You can now enable Ray Tracing on Steam Deck without having to rely on customization through Linux. Valve slid the feature into the latest Steam Deck OS preview update, which was mainly meant to fix issues with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. This update will allow you to enjoy full-blown ray tracing on the Steam Deck in Doom Eternal.
The steam deck offers a pretty close to complete experience as a device that costs less than an RTX 3050. With their latest announcement, Valve has taken the credentials of the Steam Deck to the next level.
Ray Tracing on Steam Deck – How to enable
While the update only adds ray-traced reflections, it offers the same areas of improvement as the Doom Eternal ray tracing patch from 2021. However, it’s interesting to note that the Steam deck’s modest APU is able to handle the update rather well. The Steam Deck’s Linux-based OS makes it difficult to rely on Microsoft DirectX for RT Effects, even with the Deck’s proton compatibility layer.
Doom Eternal can go up to a commendable 60fps on the Steam Deck without ray tracing, while it rarely goes above 35fps with ray tracing enabled. While the differences aren’t obvious, it’s most noticeable while shooting rather than during in-game movement. Reflections look nicer than they did before, with environmental details mirroring off shiny surfaces. On the downside, having to avoid a bigger framerate drop will force you to lower most of the graphics quality settings.
Read also: How to enable Performance Overlay on Steam Deck
Pierre-Loup Griffaic, designer/developer of the Steam Deck made the announcement via Twitter, also demonstrating ray tracing on Doom Eternal. In the posted screenshot, a performance overlay shows the frame rate at 35 fps on a presumed screenshot of Doom Eternal on the Steam Deck.
He also adds: “DXR is in the pipe, just not quite ready yet.”
If this is true, then it will be a game-changer to have DirectX Raytracing natively on the steam deck.
If you would like to experience portable ray tracing on Doom 2 with the Steam Deck, make sure you have Steam Deck OS 3.4.6 or better installed. To download the update, navigate to Settings>System and then select ‘Preview’ as the System Update Channel. Once you hit the ‘Check For Updates‘ button, the 3.4.6 patch and above will all feature it, and you can download it.
Once you’ve installed the update, ray tracing will automatically become available in all titles that have it enabled.
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