1.5.0-beta.2 is about timing and control: Steam you can drive from the couch, a host console that leads with what is happening now, VRR that follows the game’s own clock when you ask for it, and a host and client that keep evidence instead of guessing. Everything beta.1 brought is still here. Choose this prerelease explicitly if you want to test it; stable updates remain 1.4.13.
| Device | Asset to look for | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Android phone, handheld, tablet or TV | Nova-Beta-Android-<abi>.apk |
Nova Beta installs beside stable Nova, keeps its own pairing and follows the beta update channel. Nova updates and betas. |
| Linux PC or Steam Deck | Nova-Linux-x86_64-alpha.flatpak |
The native Linux client, still an Alpha, with PyroWave in the same bundle. Update the installation you already use. Nova on Linux. |
| Steam Frame | Nova-Linux-aarch64-frame-alpha.flatpak |
Where the release lists it, an experimental alpha in its own Flatpak installation, with its own pairing and settings and no update channel. Steam Frame alpha. |
| Polaris host on Fedora, Arch or Ubuntu | Polaris-fedora44-x86_64.rpm, Polaris-arch-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst, Polaris-ubuntu24.04-x86_64.deb |
The package repositories serve stable only, so install the attached package. Polaris install steps. |
| Polaris host on a Steam Deck | Polaris-steamos3.8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst or Polaris-steamos3.9-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst |
Match the SteamOS release the Deck runs. SteamOS 3.8 and 3.9. |
Use only the assets the release actually lists, and check each one against the SHA-256 file attached beside it.
This release was called 1.4.14 while beta.1 was out. It is 1.5.0 now, and 1.5.0-beta.2 is the next build of the same train. A Polaris host on 1.4.14-beta.1 updates to it the ordinary way, and the Update Center offers it with betas on. Nova Beta 1.5.0-beta.2 installs over 1.4.14-beta.1, and the beta update channel offers it.
Mission Control, rebuilt
One stage shows what is happening now: the running title while you stream, or the next one while the host is idle, over the title’s own artwork. Recent games is a shelf of posters; selecting one starts nothing until you press Launch. Frame health, pacing, host vitals, launch checks and session history sit in one Diagnostics section.
Director, and room for phones
A sixth theme, < Congratulations, Director >, brings Nova’s charcoal
look to the console; Polaris Aurora stays the default. On a narrow page the
sidebar becomes a drawer, in portrait or landscape. That layout was checked
in a browser emulating phones and tablets, not yet on a physical one.
Steam from the couch
Polaris can keep desktop Steam open after End Session and close only the game that stream launched. Nova on Android and Linux can open Steam or Big Picture on the PC, or ask Steam to quit. Quitting with a game running asks first. These controls need a Polaris 1.5.0-beta.2 host.
A package for SteamOS 3.9
SteamOS 3.9 can’t load the 3.8 package’s libraries, so it has its own package, capture helper and debug symbols. Each SteamOS package refuses the other release, and the Update Center picks the one your Deck needs.
Opt-in pacing
Allow source-paced VRR (experimental) lets a Private Stream follow the game’s own frame cadence when the capture route can prove its timing. Leave Game Mode Before Launch is a per-app choice for Steam Deck hosts on SteamOS 3.9. Both are off by default. Each has had limited hands-on checks, not wide testing.
Doctor before the stream
Fix My Stream shows the host’s own configuration findings before you connect: a saved KMS capture that Private Stream sets aside, a configured mode this host can’t enter and why, and the last stream’s capture findings, marked unverified until the next one.
Recording, experimental
Host & Runtime has a Recording tab: Manual continuous, or a Replay buffer that keeps the last minutes of one stream in memory until a host admin saves it. Files are raw H.264 or HEVC video with no audio or container. Playback is not qualified.
Host Console, inside Nova
On Android, Host Console opens the host’s console in Nova’s theme. With a Polaris 1.5.0-beta.2 host, Launch in Mission Control streams the game to the device in your hands. Expand gives the console the whole window.
Evidence that stays with you
Report This Moment freezes the client’s readings into a local report, and Working baseline compares a later stream with one you marked good. Both are on Android and Linux. Last Stream recaps a finished stream on Android only. Nothing is sent on its own.
Optional PyroWave upscaling
Nova Beta for Android adds SGSR 1 upscaling (experimental, PyroWave SDR), off by default. It sharpens edges when an 8-bit PyroWave SDR stream smaller than your screen is scaled up in Fit or Stretch. It adds no detail the stream did not carry. Its limits.
A Steam Frame beta build
A separate ARM64 beta download for Steam Frame, where the release lists it, installed apart from any other Nova. H.264, HEVC and PyroWave each streamed 1080p at a requested 60 fps in a short functional check. What is still untested.
| Feature | Nova for Android (Beta) | Nova Linux and Steam Deck (Beta) |
|---|---|---|
| Steam controls | Yes, with a 1.5.0-beta.2 host | Yes, with a 1.5.0-beta.2 host |
| Report This Moment and Working baseline | Yes | Yes |
| Tailscale readout and per-host profile rules | Yes, with a 1.5.0-beta.2 host for the readout | Android only for now |
| Last Stream card | Yes | Android only for now |
| PyroWave | Experimental; SDR, 4:2:0 or 4:4:4 where the device decodes it | Experimental; SDR 8-bit 4:2:0 |
| SGSR 1 upscaling | Experimental, off by default | Android only |
Host Console’s Nova theme and Launch to this device are Android features. The Steam Frame beta is a separate build with its own limits; read its guide rather than assuming it matches the x86_64 client.
PyroWave remains experimental and manually selected. Auto never picks it, and Spaces don’t carry it. PyroWave in the beta covers devices, bitrate units and limits.
SGSR 1 is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 1, under Settings, Client Stream Defaults in Nova Beta for Android. It applies only when an 8-bit PyroWave SDR stream is smaller than your screen and shown in Fit or Stretch. HDR or 10-bit, Fill and full-size streams keep the usual scaling, and a change applies from the next stream. If it can’t run, the picture is still scaled smoothly and the log says why.
Its picture quality is not established yet. SGSR 1 still needs same-scene picture-quality checks across devices. A limited offscreen GPU check of small synthetic test frames on a Retroid Pocket 6 found differences from its reference model on a noise pattern that are still being investigated; that check does not measure picture quality, speed or what reaches the screen.
In a short same-scene Control comparison on the Retroid Pocket 6, the player found both usual 720p scaling and 720p with SGSR good without a noticeable difference, and preferred native 1080p. This is a limited picture observation, not a general quality or performance result. Comparison details.
On Android, PyroWave no longer reports the time its CPU call took as decode latency: that reading is unavailable, and the HUD says frames were submitted, not rendered. Polaris Doctor no longer counts it either. Frame counters and CPU call timings don’t prove when a picture reaches the display.
For Polaris on a Steam Deck:
VERSION_ID in /etc/os-release names the
SteamOS release. Install the 3.8 or 3.9 package to match; pacman refuses the
other one. If a SteamOS update from 3.8 to 3.9 removes Polaris, reinstall
with the 3.9 package.The Polaris player notes carry the install command for each release, and this beta’s SteamOS guide covers both. The site’s SteamOS guide describes stable 1.4.13 on SteamOS 3.8.
The NixOS guide installs Polaris from its flake at stable
v1.4.13. To try beta.2, use refs/tags/v1.5.0-beta.2 in the flake input
instead. The guide’s configuration still applies: the flake’s NixOS and Home
Manager options are the same as in 1.4.13, and beta.2 changes the gamescope
session scripts they install. The guide’s validation section lists which
builds have been checked.
Nova feels consistent
Clearer Hosts and Library navigation, a rebuilt Stage view, usable Settings search, and separate text and control sizes. Text starts at 80% on a fresh installation; saved preferences remain yours.
A native Linux home
A landscape-first Deck and desktop interface with narrower-window layouts, controller navigation, themes, Wake PC and a more useful Command Center. The standard x86_64 bundle includes the optional PyroWave decoder.
The stream explains itself
Device-gated codec choices and named launch refusals make unsupported paths visible. Capture copies, selected encoders and current stream health are explained separately.
Advice with boundaries
Calibrated handheld PyroWave advice, explicit bitrate units and manual limits keep a saved request distinct from the encoder’s current output.
Read the Nova beta player notes and Polaris beta player notes for the full changes.
The Linux client is a beta. PyroWave remains experimental, manually selected, and unsuitable for Spaces; Linux’s path is SDR 8-bit 4:2:0. The Steam Frame beta build has clear limits: rates above 60 fps, long sessions, color and clarity are untested, and it makes no XR, HDR or Steam Frame Verified claim.
Source-paced VRR and Leave Game Mode Before Launch are default-off opt-ins with
limited hands-on checks; expect a named fallback. With VRR, the cadence a
display receives isn’t measured yet. Recording is host only, with no audio or
timestamps. The console’s phone and tablet layout was checked in browser
emulation only. In testing, the polaris-kms capture helper crashed once while
a Private Stream was stopping; the cause is still being investigated.
The Tailscale readout, per-host profile rules and Last Stream are Android only for now. Nova’s beta.2 additions ship with CI and source checks; their controller, TalkBack and real-stream checks on devices are not complete.
End Session is a request to the host, not a guarantee that an external launcher’s whole process tree has exited. A shared Heroic Flatpak game can keep running when Host Virtual Display ends; use Private Stream for that case. Wider Heroic shutdown support is a separate follow-up.
Use the SHA-256 files attached to the selected release. A successful capability probe establishes readiness; it does not measure live capture, network quality or physical device performance.