Valve has released a new Steam Client Beta version for all supported platforms adding some HiDPI improvements for both Windows and Linux systems.
The Steam Client always appeared poor on high-resolution screens with small text and graphics, but Valve finally decided to address these issues and implement a 2X scaling feature for Linux-based operating systems that promise high-resolution text and graphics on 4K screens.
Users can enable the 2X scaling function by using the environment variable “GDK_SCALE = 2” when launching the Steam Client. If it turns out you don’t like this scaling function, you can disable it by running the Steam Client with the environment variable “GDK_SCALE = 1”. For now, Valve has not mentioned whether a GUI option is coming.
In addition to 4K screen support, the latest Steam Client Beta release improves window resizing interactions with the window manager and addresses an issue that forces the Steam Client to prevent the permanent termination of certain desktop sessions.
Valve continues to improve support for games based on Vulkan with the upcoming stable release of the Steam Client, and the beta of today's version encounters a problem with in‑game coverage, which could have crashed or not responded to this type of games. It also reduced the CPU usage of the Steam Client while fixing the user interface.
