Steam Deck - Full Release feedback

[merf]

Game is playing out the box so good news there (there is quite a long intial load but think this is a common setup thing and not Deck specific). I'm playing on an OLED and all the OS is up to date.

There is a default Deck profile applied by the game, called Steam Deck, which seems to consist of most grpahic flourishes turned off and low settings.

Playing the first solo mountain it's clear the game has been optimised from the demo but is still not running smoothly all the time on Deck - with the default settings things will fluctuate between high 30s and 60fps, the problem remains when you turn a corner and the fps take a big hit. I've tried locking to 40fps in Steam OS and this helps somewhat to make it less visible,

I'm also noticing some odd black polygons popping up at the bottom of the screen in the foreground, in particular when you crouch down and speed up and the game zooms out a bit to help. QUite distracting.

Gameplay feels lovely and technically all working out the box - but a little disappointing at how far you need to drop the graphics settings and still not get a solid framerate.

[Ikaroon]

Thank you very much for your feedback. I'm very sorry that the performance doesn't live up to your expectations. We took time to optimize the game after the demo and we're not stopping now. We'll try to optimize the game further to make it playable on as many devices as possible! Your feedback helps us with that a lot.

We're aware of the black spots on the terrain and the slow popping in, on low quality settings and we're working on a fix for it.

[merf]

To my eyes using the medium preset, turning off depth of field and locking to 30fps in steam OS looks and plays far better & smoother.

At that setting I’m just enjoying the handling and shaving my times trying to not hit a rock. Very promising game

[Ikaroon]

Thank you very much for that observation and we're glad you're enjoying the game!
So I take it that you would prefer a steam deck quality setting providing steady 30FPS over the current unsteady one. I'll bounce your feedback with the team and we'll see how we'll handle this in the coming days.

[Bernard Peur]

It's very weird to me that the game isn't running 60 FPS at least in medium setting (honestly even high should be fine).
I'll keep an eye here and subscribe, thanks for the feedback.

How's the batteries if i may ask ?

[merf]

Aware its totally personal pref, and some like fps over quality - but to my eyes the prettier locked 30 is a better experience to play than the lower quality and variable higher fps. Just feels better and i’ve not experimented pushing things higher quality as medium wasn't taxing the fan at all, so wondering if it could get higher quality still and maintain 30fps.

Also only played first mountain whilst messing round, not sure how others are for being more demanding on the graphics engine

[Bernard Peur]

Originally posted by merf:

Aware its totally personal pref, and some like fps over quality - but to my eyes the prettier locked 30 is a better experience to play than the lower quality and variable higher fps. Just feels better and i’ve not experimented pushing things higher quality as medium wasn't taxing the fan at all, so wondering if it could get higher quality still and maintain 30fps.

Also only played first mountain whilst messing round, not sure how others are for being more demanding on the graphics engine

I also usually go for 30 fps with better graphics, 40 feel like the good compromise... But this is for games like Elden Ring :s

I had a very bad experience playing the demo, sadly, was hoping to see way better results for the release.

Thanks for your answer tho.

[merf]

Given the high settings a quick go locked to 30fps, on opening course no issue maintaining that framerate, but can’t really see the benefit of higher options on smaller screen and its the first time I heard fan kick in for this game.

30fps medium preset feels the sweetspot for me at present, will keep an eye out to see if further optimisations let that be pushed up to 40.

Very happy though now with how it plays on Deck so going to concentrate on the actual game now !

[esiao]

Originally posted by merf:

Given the high settings a quick go locked to 30fps, on opening course no issue maintaining that framerate, but can’t really see the benefit of higher options on smaller screen and its the first time I heard fan kick in for this game.

30fps medium preset feels the sweetspot for me at present, will keep an eye out to see if further optimisations let that be pushed up to 40.

Very happy though now with how it plays on Deck so going to concentrate on the actual game now !

Thank you for sharing your experience. I was using the Steam Deck and Low settings and had the constant texture pop which was super distracting, the. fps being all over the place also didn't help. Trying to lock the frame rate on Low was making even more poping. With Medium settings and Depth of field off, the game looks better and runs better. Devs consider a 45 fps locked experience on Low settings rather than aiming for 60 with dips.