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Last post Author Topic: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC  (Read 103417 times)

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #225 on: March 14, 2023, 04:15 PM »
I installed CryoUtilities mostly to get better performance with emulation than with Steam games, which seems to have helped. :Thmbsup:

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #226 on: March 28, 2023, 02:59 PM »
I installed CryoUtilities mostly to get better performance with emulation than with Steam games, which seems to have helped. :Thmbsup:

I haven't done any emulation. What kind of emulated games are you running?

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #227 on: March 29, 2023, 01:48 AM »
What kind of emulated games are you running?

Short answer:

I've done a bit here and there with games/consoles dating back to the 80s all the way up to "current-gen" (Nintendo Switch) games. My incentive to install CryoUtilities was mostly to help with performance in Switch games (some of which perform rather poorly on the Switch itself).

Long answer:

Honestly, I haven't spent a lot of time playing many different emulated games. 😅 But I've spent a lot of time copying files over and getting them set up to look nice on the Deck's UI so I can play them in the future, should the desire ever arise. 🤓

I think that's more due to how I tend to play games. When I play a game that I like, I tend to go all-in and play it to death until I've done everything I want to do in it. Then when I'm finished I usually don't touch it again. Multiplayer games are a different story, since how often and for how long I play them also depends on the whims of the other players. But for single player experiences, what I described usually holds true.

But I'm also starting to get old, and looking back on the past ~35 years of my gaming experience I've started feeling nostalgic for some games I really enjoyed "back in the day" and thinking I'd like to play some of them again. I also discovered RetroAchievements a few months before I got the Deck. I thought I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but a cursory forum search isn't showing me any results. Basically, RetroAchievements are community-created achievements made for games/consoles from before achievements were a thing. So with a free account and a compatible emulator, you can earn achievements for a variety of retro games/consoles from decades past. Here's a link to my RetroAchievements profile. Any games on my profile with 5 or fewer achievements earned (which are most of them) are games that I only booted up to the title screen or played for a few minutes to see how they ran.

So even though I'm feeling nostalgic enough to play some games again that I've already played through before, the way I play games hasn't really changed. And with RetroAchievements giving me more to do in the games that I might have ordinarily done with them in the past, I'm still working on a couple of emulated games I started in October (because they were "spooky") but have less interest in playing now that Halloween is over. But because I haven't finished them yet I haven't really given myself permission to start other retro emulated games. In the meantime, I still have a backlog of PC games I want to play and I keep coming across free giveaways or cheap sales for new games that either get added to the backlog or pique my interest enough that they skip the queue and I start playing them right away.

So when I'm playing games, there's a good chance I'm not playing an emulated game. And when I'm playing an emulated game, it's probably the same one I started a while ago. Which means I'm not spending a lot of quality time playing a variety of emulated games. I think there have been only about 10 emulated titles that I've spent over an hour with on with the Deck so far.

However, as I mentioned earlier, I do occasionally boot up games for just a few minutes to see how they run on the Deck. I've done that with quite a few (many of which would not register on my RetroAchievements profile due to being for an unsupported console or the game itself just not having any achievements created for it). It has been mostly games for Nintendo consoles, including the Nintendo Switch. But I've also spent a little time with other non-Nintendo consoles as far back as the Mattel Intellivisionw and as recent as the PlayStation 3. Nothing for Xbox, though, since I've never owned any of them.

It's fun being able to play some older titles--especially multiplayer ones--on the TV without having to pull out the consoles, games, and controllers from storage.

And honestly, though I prefer having physical copies of console games for the feeling of full ownership, using/playing digital copies is so much more convenient than having to have a bunch of discs or cartridges handy and get up and swap them out any time I want to play a different game. And I really like having full control over my save data and being able to easily back it up, which hasn't traditionally been an easy/accessible thing to do on consoles. So even though I actually have a Nintendo Switch connected to my TV, I've copied my save data and dumped the game files from the cartridges and I prefer to play the games using the Deck if they run well enough on it.

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #228 on: March 29, 2023, 11:09 AM »
The only emulation I was involved with is for Arcade games - I never got into console emulation, so it's interesting to see.

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #229 on: April 06, 2023, 11:35 PM »
By all accounts on ProtonDB, Halo: The Master Chief Collection works just fine despite being ranked as Unsupported, with the caveat that the game's Easy Anti-Cheat doesn't work on Deck/Linux and therefore online multiplayer doesn't work.

Thanks for this! I'd wanted to get it, but passed when I saw unsupported.

I just remembered that I did have to boot into Desktop mode and delete an EAC-related file before it would work, but other than that I didn't need to set any custom compatibility options or do other tinkering:

For the game to work at all, you need to move or remove this file: "steamapps/common/Halo The Master Chief Collection/easyanticheat/easyanticheat_x64.so" Then launch using the "Play Halo: MCC Anti-Cheat Disabled (Mods and Limited Services)" option.


FYI Halo: MCC has been upgraded from Unsupported to Playable.

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #230 on: April 26, 2023, 03:37 PM »
By all accounts on ProtonDB, Halo: The Master Chief Collection works just fine despite being ranked as Unsupported, with the caveat that the game's Easy Anti-Cheat doesn't work on Deck/Linux and therefore online multiplayer doesn't work.

Thanks for this! I'd wanted to get it, but passed when I saw unsupported.

I just remembered that I did have to boot into Desktop mode and delete an EAC-related file before it would work, but other than that I didn't need to set any custom compatibility options or do other tinkering:

For the game to work at all, you need to move or remove this file: "steamapps/common/Halo The Master Chief Collection/easyanticheat/easyanticheat_x64.so" Then launch using the "Play Halo: MCC Anti-Cheat Disabled (Mods and Limited Services)" option.


FYI Halo: MCC has been upgraded from Unsupported to Playable.

Thanks! And don't know if you've seen this:


Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #231 on: April 27, 2023, 02:02 PM »
I hadn't seen that yet. Though, I did see a previous video made by the same person for an earlier release of EmuDeck some time ago. It looks mostly the same, but with some nice QOL changes. I like that you can now exclude games or even attempt to correct games whose titles are not matched properly within Steam Rom Manager. That was a pain point for me in the past.

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #232 on: May 01, 2023, 10:28 PM »
I think the big thing that people were talking about was that cloud syncs worked right now.

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #233 on: May 02, 2023, 01:21 PM »
Oh! I guess I missed the importance of that point because I've been using a Decky Loader plugin called Decky Cloud Save for non-Steam games for a couple of months already. But what I've been using is actually just a one-way cloud backup. It doesn't really sync the saves between devices. I'll have to rewatch the video or check it out further to get actual cloud sync working. :)

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #234 on: May 07, 2023, 06:37 PM »
An update on this situation:

I've noticed a strong difference in how the trackpads function between the two devices. Especially when using them for dual-touch typing. On one of them, sliding my thumbs around causes the device to vibrate a lot. I can feel it under my thumbs at the trackpads themselves, and it's quite audible. Almost to the point where I'd describe it as rattling when I really get moving, or especially if both trackpads are going at once. And it's very easy to "press" the button. Just apply a small amount of pressure and it gives a satisfying "click" to let you know it has been pressed. Sometimes I click it and I think "that was a little too easy to click!" and it concerns me that it might click unintentionally at times. On the other Deck, the vibration is much more subtle while sliding my thumbs around. I can feel a light vibration in the palms of my hands at the back of the device, but not really under my thumbs at the trackpads. It's not audible to the same degree as the other one. If I put my ear a couple inches away from it then it sounds about as loud as the other one at normal/comfortable usage distance (about 2 feet). And pressing the trackpads in to "click" them requires significantly more pressure before they finally click. It's actually pretty uncomfortable having to press in so deliberately and so firmly, that I think I prefer typing the slow way with the d-pad and A button to select each letter. And when it clicks, the click is much more subtle and toned down compared to the other one.

Now I'm not fully satisfied with the trackpads of either one. It seems like one is far too sensitive and the haptics are too strong, and the other is far too insensitive and the haptics are too weak. It seems like the ideal is somewhere in the middle. Yet both devices have the same (default) settings as far as the trackpad sensitivity and haptics go.

Over time I've become quite accustomed to the way the trackpads feel on the 512GB Deck and now I'm very pleased with them rather than thinking they're too weak.

In contrast, I've become increasingly wary of the 64 GB Deck's trackpads and how they sound like they're rattling around in there. They feel and sound almost like blown out speakers. I suppose it's fitting then that the system settings allow you to adjust the haptic feedback sensitivity/strength, which is configured in decibels. And even after lowering it to the lowest setting (0 dB) on the 64 GB Deck the trackpads are still slightly stronger and audibly louder than the 512 GB Deck's trackpads at the default setting (7 dB). And the 512 GB's trackpads never feel or sound like they're rattling, yet even at the lowest setting there's still a bit of a rattle to the 64 GB's trackpads. So it's become increasingly clear to me that there has been something wrong with the rattling trackpads since the day I got it. As a result, I'll be sending the 64 GB Deck in for a repair RMA.

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #235 on: May 07, 2023, 07:37 PM »
I haven't done any emulation. What kind of emulated games are you running?

Even though it feels like I spent many, many hours playing (or watching my brother play) the first Dragon Quest game on the NES (known as Dragon Warrior in USA), somehow I never finished it. At some point my brother finished it when I wasn't around, and I wanted to see the ending, so upon my request he loaded up his save and made the arduous trek to the final boss.

When he got there, the final boss asked him to join him in ruling the world. Since this was a game that had offered false choices in the past (where selecting the "wrong" answer would just loop back to the question until you picked the correct answer) I thought it would be funny if he accepted the offer, and asked him to do so, assuming it wouldn't actually let him do that and he would be required to fight the boss. Instead, it resulted in an immediate Game Over, requiring him to reset the console to get back to the title screen. My brother didn't feel like making the trek back to the final boss all over again, and thus I missed my one and only opportunity to see the game's ending.

At least until a few weeks ago when I spent a few hours (making liberal use of the emulator's fast-forward functionality) playing through Dragon Warrior on NES and I finally completed it myself. Not only that, but I "mastered" the game by getting all the achievements on RetroAchievements. Surprisingly it only took me around 7 hours, which is really strange to me because, as I said earlier, I could swear I spent literal days as a child playing that game and never got very close to finishing it. Though I suppose it wasn't helped by the fact that I had to start over several times because my save data mysteriously kept getting erased or overwritten by my siblings. . .

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #236 on: July 14, 2023, 05:18 PM »
According to this thread, today is my Deckiversary. 🤓

The 64GB Deck just arrived!

So I figure it's time for an update with regard to all the different Steam games I have played on it. That is to say, I won't really be mentioning non-Steam games here, even though I have played several (especially if you count emulation).

First of all, let's take a look at how my Steam library fares compared to a year ago. The closest record I have was from July 18th last year, when I posted the following stats:

34% Playable+
  • Verified: 120 games (13.07%)
  • Playable: 188 games (20.48%)
  • Unsupported: 93 games (10.13%)
  • Unknown: 517 games (56.32%)

And after buying several more Steam games as well as additional testing and improvements to proton, here's how my library is currently looking:

56% Playable+
Verified: 182 games (17.60%)
Playable: 393 games (38.01%)
Unsupported: 141 games (13.64%)
Unkown: 318 games (30.75%)

Interestingly, though, the last time a "Verified" title was added to the list was back in March. April was full of Playable titles and everything since then has been roughly 50/50 Playable or Unsupported.

CheckMyDeck - Recent History 2023-07-14.pngValve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC

As usual, I use CheckMyDeck as my source for this information.

But of course we should all know by now that Steam's rating system doesn't tell the whole story, and that, especially if you're willing to do some tinkering, you can get "unsupported" titles to play pretty well on the Deck. So here is a breakdown of all the Steam games I've played on Steam Deck in the first year (for roughly 1 hour or more), sorted by "Deck Verified" status first, then alphabetically.

Verified
  • Aces of the Luftwaffe Squadron
  • Aperture Desk Job
  • Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
  • BlazeRush
  • Boneraiser Minions
  • Crash Drive 3
  • Eldest Souls
  • Fight the Dragon
  • Kill It With Fire (played with Keyboard + Mouse because my brain can't adjust to the first-person controls on a gamepad)
  • Nomad Survival
  • PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate
  • Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed
  • Terraria (played with Keyboard + Mouse because that's how I've played it on PC for the past 12 years and a gamepad feels too constrained)
  • Tesla vs. Lovecraft
  • Vampire Survivors
Playable
  • Crash Drive 2
  • Crashday Redline Edition
  • Disgaea 2
  • Dwarf Fortress (played with Keyboard + Mouse)
  • Graveyard Keeper
  • Halo Spartan Assault
  • Hellpoint + Blue Sun
  • Lost Castle
  • Super Motherload
  • TrackMania2 Stadium
  • Trine 2
Unsupported
  • Burnout Paradise Remastered
  • Final Fantasy 9 (MoguriMod)
  • Godot (the game engine)
  • Hotshot Racing
  • LEGO Lord of the Rings
  • TrackMania2 Valley
Unknown
  • Don't Bite Me Bro! +
  • RetroArch

And of course, there are other Steam games I've played in the year since receiving the Deck but I played them almost entirely on my PC and not much, if at all, on the Deck, so I'm not including them here. And there are non-Steam games I've played on Deck, such as games from GOG or the Epic Games Store, which might also be on Steam but for which I don't own the Steam version (such as Factorio). Any of those games which I do not own/install through Steam are not included here because this post is all about the Steam ecosystem. And also all of this tracking was done manually, with some assistance from my Steam library sorted by most recently played, so I might have forgotten to include some titles.

Conclusion:
It's been a fun year. I love how, with a dock, the Deck makes it so easy to play games on the TV, especially for games with couch co-op. Before the Deck, that was something I tried by getting a super long (50 ft.) HDMI cable to run from my PC and super long USB cables for the controllers. And it worked OK but it was a hassle. And that was when my computer was in the same room as the TV. But then the computer got moved into a different room so it hasn't really been used for that purpose since. Now I've got a system where I have the dock by the TV and I run a single ~10 ft. USB extension cable from the dock to the couch which I've attached to a powered 4-port USB hub for controllers (or mouse + keyboard) and usually everything just works.

It's also really cool being able to just take my Deck with me to a friend's house and play together. I've never had a laptop (other than a severely underpowered netbook) so for me PC gaming meant I was tethered at home or had to lug a huge PC case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. around. It also means that if I'm going somewhere for a big portion of the day and I know/expect there will be a lot of downtime, I can bring my Deck and perhaps some accessories to connect it to a TV. Sometimes I actually use it, and sometimes I don't. But I still pretty much always bring it with me "just in case" in situations like that. I sometimes joke about it being like a security blanket. ;D

I feel the need to reiterate what I wrote here (before I even got the Deck!):

I gotta say, the Deck has been a huge success for Valve. I had almost entirely stopped buying games from Steam for the past few years. It got to the point where some of the features on my account (such as selling trading cards on the market) were restricted because I hadn't purchased anything from them in so long. But this year, in preparation for the deck, I've increased my library by about 100 games so far. Granted, most of those were from the Stand with Ukraine Humble Bundle. Before this year (and not counting my $5 Deck Deposit last year) my last game purchase from Steam was in October 2020. That was one of three purchases in 2020. And before that, my previous Steam purchase was in 2017!

Okay, actually that's not entirely accurate. I realized as I was typing this up that my Steam account purchase history doesn't show gift code/key redemptions. So it doesn't count any games purchased from 3rd party sites (such as Humble Store/Bundle) which redeems the game(s) on Steam.

Either way, the point is that I am now back to preferring purchases on Steam rather than other platforms (such as GOG), so Valve won me back with the decision to release the Deck.

Since the Deck came out, I have almost entirely stopped buying games from GOG or other places. The primary factor probably being the ease of Steam cloud saves allowing me to seamlessly move back and forth from one device to the next. (I also have had growing complaints with GOG, but I'll not go into details in this post.) I have also started picking up a lot of games through Fanatical deals/bundles. I've increased my library by yet another 100+ "games" (sometimes DLC, soundtracks, making of videos, etc. are counted as separate games so it's hard to quantify) since getting the Deck.

In short, the Deck brought me back to Steam in a big way. And for the most part I'm really enjoying it. There have been some issues along the way, and there are lots of little complaints about SteamOS, but I'm confident Valve are in it for the long run and I'll continue to see improvements and updates as time goes by, working out the kinks and making it an even better experience.

I do not regret the purchase at all. :Thmbsup:

tomos

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #237 on: July 14, 2023, 11:00 PM »
I do not regret the purchase at all.  :Thmbsup:

A nice review / summary
Thanks Deozaan :up:
Tom

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #238 on: November 10, 2023, 12:28 AM »
Steam Deck OLED

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/

50% longer battery life, verified by Linus Tech Tips


Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #239 on: November 10, 2023, 04:45 PM »
Wow. Looks nice.

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #240 on: December 16, 2023, 03:00 AM »
I just found out that Check My Deck has their own version of Steam's Year in Review, which they're calling Deckap 2023. Here's a link to mine:


https://checkmydeck....00983922/recaps/2023

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #241 on: December 18, 2023, 04:25 PM »

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #242 on: December 18, 2023, 11:31 PM »
And Steam just released their Steam Year in Review. Here's mine:

Steam Year in Review 2023.pngValve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
https://store.steamp...561198000983922/2023

wraith808

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #243 on: January 04, 2024, 10:17 AM »

Deozaan

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Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC
« Reply #244 on: January 04, 2024, 05:19 PM »
I really dislike how the year in review only has data for half of December.

For both the past two years I've gotten a game as an early Christmas present that I played so much in December it would have been pretty near the top of my list of most-played games of the year. But because I played them to death in the last half of December, where no data is collected/used for this, they barely make a blip on my Year in Review.