FSR4 can now run unofficially on Steam Deck and Linux gaming devices
The Steam Deck is without a doubt one of the more open devices out there, compared to mainstream consoles, in which, thanks to its Linux environment, it gives the user the freedom to install, tweak and do whatever they want with the device, be it installing emulators or other things from the Linux world, alongside a whole array of open source software.
It is due to the open-ended nature of Linux and SteamOS that many users and Linux communities are constantly playing around with what is possible with devices compatible with SteamOS, and more importantly, the Steam Deck. Months ago, the community created the Decky Framegen plugin, which allowed the usage of FSR3 in games that didn't natively include it, or for games that only had DLSS frame generation and instead changed them to use FSR3 instead of DLSS, enabling the DLSS option in the game's menu but using FSR3 instead of DLSS upon activation.
That method relied entirely on FSR3, with FSR4 still being under wraps and unknown to most people...
Until a recent leak directly by AMD.
A few days ago, AMD accidentally made their private FS4 source code entirely public, and that was enough for many people to delve into FSR4 and start playing around with it. Some have already managed to inject the FS4 DLLs directly over FSR3-compatible games, by simply copy-pasting the required FSR4-specific DLLs inside the game's directory (by simply renaming one DLL to match the already existing FSR3 DLL name), alongside the main game's executable file, and that was enough for certain games to make use of FSR4 over FSR3.
That can also be applied directly into the Steam Deck in a game-specific manner, with the user copying the required FSR4 DLLs and replacing the existing DLLs inside the game's directory. But this being Linux, there will always be a way to automate and make it more user friendly for the end user.
The Decky-Framegen plugin for Decky Loader has been updated to v0.11.15, and with this update, an implementation for this very method and feature has been include into it (alongside including OptiScaler as well in the latest minor versions). Once the user has set up decky-Framegen and the FSR4 files properly, with this, users can simply copy-paste the "fgmod" command, add it into the "Launch" option of Steam for the game of choice, and FSR4 will now be enabled within the chosen game (although do have in mind that some games might not be compatible).
With this, the Steam Deck can now pull a little bit more image fidelity at better framerates, even if it means relying on frame generation to achieve it, on more heavy modern games, and while the downside of using FSR4 currently is more battery drain, and slightly less FPS compared to FSR3 (around a ~5fps margin depending on the game), this will certainly be a welcomed surprise for those that wanted better visual quality at good framerates for complex and hardware intensive games on the Steam Deck.
Decky-Framegen GitHub repository
(im never gonna use this feature btw)
