Steam store flickering

[Asteliks]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date):
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Fedora
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
• Steam System Info: https://gist.github.com/Asteliks/c2c64fea3927eba80fe6e07901346d9a
• Steam runtime environment diagnostics: https://gist.github.com/Asteliks/97b8f2a7d540fb0ebe8ae66e1c1cc305
• Issue recording: 2023-11-20 22-34-12.zip
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Hello Steam Support,

I'm reaching out to bring attention to a technical glitch in the Steam application that has been affecting my user experience. The issue revolves around persistent "flickering," notably conspicuous during navigation within the store. Notably, this problem appears exclusive to the Steam application and does not manifest in any other software.

Furthermore, additional anomalies have been observed. These include erratic screen behavior, with noticeable vertical movement during scrolling, and a pronounced delay when inputting text—such as in this report.

For your convenience, I have attached a recording that captures the observed "flickering" phenomenon.

Your prompt attention and assistance in resolving these technical challenges would be greatly appreciated.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Open Steam
2. Go to store
3. The flickering show has begun. No extra steps needed

Edit:
Disabling hardware acceleration doesn't resolve the issue.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @Asteliks, from the comments on #10005, can you go to Steam -> Settings -> Interface and check if Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views is enabled, and if togging it works around this issue.

[Asteliks]

Hello @kisak-valve, I've tried that yesterday and after your comment just in case. Unfortunately the issue persists no matter if GPU acceleration is enabled or disabled. However I must say that today after disabling the GPU acceleration the flickering is a bit less annoying. It is still there but it is slower.

[ghost]

Distro: Arch
GPU Сard: NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti card
Desktop : GNOME/KDE Wayland
Driver Version : [545.29.06]
I can also tell, that I have the same problem,
This problem occurs when Wayland session is running and steam is running via xwayland, if you run steam in x11 there is no such problem.

[anohren]

Same problem on a fully updated Gnome Wayland on Ubuntu 23.10 on a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3427U with HD Graphics 4000

[FishyW]

Same issue with me too on Fedora GNOME Wayland NVIDIA, except for me toggling Enable GPU accelerated rendering in web views does seem to fix the issue. Only problem with that is toggling that option seems to cause Steam Library to lag.

[ItsGamerik]

same issue on this system (GPU accelerated webview enabled):

OS: Fedora Linux 39 (Workstation Edition)
KERNEL: 6.5.11-300.fc39.x86_64
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
GPU DRIVER: NVIDIA 535.129.03
RAM: 63 GB

this also happens on any other page that is displayed as a webview

[ghost]

Replying to #10238 (comment)

When you disable gpu rendering of web pages, the problem goes away

[EntityinArray]

Disabling GPU render of web pages stops flickering for me, but I would like to use GPU because it's slow on CPU.
Chrome and Chromium work fine, so my guess is that Steam uses outdated chromium

[hak8or]

Chiming in to say also disabling HW acceleration in web views resolved my flickering woes.

[ergo3d]

same problem

gpu: nvidia 4080
os: arch linux
composer: wayland
driver: 545.29.06 (and any previous)
source: flatpack (native too)
steam logs: logs.zip

no matter enabled gpu acceleration or not, no flickering only while used x11
seems like problem happen because steam working through xwayland not wayland native

[Asteliks]

@ergo3d you might be suffering the same issue as I'm could you attach your logs for the steam devs? Perhaps this will make their lives easier

[oahshtsua]

Same issue with me. Steam client flickers even when GPU accelerated rendering is disabled. I have noticed that this occurs when the steam client is maximized. This does not occur when it is not maximized and in the size with which it opened initially.

• Steam client version (build number or date):
  • Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client
  • Steam Version: 1705108172
  • Steam Client Build Date: Sat, Jan 13 6:37 AM UTC -08:00
  • Steam Web Build Date: Fri, Jan 12 10:47 PM UTC -08:00
  • Steam API Version: SteamClient021
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Fedora (KDE 5.27.10 Wayland Session)
• Opted into Steam client beta?: No
• Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU

[Asteliks]

@oahshtsua could you attach your logs for the steam devs? Perhaps this will make their lives easier

[ItsGamerik]

Chiming in to say also disabling HW acceleration in web views resolved my flickering woes.

also chiming in to say that this fixed the issue for me too

[ergo3d]

problem fully fixed if you using new nouveau nvk driver, but it has bad performance for now and dont support cuda at all

[Asteliks]

I did some testing and it would seem that the cause of the issue are the Nvidia proprietary drivers. As stated by ergo3d the flickering stops on nouveau drivers. However a different issue appears there - when moving steam from one monitor to another it goes completely black

[anohren]

it would seem that the cause of the issue are the Nvidia proprietary drivers

Should I delete my comment so that it doesn't conflict with your conclusion?

[Asteliks]

it would seem that the cause of the issue are the Nvidia proprietary drivers

Should I delete my comment so that it doesn't conflict with your conclusion?

@anohren It may be best if you open your own ticket with all the logs attached

[anohren]

Yeah maybe you're right. While I seem to have the same symptoms I can't assert that it's the same cause.

[ergo3d]

#4924 (comment)

[Asteliks]

#4924 (comment)

@ergo3d I've tried the suggested solution. It seems to solve the flickering issue but adds two new ones:

• when scrolling that store pages seem to jump. For example scroll down -> the steam page moves down -> for a second it jumps back up -> than jumps back to the intended position
• other apps seem to leak into the steam view. For example have steam store open and try doing anything. At random times other currently open applications will take over the steam store view (can be your browser, file explorer, gnome background - anything that is "behind steam"). When trying to print screen this issue everything gets the way it should. Only way to show this is by taking a picture of your screen with an external device. View I randomly get when going throughout game photos on the steam store (yes you can see my browser leak into Steam):
  

[SadmL]

I've encountered with same problem on Arch (Endeavour), Plasma 5.27 (Wayland), nvidia-dkms 545 (if I not mistaken).
I've disabled smooth scroll and GPU rendering and there is no flickering anymore.
Updated to Plasma 6.0.2 and nvidia-dkms 550 - all works fine.

[FriedPotatoes49]

It looks like the steam beta update fixes this. I'm on Nobara Linux with Wayland on a GTX 1650 with driver 550.
Edit: I did a bit more testing and it seems to all work perfectly now. Before, i would have flickering with the steam overlay, but with the beta it's fixed. Dunno if this'll work for other people but i'l leave this here for if it'll help someone else

[ItsGamerik]

I am also running the beta on fedora linux 40 with nvidia driver version 550.76. When turning on hw acceleration for WebView the shop and community sections are still very glitchy and unusable.

[ergo3d]

seems like fixed NVIDIA-SMI 555.42.02
with nvidia.NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0 nvidia_drm.modeset=1 nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 on boot oprions

[dinhokusanagi]

I have the same problem with AMD lacquer, Proton games run, but native games like Dota 2 don't, Steam simply closes and I have to close the session

[iso2013]

seems like fixed NVIDIA-SMI 555.42.02 with nvidia.NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0 nvidia_drm.modeset=1 nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 on boot oprions

On my machine, setting only nvidia_drm.fbdev=1 was sufficient.

[Asteliks]

This issue seems to be fixed on the current version of steam, fedora and NVidia drivers as such I'm closing this issue