While there are competitors out there like GoG.com and the Epic Games Store, Valve continues to have the number one place to sell PC games with its Steam service. Today, Valve rolled out a new version of its Steam client, and it has quite a few improvements, both on the surface and under the hood.
In a post on the Steam page, Valve says this new update has some framework updates that will allow it to share code across the main PC Steam client, along with the Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. That means new features should be able to be released on those three platforms at the same time.
One of the improvements concerns Steam's game overlay features. Valve says:
There's also a new feature called Notes in the game overlay which could be useful for gamers who may need to type in some suggestions on how to get through a particular game sequence. Valve says:
Notifications in Steam have also received some improvements, including the fact that the green bell notification will now only appear if there is something truly new for your Steam library. There's also a new Game Overview feature that is supposed to let you know your current status in Steam, like any achievements you might be about to unlock, which of your Steam friends are online, and more.
Mac and Linux Steam client users should also see a performance boost, as the update will now be able to take advantage of hardware acceleration. You can check out the full patch notes on Steam now.
In a post on the Steam page, Valve says this new update has some framework updates that will allow it to share code across the main PC Steam client, along with the Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. That means new features should be able to be released on those three platforms at the same time.
One of the improvements concerns Steam's game overlay features. Valve says:
There's also a new feature called Notes in the game overlay which could be useful for gamers who may need to type in some suggestions on how to get through a particular game sequence. Valve says:
Notifications in Steam have also received some improvements, including the fact that the green bell notification will now only appear if there is something truly new for your Steam library. There's also a new Game Overview feature that is supposed to let you know your current status in Steam, like any achievements you might be about to unlock, which of your Steam friends are online, and more.
Mac and Linux Steam client users should also see a performance boost, as the update will now be able to take advantage of hardware acceleration. You can check out the full patch notes on Steam now.