A new build of Proton Experimental was released on January 6th with a host of new updates. First, DirectX 9, 10, 11 , and 12 games all require Mesa 22 or Nvidia 510.47 drivers or newer. This is due to a change in Vulkan shipping with these drivers.

There are six more games that now are supported with Proton Experimental, most significantly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

These changes include nvapi which–if you're not aware–means DLSS and other features on Nvidia graphics cards. This includes many applications like A Plage Tale: Requiem, Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, Deathloop, Red Dead Redemption 2, and many, many others.

Halo Infinite now gets in-game (but with graphical artifacts).

There's also a new file distribution method that should save disk space.

There were many more changes and fixes including performance improvements for multiple games. But it's so great to see that Proton continues getting new updates–even though Valve is reportedly on an extended holiday break.

And speaking of things Valve continues to update over break...

Beta Client

A Steam Deck Beta Client hit the afternoon I finished my last video. It includes a number of changes and fixes for the Steam Deck's software. And this time they focused on controller input.

Changes include a tweak to the way launch options are displayed to users–this prevents the user from being pestered with alternate launch options every time they return to a game's details. Now, the user should only see this launch option reminder three times.

• Valve added an option to turn off controllers when exiting Big Picture Mode
• They implemented Steam Controller dongle pairing
• They added controller settings dropdown to choose when an idle controller will turn off
• They added controller support for the ThrustMaster eSwap PRO Xbox Controller
• They added controller settings in app properties for non-Steam games

And then for fixes they fixed a crash with games that use Windows Gaming Input, they fixed instances of Steam freezing or crashing in desktop mode, they fixed digital navigation getting stuck on text boxes when using a physical keyboard, and they fixed an issue viewing the hardware survey page after submitting results.

Overall a nice assortment of controller-focused fixes and features.

Most of these fixes and features should make it into the monthly stable client update!

Watch the video: