The Biggest Update Yet
Big update. Aylix now works on Steam Deck/Bazzite/ChimeraOS in both Desktop and Game Mode. New rendering engine exposed (Vulkan), GPU selection, system tray support, a complete multi-monitor overhaul, deeper crosshair customization than ever, a long list of fixes, and yes, Aylix finally has a wardrobe (try out the new default themes because we had a lot of fun naming them).
We have been working on this for months (including nights and weekends just this past month). Remind us to never give a timeline again. Here is everything:
A second rendering engine: Vulkan
Here is a fun one. This feature started as a Steam Deck problem.
Getting Aylix to behave correctly on the Steam Deck pushed us deep into how the overlay actually reaches the screen from the very beginning of development. Previously we defaulted to OpenGL, but we now expose it across all environments. There is no (current) reason to switch but if you like to change your crosshairs you may also intersect with the group that likes to customize their renderers.
Switch between them under Settings > Advanced > Rendering API. OpenGL stays the default while Vulkan is the opt-in, experimental option. A live indicator in Advanced Settings shows which engine is actually running. Most likely you will not be able to tell the difference between the two but some people are saying that this may actually become useful in the future...
A whole wardrobe: theming and color customization
Why stop at customizing the crosshair? Aylix has a real theming system now, and it shipped with a bunch of different looks just in time for summer. Pick a theme:
Test Chamber: clinical whites with a pop of pink. For science.
Strikes Counters: tactical-FPS green over sandy desert tones. You know the one.
Hazard Orange: hazmat orange on black. Subtlety was not on theagenda.
Library Green: olive-drab, early-2000s, the comfortable kind of nostalgic. An oldie but a goodie.
Steamy Spigot: What's in a name? Tuned to blend right into your Steam library.
None of those quite you? There is a color editor for rolling your own.
Per-axis crosshairs and rotation
Make your crosshair as ugly as you want! You can now break out of perfectly symmetrical crosshairs. Every crosshair mode sizes its horizontal and vertical dimensions independently, and rotates. Turn that circle into an oval. Make that square a rectangle. Or something in between! More customization than ever. Preset, custom, and image mode all support it.
Precision Mode
For everyone who wanted to nudge a crosshair by less than a whole pixel: Precision Mode is for you. Flip it on for sub-pixel, fractional slider values when you want to fine-tune down to the smallest detail. We thought about this one while working on multimonitor and seeing a configuration look very slightly off. Off by default, so everyday tweaks stay fast.
Minimize to the system tray
Aylix can now minimize to the system tray instead of closing, with a tray menu for quick access. New startup options let it launch on boot, start minimized, or start with the crosshair hidden. Gnome requires an extension to enable it or else it is hidden from the menu. Works natively on KDE.
Monitor selection
This is the one that kept us up at night. Sounded too easy. Pick exactly which monitor the overlay appears on. Aylix also reacts on its own now when you connect, disconnect, or change the resolution of a display, with no restart needed.
All hands on Deck
A big chunk of this update is just Aylix behaving the way it always should have on Game Mode. This one has been on our minds since inception but we could never get it to work. That changes today. Aylix is now fully compatible across all modes on Steam Deck. And we made some underlying changes to get ready for the Steam Machine.
There's more
On GNOME, the top bar no longer disappears while the overlay is active when you configure the appropriate settings.
Recovery dialogs have been vastly improved.
Plus a long list of fixes: navigation issues, profile dropdown not loading saved profiles, some rare crash fixes, and many more.
What's next
We are not slowing down. A few things are already in the works:
Steam Cloud support
Steam Cloud sync, so your profiles and settings follow you between your machines and you can actually take your crosshair (mostly) anywhere. The setup and internal layout is already set up for this but we need to do some more internal testing before it is fully turned on to ensure we don't accidentally overwrite all your configs.
More Language Options
Aylix in more languages. We are planning on adding AI translated versions of the text in different languages. Aylix's language default is English right now and is mostly composed of interface text, labels, tooltips and settings. If you notice a wrong or awkward string, please let us know and we will act on it. If you speak a language natively and want to help expand the Aylix language options,, we genuinely want to work with you.
The keys are getting hot
There are rumors that your keyboard keys are getting hot as summer officially approaches. One of the top requested features: hotkeys. Bind keyboard shortcuts to crosshair actions: toggle, visibility, cycle profiles, switch modes, nudge the crosshair, adjust size and opacity, rotate, quick-load saved profiles, and more. The groundwork is already done but not exposed in the UI yet as we iron out the bugs. No firm dates yet.
Thank you
A lot of the features above started as a store page review, a discussion post, a bug report, or other feedback from people using Aylix. A few shoutouts in particular:
- Thank you to StrafeY for catching the profile dropdown not loading saved profiles, for suggesting theme support, and for reporting the multi-monitor bugs.
- Thank you to Cetra for suggesting the minimize to tray feature.
- Thank you to justindamcase for making us look more closely at crosshair positioning and boundaries
- Thank you to Captain Dogwater and Untercharge for suggesting toggles. This is coming in a future update.
- Thank you to qwerty1234 for being the first user. We all constantly refreshed on our end to see whether anyone was interested in this.
- And thank you to everyone else who sent me feedback. We read all of it.