Baldur’s Gate 3 gets a native build for the Steam Deck

Larian Studios has announced a native version of Baldur’s Gate 3 for Steam Deck. You don’t need to run it using Proton anymore.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was the undisputed game of the year for many people. But, a Linux native version isn’t available, though a macOS version does exist. That said, according ProtonDB the game has a Gold rating, which means the Windows version of Baldur’s Gate 3 is fully playable on Linux using Valve’s Wine compatibility layer, aka Proton. You may have to tinker with some settings to run the game, just read the comments on ProtonDB, it may help you.
But, you don’t need to use Proton on Steam Deck. You can play a native version of the CRPG on your handheld, thanks to the latest update, which is Hotfix #34. It offers a stable framerate, lower loading times, and smoother gameplay on Steam Deck. Larian says that the patch isn’t just about the Steam Deck, it also improves the frame rate on other platforms, and reduces framerate spikes in Act 3. You can learn more about the Steam Deck version of Baldur’s Gate 3 by reading the official FAQ page on Larian’s website.
Now, this news has understandably caused some excitement among the Linux gaming community. However, the FAQ page that I mentioned above says, “Larian does not provide support for the Linux platform. The Steam Deck Native build is only supported on Steam Deck.” That is rather bizarre, I wonder why they didn’t mention this on the game’s Steam page, or at least in the update’s release notes.
As you may know, SteamOS is basically a custom version of Arch Linux. So, the Steam Deck version of Baldur’s Gate 3 should, in theory, be compatible with most distros. Larian’s disclaimer is probably their way of saying they only tested/optimized it for SteamOS, not on other distros. In other words, it could be buggy on non-Steam Deck devices.
Linux gamers spotted a SteamDB depot that lists some NVIDIA SDK libraries which were compiled for Linux in the latest version of BG3. So this meant a Linux version exists. When some eager players tried downloading it via Steam, it failed. This is likely because of the Steam Deck specific Linux version of BG 3, all the files are marked as Steam Deck only. So the desktop client wouldn’t download it. This issue has been fixed since, but some users managed to download the Linux version and managed to get it running on their computers.
One of them tested the Linux version of Baldur’s Gate 3, and the benchmarks indicate the native version does seem better, although loading times were longer compared to running the Windows version using Proton.
Recently, Microsoft hiked the price of the Xbox, for a second time in 5 months. But, Valve has discounted the Steam Deck LCD by 20%, until October 6th. That’s a sweet deal. And if you don’t have Baldur’s Gate 3 in your Steam library, and want to pick up the game, I’d suggest waiting until September 29th for the Steam Autumn Sale to start, so you can get the game at a more affordable price.
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