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

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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Shader Compilation on fixed hardware shouldn't be a problem, the shaders can probably be deployed to SteamDeck with the game like with current consoles. Also, emulators like CEMU have made great strides in the last year or so with "on-the-fly" shader compilation even on Vulkan so there's tech available out there to deal with it if for some reason you can't deploy shaders.
 
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undu

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Mar 17, 2019
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You can press skip instead of waiting, you'll get some stutter when the shaders needed are compiled, but usually not all the shaders that the game has are needed for a single play session.
 
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Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
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Finland
That is the (obvious but still nice) confirmation I was waiting for. Too bad there's no ETA. I guess it can't be that far off though considering Deck itself isn't that far off in the end.
 

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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Great news about BPM! They said in one of the interviews that it's the full desktop client/store translated to that new interface, which is what I wanted to hear.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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The only reason i use big picture is to faff about with controller settings.
Hopefully they migrate those out of BPM or whatever the new UI is called and into the main interface so there's two ways to access them.
 

lashman

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Sep 5, 2018
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This time, we now -also- have an FSR patch set (AMD Fidelity Super Resolution) which works alongside proton's fullscreen hack.

Proton's fullscreeen hack is a modification to proton which allows displaying smaller or non-standard resolutions within your monitor's default resolution without changing it. Essentially it's capable of doing what FSR does -- scaling up smaller resolutions. However now that FSR has been released, that hack has been retro-fitted using FSR for it's upscaling backend. Meaning yes -- FSR can be used on almost any game running in proton.

There are a few limitations, for example some games which already have FSR or other scaling implementation may not work. So the way this works is -- the FSR resolutions are patched in alongside FSR for the upscaling backend. Since the fullscreen hack already attempts to upscale, all you have to do is set the game's resolution to a lower resolution, preferably one of the FSR resolutions
 

Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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well ... if volvo add this officially to Proton - they'll definitely be able to run better :D
If not at launch, I could see Valve adding this type of stuff to extend the lifetime of the device, being able to handle more taxing game by upscaling and system-wide VRS settings.
 
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lashman

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If not at launch, I could see Valve adding this type of stuff to extend the lifetime of the device, being able to handle more taxing game by upscaling and system-wide VRS settings.
yeah, that would be great!
 

Nzyme

Time to get Fit
Sep 19, 2018
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Some things to note from today's IGN article - Steam Deck SSD is Upgradeable, But It Won't Be Easy - IGN

Seems as people have guessed, Valve did design Steam Deck with repairability in mind. Of course warranty gets voided once you go that far and an experienced capable person should be doing these things, so they are not officially declaring upgradability etc. But its good to know, as it might be the case that other components can be replaced more readily than we might expect.

Also important:
"Stay tuned tomorrow as we take a deep dive into the Steam Deck’s hardware."

There is also an article on the trackpads from IGN Nordic, which is very very promising as a step forward over Steam Controller.

Article also mentions this will be discussed in the hardware deep dive!

Finally so rampant tinfoil hat speculation for you.
I'll take a wild guess Valve will have some partnered games for the launch period of Steam Deck. Silksong and Eastward amongst them.
Also Gamepass and Xcloud on Steam. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 

Derrick01

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Oct 6, 2018
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Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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lashman is on youtube!
To be fair, I don't think it's a contradiction or error to say the internal storage is not upgradable, if it means complex disassembly of the device. It's a pretty small form factor, and if the M.2 slot is below the heatsink or any other sensitive component, than most people who try to get there will almost certainly break something when they try to open it. Yeah, sure, someone from iFixit with tons of experience and great tools can do it, that doesn't mean much for an average consumer with maybe some Phillips screws at home.

Wonder how many people going for the cheapest Deck version will be angry at Valve if they mess up their own Deck trying to manually install an SSD.
 

Giant Baba O'Reily

Junior Member
Jul 16, 2021
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Hyped. Looking forward to getting mine in Q1 next year.

Could only really stretch to the entry level model, but I've got a 256gb Micro SD card already and I think I can happily put up with the load times.

I'm really only planning on using mine to catch up on games from the last generation that I couldn't play because my son has pretty much commandeered my consoles.

..and a sneaky game or two of Pro Evo on my lunch break at work.
 
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yuraya

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May 4, 2019
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They said this thing could handle any game that released over the last year.

I wonder just how much they tested something like Flight Simulator and Cyberpunk :evilblob:

But they seem confident and its clearly important to them that every game on Steam is good to go. Honestly the more I think about it the more that 720p target becomes easy. 720p has been such a basic target for so many years/decades in the PC space. Games today really don't get demanding unless you push higher than 1080p rez and higher than 60fps. Those specs and that AMD chip should be fine for years to come. Starfield will be the big first test and after that I don't see much outside Elder Scrolls 6 or GTA6 being really unplayable on Deck. No one really makes quadruple AAAA games anymore. Its very rare even the new God of War and Horizon is coming to PS4. By the time the real next gen stuff starts releasing Valve will release a new Deck. And if not then this Deck will still have a good 3-4 year life after release.
 
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yuraya

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May 4, 2019
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So I'm curious about GOG games on the Deck.

Since some GOG games have linux versions would it be possible to log into GOG on browser and install them on your Deck without even bothering with Windows? They should work just fine in the background of SteamOS right?
 
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lashman

Dead & Forgotten
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So I'm curious about GOG games on the Deck.

Since some GOG games have linux versions would it be possible to log into GOG on browser and install them on your Deck without even bothering with Windows? They should work just fine in the background of SteamOS right?
yup, correct ... you'll be able to do that no problem

i imagine it would be the same with all the games that use DOSbox on GOG
 
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yuraya

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May 4, 2019
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yup, correct ... you'll be able to do that no problem

i imagine it would be the same with all the games that use DOSbox on GOG
Sounds good. I know Galaxy launcher isn't compatible with linux so I kind of dismissed it at first but then I remembered there is always the traditional method heh.

Also I wonder if the new SteamOS lets you add/launch GOG games then you should be able to technically use the suspend/resume feature with your compatible GOG library as well....

 
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lashman

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Also I wonder if the new SteamOS lets you add/launch GOG games then you should be able to technically use the suspend/resume feature with your compatible GOG library as well....
add/launch - 100% ... dunno about suspend/resume, though ... depends on how it works, i guess
 
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Yoshi

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Ahead of preorders opening on July 16, Valve revealed Steam Deck hopefuls would actually have to meet some requirements to even be eligible for the first wave of preorder reservations. The major sticking point was that would-be buyers needed a Steam Account used to make a purchase before June 2021 to be eligible within the first 48 hours of preorder reservations opening up. Accounts would also be limited to one Steam Deck per Steam account.
I do give credit to Valve for trying to combat scalpers. Reservation day wasn't perfect by any means, and there will always be scalpers, but they did a better job than most corporations.
 

Pommes

Hey you! Have a nice day!
Jun 4, 2019
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Sounds good. I know Galaxy launcher isn't compatible with linux so I kind of dismissed it at first but then I remembered there is always the traditional method heh.

Also I wonder if the new SteamOS lets you add/launch GOG games then you should be able to technically use the suspend/resume feature with your compatible GOG library as well....

There are at least two launchers on Linux that support GOG:
Minigalaxy (specialized on GOG)
and Lutris (support for many platforms)

Let's see how the support on the Steam Deck will be for such solutions.
 
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