Big changes on Steam: UI improvements, faster In-Game Overlay, fixed FPS counter, and more

Valve introduced September update of the Steam client, which affects several areas at once: In-Game Overlay, the Big Picture, general client functionality, and other aspects. The changes include a number of notable technical and visual updates aimed at improving performance and usability.

In-Game Overlay improvements

Valve has optimized rendering performance, and this is most noticeable when using the performance monitor with the FPS graph. The support applies to games that use modern graphics APIs such as Vulkan, DirectX 12 (D3D12), and the OpenGL shader pipeline. The company clarified that this update will not affect older games with an outdated fixed-function pipeline, as they do not work with optimized modern rendering. Nothing will change for such projects.

Also, the issue with incorrect FPS display in some games that used DLSS technology has been fixed. The update removed blurry fonts and interface elements for users with display scaling over 100%. Additionally, we fixed the DPI scalability for the performance monitor itself. In addition, the monitor now shows the CPU temperature on Windows and Linux (on Windows, this requires the installation of a kernel-level driver).

New accessibility features

Valve has added a new settings menu in desktop mode that is aimed at users with accessibility needs. The options include a high-contrast mode for better visibility, options to reduce animations, and controlling the scale of the user interface.

In addition, the development team has reworked many of the interface components to improve their compatibility with screen readers and other assistive tools. All these changes make the user experience more comfortable overall, especially for people with low vision.

Big Picture update

In Big Picture mode, several issues with the display of the interface have been fixed. For example, the user’s avatar is now displayed correctly even if the client is launched offline.

Also, the developers have eliminated page shifting when scrolling through the link buttons on the game details page.

Other innovations

• Steam Trade Protection: users will now be notified if a sale is canceled by the trade protection system.
• Steam Library: a new Customization tab that allows you to set custom artwork for any game and set your own sorting names instead of staying tied to the standard ones.
• macOS 11 (Big Sur): Valve has added the End of Life Alert warning because support for this system will officially end on October 15, 2025. Reason — The Steam client uses a built-in version of Google Chrome that no longer works with this OS.
• Steam Store: pages are now wider — the main column has been expanded from 940 pixels to 1200 pixels to better utilize space on larger monitors. Previously, this change was only available in the beta version of the client.

Also, with this update, there are many other tweaks, many of which address scaling, text, and visual issues. In addition, bugs have been fixed.

Source: neowin, gamesradar