Vapor Surface: Valve enables ray tracing for the first time

Valve continues to bring new features and performance improvements to the Steam Deck handheld. Although the tiny device seems to be reaching its limits in some of the existing games, the developers have managed to officially activate ray tracing for a title for the first time. This was already possible with some user settings, but with the new beta patch 3.4.6 this now officially works – but so far only with Doom Eternal.

New beta patch brings ray tracing to Doom Eternal

This is made possible with the new beta 3.4.6 for Steam Deck OS. Users can sign up for the Steam Deck beta program via Settings > System > Steam Update Channel. The current SteamOS 3.4.6 preview includes new features and performance improvements, for example the recently released Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. There is also ray tracing support for Doom Eternal.

Valve employee Pierre-Loup Griffais shared a screenshot of Doom Eternal with the new ray tracing setup on the Steam Deck on Twitter. The performance was shown with an overlay, which showed 35 frames per second. PCGamesN colleagues tried the new option themselves. Even if the settings in the game are reduced to “low” and the game resolution is lowered, the frame rate cannot be significantly improved. However, it is likely that Valve could improve performance further.

It has recently become possible to transfer game data from Steam to the Steam Deck over the network. Thus, the games do not need to be downloaded again. Plus, CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 is now verified for the Steam Deck. Previously, the title could already be played on the mobile device. But now the green tick also indicates that the role-playing game is compatible with Steam Deck.

source: steamAnd PC gamesAnd Computer game enthusiasts