valve Valve Finally Makes Steam Work Out-of-the-Box with Open-Source Graphics Drivers

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Valve Finally Makes Steam Work Out-of-the-Box with Open-Source Graphics Drivers

 

 

Also introduces idle detection and updates the Vulkan loader

 

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Today, January 5, 2017, Valve's engineers working on Steam announced the availability of a new Beta build of the Steam Client, which appears to address a bunch of Linux bugs, as well as to add numerous Steam Controller improvements.

 

The new Steam Client Beta update brings quite a lot of changes (see them all in the changelog attached at the end of the story), but we're very interested in the Linux ones, which appears to let Steam work out-of-the-box with open-source graphics drivers on various modern GNU/Linux distributions, while implementing a new setting for older ones to improve the interaction between Steam's runtime and system's host libraries.

 

"Improved interactions between the Steam runtime and host distribution libraries, which should let Steam work out of the box with open-source graphics drivers on modern distributions. If using an older distribution or running into problems, use STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0 to revert to previous behavior," reads the release notes.

 

Vulkan loader updated to enable Xlib support, idle detection added

 

Additionally, Valve implemented idle detection for Linux platforms, automatically switching the friend status in the built-in chat to Away/Snooze when you're not at pressing any buttons on your PC, improves keyboard and mice support for Vulkan apps when using the Overlay, as well as the Vulkan loader to enable Xlib support. It also looks like the close-to-tray behavior is now unified with other platforms besides Steam OS.

 

Users can now use the "STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=0" setting to force the Steam Client to close to tray on GNU/Linux distributions that don't offer a proper system tray area. Other than that, the new Steam Client Beta update addresses some DRI3-related crashes with open-source graphics drivers by shipping with an updated libxcb library, and adds a bunch of Steam Controller improvements.

 

All these goodies and much more are coming soon to the Steam Client when a new stable build will be released. Again, you can view all the improvements in the changelog attached below, and if you can't wait until the new stable version arrives, you can switch right now to the Beta channel in the General section of the Setting dialog, but please try to keep in mind that this is a pre-release build.

 

Steam Client Beta Changelog:

Spoiler

 

General
 Made the error clearer when you fail to install a game and don't have enough disk space due to user quotas

 

Big Picture
 Added support for using the overlay keyboard for games that have launchers
 Improved display when running on retina enabled devices under macOS

 

Linux
 Improved interactions between the Steam runtime and host distribution libraries, which should let Steam work out of the box with open-source graphics drivers on modern distributions. If using an older distribution or running into problems, use STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0 to revert to previous behavior.
 Unify close-to-tray behavior with other platforms. If using a distribution that doesn't have proper compatible tray support, use STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=0
 Added idle detection, friend status will now automatically switch to Away/Snooze
 Fixed Steam not obeying SIGTERM, Steam will now gracefully exit when logging out of a session
 Fixed keyboard input and cursor switching in overlay for Vulkan applications
 Update Vulkan loader in the Steam runtime to enable Xlib support
 Updated libxcb in the runtime with a fix for DRI3-related crashes on open-source graphics drivers

 

Steam Controller
 Added XBox 360, Xbox One, and Generic X-Input controller configurator support. This allows all recognized controller types to use the advanced mapping features of the Steam Controller Configurator. Note that because X-Input currently lacks per-controller means of unique identification, all controllers of that type will share personalization and configuration settings. As they share the same inputs, Xbox 360/One/Generic controllers will all see each-others configurations when browsing. Automatic conversion will be attempted when loading configurations from other controller types.
 Unrecognized Generic X-Input gamepad style controllers will be recognized by the Steam Controller Configurator once their buttons have been assigned to match a generic gamepad layout.
 Recommended configurations specified for a game by the developer will now attempt to assign based on Controller Type.
 Added option to disable Guide Button issuing a Steam focus change. This is available through the Big Picture controller options menu. This allows better interoperability with other applications which use the Guide Button, such as PSNow.
 Added Single Button simple button mode for trackpads. This allows a trackpad to be treated as a single giant button.
 Fix for free-floating On Screen Keyboard running very slowly if a game was open but did not have focus or was running windowed.
 Added independent horizontal/vertical scaling to joystick move and joystick mouse.
 Joystick Move mode no longer shows mouse sensitivity option unless mouse output is selected.
 Added additional support for third party PS4 controllers, including some HORI, MadCatz, and Armor pads and fight sticks.
 Fixed a bug with PS4 triggers where they were being scaled incorrectly, leading to maxing out of the value too soon.
 Added ability to change x-input controller order from the Controller Options menu - so in multi-controller setups of x-input games, the mapping of phyiscal controller to x-input index can be swapped around. Note that this currently only applies to controllers that have opted into Steam Controller Configurator support.
 Fixed Configurator Switch Controller interface not showing controller icons.
 Re-enabled Gamepad outputs for desktop configurations for users of third party programs which hook into applications via the desktop configuration.

 

Steam Overlay
 Fixed incorrect colors in screenshots and In-Home Streaming for Vulkan applications on AMD hardware

 

 

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