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

Amzin

No one beats me 17 times in a row!
Dec 5, 2018
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My dbrand skin and screen protector got deliver today... at 11PM, by USPS, somehow? Super fucking weird. So I'll worry about getting that on tomorrow.

I didn't realize the texture of the trackpad covers was dependent on the skin you get - I might have opted for something other than the swarm, but I don't love the regular texture of the pads (especially not for any length of time) so I'll have to see how I like it. Was hoping for something smooth but a little softer.
 

Ge0force

Excluding exclusives
Jan 12, 2019
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Belgium
Anyone tried Mortal Kombat 11 on the Deck? The autodetection suggest all graphical details on maximum for me, but sometimes the game "hangs" half a second, especially when changing the camera view (when doing a special move or fatality for example). I wonder if this has to do with the installation on the SD-card (the game is too f*cking big too keep on the internal SSD)...
 

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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This is great news and I'm sure P5R will also perform and run well on the platform, this is the kind of content you want to have running for your Asian audience who is more likely to jump in if they have things like this.

LET'S GOOOOOO
 
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Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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This is great news and I'm sure P5R will also perform and run well on the platform, this is the kind of content you want to have running for your Asian audience who is more likely to jump in if they have things like this.
Is it still the case that many games from Japanese publishers are region-blocked in Japan? I imagine these messed up practices would seriously harm any chance the Deck has for wider adoption there.
 

Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
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Is it still the case that many games from Japanese publishers are region-blocked in Japan? I imagine these messed up practices would seriously harm any chance the Deck has for wider adoption there.
Mostly anime licensed games are region-locked in Japan. The other problem is bad regional pricing because the piblishers want to price the games as the same as the console version, and there's no upper limit in these prices. Meanwhile, as the used game market in Japan is big, many console games drop hard in prices in used game stores while their PC counterparts may rarely have good sale.
 
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Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
Nov 4, 2018
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It's very interesting that Sony has embraced Steam Deck to that degree. The device seems to be a big hit among Sony's development teams. Even Shuhei Yoshida tweeted a picture of a Steam Deck booth from Bit Summit in Japan.
 

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
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Heroic Games Launcher 2.4.0 has been released with quite a major overhaul. GoG Cloud Sync works making it the only client on Linux and SteamDeck supporting the feature. You can also easily install anticheat and EOS components (why you would want to do that I am not sure) straight from the UI. All around a decent update
GOG cloud saves is a game changer here.
 

BernardoOne

MetaMember
Oct 19, 2018
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Some Switch emulation impressions:

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker : Runs absolutely perfect. no shader compilation stutter ,60 fps stable throughout the entire thing, touch works perfectly, very good image quality, low power usage. Outright feels like a native deck game.
Link's Awakening : requires external 60 fps mod. Once applied, very smooth experience with relatively rare drops here and there
Pokemon Arceus: requires you to use Power Tools to disable CPU SMT. Once done, extremely stable 30fps (no 60fps patch that doesn't double gamespeed exists yet)
Astral Chain : suffers from some shader compilation stutter issues, but it's still pretty playable, 30fps.
 

LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
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Just beat Dragon's Dogma on the Deck tonight -- it's really amazing how much this device encourages me to play at least an hour every night or so. Really helps with the backlog. There's the DLC content I have to get through eventually, but I think I'd like to move on to some other games next.
 

LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
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Saw that Dragon's Dogma is listed as Unsupported on Steam. Did it work for you without tinkering?
Yes. It worked swimmingly. My only issue was that running at 40hz would cause some issues with timing during cutscenes where audio would get out of sync, but it ran pretty well at 60 with some frame drops. I think the game could probably run even better long term, as there were times in the session where it revved up more than I would expect.
 

Mivey

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Sep 20, 2018
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I need to return to Dragon's Dogma. I tried playing as a wizard, since i heard so much about how cool spell casting is, but the game's early hours are incredibly hard as a wizard. You get maybe one spell that really isn't good, and so you basically have to rely on melee, which you are also not very good at.

I think I'll look up some walkthrough or guides on how to optimally play or something. Trying to figure out myself seems like a bad idea.
 
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MomoVideo

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Apr 5, 2021
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I need to return to Dragon's Dogma. I tried playing as a wizard, since i heard so much about how cool spell casting is, but the game's early hours are incredibly hard as a wizard. You get maybe one spell that really isn't good, and so you basically have to rely on melee, which you are also not very good at.

I think I'll look up some walkthrough or guides on how to optimally play or something. Trying to figure out myself seems like a bad idea.
If you don't care about min/maxing, which I would suggest not to do on the first playthrough, you can start as another class and then change it to Wizard when you get to the main city. You will also have access to more classes than during the character creation.

Also, another tip is to pick pawns that will pick up the slack for you. If you want to look up some guides then I suggest looking up guides on paws because all pawns behave differently and you might want to tailor your pawn behavior to suit your playstyle. For example, you can train your pawn to be your mule which will pick up all items at sight, even during a fight, or some pawns will pick up and bring downed teammates to you to revive. The pawn system is more complex than it appears at first. I wish more games used a system like this.
 
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LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
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Interesting note here for people using a BTRFS linux system: Sounds like they've improved the file usage situation for proton games by reducing the amount of data duplication for any files that can be shared until they diverge (copy-on-write).

Won't affect most deck users, but it's an interesting footnote and maybe relevant for future Valve hardware? Also might be a decent argument to try out BTRFS on an SD card.
 

itsamiracle

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2018
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BTRFS also offers file compression, which could help squeezing one or two smaller games. I would honestly find it a more interesting option for the less wear-prone internal storage rather than the SD card, but I am sure Valve had their reasons going with ext4
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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BTRFS also offers file compression, which could help squeezing one or two smaller games. I would honestly find it a more interesting option for the less wear-prone internal storage rather than the SD card, but I am sure Valve had their reasons going with ext4
BTRFS is a case-sensitive filesystem, ext4 supports case-folding so it can behave as a case-insensitive filesystem.
Proton runs Windows games and Windows is case-insensitive by default, running Windows games on a case-sensitive filesystem may introduce bugs, so ext4 has the better compatibility.
That's how I understand it.
 
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LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
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BTRFS is a case-sensitive filesystem, ext4 supports case-folding so it can behave as a case-insensitive filesystem.
Proton runs Windows games and Windows is case-insensitive by default, running Windows games on a case-sensitive filesystem may introduce bugs, so ext4 has the better compatibility.
That's how I understand it.

On my desktop, this is rarely an issue. I use BTRFS w/ snapshotting which generally works as expected. Usually --Wine-- (edit: I meant proton :) ) should take care of casing conundrums as it's basically a key difference between linux and windows as a whole and kind of a known quantity by now. I think I can recall one or two games where the game's save files were incorrectly loaded, but mostly in the early days of proton or game releases. I think the last time I ran into that was the GG Strive launch period.

With that said, on further reflection, I'm not entirely sure I would use BTRFS on the Deck SD card only because copy-on-write can be taxing on the lifespan of flash memory. However, there are a few ways to work around these issues, and the potential disk space savings might be enough to convince me otherwise.
 
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Mivey

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BTRFS is a case-sensitive filesystem, ext4 supports case-folding so it can behave as a case-insensitive filesystem.
Proton runs Windows games and Windows is case-insensitive by default, running Windows games on a case-sensitive filesystem may introduce bugs, so ext4 has the better compatibility.
That's how I understand it.
Technically, every file system supports "case folding". You just convert all file and folder names ever to lower-case. I'm kinda suprised Wine didn't go for that solution initially, seems like a pretty clean solution.
 

itsamiracle

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2018
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On my desktop, this is rarely an issue. I use BTRFS w/ snapshotting which generally works as expected. Usually --Wine-- (edit: I meant proton :) ) should take care of casing conundrums as it's basically a key difference between linux and windows as a whole and kind of a known quantity by now. I think I can recall one or two games where the game's save files were incorrectly loaded, but mostly in the early days of proton or game releases. I think the last time I ran into that was the GG Strive launch period.

With that said, on further reflection, I'm not entirely sure I would use BTRFS on the Deck SD card only because copy-on-write can be taxing on the lifespan of flash memory. However, there are a few ways to work around these issues, and the potential disk space savings might be enough to convince me otherwise.
You can disable cow on btrfs, problem being you also give away compression and checksumming.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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How is Cyberpunk on Deck ? Can you get a good IQ/fps ?
 

MomoVideo

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How is Cyberpunk on Deck ? Can you get a good IQ/fps ?
I'm currently playing Cyberpunk on Deck. I'm running a combination of High/medium/low settings ( because it is a beautiful game and I don't want to butcher graphics), at 1280x800 resolution with FSR 2.0 mod, capped at 11W TDP and 40 Hz. 30 fps cap was unplayable for me because it introduced really high input lag, but the framerate was more stable. With a 40 fps cap, it generally runs okayish, it stays at that framerate when there is not much going on, but when there is a lot of going on then it drops framerate, sometimes to low 30s. Still much more playable for me than the 30 fps cap. You can increase TDP to 15W to improve framerate, but then the battery drains faster and Deck is much louder. With my settings it's pretty quiet.

For curiosity, I connected Deck to a TV and set the game to 1080p. With an FSR 2.0 mod and 30 fps it was both gorgeous and playable. Here are some screenshots I took ( with built-in Steam tool, so they are a bit compressed).



 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Hmm, please HELP !

I had the sinking city gamesplanet version installed as a non steam game. Changed my mind, 18go is big. Couldn’t find the folder where the files are on deck but hey, linux search is good, no worry.
five minutes later, I have now no more sinking city listed as a non steam game and can’t for the life of me find the files, even with search.
And again, 18go is sorta a big deal.

I hope I have another solution than simply going back to factory deck.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Hmm, please HELP !

I had the sinking city gamesplanet version installed as a non steam game. Changed my mind, 18go is big. Couldn’t find the folder where the files are on deck but hey, linux search is good, no worry.
five minutes later, I have now no more sinking city listed as a non steam game and can’t for the life of me find the files, even with search.
And again, 18go is sorta a big deal.

I hope I have another solution than simply going back to factory deck.
Install the Disk Usage Analyzer, from the Discover store. It shows a pie-chart of how much space every folder and file is taking up. Should be easy to spot where that 18 gb is.
 
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jads653

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Oct 18, 2021
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Hmm, please HELP !

I had the sinking city gamesplanet version installed as a non steam game. Changed my mind, 18go is big. Couldn’t find the folder where the files are on deck but hey, linux search is good, no worry.
five minutes later, I have now no more sinking city listed as a non steam game and can’t for the life of me find the files, even with search.
And again, 18go is sorta a big deal.

I hope I have another solution than simply going back to factory deck.
Probably because its installed to a hidden folder in your home directory. Default (non) steam games are installed to ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common
Which is an hidden folder as denoted by the dot. Just put above in your Dolphin file manager and look for the correct folder.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Ok, found it with Disk Usage Analyzer.
Can I simply delete Frogwares in
/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2727442323/pfx/drive_c/Frogwares

I mean i already nuked the non steam game entry on steam, can I simply delete this folder or will this get super messy and I should do otherwise ?
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Ok, found it with Disk Usage Analyzer.
Can I simply delete Frogwares in
/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2727442323/pfx/drive_c/Frogwares

I mean i already nuked the non steam game entry on steam, can I simply delete this folder or will this get super messy and I should do otherwise ?
that's just files that Proton creates. Should be very safe to delete.
 
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jads653

MetaMember
Oct 18, 2021
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Ok, found it with Disk Usage Analyzer.
Can I simply delete Frogwares in
/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2727442323/pfx/drive_c/Frogwares

I mean i already nuked the non steam game entry on steam, can I simply delete this folder or will this get super messy and I should do otherwise ?
You should be safe to nuke the entire 2727442323 folder. Proton makes a prefix (the long 27) folder for every installed game.
 

MomoVideo

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Holy heck, Valve is on a roll :sweaty-blob:. They released like 7 updates in a week. Here are the latest:


Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Stable and Beta channels, and includes all the changes that have been tested in the Preview channel. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.

  • Temporarily reverted RDR2 VRAM workaround to pre-3.3 behavior
  • Fixed an issue causing random 0.2s stutter
  • Fixed an issue causing performance drops when a UI element appeared on screen if the performance HUD was enabled.
  • Improved performance for Forza Horizon 5

Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.

Steam Input
  • Allow users to remove community layouts that they've created. Users who have this config selected won't lose it, but it will no longer be listed in the community layouts.
  • Removed a check which would only show your layouts in your personal layouts, even when shared with the community - this was causing users to think their configuration has not been exported.
  • Fixed a bug on saving configurations where the controller type could attempt to use a cached valued which was incorrect, causing the layout controller type to appear to be incorrect.
  • Changed the OSK chord to be on button release instead of press to resolve some issues with focus on the desktop window.
  • Added Shared Layout preview of layouts which shows a layout and allows it to be optionally assigned. If the user clicks on a steam url link to a config (via chat for example) while in Game Mode, this will be shown.
  • Added support for Nintendo Joy-Cons
  • Improved FlickStick mode


Other
  • Added Discovery Queue to Home screen under the Recommended tab
  • No longer showing a Steam Cloud sync error notification when installing a game
  • Fixed issue where a 2.9GB read-only library is displayed when the microSD card is unmounted manually
  • Added game resolution setting to non-Steam app properties

Note: This update is for the
Steam Deck Stable
channel, and includes all the changes that have been tested in the Beta channel. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.

Offline Mode Fixes
We're continuing to look at making the user experience of playing games without an Internet connection a better, more intuitive experience.

  • Fixed issue where rebooting while in Steam Offline Mode would cause games to fail to launch
  • Fixed the Cloud Sync error notification popping up when offline
  • Disabled Steam Offline Mode button when not connected to the internet, as trying to do this currently gets Steam Deck into a bad state.
    • This change disables this button but does not in any way affect your ability to play games without an active Internet connection.


Keyboard
  • Fixed styling for CJK keyboard glyphs so everything appears centered correctly on keys
  • Fixed Recommended Layout not always showing up for the author of controller configuration
  • Fixed CJK font issues in SteamOS updater when running on Steam Deck
  • Fixed focus issue when tapping the show/hide password button
  • Removed the gap between keys on the virtual keyboard for improved typing


Other
  • Temporarily disabling hot / cold temperature notifications while we address issues with false positives
 

Arulan

Lizardman
Dec 7, 2018
538
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The Steam Deck has been an amazing experience so far. I like to have different setups to enjoy playing games, most notably a desktop and lounge (aka comfy couch) experience. The Steam Deck has fit in very well as the versatile option I can take anywhere -- to bed, to hang out with my wife while she's watching something else, outside while I'm enjoying the scenery, etc.

I've been in a weird limbo state with my setup after my move last year, but I finally got around to updating my Linux desktop installation (I use Arch btw), and I continue to be impressed with how great it is now, even on an Nvidia GPU which unfortunately is lacking in Wayland support. Has anyone else moved to Linux as their main desktop driver, perhaps as a result of the Steam Deck? It's not perfect just yet, but oh so close. The VR experience could use some work, but mostly works fine with HTC Vive or Valve Index. Ideally Valve's Deckard will handle a lot of the core VR systems internally which would make integrating to Linux much smoother. I believe that's their plan from the various leaks so far though. EAC is almost there, but developers need to update some of the remaining holdouts.
 

DrShrapnel

Shuwatch!
Oct 14, 2021
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Just wrapped up God of War on my PC. I’m ready to move on to a new game, but there’s still some extra exploration I wouldn’t mind doing to complete more of the areas.

I’m thinking this is the perfect job for the Steam Deck. I’m going to install it there, and tie up any loose ends on the Deck, while I’m relaxing.
 

LionelInoe

Linux Advocate
Jul 13, 2022
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Monster Hunter World really chews through the battery pretty quickly.

I'm liking what I've played so far, though I don't really have any immediate friends who have any interest in the game so IDK how far I'll get before I might have to drop it. Seems like most players are on Rise now. I'll give it a few more days or until I hit a roadblock of not being able to fulfill a full party. :p

Does anyone have any recommended settings for World to make it a bit easier on the battery while maintaining roughly 40fps?
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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Finally opened my Steam Deck package and started it up and logged in. All looks good so far.
Have huge headache at moment so i might dabble with the cheapo dock stick i bought or leave it all til tomorrow evening after work.

I have 2 x 256gb cards on their way and i'm looking for my license code for some ext read/write software i bought years ago when dabbling with linux. It'll probably be handy for transferring data from my PC to the Steam Deck cards.