Steam Deck and Linux Gaming

pandasuit wrote:

If I try to add the game EXE directly to GFE I get an error about not having permission to open the file and I should contact the administrator which is a "fun" error since my account is an admin account on this PC. All my Game Pass games seem to install into a "XboxGames" directory these days. They used to install in the same "WindowsApps" as store apps. Not sure if that is the cause of the permissions issue. It's likely just that they are setting the permissions inside XboxGames to be more restrictive than they used to. I could always mess around with the permissions of the game files to see if that lets me add them to GFE.

Yeah, that's what I found too. But fiddling with the mouse is kind of annoying, so that's why I started adding the game exes directly.

You can choose a different directory for your Game Pass games via the Xbox app settings. That's what I did when I moved games to an NVME drive. The files in the new directory don't seem to have the same permission issues. You could try moving a few games to another directory as a test, like C:\Xbox. I wasn't sure if moving it to a different drive was the secret sauce, or just a different directory, but it can't hurt to give it a try with a game or two.

The resolution issue I was referring to is that with Steam Link/Steam Remote Play, it changes the resolution on the *host* to match your Steam Deck. I find that's better for performance and easy because you don't have to think about it. It's just a setting you can enable/disable.

GFE/Sunshine/Moonlight doesn't do this. Instead, if you're running games in Fullscreen mode you can adjust resolution via the game's settings.

GFE just seems to use whatever resolution your desktop uses.

omni wrote:
pandasuit wrote:

Moonlight is still the best I've got. I was already thinking about looking for an alternative before you mentioned the impending death of Nvidia Game Streaming because I'm seriously considering going with an AMD graphics card on my next upgrade. Hopefully Sunshine or some other alternative matures enough before Feb 2023.

NVidia seem to be doing all they can to put me off their products in recent times.. I know a good few people that bought and use the Nvidia Shield Pro device purely for gaming (rather than as an android TV box) and they are basically going to be left with a brick when Nvidia kill game streaming.

ACG just released a video on this and talked about some of the reasoning Nvidia could be using for this decision:

This guy conflates GeForce Now and Gamestream multiple times. He'll clarify they're not the same thing, but then repeat those points later. Which is fair if you're not familiar with them and have never used either product before, but still renders multiple points he makes a bit off-base.

He spends a couple minutes discussing licensing, which has nothing to do with Gamestream. Whether or not Nvidia has run afoul of licensing on GeForce Now doesn't really have any bearing here. If anything it shoots his first point in the foot, since they're cancelling the product that doesn't require licensing, in order to double-down on the one that does.

The point about piracy is a reach, as well. That they're cancelling it because in theory you could stream a pirated game is nonsensical, because Gamestream does not make piracy easier or more appealing. And isn't something that really comes up when discussing similar apps like Steam Link/Steam Remote Play.

He's also wrong about the adjustability. Sure, for some folks Gamestream works better, but Steam has a LOT more settings you can adjust both on the client and host side. It pretty much always has. The upside of Gamestream was that it has fewer adjustments, really, and works with some games Steam Remote Play doesn't.

The most reasonable point is that Nvidia makes money off GeForce Now and want to push people to it. It kind of feels like he backfilled the rest so the video would be longer.

Edit: Did a quick search of his videos, and he's never discussed any of those topics before, so this does seem like he just didn't have any first-hand experience with Gamestream, Steam Link, or Steam Remote Play.

Do people have issues with multiple controllers? I played a bunch this weekend with 3-4 controllers of various types and I found a number of occasions with mysterious connection issues like having to forget and reconnect controllers to get them recognized, missed inputs, and worst, multiple instances where Vampire Survivors just lost my controller and wouldn't get it back no matter what I did, spoiling the run. Even the built in controller wouldn't work in that case. Last one might be a game bug

Just looking at my Steam Replay 2022 and noticed I played more different games on Deck than Windows this year. I got my Deck in June. It does say I played far more hours on Windows which is totally true since I still play more hours of Rocket League than every other game put together and that's rarely on the Deck. That also doesn't count all the Game Pass games I streamed from my Windows PC to my Deck since the only part of that Steam sees is the Moonlight non-steam app on the Deck. I also went through a "let's just try a bunch of stuff to see what fits" phase when I first got the Deck.

IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/qRp3VmWc/image.png)

Got my Steamdeck last week and so far so good. Of course, it's primarily a Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster machine so far, but I'll get to others soon.

I bought this skin and it came with two. I only need one. If someone would like the other one I would ask you pay postage and I will send it to you. PM me if your interested

IMAGE(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71N7I5LZPnL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)

I've been enjoying the hell out of Mass Effect 2 from Legendary Edition on here. It looks great.

I want to get into PS2 emulation and play DQ 8. Anyone have a guide they recommend to get this going? I am a Steam Deck/Linux noob.

Balthezor wrote:

I've been enjoying the hell out of Mass Effect 2 from Legendary Edition on here. It looks great.

I want to get into PS2 emulation and play DQ 8. Anyone have a guide they recommend to get this going? I am a Steam Deck/Linux noob.

Steam Deck PS2 Emulator - PCSX2 Settings

Worked for me.

farley3k wrote:

I bought this skin and it came with two. I only need one. If someone would like the other one I would ask you pay postage and I will send it to you. PM me if your interested

IMAGE(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71N7I5LZPnL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)

PM sent

farley3k wrote:

I bought this skin and it came with two. I only need one. If someone would like the other one I would ask you pay postage and I will send it to you. PM me if your interested

IMAGE(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71N7I5LZPnL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)

That's cool. Interested in your experience applying it.

I feel like I would just constantly be picking at the edges of the sticker along the back of the grips while trying to play anything.

PWAlessi wrote:

That's cool. Interested in your experience applying it.

85% great. There are a couple edges that just don't stay stuck. I think the hair dryer didn't get it hot enough to melt the glue - or the glue was a bit cheap.

For $15 it is great but I can see it coming off in a few months due to use.

Anyone here playing Xbox Game pass games on their Steam deck? How is your experience so far? And how did you do it? I am a big noob.

Balthezor wrote:

Anyone here playing Xbox Game pass games on their Steam deck? How is your experience so far? And how did you do it? I am a big noob.

I am streaming xCloud game pass games on it using Edge browser (there is an official guide from Microsoft) and I’m also streaming PC game pass games from my PC to it (with Moonlight). Both work quite well for me and I’ve played a lot of hours of single player games that way.

I have not yet installed Windows to directly play PC game pass games but I keep meaning to. Others here have done so and can speak to how well that works. You can install Windows on the internal drive or you can boot Windows off an SD card without touching the internal drive. After that it’s just Windows.

You can also stream Xbox game pass games from your own Xbox to the Deck. There is an unofficial app for that or you can stream them through a PC. I have not tried the app but someone posted about it on here previously.

I've got a little extra funny money burning a hole in my pocket and strongly considering a Steam Deck as a self-present. Skimming through the thread for impressions, but in an elevator-pitch type way, can anyone persuade / dissuade me?

My gaming PC that was top-of-the-line when I built it is getting pretty long in the tooth (6th-gen i7, 980ti, 32GB RAM) and I haven't owned a Playstation or Xbox console since it was new; been getting by with what I can run on my PC on progressively lower settings, plus Switch. So I've got a few years' worth of backlog of console-style games that I'd love to catch up on, stuff like Hitman 3, Elden Ring, Spider-Man, etc., plus of course a huge Steam library of random older and indie games, including old favorites I'd love to revisit like Shadow of War. What I'm finding is that I don't really have the motivation to upgrade or replace my gaming PC, it still runs fine as a general-purpose work and light video editing machine and for slightly under AAA gaming so the value proposition just isn't there, and also I'm reaching a point in my life where I really don't like gaming at my desk any more. Desk is where work and streaming (retro speedruns) happens; bed or couch is where relaxation happens.

I've also fallen down an emulation handheld rabbit hole this past year, culminating in an Odin Pro, which is amazing for PSP and below, pretty good for Gamecube, and more frustrating than anything else for PS2. I want to be able to boot up any old PS2 game at 2x upscale and trust that it will "just work" with minimal fiddling, and I'm discovering that that's just not possible in Android.

I know that posting in a thread full of Deck owners isn't exactly an unbiased audience, ha ha, but I'd love to know if anyone has any perspectives and "things I wish I'd known before I bought it" type things for me. The big downsides that I see brought up are the bulk and the battery life. I think I'm okay there, since I have my Odin for when I want something to take with me to work to play during my lunch break or on a long plane flight and not have to worry about battery life (seriously, the battery life on that thing is very impressive considering that it has to run a decently powerful processor, big bright screen, and active cooling fans).

I do wish there was an easy way to hold one in my hands before committing to a purchase to get a sense for whether I'd enjoy the hand-feel and ergonomics of the thing; the main thing I keep hearing is that it's very well-designed for such a big device, but there's no getting around that it IS a big device.

I also hear that the screen is kind of only so-so, topping out at 720p instead of 1080p, which seems to be at least partially by design, so that people don't get tempted to try to run bleeding-edge games at 1080p and get frustrated when it performs like a $400 device and not a $2000 gaming laptop. I don't THINK that will bother me overly much, I'm usually pretty forgiving of display imperfections (for example, people complain about scaling issues playing original DS games on 3DS and while I can tell the difference if I'm viewing them side-by-side, after about ten minutes of playing it stops bothering me).

Any other advice for me as I'm weighing the value proposition?

hbi2k wrote:

in an elevator-pitch type way, can anyone persuade / dissuade me?

IMAGE(https://i.giphy.com/media/3o84sw9CmwYpAnRRni/giphy.webp)

IMAGE(https://i.giphy.com/media/CpgNjk2E54p7W/giphy.webp)

IMAGE(https://i.giphy.com/media/faTOHi0omqCMU/giphy.webp)

In all seriousness, the 720p has only been an issue in a couple of games which have crazy small fonts. A good number of games are getting patched to "fix" their font sizes to make them more legible. And yes, it's an insanely good platform for emulation.

Oh, also, what's the storage situation like? I guess it's got an SD card slot, but I'm leery of using SD for actually running games instead of bulk media storage; a lot of my early problems with my Odin turned out to be due to a faulty SD card. Good name brand card (SanDisk), but a lot of weird buggy behavior suddenly got a lot better when I swapped it out for another card and/or started running big files like PS2 games from local storage instead of the SD card.

I guess you can save some money by getting the cheapest model and upgrading the SSD yourself, but I'm not mechanically inclined and the process looks involved enough that I'd be terrified of messing something up.

And so many PC game install sizes are so bloated now that they're not tied to optical discs any more. Should I just suck up the cost and get the one with the big SSD?

hbi2k wrote:

in an elevator-pitch type way, can anyone persuade / dissuade me?

I’ll let Gardiner Bryant answer for me. This video is generally about why the current Deck should have a lot of years of useful life but it touches on use cases that it is good at and also why some people would just never be happy with it. He touches on your screen and storage questions.

I have a Xbox Series X and a newish desktop PC and I still choose to play single player games either directly on Deck or streamed to it because it’s just such a convenient form factor for my life. I want to be able to game wherever I’m sitting not where my desktop is. I stream from my PC or Xbox when the game I want to play won’t run well directly on the Deck. I nearly only game at home but the convenience of gaming anywhere in my house from the couch, to the bathroom, to my deck, to my bed really works for me. The Deck’s sleep mode has helped a lot as I can sleep whatever game I’m in the middle of instead of reloading it when I find a few more minutes to game. Cuts another little bit of setup time off getting into the game. Adds to the convenience of the device.

I got the bigger ssd and still use an as card. There are just so many games!

Internal storage isn’t the only difference between the models, remember. The 512 also has an improved anti-glare screen, and a nicer carrying case.

I ran into something unexpected and figured I’d share it here in case it saves others with the same issue from having to figure it out themselves.

Anyone else run into cases where a Steam game supports cloud saves and runs well on Steam Deck (verified or supported at least) but the Deck doesn’t show your saves from PC? The Deck says it’s synced with Cloud but the saves aren’t there. When I reload the game on PC there are the saves. If I save the game on Deck those saves persist on Deck but never show on PC.

After a bit it occurred to me that the game had a native Linux version and the Deck was probably running that by default. Maybe the Linux and Windows saves aren’t compatible or stored in the same way?

I went into the Steam settings for the game and forced a specific compatibility layer (Proton Experimental in my case). After starting the game again there are my Windows saves.

I’ve played other native Linux games on Deck and not seen this issue before so it might be just certain games. Not sure.

Now if I could only figure out how to get more Cloud saves to work in Heroic Launcher games. I’m tempted to try using Epic and GoG directly to see if cloud saves work better there.

hbi2k wrote:

Oh, also, what's the storage situation like? I guess it's got an SD card slot, but I'm leery of using SD for actually running games instead of bulk media storage; a lot of my early problems with my Odin turned out to be due to a faulty SD card. Good name brand card (SanDisk), but a lot of weird buggy behavior suddenly got a lot better when I swapped it out for another card and/or started running big files like PS2 games from local storage instead of the SD card.

I guess you can save some money by getting the cheapest model and upgrading the SSD yourself, but I'm not mechanically inclined and the process looks involved enough that I'd be terrified of messing something up.

And so many PC game install sizes are so bloated now that they're not tied to optical discs any more. Should I just suck up the cost and get the one with the big SSD?

I have a fast SD card and play AAA PC games off of both the internal drive and the SD card and I honestly can’t tell a difference.

DSGamer wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Oh, also, what's the storage situation like? I guess it's got an SD card slot, but I'm leery of using SD for actually running games instead of bulk media storage; a lot of my early problems with my Odin turned out to be due to a faulty SD card. Good name brand card (SanDisk), but a lot of weird buggy behavior suddenly got a lot better when I swapped it out for another card and/or started running big files like PS2 games from local storage instead of the SD card.

I guess you can save some money by getting the cheapest model and upgrading the SSD yourself, but I'm not mechanically inclined and the process looks involved enough that I'd be terrified of messing something up.

And so many PC game install sizes are so bloated now that they're not tied to optical discs any more. Should I just suck up the cost and get the one with the big SSD?

I have a fast SD card and play AAA PC games off of both the internal drive and the SD card and I honestly can’t tell a difference.

Same. I got the cheapest Deck and a 512gb SD card. Everything runs off the card. The craziest game I run is Death Stranding (via Epic), whatever the default settings are, and it runs great!

I have both the 512 model and the lowest 64 model. Get the lowest model and just buy a 512 card, or maybe two cards. There is virtually no difference in speed between the 512 model and just using a 512 card. And the screen is not worth the extra money. It's barely any difference. And the case is just as good. No real premium difference except for maybe the logo.

Save the money.

All right, pulled the trigger on the cheapest Steam Deck model and a 512GB Samsung Pro Plus SD card, which seems to be the current price / GB sweet spot. Thanks everyone!

Anyone have luck getting GOGs to run from the Heroic Launcher? I got Jade Empire and have successfully installed with Heroic but when I hit play it just goes grey for a second then back to green for play. So nothing happens.

I have tried about 4 different version of Proton because I know some games need different versions to work.

farley3k wrote:

Anyone have luck getting GOGs to run from the Heroic Launcher? I got Jade Empire and have successfully installed with Heroic but when I hit play it just goes grey for a second then back to green for play. So nothing happens.

I have tried about 4 different version of Proton because I know some games need different versions to work.

When I've seen that happen, changing proton versions worked out for me (not GoG, but Epic) The other troubleshooting step I have tried, which worked, was adding the .exe manually to Steam (which is only an option in desktop mode, annoyingly). That finally got Death Stranding working for me after switching it to Proton Experimental.

I still dont actually know what Proton is

I *think* Proton is the thing that translates Windows games to work in Linux.