Lushfoil Photography Sim Was Finely Tuned to Run on Steam Deck - Interview + Preview

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A copy of Lushfoil Photography Sim was provided for us to try it as well.

Looking at its store page, I never would have guessed just how much I would enjoy Lushfoil Photography Sim. It's a gorgeous, no-stress stroll through realistic landscapes where you can use the detailed in-game camera to take your own gorgeous shots and find objects throughout the world to unlock new locations. I am not usually someone who enjoys these kinds of games, but Lushfoil hits different, and I had a great time just getting lost in the beauty of these vivid, true-to-life landscapes.

Surprisingly, for a game that looks so good, it actually runs quite well on the Steam Deck without it looking significantly worse. There are definitely some compromises here and there, but overall, it's not bad at all. I had the chance to send over some questions to developer Matt Newell to ask about what he did to get the game performing so well on the Steam Deck and how he recommends playing it:

Even with the lowest settings, each location still looks pristine and beautiful, if not slightly blurry. What did you do to optimize the game for limited power devices like the Steam Deck to keep it looking as good as it does? 

The main breakthrough I achieved specifically for Steam Deck was the ability to use simplified shaders. I created an in-game switch that reduced shader complexity, and removed some features like normal/specularity in cases where it was least noticeable. But overall, I'm just glad I was able to design Lushfoil as a very scalable project, I could also dial in the environmental detail and view distances way back, in order to hit Steam Deck performance targets.

Were there any troubles you ran into when trying to get it playable on the Steam Deck?

Aside from performance, not particularly! Everything was already configured to utilize the controller, and Valve has set up wine/proton apps very efficiently. Attempting to run the game for the first time was pretty seamless. It's harder to browse photos saved to the hard drive, but that was to be expected I suppose.

What would you say is the best way to experience the game on Steam Deck personally? Would you cut the framerate below 30 FPS to increase visual quality or try to stick to 30 FPS? 

So from the two Steam Deck graphics presets I created, 30Hz and 50Hz, I would say 50Hz is more comfortable and smooth for general play, but for taking high quality screenshots, 30Hz would be the way to go. I probably wouldn't recommend setting the framerate below 30, as the gain in fidelity would be minimal.

Which upscaling method is being used in-game? 

The game uses unreal engine's TAA/TSR upscaling, which has minimal influence at the Steam Deck's resolution. I'd recommend using the native AMD FidelityFX upscaling on the Steam Deck to pull the heavy weight, it looks a lot sharper this way too.

While I was playing, I felt that 30 FPS with better visuals was the way to go, and I ended up just turning upscaling up to 0.71. In some wide areas, it would drop to 28 or 29 FPS, but in others, it would jump to the 40s. A 30 FPS lock helps here, and that way, we get a beautiful image with solid framerate. There is some ghosting when you put your camera away, but it's not the end of the world.

If you are looking for a great game to just lean back and get lost in, Lushfoil Photography Sim is the way to go. The scenery is beautiful, there are secrets and challenges to find, and I found it way more relaxing than I would have expected. The camera element is detailed and has tons of different options to customize how you want to take your photos, and they almost always come out beautiful.

Lushfoil Photography Sim is on sale for $11.99 until April 29th and is rated Steam Deck Verified. And thank you to Matt Newell for answering my questions!

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