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.

I installed CryoUtilities mostly to get better performance with emulation than with Steam games, which seems to have helped.

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

The only emulation I was involved with is for Arcade games - I never got into console emulation, so it's interesting to see.

Quote from: Deozaan on August 30, 2022, 08:36 PM

Quote from: wraith808 on August 30, 2022, 06:01 PM

Quote from: Deozaan on August 30, 2022, 04:26 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:

Quote from: https://www.protondb.com/app/976730#7mf8VPh6e7

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:

I think the big thing that people were talking about was that cloud syncs worked right now.

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.

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.



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.

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.

Steam Deck OLED

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

50% longer battery life, verified by Linus Tech Tips

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.ofdgn.com/users/76561198000983922/recaps/2023

And Steam just released their Steam Year in Review. Here's mine:


https://store.steampowered.com/yearinreview/76561198000983922/2023

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.

Well, I got maybe 10 games on Steam and 192 on GoG. Besides a small physical collection (5 or so), of course. Now I haven't owned (or rented) a console since PlayStation 2. 'PC master race' is the meme for that, I believe.

Also, haven't even bothered to install the Steam client on any of my computers till now.

Most of those games were free, the rest was bought when on offer, such as 85% off or better. The physical collection was bought full price.

So I spent for about 8 full price games, but ended up with 200+ games. The 'money spent' counter on your stats, I would indeed take with a (very big) grain of salt.