Forza Horizon 6 makes a viable Steam Deck game, assuming you can find room to park it

Forza Horizon 6 is already Steam Deck Verified, which I’m forced to concede makes overmuch of this nonfiction surplus to requirements. Yes alright, large greenish checkmark, you tin convey the meaning of "it works" without publishing an full show and settings guide, oregon so needing to spell retired the words "it" oregon "works". But past we’ve known that since March anyway, truthful I conjecture we’re some stating the obvious.

Or are we? FH6 whitethorn travel Forza Horizon 5 down the smoothly tarmacked roadworthy of afloat Deck compatibility, but it inactive requires immoderate extended quality-lowering to flight sluggishness – its brisk gait connected desktop PCs being overmuch harder to lucifer connected handheld hardware. At the aforesaid time, sticking the Very Low preset connected and being done with it robs the crippled of astir of its Forza-standard lustre, astatine slightest traces of which tin beryllium kept without sending framerates disconnected a cliff similar a confused satnav.

First thing’s first, though: making abstraction for it. Forza Horizon 6 is the portliest Horizon yet, clocking conscionable implicit 155GB erstwhile installed – capable to marque the 64GB Steam Deck’s interior retention a non-starter and swamping astir of the 256GB model. Less than perfect for a portable PC, and that’s each earlier the inevitable integrative artifact crossover expansion. The bully news, though, is that it besides doesn’t look to person immoderate qualms with moving disconnected a microSD card, truthful if you don’t consciousness similar swapping retired the full SSD, popping successful a humble representation paper tin easy assistance accommodate FH6’s heaped gigabytes.

There is 1 past hoop to leap done earlier playing, successful the signifier of Microsoft’s irritating Xbox relationship login, but astatine slightest this doesn’t request repeating erstwhile you’re signed successful for the archetypal time. The Xbox work besides handles unreality saves, alternatively than Steam, and successful signifier this works overmuch the aforesaid arsenic Valve’s mentation – truthful if you’re playing a Steam copy, your advancement (and rapidly swelling postulation of bodykitted Japanese sedans) volition inactive transportation implicit betwixt your Deck and your main PC.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Otherwise, it’s concern arsenic normal. There’s nary request for Proton GE oregon immoderate different compatibility doctoring, and the default controls grip precise nicely indeed. Battery beingness is down a spot compared to Forza Horizon 5 – that drained a fully-charged LCD Steam Deck successful 1h 37, whereas FH6 ran it adust successful 1h 23m – but it’s not the thirstiest crippled to ever grace these thumbsticks. Quick pause/quick resume works too, playing offline is good contempt the Xbox relationship stuff, and there’s precise small successful the UI that becomes hard to work erstwhile compressed into the portable-sized screen.

The past concern, then, is performance. Horizon 6’s benchmark instrumentality provides america immoderate shorthand: with FSR 3.1 upscaling connected Quality mode, it averages 30fps connected the Medium preset, 36fps connected Low, and 46fps connected Very Low. Pelting it astir the crippled for real, however, shows that these numbers are conscionable the means of immoderate reasonably up-and-down framerates – again, overmuch much truthful than connected desktop.

Medium, for instance, does enactment supra 30fps retired successful the state roads, but walk done Shibuya Crossing successful dense postulation and it falls into the twenties excessively often to usage as-is. Low tin dip beneath 30fps successful engaged areas too, albeit much momentarily, and tin scope arsenic precocious arsenic 60fps retired successful the sticks. Very Low is intelligibly the quickest but also, by 4 lasting quarter-miles, the slightest pretty. And playing an disfigured Forza conscionable seems wrong.

The solution? Combine each three.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Forza Horizon 6: Steam Deck settings guide

In a changeable of luck, galore of Horizon 6’s astir performance-wilting settings – peculiarly texture and geometry prime – are the kinds wherever playing connected a smaller, lower-rez show makes their diminished forms harder to spot. Others are capable aesthetic upgrades to beryllium worthy clutching onto: yes, you could get a fewer much frames retired of wholly disabling shadows, but that really will look crap.

Below are the settings I’ve been utilizing myself, pursuing a investigating regimen that mostly revolved astir driving done Tokyo until the chugging stopped. They’ve been getting maine betwixt 30-40fps successful the city, usually sticking astir 45-50fps elsewhere. You whitethorn besides request to manually acceptable the show solution to 1280x800, and to region the game’s 30fps headdress – the second was defaulted to connected my Deck, arsenic was a somewhat abbreviated 720p rez.

• Motion blur: Short
• Resolution scaling: FSR connected Balanced
• Car level of detail: Low
• Environment texture quality: Low
• Environment geometry quality: Very Low
• Car reflection quality: Very Low
• Screen abstraction reflections quality: Off
• Raytraced reflections quality: Off
• Shadow quality: High
• Night shadows: Off
• Screen abstraction GI quality: Medium
• Raytraced GI quality: Off
• Shader quality: Low
• Audio quality: Ultra
• Deformable terrain quality: Medium
• Particle effects quality: Medium
• Volumetric fog quality: Off
• Lens effects: Off
• Motion blur quality: Low

There’s besides 1 different tweak that whitethorn beryllium of interest. Out amongst the tract and trees, framerates tin spell considerably higher, but they tin besides highest and trough rather rapidly: 55fps 1 infinitesimal past 42fps the adjacent past backmost to 50fps and backmost down to 44fps and truthful on. While it technically mightiness permission immoderate frames connected the table, I ended up utilizing the Steam Deck’s ain Performance settings paper (accessible by pressing the three-dotted button) and limiting the display’s refresh complaint to 45Hz, efficaciously a 45fps cap. Despite the snipped-off highs, this successful information made FH6 look smoother overall, arsenic determination wasn’t specified noticeable lurching betwixt show levels. Hah! Let's spot you deliberation of that, checkmark face.