The Steam Deck is a portable handheld gaming station that is technically a PC. While it looks like and shares features with a Nintendo Switch, the Deck is actually much more powerful and runs a full Linux-built PC inside. This allows players to play almost all the Steam PC games currently listed, although with some compatibility issues. While there is a dedicated library of Steam Deck-compatible and verified games, you can always install games like The Outer Worlds and play them on the Deck. Well, if you did, you might have encountered the crashing issue in The Outer Worlds. So, this guide in particular will help get rid of this annoying issue in-game.
Since the game is not yet verified to be played on the Steam Deck, crashes and other issues can be expected. Unfortunately, since the developers are not working on a Steam Deck version and the Linux port is questionable at best, players are left with their own workarounds for fixing such crashing issues. That being said, here are a bunch of effective workarounds you can try.
The Outer Worlds crashing on Steam Deck: How to fix it?
Since the crashes will eventually freeze your Steam Deck system and leave you on the desktop screen again, these aren’t too different from the crashes PC users have been reporting for a while now. Anyway, try these workarounds:
1). Restart the Deck
A full system restart will solve any software or other glitches you are having with the game itself. You can do this by holding down the power button of the Steam Deck for around 10 seconds and waiting for the system to fully restart. If the issue persists, try the next workaround.
2). Update the game
Make sure you are running the latest version of the game. If you are not, head over to Steam Library, select The Outer Worlds, and check whether there is an update pending. If there is, download and install the update. Once you update it, the game will run better since the latest versions are usually more stable than the older versions of the game.
3). Turn off Screen Global Illumination
This is an in-game graphical setting that affects lighting and how illumination in general is processed by the system. If you want to avoid any crashing issues on the Deck, consider disabling the Screen Global Illumination option from the game’s settings menu. It is possible that this setting is making the game crash on your Deck, which is why disabling it is the best solution.
4). Start a new game
If none of these options work for you, you might want to consider restarting your in-game progress. A corrupted save file can also be the cause of this issue, which is why starting a new save might fix the problem for good.
5). Change Proton Version
You can also consider running the game on various Proton versions and checking which one minimizes the crashing issues the most. Proton Experimental or Proton GE might work best.
5). General Troubleshooting
This workaround involves a series of steps, like verifying game files and reinstalling the game itself. Verifying the game files can be done by following these steps:
- First, head over to the Steam library, and go to the game’s tile.
- Here, click on the Options button, and select Properties.
- Now, go to Installed files.
- Finally, click on the Verify Integrity of Game Files option. Once verified, the game will purge all corrupted files and reinstall all of them.
If this workaround didn’t fix the crashing issues, you might want to consider reinstalling the game entirely. After a fresh reinstall, the chances of game crashes are significantly minimized.
Well, now you know how to fix the The Outer Worlds crashing issue on the Steam Deck. If you found this guide helpful and would like to read more such content, make sure to visit Android Gram daily.
