Author Topic: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC (Read 136531 times)

Deozaan · « **Reply #200 on:** October 19, 2022, 05:02 PM »

That's pretty cool. I'm not sure I'm going there... 1.5 TB should be more than enough for what I really need on my deck. But it is cool to see!
-wraith808 (October 19, 2022, 04:24 PM)

Yeah, I have no plans to get the JSAUX dock with M.2 slot. But I may use the script to auto-mount external drives that are attached to the docks/hubs I already own.

Deozaan · « **Reply #201 on:** October 26, 2022, 06:32 PM »

Another success with an "Unsupported" title: TrackMania² Valley.

The really strange thing is that TrackMania² Stadium is listed as Playable, but both games use the same launcher and are essentially the same game with different content. In fact, there's no point in installing both games since you can install and launch into any of the content packs from the launcher. So I could just install TrackMania² Stadium and play Valley content from it. Or I can install TrackMania² Valley and play Stadium content from it. I really don't understand why one is considered Unsupported while the other is considered Playable. They both seem fully playable to me on Deck.

Deozaan · « **Reply #202 on:** November 17, 2022, 02:27 AM »

Wired. I have it connected to my jsaux dock wired to charge it, and before I take it off the charger, I press the xbox button and it turns on.
-wraith808 (September 27, 2022, 03:55 PM)

What kind of Xbox controller do you have? I have Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers from about 10+ years ago and neither of them turn on the Deck. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong. 😅

The right shoulder button (bumper) on my Xbox One controller recently stopped working so I'm looking into either getting a new controller or a replacement part. I'm not sure I'm up to the soldering to replace the button. But I'm still checking out my options.

wraith808 · « **Reply #203 on:** November 21, 2022, 12:52 PM »

https://smile.amazon.../product/B07SFKTLZM/

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

Deozaan · « **Reply #204 on:** November 23, 2022, 01:39 AM »

Wow. $175 for a controller?

I'll just get this one for $40:

https://www.bestbuy....rbon-black/6430655.p

wraith808 · « **Reply #205 on:** November 26, 2022, 05:45 AM »

Wow. $175 for a controller?

I'll just get this one for $40:

https://www.bestbuy....rbon-black/6430655.p
-Deozaan (November 23, 2022, 01:39 AM)

I got it on sale. It was still admittedly $100, but was worth it for me.

If you think that one is expensive, then not sure what you'll say about this one

https://smile.amazon...obile/dp/B06VTRJGCP/

Deozaan · « **Reply #206 on:** December 06, 2022, 06:55 PM »

The last couple of updates have made things less convenient for me.

Two updates ago, suddenly docked mode "broke" for me. Any time I change accounts or switch from Desktop Mode to Gaming Mode, video output stops. I don't know why, but the Deck refuses to display anything on my TV when the user selection screen is up. And just blindly navigating doesn't fix it. I have to disconnect and reconnect the HDMI cable from the dock before my TV recognizes any output from the Deck again.

To be more precise, the display just freezes before it gets to the account selection screen. The first couple of times it happened I thought the Deck itself had locked up and I pressed the power button for several seconds to hard reset the device. But then I realized I can still hear audio after the display freezes, and then I realized I can still do stuff with an external controller, or even using the controls on the Deck itself. But the display on my TV doesn't start working again until I disconnect and reconnect the HDMI cable from the dock. Or reconnect the Deck itself to the dock via the USB C cable.

A few days later there was another update (which I believe is the most recent Stable update) which made things even more inconvenient! Now there's a confirmation dialog that pops up every time I ask the Deck to switch accounts. And the confirmation prompt doesn't even really make sense. It warns me that it will close my running game to allow switching accounts. That might be useful if I was ever actually running a game when it happened, but I have never tried to switch accounts when I still had a game running, so the confirmation prompt is not only useless, it's inconvenient and a little aggravating. There are multiple people in my household who use the Deck, so switching accounts happens somewhat frequently. Sometimes even when we're playing together on the same machine, because one of us have made more progress on a certain game, so we want to play on that account. Or maybe we want to progress the story or unlocks of a specific account's save data, so we switch to that one.

I've never been very pleased with how Steam handles multiple user accounts (even on Windows machines), but recent updates to the Deck are making it worse.

wraith808 · « **Reply #207 on:** December 06, 2022, 11:09 PM »

Two updates ago, suddenly docked mode "broke" for me. Any time I change accounts or switch from Desktop Mode to Gaming Mode, video output stops. I don't know why, but the Deck refuses to display anything on my TV when the user selection screen is up. And just blindly navigating doesn't fix it. I have to disconnect and reconnect the HDMI cable from the dock before my TV recognizes any output from the Deck again.
-Deozaan (December 06, 2022, 06:55 PM)

Well that explains a problem I've been having lately. I just hadn't looked into it.

Deozaan · « **Reply #208 on:** December 07, 2022, 10:26 PM »

I guess it's true that misery loves company.

It's nice to have confirmation that I'm not the only one experiencing it. I haven't seen the issue mentioned elsewhere.

Deozaan · « **Reply #209 on:** December 11, 2022, 12:44 AM »

I had the Deck docked to the TV today and it randomly acted like it was installing an update when it restarted so I could change accounts a couple hours ago. And now the user accounts screen is working on the TV again. I haven't seen or heard any news of an update for the stable channel of the Deck in some time. Nor have I heard of a firmware update for the Docking Station itself since shortly after it launched. So I'm not sure why things are suddenly working again for me, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Deozaan · « **Reply #210 on:** December 22, 2022, 02:25 AM »

Well, I figured my new Wireless Xbox Controller would be useful in that I could use it with a cable at my PC and use it wirelessly with the Deck. But even though I've had it for about a month, I only recently actually tried wireless (Bluetooth) play on the Deck and I'm not impressed. I experienced pretty severe and inconsistent input lag. Sometimes it was totally unresponsive for several seconds. Other times it was like it was "fast forwarding" through a bunch of buffered inputs, trying to catch up all at once. Other times it was about a half second of pushing or letting go of a button before seeing the appropriate response on screen. Other times it was pretty close to how I'd expect if it was wired.

Oh, and it wasn't just the Xbox Controller. I also had two Nintendo Joy-Cons connected via Bluetooth and the person who was using them also complained of unresponsiveness. And in fact, at one point one of the Joycons disconnected and refused to reconnect until I opened up the Deck's settings and told it to forget about the Joycon and paired it again.

And this was only 5-10 feet away with direct line of sight between controllers and the Deck.

This is my first experience with a wireless controller on anything except an actual console that the wireless controller was designed for. Is this... normal? Is this how all Bluetooth controllers work on all computers? Is it just the Deck's hardware? Is it just my Deck?

Come to think of it, I have connected a Nintendo Switch Online SNES controller via Bluetooth to my Deck before, for a relatively short time, and I don't remember any issues like this with that. But that might have been the 64 GB Deck, before my 512 GB Deck arrived.

wraith808 · « **Reply #211 on:** December 22, 2022, 11:46 PM »

I haven't had that kind of problem- BT has been good for me with three different types of controllers - PS5, SteelSeries and Xbox One

Deozaan · « **Reply #212 on:** January 09, 2023, 06:27 PM »

I've been eagerly awaiting the "next" stable update to Steam OS which was supposed to include the feature of automatically mounting any external drives that were formatted to the ext4 filesystem. I have an external drive connected to the dock by my TV with some games installed to it that I figured I'd pretty much only want to play when I was at the TV, such as local multiplayer games.

Well, I learned that the update I was waiting for actually happened some time in mid-December and yet... I'm not seeing my external drive automatically get mounted when I connect or boot up the Deck in the dock.

wraith808 · « **Reply #213 on:** January 09, 2023, 09:17 PM »

I'm trying to get the energy to do more to my Deck. I have a 1TB card sitting around and an adapter so I can copy everything over, but haven't even done that, let alone a lot of the other things I wanted to do. Just been playing games LOL

Deozaan · « **Reply #214 on:** January 10, 2023, 12:16 AM »

Yeah. I haven't done as many different things with the Deck (so far) as I expected to. But I've done a ton more gaming because of it than I've done in recent years.

wraith808 · « **Reply #215 on:** February 13, 2023, 09:54 AM »

https://www.theverge...t-backplate-hands-on

Silly me.

I thought I was buying JSAUX’s transparent backplate for the Steam Deck for the bragging rights. Transparent gadgets are fun! But you know what’s cooler than seeing inside your Steam Deck? Having a Deck that runs cooler, too.

I’m happy to report that after spending $30 on my very own JSAUX PC0106 Transparent Back Plate for Steam Deck, my original skepticism didn’t pan out. Not only does it look great, its built-in aluminum heatsink actually does help manage the $400 handheld gaming PC’s heat. And at just eight Phillips-head screws and a little prying to pop off your original backplate, it’s an easy mod to do.

More at link. It seems like a good mod and an easy mod... but I'm still leery of hardware mods to my deck. I might try this one though.

Deozaan · « **Reply #216 on:** February 13, 2023, 02:50 PM »

I heard about that backplate. I don't think it's for me.

So far I haven't really played anything on the Deck that maxed out the system and made the fan run at full bore. I'm not feeling the need for the device to run a few degrees C cooler. And also the exposed heatsink does get hot to the touch. That's probably not a problem while you're holding it while playing (or while docked) but it's not uncommon for me to put the Deck to sleep and then lay it down on my lap while I take care of something else momentarily. I don't think my leg would appreciate the heat. And I wonder how it would affect my willingness to shut down the Deck or put it to sleep and then immediately put it in its carrying case and zip it up, knowing all that heat is right there.

By the way, if you're willing to remove the backplate of your Deck, then that's pretty much all that's required to do other things such as swap out the internal storage. Not that you'd need to with the 512GB model. Just saying that I was pretty nervous about it at first, but once I did it I realized it was pretty easy and fairly non-invasive.

Just make sure you remove your microSD card first.

wraith808 · « **Reply #217 on:** February 16, 2023, 11:20 AM »

Yeah, I have a 1TB SD card I need to upgrade to, and after that, 1.5TB should be more than enough, I think LOL

Deozaan · « **Reply #218 on:** February 18, 2023, 07:05 PM »

The latest stats from Check My Deck:

52% Playable+

VERIFIED: 170 games (17.36%)
PLAYABLE: 342 games (34.93%)
UNSUPPORTED: 128 games (13.07%)
UNKNOWN: 339 games (34.63%)

I've found workarounds for quite a few "Unsupported" titles and they seem to work just fine. Sometimes it's as simple as using GE-Proton. Other times it involves something more complicated. For an example of a more complicated one, I finally got Burnout Paradise Remastered working on the Deck. But to be fair, I think that once I finally found working instructions, it was easier/faster to get it working on the Deck than it was for me to get it working on Windows. Stupid EA/Origin!

wraith808 · « **Reply #219 on:** February 18, 2023, 08:45 PM »

Mine is a bit higher.

wraith808 · « **Reply #220 on:** March 07, 2023, 02:01 PM »

https://www.rockpape...eam-deck-one-year-on

Deozaan · « **Reply #221 on:** March 08, 2023, 02:11 PM »

That anniversary link sent me down a rabbit hole and somehow I ended up here:

Steam Deck Performance Boost with CryoUtilities

wraith808 · « **Reply #222 on:** March 10, 2023, 10:18 AM »

Have you installed it yet?

Deozaan · « **Reply #223 on:** March 11, 2023, 11:43 AM »

Yes, I have. But I haven't really tested it yet on any games that used to struggle to keep a constant framerate.

wraith808 · « **Reply #224 on:** March 13, 2023, 10:17 PM »

I installed it- also going to go through installing my 1GB SD card and copying the files over then I'll install something to tax it.