Millennium Eagle
Published
There is artifacting at the top and bottom letterboxed edges of the screen on Steam Deck by default (this is probably why it's Unverified on Steam). This is completely eliminated by switching to Windowed mode (does not affect how the game is displayed in Game Mode). You might as well set it to 720p as well for better picture quality on Steam Deck as well, as it defaults to 1080p.
Game had missing menu text with default Proton. Changed to latest GE (9-2 at the time) and experienced no issues.
Minor environmental details.
Most settings on low, with TAA and 75% resolution scaling for the best results. No slowdowns in Cyber Stages. I doubt Proton version matters
Game does not hold a Solid 60 in the overworld, fluctuates between 40-60fps. Retains a solid 60 in Cyber Stages
I've tried FSR at 540p, and I still recommend resolution scaling + TAA over it, although it does work fine if you enable windowed mode. While there are frequent slowdowns in the overworld, the game plays fine, and I do recommend playing like this over using the 30fps cap, because it still ends up feeling smoother, oddly enough. Using 40hz doesn't seem to help that much with smoothness in this game and it might cause issues with the 30fps cutscenes, or at least make them look worse. This may be mitigated by using a mod to uncap the cutscene framerate, but I haven't tested it and I can't promise stability, since they were probably capped to 30fps for a reason. Regardless of your preferred fps and resolution settings, some graphical options appear to have little to no effect on the framerate at all, so feel free to leave some of them on if they don't appear to be causing issues.
(If you are playing this on desktop, use some external, probably driver forced Anti Aliasing or a DSR equivlalent instead for better results; TAA ends up being way too aggressive and smeary at higher resolutions.)
Use these settings for a Platinum experience. You should have absolutely no issues on Steam Deck.
PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
Launching with default settings does lead to unusual slowdown in some parts of the game. Using the listed lauch options completely fixes the slowdown for a locked 60fps, leaving only extremely rare, minor frame pacing issues (which I think are just the game being the game), and the scripted slowdown from some abilities and boss defeat animations. I read about some stability issues below, but those appear to either not affect Steam Deck at all, or were already patched out. I will update my report if I find any issues.
For those on a normal Linux PC, even on Windows the game bugs out with Steam Overlay enabled, so try disabling it for a better experience (If you're stuck on a black screen when trying to start Spark's story for the first time, clear the save file as well as disable the overlay). There are no Steam Overlay issues on Steam Deck, however.
