HIP support for Blender on Steam Deck

[plobby]

Hi I'd like to request GPU rendering support for Cycles in Blender on the Steam Deck. Currently only CPU rendering seems to be supported, and when trying to select AMD's HIP rendering it says "no compatible RDNA GPU detected."

I don't know if it's even possible, and I'm sure developing hardware support for free software that the deck isn't exactly targeting isn't top priority, but it would be really cool.

Imagine being able to develop assets for games on the Steam Deck ON the Steam Deck! (Or at least having an easier time rendering them in Cycles.)

[Moskeeto]

Not sure if it matters at all but are you using Blender downloaded from the Steam store or standalone?

[plobby]

I am using Blender from Steam. It shouldn't matter at all though. They are the same program, only difference would potentially be in when versions get updated. Blender is a Linux-native application, I don't believe it even uses a compatibility layer.

I'm pretty sure it's a GPU driver thing, where whatever driver Valve uses for their custom APU doesn't currently support the feature. Likely it wasn't considered a priority, which honestly makes sense. I wouldn't expect powerhouse rendering performance from the APU, but it would be really awesome to have some basic GPU acceleration.

[splatchoot]

Check out my guide:
https://github.com/splatchoot/GPU-rendering-on-Steam-Deck/tree/main