The new Fallout 4 update comes with a Steam Deck verified checkmark! The folks over at Bethesda have fixed a ton of bugs, added in new content, new weapons, and made massive improvements to the game on various other consoles. You’ll want to check out the entire Fallout 4 Next-Gen Update changelog for all of the details.
Those of us with a Steam Deck have actually had a love & hate relationship with this update though,
Not only did it make the overall performance worse on the Steam Deck, owners of the OLED model couldn’t even play the game on day 1 of the update. Thankfully, an update to Proton that fixed a lot of these bugs was released a few days later. People are just curious as to how they can access the Fallout 4 launcher when they play the game on the Steam Deck.
Table of Contents
- Removal of the Fallout 4 Launcher
- How to Access the Fallout 4 Launcher?
- Steam Deck Fallout 4 Launcher Option
- Removing the Launcher Again
Removal of the Fallout 4 Launcher
See, another big change that happened in this Next Gen update for the Steam Deck was the removal of the launcher. In order to be Steam Deck verified, Bethesda had to stop the launcher from starting when the game is executed. The company came up with a “Steam Deck configuration file” so to speak. Which sets up the graphical options to a level they believe is best for the handheld.
Those settings are completely subjective though, as certain features are just completely irrelevant for some of us.
Shadow Quality, Motion Blur, and Lens Flare are great examples of settings that I’m more than happy to disable or lower. It usually doesn’t matter which game I’m playing. I’ve been dropping down or disabling settings like these for decades just so that I can increase the game’s overall performance.
Some people have even reported worse performance after this Next Gen update on their Steam Deck when compared to the previous build. And I believe it has to be the result of these configuration changes that Bethesda set for Fallout 4. I’m not trying to say they have made the game unplayable. Far from it. I just believe that some of us had the game fine-tuned to our liking and this new update has resulted in worse performance for some of us.
So let’s bring back the Fallout 4 Launcher!
How to Access the Fallout 4 Launcher?
If you’re playing Fallout 4 on the Steam Deck then you’ll be happy to learn there’s a way to bring back the launcher. And it’s not even that difficult to setup, either.
- Visit the game page in the Steam Deck library.
- Select the gear icon.
- Then dive into the Properties for Fallout 4.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the General tab.
- Then set the custom Launch Option to access the launcher.
- SteamDeck=0 %command%
- Then back out of the Properties window.
- And launch Fallout 4 like normal.
The Next Gen update for Fallout 4 set the game to automatically launch with the SteamDeck=1 parameter. This tells the game to bypass the launcher on startup and that is what brings you directly into the game. So by changing this, we actually end up starting the game exactly how it was started before this major update was released. This is how we can access the launcher for Fallout 4 on the Steam Deck.
Steam Deck Fallout 4 Launcher Option
Removing the Launcher Again
The great about about this update, though, is the ability to remove the launcher once you have setup the graphical options to your liking. So it’s the best of both worlds. Not only can you fine-tune Fallout 4 on the Steam Deck to play exactly like you want, but you can also stop the launcher from starting before the game.
This is done by just going back into the Properties area of the game, Fallout 4.
Then removing everything you put in that Launch Options field. Once removed, back out of the window again and simply launch the game on the Steam Deck like you normally would. This time, instead of bringing you to the Launcher menu, you will be taken directly into the main menu area for the game.