With the right settings, Pragmata can hack it on the Steam Deck - more or less

Performance, artillery life, necessity of squinting tested

Sci-fi dadblaster Pragmata is Capcom’s 2nd smooth-running RE Engine crippled successful 2 months, dishing retired loads of ray-traced frames connected muscular PCs portion inactive moving astatine a decent clip if you don’t rather conscionable each of its minimum strategy specs. But what happens erstwhile you dip adjacent lower, down towards the realm of shared RAM and integrated graphics successful which the Steam Deck resides? That’s mostly good too. Probably didn’t request the melodramatic buildup, did it.

Much similar its befringed cousin, Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata’s slickness connected desktop whitethorn not construe perfectly onto the overmuch much frugal innards of Valve’s handheld PC; expect to walk much clip astir 30fps than 60, adjacent with the customized settings I’ve worked retired below. But it’s playable, without the request for immoderate power tweaks oregon Proton compatibility wrangling, to the grade that it’s already won Steam Deck Verified status. Why, that’s similar getting a firm, Dota 2-calloused thumbs up from Gabe himself, not to notation implicit confirmation that it’ll yet play bully with the caller Steam Machine arsenic well.

• Pragmata Steam Deck settings guide

Right now, though, I bash carnivore immoderate warnings. One is simply a spot of a nitpick, which could good extremity up being patched: the Deck-matching 1280x800 solution mounting doesn’t take, utilizing the aforesaid proportions and horizontal achromatic bars arsenic the 1280x720 option. Mildly irritating astatine first, if broadly ignorable. The second, which whitethorn beryllium much disappointing to anyone hoping for different Requiem-style masterclass successful handheld performance, is that Pragmata does conflict much with its ain toughest bits. Whacking connected the lowest graphics preset, Minimum, inactive isn’t capable to wholly debar sub-30fps drops erstwhile the surface gets engaged with shining moonbase architecture and effect-bristling android baddies.

Those situations, luckily, are some the worst of the worst and comparatively rare. It is successful information imaginable to crook up definite prime and FSR upscaling options from their Minimum levels portion maintaining astir the aforesaid level of performance, which to instrumentality a wider view, typically amounts to astir 35fps successful the hard bits, 40-45fps successful the bulk of scenes, and arsenic overmuch arsenic 60fps successful the tighter corridors. Some occasional wobbles don’t undermine how, for a major, high-fidelity enactment crippled successful 2026, that’s perfectly acceptable.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

The default controls acceptable the Deck snugly, too. I don’t needfully hold with Steam’s declaration, connected startup, that gamepad-style controls are outright amended – I find the tile-navigating hack manoeuvre overmuch quicker and easier to propulsion disconnected with rodent flicks – but Pragmata was undoubtedly developed with look buttons and enarthrosis triggers successful mind, truthful it’s close astatine location ergonomically. And, contempt cruelly robbing maine of 80 much vertical pixels, it’s ever been easy parsable to maine connected the archetypal LCD Deck’s 7in screen. Even the somewhat dinky fastener glyphs that popular up successful menus and hacking windows aren’t hard to marque out, provided you instrumentality to FSR 3 upscaling (and not the sinful mushiness of FSR 1).

Battery usage does thin towards the harsh side, mind. With show brightness and talker measurement some astatine 50%, Pragmata slurped a afloat charged LCD Steam Deck to bare successful 1h 20m. That’s not the implicit fastest I’ve seen a crippled drain the archetypal model, and you tin expect astatine slightest a mates of hours connected the much businesslike Steam Deck OLED, though rendering each those 3D printed landscapes and yellowish hairsbreadth strands is evidently thirsty work.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Pragmata Steam Deck settings guide

The Steam Deck does payment from Pragmata’s sprightly desktop performance, if indirectly – you don’t request to beryllium a thermal paste-flecked hardware nerd to fig retired that a crippled susceptible of large framerates connected older and/or lower-end PCs would person a amended accidental connected handheld-grade parts. Alas, adjacent Pragmata’s tech triumphs can’t transportation implicit successful their entirety. Ray tracing, an exceptionally well-optimised lighting and reflections upgrade connected astir desktop GPUs, is disconnected the array here, and a batch of the idiosyncratic settings wherever prime level seemingly has nary effect connected a decent PC’s show will, connected the Deck, overmuch much visibly devour your frames unless turned down. Or, successful immoderate cases, off.

All the same, settling for the Minimum preset is defeatist, and worse, uglier than necessary. A fewer settings, similar texture quality, mesh quality, volumetric lighting, and effects quality, tin each beryllium tuned somewhat upwards from their Minimum floor, each without worsening those already infrequent sub-30fps drops. FSR 3, too, tin spell up to Balanced mode; Performance sounds tempting, but from what I‘ve played, Balanced looks overmuch little fuzzy portion lone costing 1-2fps successful the hard bits, if that.

Here’s what I’ve settled on, for playing connected the LCD Steam Deck:

• V-Sync: Off
• Ray tracing: Off
• Path tracing: Off
• Global illumination quality: Low
• Upscaling: FSR 3 connected Balanced
• Dynamic resolution: Off
• Frame generation: Off
• Hair quality: Low
• Texture quality: Low: 0.5GB
• Texture filtering: High (ANISO x2)
• Mesh quality: Medium
• Shadow quality: Low
• Shadow cache: On
• Contact shadows: Off
• Effects quality: Medium
• Video quality: Full HD
• Ambient occlusion: Off
• Volumetric lighting: Medium
• Bloom: Off
• Screen abstraction reflections: Off
• Subsurface scattering: Off
• Motion blur: Off
• Lens flare: Off
• Lens distortion: Off
• Depth of field: Off

Because I’m an fantabulous writer, I prematurely described the circumstantial show of these settings astir 5 paragraphs earlier listing them, truthful to recap: mostly 40-45fps, tilting towards 35fps-ish erstwhile Pragmata is astatine is astatine its astir demanding, and perchance hitting 60fps astatine its least. More than enough, successful different words – portion the lone scary happening astir this crippled is however unprepared it makes maine consciousness for fatherhood, its deliberate, astir cautious shooting benignant has much successful communal with fearfulness games than twitchy FPSseses, truthful it inactive feels comfy with a framework number successful the thirties.