With all the small SteamOS beta releases that were improving Persona 3 Reload's performance, I was wondering when those would make their way to the stable branch. Well, it looks like that time is now, as SteamOS's 3.5.17 update is now available for everyone to download! And while it has the Persona 3 Reload patches, it also has a lot more in it.
There were improved handling of GPU crashes, improved frame presentation, support for new controllers, and tons of fixes that range from crashes to black screens for some games on OLED Decks (Forza Horizon 4) and even some HDR fixes on some external DisplayPort displays. There's also improved mouse and keyboard emulation when Steam isn't running and a new BIOS firmware that fixes some USB compatibility issues. You can even now change the brightness of your status LED in the Display settings!
Overall, this is a great update filled with some nice fixes that should make using the Steam Deck a bit easier.
SteamOS 3.5.17 Update Changelog:
General
- Fixed black screen when launching Forza Horizon 4 and other titles on Steam Deck OLED.
- Fixed an issue where modifying settings in the desktop partition manager could prevent the SD card from being mounted and visible in Steam.
- Fixed an issue in desktop mode where dropping a folder on the desktop would erroneously create a shortcut for every item within the folder.
- Fixed crashes when streaming to/from the Deck with Steam Remote Play.
- Added a timeout to the boot selection screen.
- Fixed a WiFi crash occurring where certain bands would cause the driver to attempt to set an incorrect spatial stream count.
- Added a slider to control the brightness of the Status LED (Charger LED). This setting can be found under Settings -> Display.
- Fixed a case where WiFi would fail to connect in certain conditions.
- Fixed a possible session crash when connecting an HDR display.
- Fixed a rare session crash on application exit.
- Improved handling of GPU crashes.
Performance
- Multiple performance improvements for Persona 3 Reload.
- Fixed the performance overlay displaying GPU clock speed as an instantaneous measurement rather than an average, resulting in misleading numbers.
- This matches behavior of SteamOS 3.4.11.
- Improved a situation where a game's frame presentation could block because of buffers submitted by Steam or other windows, removing a potential source of game stutters.
- When the frame limiter or vsync is enabled, the performance overlay now shows frame timings based on when they are flipped to the display, rather than when the GPU rendering was completed. The GPU-based timings are still visible on level four setting.
- Fixed an issue causing stutter in certain games that buffer multiple frames in advance.
- Miscellaneous compositor performance improvements.
- Reduced stutters when the upscale filter was set to FSR or NIS under high GPU load.
- Fixed an issue regarding frame-pacing and stutter, especially affecting some external displays.
- Fixed display sometimes getting stuck at 60Hz after returning from sleep on the Steam UI.
- Fixed an issue where a core could be stuck at 100% CPU if a game's window closed in an unclean way.
Graphics
- Fixed HDR on some external DisplayPort displays being slightly desaturated.
- Improved gamut mapping for HDR titles on Deck OLED.
- Fixed an issue in certain HDR titles wherein wiggling the cursor on the same frame as closing the game would cause incorrect colors in subsequent game launches.
- Fixed incorrect colors (gamma) when using Steam In-Home Streaming.
- Fixed consistency of application fade-ins/fade-outs.
- Fixed slightly blurry image when streaming from the Deck with Steam Remote Play.
Input
- Improved controller's mouse and keyboard emulation when Steam is not running, including including vertical and horizontal scrolling support on left trackpad.
- Added support for the HyperX Clutch Gladiate controllers.
- Fixed a system restart when Joy-Con controllers are connected.
- Slightly improved corner tracking on Steam Deck OLED trackpads.
- Fixed a problem with elevated noise levels for trackpad pressure sensors. Affects only certain configurations.
Firmware 120 (LCD) / 107 (OLED)
- Fixed several USB compatibility issues.
- Developer note: This changes the default USB mode back to XHCI (host-only) while issues with dual-role device mode are investigated.
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