New UI update breaks scaling

[Xathros1]

Problem description

So apparently:

Steam will now use the system's global scale factor as configured in KDE settings. Specifically org.gnome.desktop.interface/text-scaling-factor. Added a commandline switch to override the window scaling factor: "-forcedesktopscaling ". Dynamically update the UI's scaling factor when the KDE system scaling setting changes.

The issue is, it doesn't work. I've tried to set the desktop-scaling manually, but it doesn't change anything. my text-scaling-factor is set to 1.5 however, the Steam interface is still running at 1 (apparently) making everything too small. I've also tried to set it to 2 to see if this fixes the problem, but it doesn't. It looks like it doesn't read the variable at all(?) How can I fix this? With the old UI it was scaling to 2 I think, as it was bigger than normal, but still usable.

System info: OS: openSUSE Tumbleweed x86_64 VERSION="20230613" Kernel: 6.3.7-1-default Resolution: 3840x2160 @ 32-inch 16:9 monitor DE: GNOME 44.2 WM: Mutter

Flatpak info Flatpak 1.14.4 gl-drivers: default host

Does this issue reproduce with native Steam Have not tested

[Xathros1]

alright I found out how to get the workaround running with flatpak... flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -forcedesktopscaling 1.5 adjust the number accordingly...

[1player]

Is there an environment variable we can use to force scaling?

Funny that this version supposedly is HiDPI ready, yet I never had any issue at 200% scaling with the older version. Now this is the only app I use that is not HiDPI-aware and is unable to scale itself properly

[dahabakuk]

would also like a fix via environment variable like before so i can adapt via flatpak override --user --env=GDK_SCALE=2 com.valvesoftware.Steam

[Xathros1]

They've just released a new steam-beta that includes such a env-var: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/6627657351330751106

Linux

• Improved scaling for users running gnome.
• Added an env var based override for scaling settings STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=<float>.

It also looks like from my simple test right now, that it defaults to 2 on my monitor, so the behaviour is more alike the old UI...

I've also successfully tried the env-var which works as expected and apparently also understands fractional-scaling (1.5) STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=1.5 flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam

ofc you can also add it as permanent override for e.g via flatseal or

flatpak override --user --env=STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=1.5 com.valvesoftware.Steam

When executed, this command creates a user Flatpak override for the application “com.valvesoftware.Steam” with the environment variable “STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=1.5”. This enforces a scaling of 150% on Steam when running in “Desktop UI” mode. Change the scaling factor to your liking.

[1player]

Cheers for the heads up: on the latest beta, on GNOME Wayland, I do not need to do any tweaks, and the window scales correctly.

[1player]

On the other hand, scaling is still broken on KDE Plasma/Wayland on both stable and the beta branch.