Steam: Difference between revisions

[https://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] is a digital distribution platform for video games, offering a vast library for purchase, download, and management. On NixOS, Steam is generally easy to install and use, often working "out-of-the-box". It supports running many Windows games on Linux through its compatibility layer, [[#Proton|Proton]].<ref>https://store.steampowered.com/</ref>

This provides the tools in your current shell without adding them to your system configuration. For <code>steamcmd</code> to work correctly for some tasks (like initializing for steam-tui), you might need to run it once to generate necessary files, as shown in the [[#steam-tui| steam-tui section]].

To install the [[Steam]] package and enable all the system options necessary to allow it to run, add the following to your system configuration:

 

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41549030 Anecdata on kernel 6.10 issues]

{{note|1=<translate><!--T:61--> Enabling [[steam]] installs several [[unfree software|unfree packages]]. If you are using <code>allowUnfreePredicate</code> you will need to ensure that your configurations permit all of them.</translate>

Basic Steam features can be enabled directly within the {{nixos:option|programs.steam}} attribute set:

Then install and run `steam-tui`. You may need to log in within `steamcmd` first if `steam-tui` has issues:

When you restart [[Steam]] after an update, it starts the old version. ([https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/181904 #181904])

In the presence of both drivers, [[Steam]] will default to amdvlk. The amdvlk driver can be considered more correct regarding Vulkan specification implementation, but less performant than radv. However, this tradeoff between correctness and performance can sometimes make or break the gaming experience.

To "reset" your driver to radv when both radv and amdvlk are installed, set either <code>AMD_VULKAN_ICD = "RADV"</code> or <code>VK_ICD_FILENAMES = "/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json"</code> environment variable. For example, if you start [[Steam]] from the shell, you can enable radv for the current session by running <code>AMD_VULKAN_ICD="RADV" steam</code>. If you are unsure which driver you currently use, you can launch a game with [https://github.com/flightlessmango/MangoHud MangoHud] enabled, which has the capability to show what driver is currently in use.

To find the vendor and product ID of a device [https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=usbutils&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=usbutils usbutils] might be useful

Resetting your password through the [[Steam]] app may fail at the CAPTCHA step repeatedly, with [[Steam]] itself reporting that the CAPTCHA was not correct, even though the CAPTCHA UI shows success. Resetting password through the [[Steam]] website should work around that.