Steam Deck ~ PC Switch

[Biscotti]

Just tried with a random gamecube game using a fresh emudeck install, and I didn't need to configure anything either.

 

[cruel]

Thanks for that, very interesting. It looks like my config got messed up at some point for some reason, it doesn't work even after I reset Dolphin settings in Emudeck. Strange.

Are you running Emulation Station from the gaming mode? Or added game rom to steam via Rom Manager and running game directly from steam?

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[Biscotti]

I always run my roms directly from the Steam interface, I don't think I've even opened Emulation Station once.

 

[welly321]

I've tried it both ways and it works fine either way.

 

[cruel]

Thanks guys for checking. I've tried right now - added Path of Radiance rom directly to Steam via Steam ROM Manager. Result: doesn't work.

Wondering if this is game specific, maybe I will try other random game. Not sure if rom can make a difference here though...

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[Zewp]

I bought the OLED model (it's my first steamdeck), it's kind of cool but it feels almost exactly like a steam controller which everyone hated and now everyone loves this thing. I actually thought the steam controller was a cool concept but this feels a bit worse with smaller track pads? Right now I have more fun tinkering with it than actually playing games. What are some of Codex favorite games to play on it?

It's great for third person RPGs. I've played Gothic, Gothic 2, Gothic 3 (no controller support, but it plays quite well with a community layout. If only the game wasn't so shit, but I enjoyed the exploration), Risen and a few others on it. Might be worth waiting a bit on Gothic 1 and 2, because I heard they're getting official controller support sometime in the future.

 

[Biscotti]

You can make almost any game work on it imo. The trackpads and steam input are the real reason I still consider the Deck the superior handheld despite the fact it's already eclipsed by the competition when it comes to raw performance. Being able to comfortably play Thief on it was an eye opening experience.

 

[Theodora]

The trackpads and steam input are the real reason I still consider the Deck the superior handheld despite the fact it's already eclipsed by the competition when it comes to raw performance

Yeah, the alternatives are only really a better option for people who are mostly using them in docked mode, where being able to play things portably is a positive little quirk rather than the intended/primary purpose.

 

[whydoibother]

I tried playing Half Life on the Deck, and I simply can't control with the trackpads. Maybe I am a senile boomer, but I can't make it work, and its very frustrating.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

I tried playing Half Life on the Deck, and I simply can't control with the trackpads. Maybe I am a senile boomer, but I can't make it work, and its very frustrating.

Can't you use the analog sticks? It had enough console ports it must be playable that way.

 

[whydoibother]

I tried playing Half Life on the Deck, and I simply can't control with the trackpads. Maybe I am a senile boomer, but I can't make it work, and its very frustrating.

Can't you use the analog sticks? It had enough console ports it must be playable that way.

I'm bad at gamepad stick shooting too. On the Deck, I play more typical gamepad games, like Shank and Vampire Survivors.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Looking closely at getting one of these. I already have a gaming PC, it's fine, no problems with it. But it would be nice to be able to have the option to relax somewhere else than at the desk that I also do my fairly stressful dayjob at.

I get interrupted a lot. One of the joys of the switch is that it can suspend at a moment's notice, when, eg your 3 year old just shat on the kitchen floor. Does the steam deck work like that?

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Looking closely at getting one of these. I already have a gaming PC, it's fine, no problems with it. But it would be nice to be able to have the option to relax somewhere else than at the desk that I also do my fairly stressful dayjob at.

I get interrupted a lot. One of the joys of the switch is that it can suspend at a moment's notice, when, eg your 3 year old just shat on the kitchen floor. Does the steam deck work like that?

That's what I use mine for. Laying on the sofa playing PC games instead of having to sit at the desk.

Yes, games suspend and restart like on the switch. I'm sure some have problems with it but everyone I've put serious time into has been fine.

 

[whydoibother]

I get interrupted a lot. One of the joys of the switch is that it can suspend at a moment's notice, when, eg your 3 year old just shat on the kitchen floor. Does the steam deck work like that?

Works like that, but if you use it like that, it will have a combined total of ~3 hours of play time. And even if you don't play, if you leave it on stand by, it needs recharging in ~3 days waiting for you.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

I get interrupted a lot. One of the joys of the switch is that it can suspend at a moment's notice, when, eg your 3 year old just shat on the kitchen floor. Does the steam deck work like that?

Works like that, but if you use it like that, it will have a combined total of ~3 hours of play time. And even if you don't play, if you leave it on stand by, it needs recharging in ~3 days waiting for you.

I'm assuming if you want it on the sofa you can find a way to have a usb to keep it plugged in. I have a cable that sits behind mine and always keep it plugged in.

 

[FreshCorpse]

I get interrupted a lot. One of the joys of the switch is that it can suspend at a moment's notice, when, eg your 3 year old just shat on the kitchen floor. Does the steam deck work like that?

Works like that, but if you use it like that, it will have a combined total of ~3 hours of play time. And even if you don't play, if you leave it on stand by, it needs recharging in ~3 days waiting for you.

Because the suspend state is not very power efficient I suppose? Probably ok for my usecase. It will be sitting in the dock a lot of the time I expect. I usually get 45 mins - 2 hours MAX as a gaming sesh (being dad sucks in this respect).

 

[ds]

 

[Caim]

Didn't know Gabe was part of the military-industrial complex.

 

[whydoibother]

Small Linux PC with the kind of gamepad controls that 20-30 years olds are familiar with, built in and in good quality, for under $500.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Interesting use of the deck but I'd be worried about using commercial hardware like this for deadly weapons. Only takes 1 exploit and your turrets turn back on your own guys.

 

[Caim]

Interesting use of the deck but I'd be worried about using commercial hardware like this for deadly weapons. Only takes 1 exploit and your turrets turn back on your own guys.

Valve be like:

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i actually got me one of those things lmao.

They are phasing out the LCD version so i grabbed one while they were on sale since apparently once they are out of stock they are gone for good. Paid around 313 euros for the 64GB version. The 500GB might have been a better deal but was already gone by the time i noticed the sale. I guess eventually i'll replace the drive for now i'm just using a 256GB card i pulled out of my phone.

This past few years i found myself in a lot of sitations where i had no acces to my PC so i figured i had to get a portable device eventually. Tried playing games on my phone but it was just shit, and never cared all that much about the ecosystem in Japanese handheld devices (Sony PSP etc) besides some emu stuff so Steam Deck it is i guess.

Only had it for a week, here's my impressions from someone who had ZERO knowledge about this thing, not even knowledge acquired through osmosis.

First, i'm a bit disappointed i got some backlight bleed on the screen. I mean this is a common issue with IPS screens but generally it's very rare on phones so i have no idea why it is here (other than that Valve skimped out of quality control). I have a friend who has had this thing for two years and his also came with backlight bleed. Some people claim the screen may just be tighetend a bit too much. if you squeeze the Deck gently it does fade out but i heard the same shit about actual computer monitors so i think this is just cope. It's not as big a deal as on the desktop purely because you can tilt the Deck up and down and the bleed is only visible at certain angles. The screen also comes with your typical IPS issues, such as IPS glow and average contrast but that was expected. Makes me wish i had gotten the OLED version but at nearly 600 euros for the cheapest model it was just way too much. Plus i heard people claiming the heat from the Deck damaged their screen, getting burn in ahead of schedule.

Second issue is that the thing is so large the screen can't be easily reached, meaning you can't reliably use the touch screen in combination with the analog controls. I can't think of what they could have done to prevent this though, and it is to be seen if the screen even needs to be touched at all.

Now, first thing that surprised me is that everything i tried so far has run without problems. There are marks that tell you how compatible the games are so i tried a bunch that had a yellow sign and even a few that had a "barred" white mark but those ran too. Didn't try to play them but they actually started up and in some cases the Deck found "community" configurations that made it possible to control the games out of the gate.

I also had no idea the thing is literally running on a desktop OS. I mean i knew it ran on Linux, just wasn't expecting a literal desktop distro, with KDE and everything. That's pretty knewl makes it much easier to tinker with the system than what i expected (and i guess getting a dock is a must now). Didn't try any emu yet but i ran a little script to install all the other launchers (Epic, Battle.net etc) and everything worked instantly without any issue.

I will also say it's pretty surreal to actually have the PC ecosystem on an handheld device. There are few caveats of course, the first being that the screen is a bit smallish. I mean you can play the games fine but it's not as immersive as on an actual monitor. The other of course is the controls. Things that were made to work on console are of course good to go, and that includes stuff like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale EE. So far so good with that. It's a bit more problematic on stuff made for mouse and keyboard. Tried a few RTS games and it's workable, but pretty awkard. Track pad works fine but it's also a bit too sensitive and i have no idea how to do stuff like ctrl groups or anything that requires a keyboard. As for shooters, it's basically like playing them on a standard controller. I finished the first episode in Doom (new version on steam, so no vertical mouse aim) and it was better to just use the analog stick than the track pad, but anything with vertical aiming is not so easy to deal with. That said, my friend is very emphatic in claming the gyro makes it possible to have a mouse-like experience. I tried and i'm not really feeling it, but i saw him playing with it and it did look convincing (the way he does it is that he uses the gyro only for small movements, tilting the Deck slightly up and down in combination with the analog stick for full panning etc).

Battery life is average. Going through all nine levels in the first episode of Doom took out around 60% of my battery life and i set the TDP at 6W to boot. Of course, nowadays you can charge up your devices in half an hour so it's not a big issue if you have a power outlet nearby. Didn't try to run a modern game so i didn't get to see the Deck going full throttle, but my friend says the fans can get quite loud. I tried that moonlight/sunshine thing (which seems like a better way to run heavy games if that's the case) and it was rather choppy, but my friend says that's because my PC is on wi-fi. Don't have an ethernet cable at hand since they are in a box somewhere i guess i'll find out eventually.

All in all i'm not unhappy with the purchase though. Having my PC ecosystem on a portable device is a pretty huge deal, even with all the problems i may be experiencing with the controls (at least for the time being).

 

[The Decline]

So i actually got me one of those things lmao.

They are phasing out the LCD version so i grabbed one while they were on sale since apparently once they are out of stock they are gone for good. Paid around 313 euros for the 64GB version. The 500GB might have been a better deal but was already gone by the time i noticed the sale. I guess eventually i'll replace the drive for now i'm just using a 256GB card i pulled out of my phone.

This past few years i found myself in a lot of sitations where i had no acces to my PC so i figured i had to get a portable device eventually. Tried playing games on my phone but it was just shit, and never cared all that much about the ecosystem in Japanese handheld devices (Sony PSP etc) besides some emu stuff so Steam Deck it is i guess.

Only had it for a week, here's my impressions from someone who had ZERO knowledge about this thing, not even knowledge acquired through osmosis.

First, i'm a bit disappointed i got some backlight bleed on the screen. I mean this is a common issue with IPS screens but generally it's very rare on phones so i have no idea why it is here (other than that Valve skimped out of quality control). I have a friend who has had this thing for two years and his also came with backlight bleed. Some people claim the screen may just be tighetend a bit too much. if you squeeze the Deck gently it does fade out but i heard the same shit about actual computer monitors so i think this is just cope. It's not as big a deal as on the desktop purely because you can tilt the Deck up and down and the bleed is only visible at certain angles. The screen also comes with your typical IPS issues, such as IPS glow and average contrast but that was expected. Makes me wish i had gotten the OLED version but at nearly 600 euros for the cheapest model it was just way too much. Plus i heard people claiming the heat from the Deck damaged their screen, getting burn in ahead of schedule.

Second issue is that the thing is so large the screen can't be easily reached, meaning you can't reliably use the touch screen in combination with the analog controls. I can't think of what they could have done to prevent this though, and it is to be seen if the screen even needs to be touched at all.

Now, first thing that surprised me is that everything i tried so far has run without problems. There are marks that tell you how compatible the games are so i tried a bunch that had a yellow sign and even a few that had a "barred" white mark but those ran too. Didn't try to play them but they actually started up and in some cases the Deck found "community" configurations that made it possible to control the games out of the gate.

I also had no idea the thing is literally running on a desktop OS. I mean i knew it ran on Linux, just wasn't expecting a literal desktop distro, with KDE and everything. That's pretty knewl makes it much easier to tinker with the system than what i expected (and i guess getting a dock is a must now). Didn't try any emu yet but i ran a little script to install all the other launchers (Epic, Battle.net etc) and everything worked instantly without any issue.

I will also say it's pretty surreal to actually have the PC ecosystem on an handheld device. There are few caveats of course, the first being that the screen is a bit smallish. I mean you can play the games fine but it's not as immersive as on an actual monitor. The other of course is the controls. Things that were made to work on console are of course good to go, and that includes stuff like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale EE. So far so good with that. It's a bit more problematic on stuff made for mouse and keyboard. Tried a few RTS games and it's workable, but pretty awkard. Track pad works fine but it's also a bit too sensitive and i have no idea how to do stuff like ctrl groups or anything that requires a keyboard. As for shooters, it's basically like playing them on a standard controller. I finished the first episode in Doom (new version on steam, so no vertical mouse aim) and it was better to just use the analog stick than the track pad, but anything with vertical aiming is not so easy to deal with. That said, my friend is very emphatic in claming the gyro makes it possible to have a mouse-like experience. I tried and i'm not really feeling it, but i saw him playing with it and it did look convincing (the way he does it is that he uses the gyro only for small movements, tilting the Deck slightly up and down in combination with the analog stick for full panning etc).

Battery life is average. Going through all nine levels in the first episode of Doom took out around 60% of my battery life and i set the TDP at 6W to boot. Of course, nowadays you can charge up your devices in half an hour so it's not a big issue if you have a power outlet nearby. Didn't try to run a modern game so i didn't get to see the Deck going full throttle, but my friend says the fans can get quite loud. I tried that moonlight/sunshine thing (which seems like a better way to run heavy games if that's the case) and it was rather choppy, but my friend says that's because my PC is on wi-fi. Don't have an ethernet cable at hand since they are in a box somewhere i guess i'll find out eventually.

All in all i'm not unhappy with the purchase though. Having my PC ecosystem on a portable device is a pretty huge deal, even with all the problems i may be experiencing with the controls (at least for the time being).

It's really a fun little device to tinker with. I've read about the gyro aiming and it seems useful, but I have yet to try it. I recommend installing Decky for plugin support, especially the compatibility badge plugin that's community maintained.

 

[PlayerEmers]

Since someone bumped the thread, might as well post my share with the deck. Bought mine april last year. No regrets, it was a great buy.
Its my go-to machine to play indies/emulators and also a backlog clearer. Played about 100+ games from my backlog that I got from things like steamgifts,humble bundle, friends or just games that i bought and I never played. Played things like kingdom come and fallout 4 solely on it and also played for many hours games that sounds "unplayable" on the deck like rimworld and kenshi (basically keyboard/mouse heavy games, thanks to steam input and the tools it gives you to make very customizable control schemes). Also since I mostly play indie and old games, the hardware peformance is perfect for me.

My main complaints about it are the weight (even you are physically active, you kinda tire holding it after a while without some cushion/table under it) and battery. Also linux can be a bit annoying when you want to do something but if you take some time to learn, its fine. The community behind the deck also makes great tools that help linux noobs like me.

First, i'm a bit disappointed i got some backlight bleed on the screen.

Same. I twisted and squeezed mine a few times, it fixed a little bit but is still there. I dont care much and its barely noticible when playing stuff.

Second issue is that the thing is so large the screen can't be easily reached, meaning you can't reliably use the touch screen in combination with the analog controls.

It's rare occasion for me to use touchscreen while playing it. When it happens, its usually because of random controller bugs that forced me to use touch or im just lazy to click an option using the trackpad/stick.

Battery life is average.

I find it a bit lacking tbh. I can squeeze 4+ hours playing something really light, but most of the time battery lasts about 2 hours for me (even less because i like to keep battery between 20%-85%). But I guess this kinda "works" for you: you dont want to waste hours and hours consecutively playing on handhelds. Taking a breather is good.

 

[The Decline]

Battery life is average.

I find it a bit lacking tbh. I can squeeze 4+ hours playing something really light, but most of the time battery lasts about 2 hours for me (even less because i like to keep battery between 20%-85%). But I guess this kinda "works" for you: you dont want to waste hours and hours consecutively playing on handhelds. Taking a breather is good.

Have you tried adjusting the tdp? A lot of indie and older games don't require the full power and can run on 3 or 4 watts. Having a 65w power bank also extends the battery life quite a bit.