This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/steamdeck by /u/OpenSystem1337 on 2025-08-25 12:23:37+00:00.
There are some basics, and then the trifecta: Optiscaler, ReShade, and Lossless Scaling. Basics first.
The Steam Deck has built in FSR1. To use it in a game, you must either set the resolution below the native 1280 by 800 in-game, or by forcing a lower resolution inside the gear icon under "properties" before you open the game. Only then will you be able to see the built-in FSR work properly.
Additionally, the Steam Deck overlay (gamescope) allows you to view your current fps, and see more detailed breakdowns of how much of the game is utilizing your CPU and GPU. Oftentimes, your GPU will be at 99% in a newer game and your CPU will be down around 40%. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you see this trying manually setting your GPU to 1500 or even 1400 and watching how your frame times react. You may gain a few FPS, and more importantly your frame pacing may improve. There's also a Decky Plugin called "Power Tools" which lets you do the same thing but with your CPU.
Up next is Optiscaler: https://github.com/optiscaler/OptiScaler
There are two ways to use it. The first is by using the "Decky FrameGen" plugin. The second is manually, if it's a non-steam game that you've added.
Manual installation:
Download the latest version in desktop mode. Unzip it. Click this link and download the DLSS.dll for future ease of use. Move it to where you unzipped Optiscaler.
http://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-dll/?amp
Locate where the .exe file of your game is. You will be copying the following files to the folder of your games exe - the D3D12_Optiscaler folder, both amd_fidelity.dlls, both libxess.dlls, the nvngx.dll you just grabbed, Optiscaler.dll, & Optiscaler.ini. If during the process of copying these files you get a prompt to overwrite anything, stop and make a backup of the original first just in case. Now rename the "Optiscaler.dll" to "dxgi dll".
In steam, go to your launch options and type without quotes "WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dxgi=n,b %command%". Remap a back button to the insert key to bring up the Menu once in-game. From here you can access FSR or XeSS from any game that has at least one of those or DLSS as an option, by hijacking the built in upscaler and changing it. I prefer XeSS for image quality typically. If you are able to select DLSS in the game now, don't get too excited; it'll default to XeSS since AMD lacks the software.
Once you have the menu up inside the game, you'll see a section called "frame generation" and can check "OptiFG". You must restart the game once after doing this, but this will allow FSR 3 in ANY GAME that has either AMD or NVIDIA FrameGen in it. Various options, like "HUD fix" and using async can offer further improvements, but can also possibly crash certain games.
Next, we have ReShade. Quick warning: backup the "dxgi.dll" in your game folder first and then move or rename it if it has one. Again, there's a Decky Plugin called "LetMeReshade", or manual way. For non-steam games, we're going manual.
Download it: https://reshade.me/
And unzip. I keep mine right with where I put Optiscaler. Right click and add the ReShade exe as a non-steam game, under compatibility make sure you have proton experimental selected, and run it. It's going to have you select your game's executable file by selecting "browse" at the bottom. Once selected, hit next and on this screen you can choose to add different effects. The pre-selected ones are all we need but it's nice to mess around with once you're comfortable. The next screen will install ReShade. You'll be offered a chance to further tweak things on the next screen which you can skip, and now it's installed.
Use the same launch option mentioned for Optiscaler, and to access the menu remap a button to "Home". I also recommend making the right track pad to mouse for navigating these menus easier. The two ReShade options you wanna focus on at first are "fakeHDR" and "LumaSharpen". They work just like they sound, and you can tweak to preference. FakeHDR looks great in games where the real thing isn't an option, and can greatly enhance how your games look. LumaSharpen will help a lot when you need to upscale a game so it doesn't look blurry, and helps combat aggressive TAA in recent titles.
You can use ReShade and Optiscaler at the same time. Install Optiscaler first,but rename Optiscaler.dll to "winmm.dll" instead. This may not work, and on the GitHub they have a list of other options you can try, but I have most success with this name structure. In this instance, the launch option will be:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dxgi,winmm=n,b %command%.
Last up, Lossless Scaling. 80% of the time, this feels better to me for FrameGen than using the FSR 3 from Optiscaler, or surprisingly even native implementation from the game developer. It will slightly decrease your base FPS, and then allow you to choose between 2x-4x FrameGen. There is also a Decky Plugin for this one:
https://github.com/xXJSONDeruloXx/decky-lossless-scaling-vk
Use it. It's a lot easier than doing it manually and there are instructions in the link for setup. Be advised, Lossless Scaling costs $6 typically on Steam. Please don't use a quacked version, the dev deserves our support it's an amazing app.
Once you load up the decky plugin and have a green light inside that lossless is working correctly, you add the following launch command without quotes to utilize it:
"~/lsfg %command%"
The input lag is tolerable for me in any game that doesn't require precise timing, and even then I use it with Expedition 33 and have no trouble timing dodges or anything. I don't notice it in any games where I'm at least hitting 30fps. You'll have to experiment to see how the different options I'm writing about feel for you, on a per-game basis. Each person and each game is different. I can use 2x lossless in Alan Wake 2 in the woods, with OptiFG enabled hitting around 50fps, and don't see any bad artifacts and it feels okay. Not great, but better than anything else with a game that heavy. Another person might find that to be too much, so try different combinations for yourself.
To use Lossless Scaling, it must be THE LAST launch option you put before %command% or the game will not launch! Example:
gamemoderun WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dxgi,winmm=n,b ~/lsfg %command% -async -dx11
Note where you need commas, where you don't, and what commands you need before and after %command%. Google will help if you're unsure.
This won't let you play every UE5 game out, even if you can make the frame rate read 110 if you're starting at 20fps it will look a lot better but the input lag will be pretty bad. I recommend calibrating your joystick deadzones and testing vsync on vs off in each game to see what feels most responsive to you. This can seem overwhelming, but it takes me about 10 mins to set up ReShade+Optiscaler on a new game, remap a back key for home and insert on regular and long press, and set up the right trackpad as a mouse. Not every game even needs all that, but I promise you — every game WILL look/run better if you use some combination of these.
Apologies for the length, I tried to be concise. If I left anything out, please comment so I can update OP. Hopefully this helps someone utilize their Steam Deck to it's fullest. Particularly on OLED, using ReShade alone can make games much better than on console 🙃
