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Valve updates Steam with more Linux improvements, new game properties UI

By - | Views: 36,192

A fresh Beta update for the Steam Client has rolled out and it seems Valve have begun modernising more parts of the UI, along with Linux fixes.

For the Steam Library, they've now ripped out the old Properties dialog with one that more closely matches their newer design style found elsewhere like with chat settings and they also fixed displaying the coming soon date for a pre-loaded game.

Here's a quick look at what it looks like (click to enlarge) in the new Beta:

There's a whole new design with a sidebar instead of tabs along the top, with a box for launch arguments now just always visible and a whole page just for Compatibility which is where you will find the Steam Play settings now. Overall, it looks nice and sleek and seems to do the job just fine as before. I'm sure it will annoy someone though, change always does.

Just for Linux - Valve also improved the performance of processing incremental Vulkan shader database updates, they fixed several issues around skipped Vulkan shader processing continuing in the background after a game has started and for NVIDIA GPU users they've currently disabled shader processing due to driver issues that are "being looked into". Hopefully NVIDIA will be able to sort that soon to give us all a better experience.

A new networking option was also added:

P2P connections now may attempt to negotiate a direct connection (punch NAT), if needed, to prevent connections from having very high latency. Added an option in the In-Game settings panel to control when your IP address is shared.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Apps, Beta, Steam, Valve
41 Likes
About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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23 comments
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mylka Dec 11, 2020
did they make the launch options more user friendly?
like right click -> launch options instead of right click -> properties -> launch options
also it would be great if we could save some launch options and we just have checkboxes for each command, instead of writing them down
Koopacabras Dec 11, 2020
noice looks good
omer666 Dec 11, 2020
And once more, Nvidia proves to fare worse than others. On GNOME 3.38 I'm having an awful repaint bug, too.
setzer22 Dec 11, 2020
Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.

Let's all take a minute to thank NVidia for their great contributions to Linux gaming!
Liam Dawe Dec 11, 2020
Quoting: setzer22Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.

Let's all take a minute to thank NVidia for their great contributions to Linux gaming!
I actually had to turn it off, it made my PC freeze up hard with my NVIDIA GPU.
Spyker Dec 11, 2020
I also noticed the issue with shaders compilation and Nvidia drivers since the 455.x series.
Hopefully Nvidia will manage to fix that, because on some games it's very annoying.
The Elder Scrolls Online for example randomly crashes on the connection screen since the 455.x series.
Tuxee Dec 11, 2020
Quoting: headless_cyborgI once read somewehere that Steam Beta is not included in Steam HW/SW survey, is that right? I use the stable release channel just because of that.

Don't think so. I have had the beta client running now for a really long time and IIRC I got the survey twice over this time.
tuubi Dec 11, 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: setzer22Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.

Let's all take a minute to thank NVidia for their great contributions to Linux gaming!
I actually had to turn it off, it made my PC freeze up hard with my NVIDIA GPU.
Quoting: Steam Client Beta - December 9thLinux:
- Improved performance of processing incremental Vulkan shader database updates
- Fixed several issues around skipped Vulkan shader processing continuing in the background after a game has started
- Disabled shader processing on NVIDIA while driver issues are being looked into
Liam Dawe Dec 11, 2020
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: setzer22Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.

Let's all take a minute to thank NVidia for their great contributions to Linux gaming!
I actually had to turn it off, it made my PC freeze up hard with my NVIDIA GPU.
Quoting: Steam Client Beta - December 9thLinux:
- Improved performance of processing incremental Vulkan shader database updates
- Fixed several issues around skipped Vulkan shader processing continuing in the background after a game has started
- Disabled shader processing on NVIDIA while driver issues are being looked into
Yup, tis mentioned in the article, was talking past experience before this ;)
tuubi Dec 11, 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: setzer22Issues "being looked into" could have something to do with the fact that I have to quickly press "Skip" when steam starts processing Vulkan shaders or the system starts consuming more and more RAM until it hits 32GB and my whole system dies.

Let's all take a minute to thank NVidia for their great contributions to Linux gaming!
I actually had to turn it off, it made my PC freeze up hard with my NVIDIA GPU.
Quoting: Steam Client Beta - December 9thLinux:
- Improved performance of processing incremental Vulkan shader database updates
- Fixed several issues around skipped Vulkan shader processing continuing in the background after a game has started
- Disabled shader processing on NVIDIA while driver issues are being looked into
Yup, tis mentioned in the article, was talking past experience before this ;)
Right. Sorry.
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The comments on this article are closed.