The Alters runs surprisingly well on Valve’s handheld gaming PC/console, also known as the Steam Deck. The game already has a set of optimized PC settings, which translates fairly well onto the handheld.
However, in order to maintain a smoother 60 frames per second on the Deck, we will need to adjust a few settings. These will be described below.
Optimized The Alters settings for the Steam Deck
In-game settings
- Screen Mode: Fullscreen; can be toggled to Windowed Fullscreen as well
- Display: Keep at the default value
- Resolutions: 1280×800; Steam Deck native resolution
- VSync: Off; always keep disabled.
- Maximum Frame Rate: 60; the game won’t go beyond 60 FPS anyway, and this cap can help it save some power
- Graphics Quality: Low; we will also be using these presets for the more advanced options
- Motion Blur: Off; more of a personal preference, and can be left enabled if desired
- Resolution Upscaling: AMD FSR 3; our only choice here
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3: Performance; can be upped to Balanced if you don’t mind a more wonky frame rate graph
- Frame Generation: Off; the increased latency and image smearing is not worth it
- Anti-Aliasing Quality: Low
- Post-Process Quality: Low
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Reflections Quality: Low
- Texture Quality: Low
- Effects Quality: Low
- Ambient Occlusion Quality: Low
- Model Quality: Low
Steam Deck specific settings
- Frame Rate Limit: 60
- TDP: 15 W
- Battery Drain: 25-20 W
With the presets above, expect a play time of around 1.5 to 2 hours on the original, LCD version of the Steam Deck. Those with the refreshed OLED version can expect roughly double the battery life (that is, around 4 hours).
As far as performance is concerned, The Alters runs decently well on the Steam Deck. The game usually hits 60 FPS in most cases, save for the exploration segments, where it can dip to as low as 45 FPS.
