New Big Picture Doesn't support Hardware Acceleration on Linux

[papamikey]

Your system information

• Steam client version (Nov 16 2022):
• Distribution (Arch):
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes]
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes]
• NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Ever since the new big picture was accessible on PC, (start of this year modifying the beta file in steam to the steam decks, to today) the new big picture interface runs at about 15 fps in fullscreen (1440p). If I minimize it to 720p, it runs at about 60 fps. However, on windows, it runs at 165 fps regardless of resolution. This issue seems to affect a lot of people across different forums, hopefully it will get fixed soon.

[papamikey]

With the new update today there is no artifacts! Great work valve, performance is still pretty bad, but at least it's usable!

[alexis-belmonte]

I currently am observing that the Steam client purposely blocks GPU compositing/rendering on my system.

I got to see the full command line used to launch the steamwebhelper binary:

/home/alexis/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper
--type=renderer
--disable-seccomp-filter-sandbox
--force-device-scale-factor=1.00
--log-file='/home/alexis/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt'
--field-trial-handle=17280965424695382527,17308932074744730194,131072
--enable-features=CastMediaRouteProvider
--disable-features=SameSiteByDefaultCookies
--disable-gpu-compositing
--enable-blink-features=ResizeObserver,Worklet,AudioWorklet
--disable-blink-features=Badgin
--lang=fr
--log-file='/home/alexis/.local/share/Steam/logs/cef_log.txt'
--product-version='Valve Steam Client'
--force-device-scale-factor=1.00
--buildid=1685572056
--steamid=0
--num-raster-threads=4
--enable-main-frame-before-activation
--renderer-client-id=10
--shared-files=v8_snapshot_data:100

Even though there are a lot of flags, only two of them (from what I can think of) are responsible of forcing CEF to do software rendering:

Flag	Description
--disable-gpu-compositing	This is probably causing the CPU to do all of the rendering workload
--num-raster-threads=4	This tells CEF to use 4 CPU threads to do the rendering

I am trying to figure out if there is a way to alter the flags passed so that we can both:

• Suppress the aforementioned flags (--disable-gpu-compositing and --num-raster-threads=4)
• Add the necessary flags so that proper GPU compositing/rendering is done on Linux with Nvidia drivers & Wayland (I'm pretty sure this can also work with X11)

Here are the flags that I would specify to steamwebhelper: Flag	Description
--ignore-gpu-blocklist	Try to use the GPU, even if it has been blacklisted
--enable-gpu-rasterization	Use GPU rasterization instead of offloading to the CPU
--enable-zero-copy	Tell the GPU to do DMA instead of the CPU
--enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder,VaapiVideoEncoder	Enable proper VA-API accelerated video decoding and encoding (if that ever has a use in this context)

Those flags are the same that I came up with when configuring Google Chrome on my machine so that it uses my GPU with Wayland -- so if you also happen to have a chrome-flags.conf that works for your setup, you should use the same flags for steamwebhelper as well.

I'll post an update if I ever find a way of accomplishing what I need to do in order to have a smoother BPM experience on Linux distributions.

[Saghen]

This was a great tip thank you @alexis-belmonte!! I've found that "steam (runtime)" (notably not "steam (native)" for me) calls ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy/run.sh on my system in order to start steamwebhelper. I've added the following lines at the bottom replacing exec "$@":

# Not steamwebhelper so skip
if [[ "$1" != *steamwebhelper* ]]; then
  exec "$@"
  exit
fi

args=()

# Read blocklist from ~/.config/steam-flag-blocklist.conf
blocklisted_flags=()
while read flag; do
    blocklisted_flags+=("$flag")
done < "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/steam-flags-blocklist.conf"

# Filter arguments using the blocklist
for arg in "$@"; do
  include_arg=true

  for blocklisted_flag in "${blocklisted_flags[@]}"; do
    if [[ "$arg" == "$blocklisted_flag" ]]; then
      include_arg=false
    fi
  done

  if $include_arg; then
    args+=("$arg")
  fi
done

# Add additional flags from ~/.config/steam-flags.conf
while read flag; do
    args+=("$flag")
done < "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/steam-flags.conf"

# Execute
echo "${args[@]}" >> /tmp/steam-args
exec "${args[@]}"

And here are the flags that I personally send

~/.config/steam-flags-blocklist.conf

--disable-gpu
--disable-gpu-compositing
--use-angle=gl
--disable-smooth-scrolling

~/.config/steam-flags.conf

--ignore-gpu-blocklist
--disable-frame-rate-limit
--enable-gpu-rasterization
--enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder
--use-gl=desktop
--enable-zero-copy

For debugging, tail -f /tmp/steam-args will contain the executed command. This should work for sending any flags to steamwebhelper!

[alexis-belmonte]

@Saghen I had tried a similar solution, altering steamwebhelper.sh instead of steam-runtime-heavy/run.sh -- but since the files present at the root of ubuntu12_64 were overwritten each time the launcher found out that they had been modified, I had to chown root:root ... + chmod ga-r ....

Your solution seems more elegant, and it works great! The only thing that I had to do was to add a line at the start of your patch so that XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined:

export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"

Here's a demo if you want to see the difference

I think we should make a script that automatically installs the "patch"/workaround so that more users can benefit from it.

[Saghen]

@alexis-belmonte An installer would be great! I might look at doing this sometime this weekend. Fyi you can launch steam with -noverifyfiles to skip the verification that results in the file being overwritten

[Mar2ck]

That solution works like a charm. Big picture is actually smooth and usable even at 3440x1440 without any graphical artifacts at all. The new desktop UI benefits from it too with smooth scrolling and no stuttering in the animations anymore. And best of all Steam isn't crashing my whole desktop environment anymore which is always a nice touch :D

The only issue I have is when using -forcedesktopscaling 1.25, the desktop UI is scaled slightly bigger then it's supposed to be after exiting Big Picture mode.

[alexis-belmonte]

@Mar2ck There are known issues in general with fractional scaling on almost all desktop environments (except for Gnome IIRC) -- that'd be great if you could tell us what you're using!

[Mar2ck]

I'm on KDE Plasma X11 so all of the scaling is being done on Steam's end, Plasma X11 doesn't have compositor-level scaling so I doubt it's that. Big Picture has it's own scaling slider which uses the same scaling mechanism as the Desktop so what I think is happening is that the scaling factor isn't being reset properly on exit like it is on Windows.

Edit: This actually ended up being an unrelated issue with steam's scaling handling where it accidentally uses two variables at once. Happens regardless of this unofficial fix.

[alexis-belmonte]

@Mar2ck Since I also use Plasma, I tried replicating your problem but couldn't seem to reproduce it -- in any case, you should open a separate issue for that matter -- there are chances that you're not alone with this problem :+1:

[AlmaPlata]

I'm on KDE Plasma X11 so all of the scaling is being done on Steam's end, Plasma X11 doesn't have compositor-level scaling so I doubt it's that. Big Picture has it's own scaling slider which uses the same scaling mechanism as the Desktop so what I think is happening is that the scaling factor isn't being reset properly on exit like it is on Windows.

Edit: This actually ended up being an unrelated issue with steam's scaling handling where it accidentally uses two variables at once. Happens regardless of this unofficial fix.

Yeah, I reported on this issue yesterday at #9565 after also confirming this fix makes BP usable on Nvidia cards. At first I also thought was related to the fix, but seems to be something introduced with Steams recent general redesign. We can discuss it more in depth at the other issue to not furtherly spam this one.

[kisak-valve]

Hello, per "Re-enabled HW acceleration by default for Nvidia GPUs." in the 2023-06-06 Steam client beta, please retest this issue.

[alexis-belmonte]

Steam is now translucent!...

In other words, the official "fix" doesn't fix the problem... and even worsens the situation

Trying to apply the workaround again makes it EVEN WORSE, with only the steamwebhelper container showing... everything else has disappeared (or rather, because fully transparent)

[kisak-valve]

Hello @alexis-belmonte, that issue is being tracked at #9422.

[hidinginside]

The latest client update fixed it by default for me! Thanks Valve!

[dylanmtaylor]

I am testing on Ubuntu 23.04. I'm using the latest graphics driver that they provide on a 3090. The frame rate is excellent in big picture mode now. It seems fairly stable too. Thanks, Valve! I am also experiencing the weird transparency issue, but that can be forgiven because this is totally usable now.

[alexis-belmonte]

I found a workaround for https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/8918#issuecomment-1580743947 -- see https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9422#issuecomment-1580770411

Now it works again! :]

[kantlivelong]

June 6th beta looking good.

Mint 21.1 X/Cinnamon GTX 3090 530.41.03

[DanMan]

Getting some minor, intermediate, visual corruption on the "store, library, …" dropdown menu. Nothing critical thus far.

[dtantono]

The new Stable update comes today. But, the new big picture is really bad on nvidia. I hope we can go back to old big picture at the moment.

[hidinginside]

The new Stable update comes today. But, the new big picture is really bad on nvidia. I hope we can go back to old big picture at the moment.

@dtantono Just tested the new stable update. It works great on my Nvidia card. Seems, at least from my end, that they have already rolled out the fixes from the beta into stable.

[dtantono]

I try to connect to my Linux pc with Sunshine and moonlight on my phone and my Steam deck. But, this new big picture mode is really slow unlike the old one. Which tweaks you use?

[Ibal-Dawabsheh]

I try to connect to my Linux pc with Sunshine and moonlight on my phone and my Steam deck. But, this new big picture mode is really slow unlike the old one. Which tweaks you use?

I enabled GPU Accelerated Rendering in the interface settings and now it runs fine.

[dtantono]

if you mean these parameters. it is same. the old BPM is much smoother

[Nandru86]

That means its a regression and eventually will hit the stable as well if not fixed

El lun., 3 de julio de 2023 20:15, antekmeco @.***> escribió:

nevermind, i switched back from the beta to the stable release and it works now

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/8918#issuecomment-1619247239, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFP7B2LIEP75HL2WW5STJTLXONHC3ANCNFSM6AAAAAASCDUORM . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[lostgoat]

@antekmeco that command line flag doesn't do anything anymore.

To enable or disable hardware acceleration you can use the toggle in settings.

[intelligentgaming]

Just to update the thread, switching to the Steam beta has now fixed the issue.

I can now use "Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views" without Steam crashing on launch, and as a bonus, Big Picture mode is nice and smooth again at 1440p.

Nvidia RTX 3060ti Driver - 535.54.03 EndeavourOS

[kisak-valve]

Closing as fixed. Any follow up issues should be tracked separately.