Valve quietly updates Half-Life 2 to run better with Steam Deck - SociallyKeeda

Half-Life 2 is a really outdated recreation, in fact, however Valve has stealthily initiated an enormous replace – now in beta – for the shooter which applies some appreciable adjustments, and it’s clear these are geared toward making the traditional title run better with the incoming Steam Deck.

A YouTube leaker who makes a speciality of Valve information, Tyler McVicker, noticed that Half-Life 2 has kicked off an unannounced beta department, with Valve quietly engaged on a lot of vital enhancements.

That consists of remodeling the interface so it scales accurately to the decision the sport is being run at, which means that HUD parts are bigger, and Half-Life 2 shall be ready to play good with the Steam Deck show’s odd facet ratio (help for extremely-extensive screens may also be integrated).

Another very telling change is bringing in help for Vulkan, which can enable the sport to run more easily on SteamOS, which is the working system put in on the Steam Deck. It’s certainly clear sufficient that that is work being finished to make sure that Half-Life 2 appears good, and performs nicely, on the incoming handheld from Valve.

Other adjustments being made embody nice-tuning to repair a raft of bugs with the sport, and the power to crank up the FOV (Field of View, principally which means how a lot peripheral imaginative and prescient you get within the recreation) up to 110 levels.

Analysis: Coming to a Valve recreation close to you, quickly

Half-Life addicts have been crying out for a few of these adjustments, and significantly the squashing of some lengthy-standing bugs, for ages, so it’s good to see them lastly utilized.

Although taking a look at it one other approach, it’s fairly disappointing that these bits of polish are solely simply being utilized when Valve has been compelled to make sure that its video games don’t find yourself making its new piece of {hardware} look foolish, with a clunky HUD and varied annoying glitches. Some of the aforementioned bugs are a decade and a half outdated, it appears, and many individuals have lengthy been exasperated at being restricted to a FOV of 90 in Half-Life 2.

YouTuber McVicker additionally factors out that Vulkan help was launched to Portal 2 at the beginning of the 12 months, and provided that, the chances are high that Valve goes to present this retuning therapy for all its video games to prepared them for the Steam Deck.

All this is smart as a part of the groundwork to make sure that the software program facet of the Steam Deck equation is up to scratch in addition to the {hardware}, with Valve already implementing a Steam Deck Verified system to mark which video games will run rather well on the hand-held so of us can see at a look.