FUEL – Running on Steam Deck with Anti-Aliasing

AA Problem

Note: Credit goes to TrustNo1

As you may know in-game AA does not work at all in this game no matter what do you set in setup settings.

That’s why using the native steam deck’s resolution (1280*800) you will see lots of annoying “ladders” on objects’ edges.

And unfortunately steam deck has not something like video driver control panel where you can force AA for a specific game.

I’ve tried to apply SMAA/FXAA using vkBasalt and it does not give any noticeable result (FXAA gives even worse picture than without it, SMAA does not work at all).

Solution

So the only solution is to render game in higher resolution than SD’s screen has. This is so-called SSAA (super sampling antialiasing). This game is rather old so SD handles it in solid 60 fps even in 1080p/1200p resolution (and maybe in 1440p too, but I didn’t check that).

To do that you have to set resolution in steam deck’s game settings preliminary (the gear icon inside the game details).

Important point is that you NEED to do that BEFORE the first launch of the game.

Set the resolution to 1600×1000 and tick the “Set resolution for external/internal display”. This will give you reasonable battery life and good picture in result. Of course you can set it even to 1920×1200 but in this case in-game text will be hardly readable sometimes and battery life will be worse.

After that run the game and check that in “VIdeo options” new resolution is shown. Click OK and play the game.

Enjoy much better and smooth picture!