With the discharge of the Steam Deck OLED this week, Valve has drastically improved on the “ho-hum” display that was our greatest criticism concerning the authentic Steam Deck. However Valve hasn’t forgotten about customers who’re nonetheless caught utilizing that outdated LCD show. Thursday’s secure launch of SteamOS model 3.5.5 affords a collection of free, system-level updates to enhance and tweak the show efficiency on the unique Steam Deck.

The discharge notes for the brand new SteamOS boast of much-needed enhancements to the “default colour rendering” on the Steam Deck LCD, which ought to assist the older {hardware} “emulate the sRGB colour gamut, leading to a barely hotter and extra vibrant colour look,” Valve writes. Even higher, a brand new “alter show colours” possibility within the settings menu now lets customers simply alter each the colour vibrancy and colour temperature to finest match their preferences and the video games they’re taking part in. Earlier than the brand new replace, these sorts of choices had been solely accessible to customers who went to the difficulty of putting in third-party plug-ins. Now, Valve has lastly introduced these fundamental changes to the Steam Deck-owning plenty.

The outcomes, as you possibly can see within the gallery of off-screen photographs above, can have a dramatic influence on the look of in-game scenes. You possibly can see a noticeable distinction going from “Native” colour vibrance (which Valve describes as “the colour rendering for Steam Deck previous to this replace”) to the brand new “default” sRGB rendering. There’s an excellent greater change once you crank the vibrance slider all the best way to “Boosted,” which Valve says ought to “emulate a wider-gamut show look, leading to elevated obvious vibrance.”

That “Boosted” setting may not be price it in each state of affairs since Valve warns it “could lead to gradient clipping” (which you’ll be able to see some indicators of within the photographs above). Nonetheless, that is likely to be a small worth to pay for oranges and reds that pop far more than they used to on the Steam Deck’s LCD (although nonetheless properly beneath what you’d see on a local HDR show). A separate slider to change the display’s colour temperature may also assist with the “washed out” look you get on some Steam Deck video games, letting customers set a hotter or cooler visible type to match the sport they’re taking part in.

Software program alone cannot increase the Steam Deck LCD’s visuals to the extent of the newer OLED show, after all, or enhance the relative distinction and brightness limitations inherent within the older display. Nonetheless, it is good to see that Valve is not immediately abandoning authentic Steam Deck homeowners and is doing what it will possibly to enhance their visible expertise by way of software program.

Elsewhere within the replace notes, Valve factors out that the Steam Deck LCD can now output full HDR and variable refresh price content material to an exterior monitor, although these options aren’t supported on the transportable display itself. Newly up to date graphics drivers additionally promise “improved efficiency for Starfield,” one of many few Steam video games that the Steam Deck has struggled to run acceptably so far.