Valve’s newly released Steam Frame has already received a couple of updates following its launch earlier this month, and a software developer at the company, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has revealed a new improvement to its Proton Experimental branch thanks to the addition of FEX code cache. Griffais says the change “should exhibit improved 1%-low frame times.”

In other words, fewer FPS drops and overall smoother performance – something which is perhaps doubly important for a VR gaming environment to help avoid motion sickness. Valve published its first public SteamOS for Steam Frame update a couple of weeks ago, while the Proton Experimental branch is a more bleeding-edge version for those who opt in.

FEX code cache is now enabled on Proton Experimental

For those unaware, FEX is an open-source emulator that allows x86 applications (including games) to run on ARM64 Linux devices, which is exactly what the Steam Frame is, powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor for standalone gaming. Valve has been funding the open-source FEX project “since the beginning,” and developers have contributed directly.

Proton is Valve’s compatibility layer that helps run Windows-based games on Linux machines, so Proton and FEX work in tandem to get games running standalone on the Steam Frame. Valve is also the developer behind Lepton, yet another translation tool for running Android games on the headset’s Linux-based operating system, SteamOS.

You can check out the latest Proton versions on the ValveSoftware GitHub; the latest version is Proton 11.0-2. Proton Experimental was updated last week with a handful of game-related fixes along with framework updates.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.