|OT| Valve's Steam Deck - OLED refresh shipping to folks

Alexandros

MetaMember
Nov 4, 2018
2,783
11,951
113
Still happy with my LCD deck. Love this thing. It was my entry point to PC gaming. Before I had a switch and I was certain I would never sell it but when the Steam Deck came out I never used my switch again and eventually sold it.
How was your experience with the Steam Deck as a console gamer? Anything in particular that gave you trouble?
 
  • Like
Reactions: C-Dub and lashman

The Dear Leader

MetaMember
Oct 19, 2018
25
75
13
Had to put off my Steamdeck purchase because my car hates me but I've landed on getting a 512GB OLED model when I save up to get it, already got a screen protector and 512GB SD card and a long list of games I want to play on there! Super excited to get it and tinker with it, been binging videos for the last couple weeks lol.
 

Alexandros

MetaMember
Nov 4, 2018
2,783
11,951
113
Had to put off my Steamdeck purchase because my car hates me but I've landed on getting a 512GB OLED model when I save up to get it, already got a screen protector and 512GB SD card and a long list of games I want to play on there! Super excited to get it and tinker with it, been binging videos for the last couple weeks lol.
Steam Deck is a very interesting device because it is simultaneously appealing to both tinkerers and those who want a simple device to game on. I hope Valve can sort out worldwide distribution and keep a low price for Steam Deck 2 as it has a real chance at becoming a mainstream hit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
11,886
113
I’m hoping they expand the Deck concept to other form factors.

The handheld system is definitely the obvious first option, but I’d be interested in seeing other form factors.

A small desktop/under the TV console?

A tablet with kickstand and controller?

A server that lives headless on your network and streams to whatever screen you have?

I think there’s merit in looking into each of these kinds of device.
 

Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
8,472
21,715
113
45
Paris, France
lepertti.com
I’m hoping they expand the Deck concept to other form factors.

The handheld system is definitely the obvious first option, but I’d be interested in seeing other form factors.

A small desktop/under the TV console?

A tablet with kickstand and controller?

A server that lives headless on your network and streams to whatever screen you have?

I think there’s merit in looking into each of these kinds of device.
I'm quite hyped for this, this with SteamOS would be lovely.

 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,149
11,803
113
I'm quite hyped for this, this with SteamOS would be lovely.

Once Valve releases SteamOS as a normal Linux distro, you could just simply install it on whatever hardware you want.
I suppose more focus needs to be put on hardware support for other vendors, beyond just AMD CPUs and GPUs. What I'd also like to see is allowing other desktop environments beyond KDE, like GNOME.
 

The Dear Leader

MetaMember
Oct 19, 2018
25
75
13
Steam Deck is a very interesting device because it is simultaneously appealing to both tinkerers and those who want a simple device to game on. I hope Valve can sort out worldwide distribution and keep a low price for Steam Deck 2 as it has a real chance at becoming a mainstream hit.
Exactly, already psyching myself up to do a shell replacement to match my transparent purple PS5, will probably mess around with a Windows partition and all that as well, very exciting stuff.
 

LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
39
100
33
It's worth considering that Bazzite exists as a SteamOS alternative that can be installed on some hardware. It's definitely in buyer (or I guess try-er) beware territory as there might be edge cases and hardware that cause problems.

I've been using it on my Steam Deck so far as an alternative and it's been pretty nice to have more options for the desktop (I'm using Gnome desktop instead of KDE, but both are available. KDE is obviously a little less funky as valve had designed everything around that so far.) I'm hoping to dive into development of it at some point as well.
 

ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,608
4,964
113
So wonder when we will get Steam Deck 2? Thinking about slowing starting to save for it, just so I can have it day one.
If I had to guess, earliest by the end of 2025, but more realistic, mid 2026. I think in either case they would probably announce it and queue it up 3 to 6 months ahead of launch. Maybe we will get some hints by early 2025.

I really think Valve will want this to be a generational leap in performance without giving up battery life. I am not ears on the ground around chip technology, but I think the available chips are not much of a leap. I also hope they do not drop the OLED and keep that as a standard unless somehow display tech has some surprise up its sleeve.

I do hope I am wrong in someways. The device is definitely going to start hitting more and more walls with newer games. But as a older game and indie machine it should hold its own until Deck 2.
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: Le Pertti

Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
2,875
10,865
113
Valve also wants to give themselves some space between the Switch 2. If the Switch 2 comes out early 2025, then late 2025 is the soonest I can see the Deck 2 release, but 2026 is more likely.
 

Arulan

Lizardman
Dec 7, 2018
555
1,951
93
More than just hardware changes, I'm really interested to see how they continue to improve the SteamOS/Linux/Proton experience. With the rapid progress of NVK (open-source Nvidia drivers), explicit sync getting merged in everywhere (the last big step towards a great Nvidia experience on Wayland), we could see SteamOS get some momentum towards becoming hardware-agnostic and getting a public release.
 

FunnyJay

Powered by the Cloud
Apr 6, 2019
1,491
3,890
113
Sweden
I just encountered something weird.

I have a game installed on my memcard. I know I've got save data that is connected to that game in the memcard's compatdata folder.

So, I launch the game for the first time in like a year. The save data is not recognized by the game.

I ignored this and started playing from the beginning again.
When I was done, I went into the desktop to look at what is going on, and find out that the game, that is located on the memcard has now created a new compatdata folder on the main SSD. That's why the save data on the memcard was not recognized any longer.

Is this some change that Valve has made to how Steam handles the compatdata folders or something? I never fiddled with anything special a year back, that compatdata folder was created on the memcard since the game was located on the memcard.

Does anyone have any idea? I mean, is the compatdata folder on the memcard useless in today's Steam?
 

FunnyJay

Powered by the Cloud
Apr 6, 2019
1,491
3,890
113
Sweden
An update to rhe above situation. This might be a result of changing Proton versions. I know I used to play on an old GE Proton version that I no longer have installed (don't know which though) and apparently proton versions control how the compatdata is used?

Weird.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
3,988
19,206
113
Interesting, I had no idea. Never ran into this, probably because I only very rarely changed Proton versions and when I did I stuck with it throughout the game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FunnyJay

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
3,190
7,764
113
Austria
I have had one similar problem with Elden Ring once – I had switched the Proton version (I believe experimental -> GE) and the game messed up my save
See posts on the topic below. I never had a problem with switching Proton versions in other games, however.


I....think the game just lost my save file ... -_-

been looking online, several people had this happen, on all platforms – its connected to the game crashing (also happens on all platforms) and the game not syncing correctly.

i honestly might just see if there is a save game editor out there to get me back up to speed. i spent 28 hours getting where i was. back up your saves manually guys.
regarding the save file loss;

I found this post on Reddit : PSA – Elden Ring & Proton GE

this might be what happened. When I lost my save, I assumed it was just a generic thing, but I had switched to Proton GE just then, because the game was having troubles starting up (which are probably EACs fault)

So thats when my character vanished (or better: reset to a starting template at the beginning of the game).

I didnt really connect the two because switching between Proton versions never game me any trouble with any game, and I did read that several people on Windows, Xbox and PS also lost their saves randomly (meanwhile, on ProtonDb, people suggesting using Proton GE because of the startup issues).

But yeah, who knows? I dont wanna replicate it right now in fear of having to start over again, but if you play on Proton (via the Steam Deck, for example), keep it in mind. Might be something to watch out for, might be nothing – really hard to say.
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: FunnyJay