You can now try frame generation in any Steam Deck game, with all the thrilling disclaimers and caveats of desktop frame gen

Testing retired Decky Loader’s Lossless Scaling plugin

Over the past week oregon so, Steam Deck circles person been filled to their integrative curves with chatter implicit Decky Lossless Scaling: a plugin for the handheld’s Decky Loader toolbox that makes the game-agnostic framework procreation of Lossless Scaling work, much oregon less, successful the Deck’s main Gaming Mode. Quite the feat, considering Lossless Scaling itself is officially unsupported connected SteamOS.

In truth, this is simply a veritable Russian doll of unofficial spinoff projects. The plugin, by developer xXJSONDeruloXx, is based connected the abstracted lsfg-vk by PancakeTAS, which is successful crook a Linux compatibility furniture for the original, Windows-based Lossless Scaling (and, portion I’m crediting folk, a motion besides goes to YouTubeist Deck Wizard for pointing this each retired first). The agelong and abbreviated of it is that erstwhile everything is acceptable up, you tin marque your Steam Deck bash its champion DLSS 4 content by attempting to double, triple, oregon perchance quadruple the framerate output successful your prime of games – though having tried it successful a fewer myself, I’m not convinced you’ll ever privation to.

The Steam Deck could, to beryllium sure, usage a manus keeping its frames counts up. Other handheld PCs routinely outperform it and plentifulness of modern, high-fidelity games are incapable to adequately tally astatine all. Frame procreation doesn’t really boost performance, lone adding algorithm-spun approximations of caller frames in-between the existent ones, but the framework gen tech served up by DLSS, FSR, XeSS connected desktops tin look visually convincing successful the close conditions. Who could blasted a Deck owner, surviving manus to rima connected 30fps scraps, for taking up this connection of a escaped lunch?

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Especially when, successful astatine slightest immoderate games, it sorta-kinda-maybe does the trick. Even connected Low settings with Performance-level FSR upscaling, Doom: The Dark Ages’ framerate falls into the twenties with capable regularity that Valve deemed it Unsupported connected the Steam Deck. But, aft applying Lossless Scaling connected 3x mode, it usually kept supra a creaseless 60fps, peaking astatine 80fps and lone falling arsenic acold arsenic 55fps during a peculiarly explosion-ridden bit. While the existent framework number was apt much successful the 25-35fps range, and framework gen did diddly squat to amended aiming responsivity, my eyes were successfully tricked into seeing The Dark Ages arsenic moving smoother than it truly was. I’d decidedly see it playable, particularly aft enabling the plugin’s Mailbox Vulkan override, which disables V-Sync to counteract the input lag that framework procreation people adds.

Better yet was Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. On its Medium preset, I got betwixt 36fps and 45fps portion mooching astir the Hawaii unfastened world, rising to 91-124fps with 3x framework gen. That’s truthful precocious that my Steam Deck OLED’s refresh complaint couldn’t adjacent show them all, and again, determination was a wide upgrade to ocular smoothness. If determination was an input lag bump, it was besides overmuch easier to disregard successful this turn-based roleplayer than with Doom’s snap-aim shootery.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Alas, not each framework gen stories person blessed endings. Elden Ring sounds similar a premier campaigner for this benignant of thing: it’s precise often forced down to 30fps connected the Medium preset I tested at, sometimes somewhat little successful peculiar parts of the unfastened world, truthful multiplying that output should theoretically present a precise noticeable polishing. Sadly, and contempt utilizing the plugin’s recommended settings (Performance mode with Flow Scale acceptable to 80%, if you privation to effort this astatine home), frame-genned Elden Ring ne'er really looked arsenic creaseless arsenic the numbers suggesting it should have. On my archetypal LCD Steam Deck, 3x mode was filling retired the 60Hz refresh rate, yet I could lone comprehend a precise humble slickness enhancement, and aft switching to the 90Hz OLED model, a 74-90fps number inactive lone looked similar 50-60fps successful motion.

As with earlier versions of AMD’s FSR 3 framework gen, inconsistent framework times are the premier fishy for this unusual mismatch betwixt framerates and last visuals. Frame times are the lengths of the gaps betwixt each caller framework being shown, and if they’re not consistent, you extremity up with stuttering oregon jittery camera question of the benignant I’d seen here.

Still, Elden Ring astatine slightest fared amended than Baldur’s Gate III. Not lone did this person the thinnest smear of other frames – 40-50fps, connected Medium prime with Quality FSR upscaling, roseate to conscionable 49-56fps connected 3x mode – but it was besides riddled with ocular artifacts and glitchy framework gen errors, peculiarly astir the edges of the screen. I tried to massage the numbers much profoundly by switching to 4x mode, but this hardly got BG3 crossed the 60fps line, portion worsening the artifacts and utterly drowning the controls successful input lag molasses. Which, dissimilar successful Infinite Wealth, were sticky capable to actively annoy.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

What’s worse is that I was rather hopefully for BG3 aft its pre-frame gen trial run, arsenic framework procreation works usually champion with games that tin already pump retired a decent measurement of modular frames by themselves. That not lone allows for overmuch higher full framework counts, aft the interpolation instrumentality is pulled, but helps support latency down arsenic well. It intelligibly didn’t hap here, mind, which you tin astir apt instrumentality arsenic confirmation that genuinely "for immoderate game" framework procreation is inactive immoderate ways off.

To beryllium fair, some the Decky plugin and the compatibility furniture it’s based connected are successful ongoing development: erstwhile I archetypal installed Decky Lossless Scaling past Friday, it was connected v0.3.1, and erstwhile I came backmost to it this Monday morning, it had precocious seven nationalist versions to v0.6.7, gaining a fistful of caller settings and quality-of-life features on the way. Between this gait of alteration and lsfg-vk’s ain progress, it’s precise apt that crippled compatibility volition improve. I’ll beryllium keeping an oculus retired for the plugin’s v1.0 merchandise for that reason, though close now, it feels much similar an intriguing experimentation than an indispensable Steam Deck upgrade connected par with Lutris. Or, indeed, Decky Loader itself.