|OT| Valve's Steam Deck - Our decks are going places

[Amzin]

[QUOTE="Amzin, post: 305202, member: 249" Shotgun King doesn't support gamepads but it's a simple turn based left click / right click control game so works easily.

i got qutie used to use the right touchpad to control this one
[/QUOTE]
Yea anything turn based seems like it is really easy to control with mouse touch pad. I always struggled a bit getting the Steam Controller pad to feel good with mouse stuff, maybe the pad being smaller actually helps. I plan to eventually try pretty much every genre I enjoy on the Deck but some individual ones are going vary as well.

 

[Ascheroth]

The gaming mode experience is still pretty great, except for two weird things I've noticed - first, and this is minor, you can't get to your discovery queue naturally, you have to manually enter the URL or get a link to it, which seems like a baffling choice. Second, I cannot figure out a way to open a guide while in-game and then keep the guide open like I do on Steam PC (where I just shift-tab back and forth as needed). This also seems odd given it's been standard on Steam PC for the entire time Steam Overlay has existed as far as I recall?

Ya, that one's pretty baffling. It looks like everytime you open the game details it spawns a complete new overlay instead of reusing the old one (since after you quit the game you have to close all of them).
There's a wonky workaround that doesn't work all the time but it's better than nothing: If you navigate to the "Guides" section and press the B button with just the right timing when it opens, it will go "back" to what you previously had open. It's still pretty annoying though, one of the more baffling UX for sure. I don't remember if I've already brought it up in the official channels, but probably not. Might be worth it to make sure Valve is aware of it at least though.

 

[Li Kao]

I should look into syncing apps to play Xenoblade Chronicles on the Deck.
But that would require some level of effort. Not cool.

I don’t even know where Ryujinx store its saves.

 

[C-Dub]

I’m looking into using SyncThing to sync my ROMs and saves from my PC and Home Server to the Deck for emulation purposes.

I already use it to sync files between my PC, MacBook and Home Server and it’s excellent, but I have no idea how good it’ll be on Steam Deck.

 

[Mivey]

I should look into syncing apps to play Xenoblade Chronicles on the Deck.
But that would require some level of effort. Not cool.

I don’t even know where Ryujinx store its saves.

This is one of the benefits of Retroarch on Steam. It syncs save states nicely across PCs. Not sure that would help you with Dolphin, though.

SyncThing should run on the Deck, I'll look into how easy it is to set up on the Deck this evening.

 

[Li Kao]

Uh, the sync is in place, but it doesn't work. What a fucking surprise.
If I put a readme in the desktop share it is uploaded on the deck, I tried copying an icon on the deck share and nope.
The Ryujinx share I created says it's up to date, except it's fuck not up to date. I suspect the good old issue with the location being on the sdcard.

Fuck it, I sent the saves on the main share and moved them in the correct place.

Went as usual with everything I try on the Linux side of the Deck.

 

[Ascheroth]

I set up Syncthing once to sync my Scarlet Nexus save before Namco put them into the cloud and also for Inmost. It worked without issues. But yeah, no SD cards involved.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Once you've tested it enough feel free to post your findings on it's protondb page since it's currently empty atm.

Thanks for this.

 

[Mivey]

Setting up SyncThing seems bothersome. The ID is crazy long, and having it as a QR code isn't helpful. I don't know how the Deck sets up SD cards, but if you can read and write to locations on the SD cards, then it ought to work. Sounds to me more like a bug with SyncThing.

I think if you have the Deck connected to a dock with monitor and keyboard (and honestly, if you aren't willing to do that, just don't mess with the Desktop mode anyway, you aren't in for a fun time), then using the rsync tool is probably the best idea. It supports connections over SSH, so once both devices in your local network have that enabled, you just set an rsync command and let it run in the background. The manual explains all the commands you need, it's pretty simple. But sure, it's a command line tool, so no graphical interfaces.

 

[eonden]

I was bored and did some analysis for SteamDeck considering the Steam hardware survey. % is based on "% of Steam userbase" (we have no idea, Steam says 132M, but I would do analysis based on lower numbers, like 100M - 120M)

For Full Steam Deck Population:
April 2022 : OS 1.14% Linux (1.14%); GPU AMD Custom GPU 0405 (1.82%) =0.020748% -> use of GPU as specific OS variant is the same
May 2022 : OS 1,12% Linux; 5.23% Holo = 0.058576%
June 2022: 1.18% Linux; 7.58% Holo = 0.08944%
------
For increase in "SteamDecks"
Change April -> May = 0.0378%
Chance May -> June = 0.03868%

So deliveries were stable in May and June

If they double, it should go to around 0.07% of Steam users deliveries in July; take into consideration that there are delays between increase of deliveries and it appearing in the hardware review (as sending =/= user getting it and using it)

If we assume 100M Steam Userbase:
-> 90k SteamDecks in the wild (39k Deck increase in June; 78k Deck expected in July)
If we assume 120M Steam Userbase:
-> 107k SteamDecks in the wild (46k Deck increase in June; 92k Deck expected in July)

 

[Li Kao]

Setting up SyncThing seems bothersome. The ID is crazy long, and having it as a QR code isn't helpful.

That was one of the good point of the whole thing actually ! The app was unexpectedly intelligent enough to detect the other one (being on the same network I suppose) and proposed the ID by itself. Like do you mean this one xxx-xxx-xxx ?
Really unexpected.

After that, well, seeing as sharing between two windows is already a shitfest of permissions and plain luck, I shouldn't have had high hopes beween windows and linux. I mean even with winpinator I have to launch it as administrator and first on windows then on linux, otherwise no dice.

 

[Mivey]

After that, well, seeing as sharing between two windows is already a shitfest of permissions and plain luck, I shouldn't have had high hopes beween windows and linux. I mean even with winpinator I have to launch it as administrator and first on windows then on linux, otherwise no dice.

That is strange, I can launch Winpinator or Warpinator in pretty much any order. Once the second instance runs, it finds the other one and I can send things. I have the instance on the Deck set to automatically accept requests, which I found to be quite convenient.
I guess a refresh button would be nice to get the app to look for other Warpinator instances on other machines in the local network.

 

[ExistentialThought]

Technically finished my first game on the Steam Deck despite having it for 2 months and this was supposed to help me finish more games and yet I just have been buying more thinking, "ooh this would be nice to play on the Steam Deck" To be fair, I hardly played the first month due to other reasons and I can only play in the evenings.

I just finished the the first AI: The Somnium Files. Had to use Proton GE to get the flashback scenes to work and it still had an audio bug at the credits scene switching languages and crackling, but it seems like part of this bug appears on Windows too. All in all though, I enjoyed it.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Man im so looking forward to my Deck (email says should arrive tomorrow woo)

So many games i shelve because they dont quite control right from the couch, generally mouse and keyboard games that i try and work out a controller config for. Never quite right.

Im hoping ill be able to get into games like Project Zomboid using it.

 

[Alexandros]

Jeff Gerstmann is "really impressed" by the Steam Deck:

 

[Amzin]

So far I've beaten Aperture Desk Job, Shotgun King, and now Alwa's Legacy. No particular issues with any of those. I really would like to play something more AAA but the only candidate I really have is the second Mordor game which eh. Also is 100GB so ow.

I will say, I was a smidge worried about the size but it really isn't that much different than using a Switch, but I'm like an extremely average sized dude so could see it being a bigger difference for smaller people. I haven't heard any fan whine so far so probably got lucky there. The joysticks and touch pads feel pretty great to use so far, better than Steam Controller (and I still use my SC sometimes).

Desktop mode probably still the biggest hangup for me. Can't even do something like open a music player / streaming service in the browser and switch to gaming mode, you have to use the desktop Steam client I guess. Which, if they're functionally separate "modes", I guess makes sense, but I was thinking gaming mode was more like Big Picture Mode (which just sits on top of your desktop). I don't have significant use case for any random desktop stuff like browsing (will use phone or PC) but it's bad to have to do workarounds just to listen to your own music while playing.

 

[skLaFarebear]

So far I've beaten Aperture Desk Job, Shotgun King, and now Alwa's Legacy. No particular issues with any of those. I really would like to play something more AAA but the only candidate I really have is the second Mordor game which eh. Also is 100GB so ow.

I will say, I was a smidge worried about the size but it really isn't that much different than using a Switch, but I'm like an extremely average sized dude so could see it being a bigger difference for smaller people. I haven't heard any fan whine so far so probably got lucky there. The joysticks and touch pads feel pretty great to use so far, better than Steam Controller (and I still use my SC sometimes).

Desktop mode probably still the biggest hangup for me. Can't even do something like open a music player / streaming service in the browser and switch to gaming mode, you have to use the desktop Steam client I guess. Which, if they're functionally separate "modes", I guess makes sense, but I was thinking gaming mode was more like Big Picture Mode (which just sits on top of your desktop). I don't have significant use case for any random desktop stuff like browsing (will use phone or PC) but it's bad to have to do workarounds just to listen to your own music while playing.

I got pretty small hands and don't have any issues with playing stuff on my Deck. Everything is plenty reachable and my hands only start to cramp after a few hours of a straight session which is honestly a sign I should take a break anyway.

Definitely beats the 20 minutes it takes for my hands to start hurting from holding the Switch by it's shitty joycons.

 

[Amzin]

I got pretty small hands and don't have any issues with playing stuff on my Deck. Everything is plenty reachable and my hands only start to cramp after a few hours of a straight session which is honestly a sign I should take a break anyway.

Definitely beats the 20 minutes it takes for my hands to start hurting from holding the Switch by it's shitty joycons.

That's good to hear. I just didn't want to speak for everyone when I say the size is actually fine To me it's just about perfect.

 

[ExistentialThought]

Man im so looking forward to my Deck (email says should arrive tomorrow woo)

So many games i shelve because they dont quite control right from the couch, generally mouse and keyboard games that i try and work out a controller config for. Never quite right.

Im hoping ill be able to get into games like Project Zomboid using it.

I played a bit of Project Zomboid and it is interesting with a controller. If you are use to playing on M&KB it will feel a bit strange for a bit, but I actually think the controller controls are pretty decent. Playing that game with its controls makes me realize how many games could translate over to controller.

---
Yeah the Steam Deck is pretty darn comfortable to hold. For me, only the L1&R1 shoulder buttons could be a smidge easier to press from a relaxed position.

Otherwise, I am continually surprised at how such a heavy device can still feel more comfortable to hold than most other handhelds I have used and I do not notice the weight unless I am setting it down or picking it up.

 

[sprinkles]

Desktop mode probably still the biggest hangup for me. Can't even do something like open a music player / streaming service in the browser and switch to gaming mode, you have to use the desktop Steam client I guess. Which, if they're functionally separate "modes", I guess makes sense, but I was thinking gaming mode was more like Big Picture Mode (which just sits on top of your desktop). I don't have significant use case for any random desktop stuff like browsing (will use phone or PC) but it's bad to have to do workarounds just to listen to your own music while playing.

In Desktop mode add a Media Player app to Steam like you would an Non-Steam game. Start this app in Game Mode, turn on music, press Steam button and start your game. Music will run in the background (also possible with Discord etc).

 

[kio]

I'd just like to add that the 40fps update they released a couple weeks ago is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened in the deck ecosystem.

 

[Mivey]

Desktop mode probably still the biggest hangup for me. Can't even do something like open a music player / streaming service in the browser and switch to gaming mode, you have to use the desktop Steam client I guess. Which, if they're functionally separate "modes", I guess makes sense, but I was thinking gaming mode was more like Big Picture Mode (which just sits on top of your desktop). I don't have significant use case for any random desktop stuff like browsing (will use phone or PC) but it's bad to have to do workarounds just to listen to your own music while playing.

I use Chrome as a non-Steam app, and you can have that in the background while a game is running. I never tried running Spotify or something on it while playing games, but I think it should work in theory. Have you tried that?

I'd just like to add that the 40fps update they released a couple weeks ago is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened in the deck ecosystem.

hasn't it been a month or more? Unless you mean the official full release of it.

 

[kio]

I use Chrome as a non-Steam app, and you can have that in the background while a game is running. I never tried running Spotify or something on it while playing games, but I think it should work in theory. Have you tried that?

hasn't it been a month or more? Unless you mean the official full release of it.

You're probably right, the flow of time in my brain is all messed up right now... I seriously need some time off.
Anyway, I never imagined 40fps would feel so fluid and natural but I guess the "magic" lies in the smaller screen and picture resolution. 30fps felt choppy, 40fps is heaven.

 

[Amzin]

In Desktop mode add a Media Player app to Steam like you would an Non-Steam game. Start this app in Game Mode, turn on music, press Steam button and start your game. Music will run in the background (also possible with Discord etc).

I use Chrome as a non-Steam app, and you can have that in the background while a game is running. I never tried running Spotify or something on it while playing games, but I think it should work in theory. Have you tried that?

hasn't it been a month or more? Unless you mean the official full release of it.

Thanks, that's a more reasonable idea. Still falls into the "workaround" which is bad for general users but maybe something they can fix down the road. I tend to listen to most of my music online now so I'll see if Firefox as a non-Steam app works

 

[Arc]

Just got my email (and paid for). The old calculator site said I would get it on July 25, so they weren't kidding about significantly increasing production.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Its arrived! Woo.

Spent the afternoon installing a game, playing 5 mins, quitting, installing another game, playing 5 mins, quitting, etc etc. Just like i do on my pc!

Love it so far. Nice to hold, Feels lighter than i thought it would be. Very slick.

I played a bit of Project Zomboid and it is interesting with a controller. If you are use to playing on M&KB it will feel a bit strange for a bit, but I actually think the controller controls are pretty decent. Playing that game with its controls makes me realize how many games could translate over to controller.

I play pretty much everything with a controller, im a comfy coucher. Tried out a few traditional M&KB games like Project Zomboid, Divinity Original Sin 2, Atom. All work reasonably well so im chuffed. Seems like using the deck pad for M&KB games has a bit more precision than when i just use Steam input on the main PC, i usually have to tweek the mouse sensitivity settings and dead zones but haven't felt the need to do that so far.

Gaben you sly old dog. You've done it again.

 

[lashman]

Gaben you sly old dog. You've done it again.

 

[prudis]

 

[Prodigy]

I see they reference Phawx video takedowns.

 

[Amzin]

In Desktop mode add a Media Player app to Steam like you would an Non-Steam game. Start this app in Game Mode, turn on music, press Steam button and start your game. Music will run in the background (also possible with Discord etc).

I use Chrome as a non-Steam app, and you can have that in the background while a game is running. I never tried running Spotify or something on it while playing games, but I think it should work in theory. Have you tried that?

hasn't it been a month or more? Unless you mean the official full release of it.

OK, so I tried this with Firefox last night and it was super bad. When I opened it, it looked good at first, but I think there's some conflict between the game mode trying to pop up something and Firefox trying to autofill text fields (e.g. signing in on a page) and the screen starts flickering like crazy and then it went into a boot loop until I did a hard reset. Maybe it won't do it again but kinda scared to check. I know they suggest Chrome so maybe that was my mistake but I'd rather stick to FF. Maybe I'll try Chrome tonight.

 

[LEANIJA]

Steam Deck Beta gets scaling for external displays, new "Preview" testing branch

Lots of goodies have arrived in a fresh Steam Deck Client Beta, along with a small update to SteamOS 3.3 Beta too.

www.gamingonlinux.com

Steam Deck - Steam Deck Client Beta Update: External UI scaling, keyboards, betas, and more - Steam News

Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Client Beta channel, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel. Added an option to scale the Steam Deck user interface for external displays Added a toggle for automatic scaling...

store.steampowered.com

Steam Deck Client Beta Update: External UI scaling, keyboards, betas, and more
Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Client Beta channel, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.

Added an option to scale the Steam Deck user interface for external displays
Added a toggle for automatic scaling of the Steam Deck user interface for external displays
Added a scheduled night mode feature, allowing players to choose if and when they’d like night mode to automatically turn on
Added a Japanese (Kana) keyboard option
Added a new Steam Deck software update channel selector – there are now three options:

Stable: Recommended experience for most users. This option will install the latest stable Steam Client and SteamOS.
Beta: Testing for new Steam features. Updates frequently. This option will install Steam Client Beta and the latest stable SteamOS.
Preview: Testing for new Steam and system-level features. Updates frequently. You may encounter issues. This option will install Steam Client Beta and the SteamOS Beta.
You will only see patch notes for the update channel you've selected. As this feature is in Beta, if you opt into the Stable channel, you will not see this selector anymore.

Improved Korean keyboard user experience
Improved Adaptive Brightness slider user experience
Fixed flatpak Chrome closing improperly when quit through Steam
Fixed on-screen keyboard showing up under the Steam or Quick Access menu

 

[sprinkles]

Looks like they gonna get the OS ready for the Dock release.

 

[Mivey]

OK, so I tried this with Firefox last night and it was super bad. When I opened it, it looked good at first, but I think there's some conflict between the game mode trying to pop up something and Firefox trying to autofill text fields (e.g. signing in on a page) and the screen starts flickering like crazy and then it went into a boot loop until I did a hard reset. Maybe it won't do it again but kinda scared to check. I know they suggest Chrome so maybe that was my mistake but I'd rather stick to FF. Maybe I'll try Chrome tonight.

I just recommended Chrome since you can install it easily from Gaming mode itself and it seems well supported by Valve. Not sure what's up with Firefox, maybe something Valve can fix in the future. I am generally more of a Firefox user as well, but on the Deck it seems just overall less painful to use it. And admittedly, I think Chrome is the better supported app at this point.

 

[sprinkles]

I just recommended Chrome since you can install it easily from Gaming mode itself and it seems well supported by Valve. Not sure what's up with Firefox, maybe something Valve can fix in the future. I am generally more of a Firefox user as well, but on the Deck it seems just overall less painful to use it. And admittedly, I think Chrome is the better supported app at this point.

I just ran Spotify in Chrome and let that run in the background while playing FF7R. Worked great.

 

[Amzin]

It sounds like Firefox might not even have latest browser updates on that OS so I might have to copy over some passwords to Chrome again, but as long as it works I can live with it. I didn't actually try VLC yet since I haven't copied any of my music over either, not sure if it's worth it or not.

I started up Stacklands on Deck and it's quite an interesting take on... tiny village survival games? Not sure what to compare it to, but the mouse control w0rks well here too. Actually touch control would probably be good too, dragging and dropping cards all over the place.

 

[C-Dub]

Looks like they gonna get the OS ready for the Dock release.

I think they may be getting ready for SteamOS 3.0 to be released more generally too. Or maybe the controller UI is ready for Windows. Or all of the above.

 

[MomoVideo]

I just recommended Chrome since you can install it easily from Gaming mode itself and it seems well supported by Valve. Not sure what's up with Firefox, maybe something Valve can fix in the future. I am generally more of a Firefox user as well, but on the Deck it seems just overall less painful to use it. And admittedly, I think Chrome is the better supported app at this point.

How do you install Chrome from Gaming Mode? I remember that I got a pop-up when I went to library first time, but now I don't see any option to install it. Firefox is bugged in gaming mode so I could use a different browser.

 

[Mivey]

How do you install Chrome from Gaming Mode? I remember that I got a pop-up when I went to library first time, but now I don't see any option to install it. Firefox is bugged in gaming mode so I could use a different browser.

When you go to the Library view, don't you see a tab with "Non-Steam" games? From what I recall, that is always there and gives you by default the option to set up Chrome.
Here's a video of it

 

[Knurek]

When you go to the Library view, don't you see a tab with "Non-Steam" games? From what I recall, that is always there and gives you by default the option to set up Chrome.
Here's a video of it

No option like this for me, and I also dismissed the initial 'install Chrome' popup.

 

[MomoVideo]

When you go to the Library view, don't you see a tab with "Non-Steam" games? From what I recall, that is always there and gives you by default the option to set up Chrome.
Here's a video of it

I have "Non-Steam" tab, but there is no "Learn More" button.

 

[Mivey]

No option like this for me, and I also dismissed the initial 'install Chrome' popup.

I have "Non-Steam" tab, but there is no "Learn More" button.

Some people on Reddit say that they saw that Learn more thing after restarting the Deck.
Otherwise, just install Chrome yourself in the Discover app in the Desktop mode and add it to Steam as a non-Steam app from the Desktop. It does list any flatpacks I have installed there.

 

[Mor]

Great news everyone.

-Klonoa works out of the box perfectly!
-Shin Megami Tensei 3 HD seems to have improved its performance on menus after a new proton experimental bleeding edge update, should be part of experimental soon and who knows, non experimental in the near future.

I have played over 20 hours this week alone lol

 

[C-Dub]

So I've got EmuDeck installed, and I've also managed to setup Syncthing perfectly. I've even got it autostarting in Game Mode so my Deck is instantly syncing with my home server and gaming PC. Instructions on how to get Syncthing autostarting in Game Mode are here.

ROMs have synced over to my 512gb SD card nicely, and I've got the save folders that EmuDeck setup syncing to my PC. I haven't yet added them to Steam with EmuDeck/Steam ROM Manager on either my gaming PC or my Deck, but that's probably my next thing to do.

I even have my Steam Grid folder syncing so I only need to fix, change or update a Steam Grid on one device and it syncs my covers across all my systems, including the Steam Deck. Grids sync fine on my gaming PC, my MacBook Pro and the Steam Deck. This is especially useful when a bunch of games randomly appear in Remote Play (aka all the Non-Steam Games I've added to Steam on my PC) - because my grids are syncing they appear perfectly on the Deck without me having to manually re-add all the grids.

I've also gotta setup an Xbox Remote Play client - I already have Chiaki for my PS5 running perfectly. Then after that I'll look to add some games I have on GOG and EGS to the Deck.

Basically, my Steam Deck is pretty much the ultimate handheld system for me at this point. It runs a ton of games, and what it doesn't run I pretty much have 100% in-home streaming support for. And none of the above is at all difficult to do - what's great about the Steam Deck is that I'm not the first person to have wanted to do any of this, so someone has already done the hard work and sorted it out for me. It's like setting up an all-singing, all-dancing gaming PC on easy mode.

 

[Joe Spangle]

I love the Deck.

 

[lashman]

I love the Deck.

 

[Galdere]

Just recently got mine and a pretty vital bit of info if it hasn't been mentioned is that if you put a screen protector on it you probably will have to reset the touchscreen calibration. The way to that is to reboot into the bios and choose battery storage mode. That resets the screen when you have to plug in power the first time afterwards to boot. I had a dead zone with poor sensitivity until I did that, but it has been fine ever since.

 

[Amzin]

Some people on Reddit say that they saw that Learn more thing after restarting the Deck.
Otherwise, just install Chrome yourself in the Discover app in the Desktop mode and add it to Steam as a non-Steam app from the Desktop. It does list any flatpacks I have installed there.

I installed it from desktop and added just like this. I don't know if it's accurate but the Chrome install claims to be out of date, but it works fine for me anyway with my extensions. Gaming mode it is a wonky resolution but it worked great in the background while playing Stacklands.

Speaking of, that's another game finished, although I migrated to my PC to finish it as it gets kind of unwieldy late in the game. Cute little game that works well on the Deck if you don't go overboard like I did though.

Probably gonna keep my binging of shorter games going, although I should mix in some time with longer ones so I don't feel like I'm slogging through something actually fun.

 

[TheTrain]

To installa chrome even after the first boot up of the Deck you have to go in Library - Non-Steam Games - More information. If you haven't added any game/shortcut/whatever you should have the "more information" tab available right there, otherwise I'm pretty sure that it disappear

 

[Mivey]

To installa chrome even after the first boot up of the Deck you have to go in Library - Non-Steam Games - More information. If you haven't added any game/shortcut/whatever you should have the "more information" tab available right there, otherwise I'm pretty sure that it disappear

Maybe that's the problem, having dismissed the first pop-up and then linked some other non-Steam apps through the Desktop. It's also not a big problem. If you look at the properties of the Chrome app as installed by Steam, you'll see that it's just a link to the flatpack app. So there is literally no difference to just installing Chrome yourself and adding it manually in Desktop mode to Steam.

 

[MomoVideo]

Maybe that's the problem, having dismissed the first pop-up and then linked some other non-Steam apps through the Desktop. It's also not a big problem. If you look at the properties of the Chrome app as installed by Steam, you'll see that it's just a link to the flatpack app. So there is literally no difference to just installing Chrome yourself and adding it manually in Desktop mode to Steam.

I found one big problem - I'm lazy . If there was a way to add Chrome with a single click, then I wanted to do it. If I have to enter Desktop mode, download chrome manually from a store, find and add custom artwork, then I start questioning if I will even use Chrome on this thing.