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Thoughts about the new Steam Deck?

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Leslieann:
I like the idea but...
I think Steam is going to be shocked at the problems with people trying to run everything on it through Proton, give it 6 months after it drops then pick up a used one for $200 or less.

You can get most anything to run on proton, but anything not specifically listed as compatible (which is still a lot) needs tweaking almost every single time and I haven't noticed Steam doing anything to fix it.
Take some of my most recent:
Bioshock - needs a launch option but works well.
Bioshock Remastered - will not work at all. Not sure what they did but it broke everything.
Fallout 4 - Works great, better than New Vegas, needs a launch option. Fantastic otherwise.
Fallout New Vegas - works great overall but you need a launch option added and you need to tweak an INI file to make the mouse usable in menus, not great but usable. Very fickle about graphics, and if you use any other version of proton other than 4.11(?) you have sound issues. Crashy as heck as well, but that happens on Windows as well.
GTA 5 - again, needs a launch option as well as an added file for audio(?)

My advice, install a SSH server and VNC server on it so you can input text to it from a computer because you will probably want it for troubleshooting various games. That way you can copy/paste from a desktop or laptop. On the other hand, this gets more people on Linux, and will give Steam a lot of feedback on where Proton is failing and ultimately lead to improvements.


So what will also happen is people will load up Windows on it.
We don't know if Windows will recognize the CPU or GPU since they are Steam specific. It;s easy to assume the system will work, and it probably will for Win10, but it may not load all the right drivers because it can't properly identify the hardware even if it is just a very minimally tweaked Ryzen.


As for Nvidia
It was an Android and most games on Android are not even remotely setup to use a controller, or keyboard or mouse. Android is all touch screen.  It's the same (or opposite) as trying to input text with a controller, it works, but not very well. Ambitious idea but not entirely a smart one.

yui:

--- Quote from: noisyturtle on Sun, 18 July 2021, 13:15:20 ---It sure worked for NVIDIA, oh wait...

--- End quote ---
steam deck is x86-64
nvidia shield was ARM

you can change the OS on the steam deck (well if valve do not change their mind on that) so it can become a windows pc if you wish
the shield ran a custom Android on a custom cpu

and lastly the shield came before the switch, the steam deck after, and the switch is a glorified Nintendo branded shield. so the shield has no market anymore, while the steam deck is not in the same category in computational power and game library size. i can see it succeed, oh and lastly, it is valve hardware, so it will likely be rather high quality.


--- Quote from: Leslieann on Sun, 18 July 2021, 21:56:37 ---I like the idea but...
I think Steam is going to be shocked at the problems with people trying to run everything on it through Proton, give it 6 months after it drops then pick up a used one for $200 or less.

You can get most anything to run on proton, but anything not specifically listed as compatible (which is still a lot) needs tweaking almost every single time and I haven't noticed Steam doing anything to fix it.

--- End quote ---
my experience with proton and incompatible games is that it heavily depends on distro, some games i own will not start on Debian but run perfectly on Opensuse (last one in mind was Sanctum) and some will be the opposite, so my guess is that steamOS is very optimized, and they said they contacted the largest games devs to make their games work on proton. i do not think it will ever be perfect, anti-cheat/drm will always prevent games from starting in wine/proton but valve has made a lot of effort pushing gaming on linux and it has become pretty seamless for the most parts now.

Leslieann:

--- Quote from: yui on Mon, 19 July 2021, 04:43:34 ---my experience with proton and incompatible games is that it heavily depends on distro, some games i own will not start on Debian but run perfectly on Opensuse (last one in mind was Sanctum) and some will be the opposite, so my guess is that steamOS is very optimized, and they said they contacted the largest games devs to make their games work on proton. i do not think it will ever be perfect, anti-cheat/drm will always prevent games from starting in wine/proton but valve has made a lot of effort pushing gaming on linux and it has become pretty seamless for the most parts now.

--- End quote ---
It's running a custom Arch with KDE(?), which has some of the best compatibility, probably why they picked it.

Hopefully it leads to a bunch of idiots saying BTW... and getting that stupid thing done and over with. Linux jokes are some of the worst jokes in tech history.

yui:
one thing i hope it leads to is better linux compatibility or more native linux builds, especially for games with native mac build, both being posix should make porting relatively painless, as this may boost linux adoption for gamers by a fair bit, and may weaken the eternal loop of "no one plays on linux so we do not build on linux" and "there is no games on linux so i will not use it" loop we had for years, although that may only be wishful thinking on my part, i'd love to see less peoples getting frustrated by the inefficiencies of windows...
and knowing valve, i would guess it is their own DE but i have not tried steamOS in years so maybe not.

tp4tissue:
Before pandemic,  9300h+ 1660ti laptop was selling for $600

Even right now, you can find 1050ti laptops for $400-500

The price seems a bit steep. but this is for kids, and kids are stupid, and they don't teach math anymore so, well there you go.

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