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The Elder Scrolls is one of the biggest RPG series of all time, and Skyrim is the biggest entry of all of them. It has gotten re-release after re-release in the almost 15 years since its initial release. Still, even with its Special and Anniversary editions, being able to play on the Steam Deck has always been a given. Yet, in a weird turn of events, Skyrim’s Special Edition somehow got Valve’s Unsupported badge, which confuses me.
I have been playing Skyrim Special Edition on the Steam Deck since I can remember, so seeing it get an Unsupported badge feels a little weird. When I went to play the game again to check, it was still running like a charm. It was hitting almost 60 FPS the entire time on the default settings, all the text was readable, and I had no issues at all. It does drain the maximum amount of battery, but it is pretty stable and very enjoyable.
Even setting the quality to Ultra by using the SteamDeck=0 %command% launch option still keeps the game very playable. It does dip below 40 FPS sometimes, but it always sticks above 30 no matter what, so I would consider it very enjoyable still.
Valve listed their reasoning as their cookie-cutter response of working on adding support for the Steam Deck, and it doesn't list any actual reason why the change from Verified to Unsupported. I even checked SteamDB's update log to see if there was something that would stick out as to why Valve changed their rating, but there wasn't any indication of what changed.
So, as of right now, I would say ignore the rating entirely. The game runs like a charm and plays extremely well on the Steam Deck, even with mods installed, so I would say it makes no sense as to why it has changed. There may be a few hiccups here and there, and some small text in some locations, but ultimately, it should still have that Verified badge.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition is on sale for $9.99 until January 5th.
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The most likely reason is because you have to use the steam on screen keyboard to name your character. To get steam deck verified the game has to have built in keyboard function that doesn't require any steamOS functions like the on screen kb.
Actually, as long as the virtual keyboard comes up by itself, it would be considered Verified. If you have to manually bring up the keyboard, it would be considered Playable. Having a built-in keyboard into the game is not a requirement for either the Verified or Playable badge.
I don't mean to be rude but can we stop pretending it runs perfectly? it can't hold a solid 60fps unless you dial the settings back so much it looks worse than the original release, in which it STILL runs worse than the original. If you want an actual decent handheld experience you need to lock it to 30fps and limit your power if you want at least an hour and a half of gameplay.
Not to mention the vram usage
While it isn't a solid 60 FPS, it still runs very well. Locking to 30 for an hour and a half of gameplay on the default settings, which looks okay, would give way more than an hour and a half of gameplay.
Bet it's because they're working on the mobile edition of Skyrim exclusive to steam deck lol
I wouldn't be surprised, but I am not sure why it would result in an Unsupported badge before it releases.
It's not running natively correct that's why it has the unsupported badge. Probably because Microsoft made them switch it to an unsupported badge because their marketing their handheld which runs it natively. Not through a compatibility layer have you tried running it directly on Windows on the steam deck you might get a performance increase.
That happens with a lot of titles that run through the proton compatibility layer on the steam deck. And with Microsoft entering the mobile market head first with the new handhelds that they just put out with their partnership I'm sure they're making people switch a lot of things.
For a native Skyrim experience on Windows you're of course going to want a device that isn't their direct competitor even indirectly on an old device such as the steam deck.
I disagree with that. Look at DOOM: The Dark Ages for instance. That game semi-recently got a big patch that specifically made it Steam Deck compatible as well and got the Verified badge. So, if Microsoft is going for their handheld first, why would they do that?
Also, them choosing to market their handheld wouldn't influence the badge. The game runs perfectly fine on the Deck, so there's no good reason to bring it to Unsupported. It not running natively wouldn't affect the badge since it is compatible with Proton.
Maybe because once you start adding mods, something is more likely to break. The original Skyrim (not SE) ran fine when I installed it in a Kubuntu install I had. But modded like I have it Windows? It would not run at all. Valve likely doesn't want to ceeify it because people would complain about it once they add mods and it breaks.
I bet it would run with less issues on something like the ROG Ally, which I hope to get someday. Not having to deal with SteamOS/Linux pains and all that.
The badges are not influenced by third-party mods. It only concerns the game itself, which is running just fine.
I've modded SE with around 30 GB of mods on CachyOS, so that really seems like a you problem. The thing people don't seem to be aware of is that the most common Linux filesystem, EXT4, doesn't support casefolding by default. This means it's not case sensitive, and since there is no standard for Skyrim mods, some will, for example, install a "Textures" directory, while others will install a "textures" directory. They don't get merged, so it's up to you to ensure that there aren't any duplicates. You have to merge textures, meshes, scripts, sounds, etc. by hand (which is as simple as dragging and dropping files into the correct location), and the Engine Fixes SKSE plugin is super beneficial for finding what can't load its own stuff. It'll log everything that fails to load, and tell you where mods are expecting to find their data.
Reminds me of when Hulu released their mobile app. One day, I'm watching a show for free on my phone, the next all I see is a pop-up saying, "sorry! Mobile watching isn't supported, but look forward to our upcoming app releasing next month, pay a small subscription for unlimited viewing!"
Hopefully there isn't a SD disabling update for anniversary to allow a SD exclusive version to be the only option, but it sure reminds me of that 😂
I doubt that would happen. I can't see Microsoft/Bethesda making that kind of change. As of right now, it still runs perfectly fine and has SD-tuned settings.