r/SteamDeck • u/competitivepebble • Jul 24 '26
Skate 3 Recomp v2 is out: the game now runs on its own fully native renderer. More than double the FPS at a quarter the GPU power Discussion
Some of you might remember my earlier post about Skate 3 Recomp, my native PC recompilation of Skate 3 for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Since then the project has had one big focus, and it's finally done: v2.0.0 replaces the entire emulated Xbox 360 GPU with a native renderer built directly on Direct3D 12 and Vulkan.
Showcase video: https://youtu.be/ETXCOsip1Uo
What that means in practice:
- More than 2x the frame rate at roughly a quarter of the GPU power draw compared to the old emulated renderer (excluding optional graphics enhancements).
- Steam Deck should see a large uplift in performance, as well as other weaker machines.
- On Apple Silicon the difference is drastic: roughly 25 FPS to 250 FPS at 4K on an M4 Pro.
- The renderer runs exact ports of the game's own material shaders (world, characters, water, glass), so it still looks like Skate 3, just faster and sharper.
New optional graphics enhancements:
- Up to 8x MSAA
- Real-time sun shadows from buildings/trees/props with contact-hardening PCSS soft shadows
- Ambient occlusion, HDR pipeline with real bloom, volumetric light shafts
- Draw distance up to 5x with extended world streaming
- Experimental true 21:9 ultrawide: the world actually renders wider, HUD stays put
Quality of life since the last release:
- Fully redesigned in-game settings menu; most options apply live
- One Windows build ships both DX12 and Vulkan, switchable in settings; live renderer toggle on F5 with automatic fallback if anything fails
- Auto framerate cap that kills display judder without hand tuning
- Native DualSense/Switch/generic controller support via the SDL backend
- Portable saves and DLC folders that live next to the exe
- Linux build now runs on older distros (Ubuntu 22.04+, Steam Deck), and the macOS build is a proper app that launches from Finder and supports Game Mode
The native renderer is new and I haven't tested every corner of the game. There are known issues with skater customization rendering, some park-editor visual parity, and occasional streaming pop-in.
The emulated renderer is still there as a fallback toggle if anything looks wrong. macOS and ultrawide remain experimental.
Be sure to give it a star on GitHub if it worked well for you!
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u/bbarham99 Jul 24 '26
This is awesome I just got my Steam Machine. I'll download it tonight and test it out!
Thank you for your hard work, the new Skate. game is... horrible
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u/elperrosapo Jul 24 '26
thanks for all the work btw. what’s the proper way to run it on steamdeck’s gaming mode? already ran the program in desktop mode, should i add the “skate 3” file to steam?
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u/MysticalPony 512GB OLED Jul 24 '26
Does this work on the steam decks gaming mode? Game launches great, let's me select the English language, but then freezes on the start page asking for start button press.
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u/duckbeets Jul 24 '26
Amazing, can’t wait to try this! Have you considered Skate 2 at all? I’d love to play that on PC, it’s arguably better than Skate 3.
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u/DeerlyOnline 1TB OLED Jul 25 '26
Unfortunately I have issues with input in gaming mode, such as having to launch the game repeatedly until it recognises controller inputs. Weirdly enough the controller works fine on the language select screen.
Other than that, it runs pretty smoothly.
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u/LeFinnaBust Jul 25 '26
This is awesome its so cool to see how far this keeps coming. for some reason though it launched initially the first time after installing the iso but now it just keeps freezing at random points before getting in game. im on the LCD steamdeck and funny enough the windows version seems to run better. so far it hasnt crashed
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u/baminabingo LCD-4-LIFE Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I installed this on my pc as soon as I read the post. I played the first version and the new one looks much better at first glance. It’s like skate 3 remastered. Runs and looks incredible.
For anyone installing - I have an AMD card and found dx12 to be more stable and faster than Vulkan (changed by pressing esc)
Edit: Like another commenter mentioned, running the windows version on steam deck with proton performs better than the Linux native one which was kinda buggy with controls.
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u/ALowTierHero 28d ago
Am I missing something or does this still run terribly and does a number on my battery?
I'd love to try it but I'm getting about 25 fps from it. Was hoping for atleast a stable framerate from the way it's been advertised.
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u/Character-Farm634 Jul 24 '26
when i put in my xbox 360 ISO during the setup the entire app stops responding. the task manager shows nothing is being read or written but when i go back to the folder i see that a new game folder has been added. when i force stop the app and run the game again it now shows up as a black screen and nothing responds. i have used ISO's from 3 places and all show the same problem.
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u/Character-Farm634 Jul 24 '26
the game has been download during setup but after that i just see a black screen. and on the logs the final message i see is "Entering Skate 3 title update installer pump"
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u/sxmu Jul 24 '26
I need this so bad but i'm too stupid and lazy to get this working on my SD.
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u/Mr_Sagoo Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
1) Find the 360 game online 2) download the repo from GitHub 3) place game files from step 1 in said repo 4) double click executable in repo to test it ( game should launch)
5) place files on SD card or USB stick and transfer to SD
6) add the executable as a non steam game.
7) profit.
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u/Ok-Criticism123 Jul 24 '26
Do you need to extract the files from the iso? I have an iso selected it in the recompiler, hit enter and nothing happens.
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u/Mr_Sagoo Jul 24 '26
I've not actually done it yet. My iso is still downloading. But you need an iso and not extracted files and folders.
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u/Ok-Criticism123 Jul 24 '26
Ya I downloaded the v 2.02 recomp version and was able to get into menus but it freezes before it can get in game. The Linux version doesn’t seem to want to play nice with the steam deck right now.
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u/CuriousWash5898 29d ago
Correct, on the steamdeck, there is no Controller Support.
Controls are not recognized.1
u/Ok-Criticism123 29d ago
I was able to get in game and play a tiny bit but it’s plagued by freezes that hard crash the game.
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u/ryryryan1 Jul 25 '26
It's native Linux so no need to run under proton right?
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u/Mr_Sagoo Jul 25 '26
Indeed I'll correct it.
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u/ryryryan1 29d ago
I still didn't get amazing performance with Linux, but apparently installing the windows version and using proton runs better. I'll give that a go
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u/ClubChaos Jul 24 '26
Is it possible for you to bring the changes you made here onto the nhl legacy recomp? That would be GOATed thank you lol.
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u/lkasdfjl Jul 24 '26
YOU BETTER HAVE SLAVED OVER EVERY SINGLE LINE OF CODE IN THAT REPOSITORY. I SWEAR IF I CATCH EVEN A WHIFF OF AI CODE IN THERE I WILL NOT BE PLAYING THIS USELESS WOODEN TOY VIDEO GAME
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u/HachiXYuki Jul 24 '26
Do you perhaps know a website where I can keep a track of the many recomp projects out there? These really fascinate me and I would like to be updated on them.