Valve has announced a new preview update for the Steam Deck OS. Version 3.5 is now available with various display improvements and multiple fixes to improve the gaming experience in your handheld.
The update provides plenty of display-related changes, such as improved color, making the console a slightly warmer and more vibrant image (the Steam Deck now mimics the sRGB color gamut). Those unhappy with the change can adjust the vibrancy and color temperature in Settings > Adjust Display Colors.
A notable addition is HDR and VRR support for external displays, rendered scaling settings, touchscreen fixes, improved latency, and the ability to offset CPU voltage settings.
Here is the full changelog:
display
The default color rendering for Steam Deck has been adjusted to mimic the sRGB color gamut, resulting in a slightly warmer and more vibrant color appearance.
Added Settings -> Adjust Display Colors, to adjust the color vibrancy and color temperature of the display. Settings can be adjusted with a test image preview (above), or with your running game.
aborigine: Shows the original color of the display (Steam Deck’s color rendering before this update).
sRGB: Render the sRGB primaries, in a smooth way that shows no gradient clipping.
increased: Mimicking a wider appearance of a display, resulting in an increase in apparent vitality. May cause bevel cut.
HDR can now be enabled in display settings if supported by the external monitor.
VRR can now be enabled in display settings if supported by a USB-C adapter.
Quick access scaling settings to separate scaling and filtering. Added stretch and zoom scaling as new options for handling different aspect ratios.
Fixed touchscreen orientation while external display is connected.
Compositing is now avoided in additional scenarios, reducing lag and stuttering in a situation with multiple overlays on the screen.
Latency is improved in certain situations where the application performs slower than the display’s refresh rate.
general
Fixed an issue where certain workloads would exhibit severe CPU performance issues unless SMT was manually disabled.
External storage devices are now automatically mounted when connected to Steam Deck. To format or manage storage devices use the new device management interface in Settings->Storage.
Updated graphics drivers, with many improvements in performance and functionality. Improved performance for Starfield. Fixed display model corruption in Amnesia: The Bunker and Immortals of Aveum and Kaiju-A-GoGo launch failures.
Improved Bluetooth connection stability, especially with multiple controllers
Slightly improved sleep recovery speed
Implemented switching between controller bindings and mouse/keyboard desktop bindings by long-pressing Options in the Linux hid-steam driver, to match the default Steam desktop configuration.
Improved fade transitions between applications.
The content of the performance layer can now be customized by creating a configuration file ~/.config/MangoHud/presets.conf.
Fixed a bug where some games could appear stretched if their window size did not match their swapchain size (e.g. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4)
Fixed Disgaea PC needing to be tapped before recording works
Corrected physical dimensions reported for games, fixed some issues with incorrect aspect ratio being detected sometimes (e.g. recursion)
Fixed an issue where enabling tearing could cause heavy stuttering if the performance layer or other layers appeared on screen. Ripping is now impossible in such situations, and the performance layer should be disabled for best results.
Fixed an issue where keyboard input was not recognized in Overwatch 2
Controller Firmware: Fixed an issue where some of the thumbsticks’ touch sensors would periodically lose contact
firmware
Added voltage offset settings.
Improved robustness of Accord firmware reset (volume down + quick access + power on) against some boot hang scenarios.
Fixed a rare issue that would set the CPU TDP limit too low, causing the CPU and GPU frequencies to get stuck at 400 MHz and 200 MHz respectively.
Fixed an issue where the charging light would turn on again when plugged in for some time after a full charge.
