Polaris v1.4.12

Your Steam Deck is a streaming host now, Game Mode and all. Spaces open Heroic and Lutris beside Steam, and any device can watch a stream whatever size its screen is. Polaris 1.4.12 is matched with Nova 1.4.12, which brings Nova to the Steam Deck as an Alpha. Existing settings, paired devices and Spaces keep working.

Steam Deck and Steam Game Mode

• A host in Steam Game Mode streams its Game Mode screen, whatever stream mode is set. That works on a Steam Deck and on any PC running a gamescope Steam session.
• A Steam title launched from Nova opens in Game Mode, and a title that is already open is joined instead of launched twice.
• A controller arrives as a DualSense, keyboard and mouse go in through Game Mode's own input, and touch lands where you aim it.
• End Session closes only the title the stream opened. Disconnecting from Nova, a dropped connection and a paused stream leave it running, and Game Mode keeps going.
• Proven on a Steam Deck OLED on SteamOS 3.8.16 with the SteamOS package.
• The SteamOS install now starts Polaris at boot, so it keeps running when the Deck switches between Desktop Mode and Game Mode. On any other Game Mode host, sudo -H polaris --setup-host --enable-headless-boot does the same.

Spaces for Heroic and Lutris

• A Space can run Heroic Games Launcher, with your Epic, GOG and Amazon games, or Lutris, beside Steam. Their games show in your Nova library and start like any Steam game, on Proton or Wine inside the Space.
• Make a Space by picking its launcher. Only the first Space of a launcher downloads its runtime; the next ones copy it.
• On NVIDIA, a Space borrows this PC's own driver, so a driver update no longer strands it.
• Launcher windows fill the stream, a title started from a launcher shows in front of it, and typed text reaches the Space.
• Device Access is one table: a row per device, a column per place it may play, and All or None for every device at once.
• A Space is offered the newer build of its runtime from its card on the Spaces page.

Watch Stream

• A second device can watch the running stream whatever resolution it would ask for. The host says up front what there is to watch, so Nova asks for exactly that stream the first time; Moonlight still has to ask for the stream's own mode.
• Watch Stream is offered only when someone is actually streaming.

Gamescope

• Mouse and keyboard reach a game under Gamescope Stream, the pointer shows, and Gamescope's portal capture can offer HDR.
• A Gamescope host no longer exits when Polaris restarts its own Gamescope for an HDR session.
• A packaged Gamescope session wrapper runs, so on NixOS the nested session uses the Gamescope the install was built with.

Fixed

• A Space stream no longer sends a keyframe twice a second, so its picture stops pulsing.
• A Space made on an older runtime starts after a runtime update, instead of saying its runtime did not start.
• Quitting a game from inside a Space ends the stream cleanly instead of logging a failure.
• A client profile's HDR setting is Auto, On or Off, so saving the form no longer turns Auto into Off.
• sudo -H polaris --setup-host refreshes a Bazzite KMS copy that fell behind the package.
• The Update Center says when the host process is older than the console it serves.
• Nova's Desktop tile opens Desktop, not the Low Res Desktop sample that failed on most hosts.
• A Steam Deck's log is clean: expected states no longer show as errors, and a VA-API encoder's H.264 SPS is read right.

Heads up

• A Space keeps its runtime until you move it. Move it from the Spaces page to get this release's Space fixes.
• Heroic's own menus do not see a controller in a Space yet. Use touch or the mouse there; games get the controller.
• On SteamOS, the Deck LCD, suspend and resume, and SteamOS updates are not certified yet.
• SteamOS keeps network announcements off, so Nova does not find a Steam Deck on its own. Add it by its address; Polaris writes the address in its log.
• Every Polaris install or update removes the KMS capture permission. If this host uses KMS capture, run sudo -H polaris --setup-host --enable-kms after installing, then restart Polaris.
• Bazzite hosts should still install the Fedora 44 RPM through rpm-ostree.

wget --output-document=./Polaris-fedora44-x86_64.rpm https://github.com/papi-ux/polaris/releases/download/v1.4.12/Polaris-fedora44-x86_64.rpm &&
sudo dnf install "./Polaris-fedora44-x86_64.rpm" &&
sudo -H polaris --setup-host &&
systemctl --user restart polaris

wget --output-document=./Polaris-arch-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst https://github.com/papi-ux/polaris/releases/download/v1.4.12/Polaris-arch-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst &&
sudo pacman -U ./Polaris-arch-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst &&
sudo -H polaris --setup-host &&
systemctl --user restart polaris

wget --output-document=./Polaris-ubuntu24.04-x86_64.deb https://github.com/papi-ux/polaris/releases/download/v1.4.12/Polaris-ubuntu24.04-x86_64.deb &&
sudo apt install ./Polaris-ubuntu24.04-x86_64.deb &&
sudo -H polaris --setup-host &&
systemctl --user restart polaris

wget --output-document=./Polaris-steamos3.8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst https://github.com/papi-ux/polaris/releases/download/v1.4.12/Polaris-steamos3.8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst &&
(
set -e
trap 'sudo steamos-readonly enable' EXIT
sudo steamos-readonly disable || exit $?
sudo pacman-key --init || exit $?
sudo pacman-key --populate || exit $?
sudo pacman -Sy || exit $?
sudo pacman -U ./Polaris-steamos3.8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst || exit $?
sudo -H polaris --setup-host --enable-headless-boot || exit $?
sudo steamos-readonly enable || exit $?
trap - EXIT
) &&
systemctl --user enable --now polaris

Assets: Polaris-fedora44-x86_64.rpm · Polaris-arch-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst · Polaris-ubuntu24.04-x86_64.deb · Polaris-steamos3.8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst