seconds.

• The "Select compatibility tool" dropdown is now always visible.

  • The recommended compatibility tool, or steam runtime for native games, now shows at the top of the list as the "Default" option.

  • Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. "Proton Stable", can now be selected from this dropdown.

• Fixed a case where Windows games would show as 'Not Compatible' in the library view until a manual Proton version was selected for this app.

• Fixed "Suspend Download Throttle" not properly updating on the downloads page.

• Fixed an issue where virtual gamepads were torn down temporarily when a game called the ISteamUtils::SetGameLauncherMode api, which could cause titles that don't support controller hotplugging to lose input

• Fixed the on-screen keyboard not popping up in non-Steam games after toggling wifi or suspending the machine

• Fixed the Recordings & Screenshots dialog not showing all games that have related screenshots in the game filter dropdown.

• Fixed some cases of header/footer flicker and invisibility during the first seconds after waking from sleep.

• Fixed issues with trackpad typing if the trackpad is touched while the onscreen keyboard is opening

• Fixed the onscreen keyboard not working the first time it is invoked on desktop.

• Fixed clicking the buttons in the footer causing the glyphs to change back to gamepad

• Fixed a clicking the back button in the footer not working if nothing on the page had digital navigation focus

• Fixed the Steam logo spinner moving during the login flow

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused an empty "Steam Family Activity" group to appear in notification settings

• Fixed cases where users with older CPUs could have the client hang/crash when starting downloads for games with many identical files

• Fixed desktop shortcuts always using the default launch option rather than your saved option

• Fixed some cases where the onscreen keyboard would drop presses during dual trackpad typing

• Fixed the diacritic options menu interactions during dual trackpad typing

• Fixed a case where non-steam games would fail to launch after changing the Target binary via the Browse button.

• Fixed a case where the 'Stop' button would fail to close the game if it was launched by an external tool.

• Fixed a case where library playtime could temporarily show an incorrect value.

• Fixed an issue where deleting an uploaded screenshot would only delete the local copy.

• Fixed hovering DLCs not working in some places.

Desktop Mode

• Fixed rendering the overlay and using other overlay related features (screenshots, game recording, etc.) in Vulkan games that create multiple windows.

• Fixed crash when Vulkan games recreate their swapchain.

• The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show when installing games not verified for that HW.

• In the desktop overlay the desktop config will now be applied. For most gamepads this will not be a difference in behavior because they have a blank desktop config, but Steam Controllers or devices that have setup a custom desktop config will have mouse input to click on things in the overlay.

Game Recording

• Fixed some cases where playback would jump to an unexpected point in the timeline when reaching the end of a play session or clip.

Steam Input

• Added a new view in the configurator for Steam Input API games that lists out actions and their bindings rather than inputs to actions along with streamlined binding interface.

• Added a new multi-binding page in the configurator for authoring button combinations that visualizes the timeline of command outputs and their settings.

• Added information about which configurations are compatible in the configurator browser when using a game that requires Steam Input API.

• Added the missing settings for adjusting emulated joystick adaptive centering on trackpad.

• Added support for inverting button chord bindings.

• Added support for the user-invoked On-Screen Keyboard in the desktop overlay.

• Added a landing page to the configurator when no file on disk could be loaded and give you the option to select a new configuration. This was one of the causes of a blank configurator.

• Improved CPU performance at runtime and in configuration loading.

• Improved the consistency of trackpad sensitivity between Steam Deck and Steam Controller.

• Implemented a version of the "Reorder Controller" dialog for Steam Input API games. Note - this disconnects the controllers temporarily so older games which do not handle hot plugging properly can lose controller input.

• Switch to reshuffling gamepad input when the last running game exits instead of on game launch to avoid issues when running multiple apps at the same time.

• Improve the display of cloud sync status in the configurator and give you the option to skip and proceed to the configurator. This was another common cause of a blank configuration because the layout was broken and the info offscreen.

• By default, Steam Frame controllers will now use gamepad input in VR games that don't support VR inputs. The preferred mode can be changed for any VR game in either the game's Steam Input settings or in VR Controller settings on the Now Playing page. Please report any titles that do not work out of the box. Note: both Frame and the PC must be on the beta channel for Steam and SteamVR.

• Fixed the controller support widget showing "This game doesn't support controllers" for unreleased games that don't have controller support information yet.

• Fixed controllers not using the desktop configuration on the desktop UI login window.

• Fixed older-unnamed Virtual Menus showing up as "Create Virtual Menu" in some views.

• Fixed the glyphs shown for the Xbox Elite Controller paddle buttons.

• Fixed cases where the Virtual menu modes could show the wrong activation type if it was created in the standalone menu vs from a controller source.

• Fixed issues with button and slider sizing in the configurator when opened in the desktop overlay.

• Fixed pairing the 2015 Steam Controller.

• Fixed glyphs for Switch controllers in Heavy Rain.

• Fixed a bug on the "Reorder controller" screen on Linux where sometimes swapping controllers would not work.

Remote Play

• Added an experimental video codec, Pyrowave, which allows high bandwidth, low latency video streaming. You can find out more on the Steam Remote Play discussion group.

  • Added the -pyrowavestats command line option to log Pyrowave encoding performance

  • Added convars @PyrowavePSNR and @PyrowaveHeightFactor to tune the automatic bitrate calculation (see https://github.com/Themaister/pyrowave/blob/master/eval-results/objective-bitrate-evaluation.md for details)

• Greatly improved Vulkan capture performance.

• Improved color accuracy, clarity, and brightness.

• Automatically fall back to H.264 if HEVC isn't available.

• Disabled HDR when streaming to the OLED Steam Deck.

• A PIN is no longer required to download an app to a remote device. A PIN is still required to Install and Stream from a remote device.

• Added a Download Complete notification for a remote download if you initiated the download on your current device.

• Fixed EULA acceptance when starting a Remote Stream.

• Fixed streaming launch failing if the host client had a cloud conflict.

• Added a dialog to recover if your network isn't able to handle current streaming settings.

Steam Controller Firmware

• Added a 2nd BLE pairing slot - to pair hold L1 + B + Steam when powering on the controller. To switch between slots hold either L1 + B + Steam at start up or R1 + B + Steam at start up. 

• Improved rumble emulation and added configurable intensity levels.

• Improve the time needed to fully connect the device in Steam.

• Fixed an issue where certain thumbsticks could lose the ability to reach full range.

• Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth BLE connections could disconnect repeatedly, especially on Steam Deck.

• Fixed an issue where pairing via a puck connection could fail.

• Fixed an issue where switching to BLE mode would stick, even if the host device could not be found.

We have just shipped an updated Steam Client to the Preview/Beta channel.

General

• Fix hovering DLCs not working in some places.

Remote Play

• Fixed regression causing audio crackling on some systems.

• Fixed extremely low bitrates streaming to Android devices.