|OT| Valve's Steam Deck (OLED)- coming to Straya in Nov 2024

LEANIJA

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I tried Dying Light 2 with the newst patch. They put in very low setting and it makes the game run at 60fps with dips to 30 in more crowded areas. (FSR Ultra). Not the main way I would want to play that game, but it certainly is possible now.

In general the Steam Deck made me reconsider what games I buy, it's kinda amazing.
I don't have a RTX card yet and I only have access to a gaming PC like every two weeks for a few days. So I would wish the "docked" experience would be a bit better but there is hope for them to improve the experience with the official dock coming out soon.
Im quite curious about the docked experience myself. I do have a USB C hub I use all the time but its not powered, so, not ideal.
Ah well, first GLS has to deliver it :D
 
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Alexandros

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Nov 4, 2018
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I tried Dying Light 2 with the newst patch. They put in very low setting and it makes the game run at 60fps with dips to 30 in more crowded areas. (FSR Ultra). Not the main way I would want to play that game, but it certainly is possible now.

In general the Steam Deck made me reconsider what games I buy, it's kinda amazing.
I don't have a RTX card yet and I only have access to a gaming PC like every two weeks for a few days. So I would wish the "docked" experience would be a bit better but there is hope for them to improve the experience with the official dock coming out soon.
What happened with your touchpad issues? Did you find any solution?
 

derFeef

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What happened with your touchpad issues? Did you find any solution?
I think Trackpad Mouse Mode works fine but simultaneous controller and mouse input is not supported by every game.
Trackpad Joystick is not great, at least for first person games. There seems to be an issue with the trackball here where a slight touch will bring the whole thing out of control and rotate into a different direction. So a swipe with the thumb might result in an accidental touch at the edges of the pad and it will not behave like expected. Trackball mode works fine with Mouse Mode so I am only guessing it is a setting they can and have to tweak.

They already fixed a bug I had with the rotation setting not sticking so at least this aspect works for me now.
 

Chairmanchuck

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Oct 9, 2018
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So as I have the Steam Deck now for around 1 week (+1 day), I have to say that this device is really, for me as a mostly PC-Gamer nowadays, the innovation that I was looking for.

In that 1 week I finished 3 Gunvolt titles, continued Yakuza, installed some Emulators and played some non-Steam games so its ready to go. I also installed non-Steam games that now feel far better than just adding the non-steam games as a shortcut on Steam since the UI is more intuitive than the desktop Overlay.
Playing on this device, it really reminds me of the evenings 20 years ago with a GBA and later 3DS before going to sleep and finishing games, just this time those games are AAA games, Indie titles, visual novels etc.
My Steam library has around 4.5k games and now I feel I finish far more.

First of all some thoughts on the build quality/feel. It is kinda wonky and if you have a Steam controller it kinda feels the same. It does not feel that expensive. It might be because of the matte touch, but I would rather have a texture like the new Xbox one controllers.
Second of all the fan noise is really annoying, because in some games it just turns on the fans seemingly randomly. Most likely the SSD needs to be cooled or whatever, but playing some Indiegames where the fan is not even on, then it turns on for 2 minutes, then off again is distracting. For 3d games its usually on and it sounds a bit like a Macbook under load.

Regarding games. Most games I played worked right out of the box. I had a problem with one Gunvolt title that crashes at the final boss, Blue Reflection uses non supported movie files, but other than that the majority that I installed works really well.
Visual novels especially feel really good on this.

One major feature I did not think would be that good is the suspend/resume feature. I just turn it off, then the next evening I turn it on and after 5 seconds I am back directly where I left off.

And for now I only used it at home. Before sleeping, during a bath etc.
Since usually when Covid is over I am also travelling a lot to China and there are some days when there isnt much to do (Chinese new year, visiting relatives) and I can only see how great it will be with a Dock, just taking this small device, connecting it in the hotel and playing some games on it.

Here are some images of games I played with it:





I do not really want to compare it to the Switch, but for me personally, I prefer the Steam Deck. I already have a huge library of games on my Steam account, so I would not need to rebuy games just to play them portable. Then you have Humble Bundles with great prices (the last one had Scarlet Nexus, Gears 5, Celeste, Cloudpunk and Bloodstained for like 17€). I can configure the games however I want on the desktop. Just for me this makes more sense.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
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Blue Reflection uses non supported movie files, but other than that the majority that I installed works really well.
Fun fact: Blue Reflection outright crashed on my Windows PC when trying to play movie files.
(Until I installed the undocumented and obsolete WMV codec it requires for some godforsaken reason)

If Valve ever extends their movie-reencoding to cover Blue Reflection, that game will work better out of the box on the Deck than it does on Windows.
 

Chairmanchuck

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Fun fact: Blue Reflection outright crashed on my Windows PC when trying to play movie files.
(Until I installed the undocumented and obsolete WMV codec it requires for some godforsaken reason)

If Valve ever extends their movie-reencoding to cover Blue Reflection, that game will work better out of the box on the Deck than it does on Windows.
I never even tried it on my Windows PC. I am not quite sure why japanese devs still use so much outdated software/tech...
 
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C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Chairmanchuck, I think you've pretty much covered every reason I'd love the Steam Deck. I love the Switch and the idea of the Switch, but having to rebuy games and having other issues (like cross-save), means I barely use it save for exclusives.

Where I have rebought games and used cross-save between Switch and PC (Civ VI, basically) the experience has been incredible. Having that for almost every game I'd ever think about playing is going to make a big difference to how I play games.

Fun fact: Blue Reflection outright crashed on my Windows PC when trying to play movie files.
(Until I installed the undocumented and obsolete WMV codec it requires for some godforsaken reason)

If Valve ever extends their movie-reencoding to cover Blue Reflection, that game will work better out of the box on the Deck than it does on Windows.
I don't know much about it, but how feasible is it to add some or all of Proton/Steam's compatibility features into the Windows version of games to get them working on modern hardware?

As Microsoft releases newer versions of Windows and fucks things up, it'd be reassuring to have the potential for a compatibility layer. As I said, I don't know how feasible it is, but it'd be neat to have.

Regardless of whether they are able or willing to do that or not, Proton is on Steam for Linux in general so we're going to find ourselves in a future where Linux is at the forefront of game preservation. Compared to where we were even 10 years ago, that frankly blows my mind.
 

kio

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Apr 19, 2019
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Since there's already a decent amount of folks here with a Deck, I'm curious how many of you tried games labeled as 'Unsuported' and if any/how many of them worked?
 
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derFeef

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Since there's already a decent amount of folks here with a Deck, I'm curious how many of you tried games labeled as 'Unsuported' and if any/how many of them worked?
I played Dysmantle and Hardspace Shipbreaker - they work really well despite being flagged as unsupported. Hardspace for example requires you to set up a control scheme, but that's it. And a lot of untested games also straight up work.
 

Chairmanchuck

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Oct 9, 2018
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Since there's already a decent amount of folks here with a Deck, I'm curious how many of you tried games labeled as 'Unsuported' and if any/how many of them worked?
Not really unsupported, but I played through 3 Gunvolt games that were not tested, but Gunvolt 2 crashes at the last boss when some "jpg" is supposed to load for the animation, but only in Gunvolts route.
 
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Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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Fun fact: Blue Reflection outright crashed on my Windows PC when trying to play movie files.
(Until I installed the undocumented and obsolete WMV codec it requires for some godforsaken reason)

If Valve ever extends their movie-reencoding to cover Blue Reflection, that game will work better out of the box on the Deck than it does on Windows.
This is what I'm hoping NGL
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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I'm curious about SteamOS vs. Windows impressions.
I personally don't think it will be worth trading the SteamOS features/UX for the better Windows game compatibility, but we'll see!
 
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jads653

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Chairmanchuck,
I don't know much about it, but how feasible is it to add some or all of Proton/Steam's compatibility features into the Windows version of games to get them working on modern hardware?
You can run WINE on windows through BoxedWine or regular WINE through WSL2 the Linux compatibility layer for Windows.. WSL2 performance is looking promising but is still a bit slower than Linux.
 
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Mivey

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i would maybe like the windows on the SD card ... so it boots only when that SDCard is in :drinking-blob:
but tbh i dont really need it as an owner of Win3 :p
I will probably try a SD based Windows installation, just for the sake of it. I can't imagine it running well, but I am morbidly curious to see how bad it would be.
 
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undu

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Mar 17, 2019
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I love how installing Windows on this thing is triggering the Linux fanbase, lol.
Why would you love it?

Personally I don't want games with anti-cheat and stubborn pusblishers like Destiny 2 to create another failure like steam machines. I'm invested in Linux being successful to make users more independent of Microsoft
 

derFeef

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I am not part of that fanbase but I too would discourage people from using Windows. They are free to do so of course but I would rather they didn't.
Of course, it will never compete against SteamOS in terms of performance or features or otherwise. But it's an option and people should be free to do so.
That's the epitome of an open platform.

Why would you love it?

Personally I don't want games with anti-cheat and stubborn pusblishers like Destiny 2 to create another failure like steam machines. I'm invested in Linux being successful to make users more independent of Microsoft
Weren't Steam Machine's supposed to run Linux as well?
To clarify I am by no means dismissing Linux here, I love SteamOS and I spent so much time already learning some Linux stuff in desktop mode.
I just think it's funny that someone would get offended by people installing Windows on it.
 
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meschio94

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Aug 21, 2021
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Weren't Steam Machine's supposed to run Linux as well?
Yeah, and they failed because dev didn't support linux, proton is the conseguence of the steam machine,, and steam link, steam input and steam controller was the childs of the steam machine too.

After 8 years of work, they have pushed linux support directly (via proton) and indirectly (via grants for project like vulka,vkdv,wine, vendor driver amd, intel,nvidia), this time is all different, and via linux they can perform some optimization and features they can't via windows (for example NT kernel of windows vs linux kernels)

All this steamdeck stunt, isn't only for handled gaming, this technlogy will work really well for an home console steam machine this time, made from valve itself (i want to remember thatvalve sold 0 steam machine), and for a compability layer for cloud gaming made from valve probably.

The big picture (sorry for the joke) here is the consolidation of steam as a platform, agnostic from windows or pc gaming in general, the user then can choose how to dispose of their games via the hw of preference, valve are winning the pc gaming (and gaming) war via the added value a game bought on steam offer now, and in future.

I want to add the linux experience for noob users now is more seamless than 8 years ago, and KDE is a fantastic desktop enviroment, better than windows for features and with a gui really similar for a window user.

They will appeal to console user experience press a button and play, and to pc gaming user which want to tinker, with their state of the arts service without a subscription for playing online or sync cloud save.

Sorry for my english, i hope isn't too much of a shit in this post
 
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Mivey

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Seems AMD made good drivers for once.


Curious how Elden Ring would run, since that recieved some Proton love.
winning by 1 FPS really just means it's a wash. Which is pretty impressive since the SteamOS one needs to run through Proton. I would generally expect Proton to be slower by up to 10%, anything below that is mighty impressive
 

LEANIJA

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May 5, 2019
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@ derFeef

I mean you already softened your words a bit but that original statement wasnt very...youknow, great or insightful. I get it, giggling at fanboys being zealous can be fun, but I dont think thats happening.

People are of course free to install whatever on their PCs – and the Steam Deck is just a PC, so by all means.
But its kinda missing the point of having a OS tailored-made for the device, and the benefits are a handful of games that wont run via Proton.

I said it here before, I hope people stick to SteamOS, because that means a push for Linux as a gaming OS, and could lead to more widespread Linux usage ( as gaming is often that last barrier keeping people from moving away from Windows).

And why would that good?
Because I believe Linux is straight up a better operating system – but it has flaws, and those come mostly from lacking support.
Like Destiny 2: they currently have no reason to support it. Just as devs had little reason to port to PC properly in the early 2000s, but as PC gaming grew as a platform, that changed.

A similar story could happen now with Linux: the more widespread usage, the more support.
BTW I also mean hardware support. My laptop for example had Wifi problems, drivers were added in a later Linux kernel version. But that is the fault of the manufacturer not caring enough. And they have a good reason not to care, Linux isnt widespread enough.

Linux is still niche in the home user space, and PC components & peripherals dont always get Linux support because of it.
Its an old problem: The less people use it, the less support it gets. The less support it gets, the less people use it.

Thats why its so awesome what Valve has done with Proton and now Steam Deck/SteamOS and thats why I hope people embrace it or at least give it a chance instead of installing Windows right away. Which again, is their right, I just think its a missed opportunity.

Mivey Le Pertti yup, its been said plenty of times but it has to be seen to be believed I guess...Proton is genuinely great.
 
Reason: edited for clarity. sorry. should really read through my posts more thoroughly!

sprinkles

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Dec 8, 2018
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I'm curious about SteamOS vs. Windows impressions.
I personally don't think it will be worth trading the SteamOS features/UX for the better Windows game compatibility, but we'll see!
Having used Windows on my Aya Neo, I much prefer the SteamOS user experience. Even with using Aya Spaces as a launcher, Windows on such a small Handheld is just a miserable experience.
 

derFeef

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I do wonder what determines the fan speed, and if it's possible to add a few more levels to it because from what I gather there are only 3 speeds or levels - off, on, turbo.
Sometimes the fan starts up and there is just cold air coming out of it, so my guess is it's tied to CPU/GPU usage, which kinda makes sense but I think is not optimal.
 

sprinkles

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I notice it running at lot less now when I am not in-game. Before it was always on, but then, I was always downloading something.
 

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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Well, this was one of the two games I couldn't run, today I was able to install PhysX on Deck and now El Shaddai runs smoothly on the system, install process was quite easy and painless, unfortunately this game won't get verified and will get "unsupported" status due to install process.

But hey, we are here to tweak and play a bit with options, right? hehehe

 

derFeef

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We’re working closely with Valve on the compatibility and performance aspects of our games on the Steam Deck. The goal is to provide the best possible Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 experience on this platform, while keeping in mind its unique hardware characteristics.
Wonder if that means they will update CP2077 with new settings or just hand it over to Valve.
The game runs okay from what I can tell but it could sure be better (also in general, haha)
 

derFeef

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SMALL UPDATE / PATCH NOTES
POSTED
Sat, March 12
Steam Deck Client Update: March 11, 2022

General
  • Added 15 fps option to the Framerate Limit slider in the QAM performance menu.
  • Added progress information to SD card format operations.
  • Added first batch of keyboard themes to the Points Shop.
  • Added gamepad support to the Steam Points Award dialog.
  • Fixed "Use Touchscreen" flashing on some web pages.
  • Fixed a case where the Software Update UI would stop making progress.
Controller Configuration
  • Added numeric display of values to Setting sliders.
  • Added the ability to manually enter a specific value on Setting sliders.
  • Fixed bug where the last change of a Setting slider wouldn't save.
  • Fixed bug where physical inputs sometimes disappeared while editing Action Set Layers.
Wonder if that fixes my controller config issues.
 
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Mivey

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15 fps lock is just a :huhblob:
that's close to the rate where our eyes stop seeing individual images, so this will only be useful for games that are essentially static most of the time.
VNs are a good example, but I could see 2D puzzle games also being a possible use case.
 

Knurek

OG old coot
Oct 16, 2018
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Maybe its for like VNs?
Most VNs have some background pans, or character animation.
Heck, even text refresh would be noticably choppy at 15 fps.
(Also, VNs are the last genre that'd need such battery saving features, since they generally don't require much CPU power)
 
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derFeef

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Witcher 3 is verified but for me it's not working with a via BT connected Xbox Series controller.
Every game so far did, but this is the only game that just refuses to take the inputs.
 

Le Pertti

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Witcher 3 is verified but for me it's not working with a via BT connected Xbox Series controller.
Every game so far did, but this is the only game that just refuses to take the inputs.
Didn't valve say that some games can only be played with controller 1, meaning the controller that is the deck itself.
 

derFeef

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Didn't valve say that some games can only be played with controller 1, meaning the controller that is the deck itself.
Oh, that's a pity. I guess it makes sense that it still can be marked as verified in that case, but a "docked experience" would suffer big time.
 
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