Steam Deck and Linux Gaming

My Deck arrived on Wednesday, and though I haven't been able to sink a whole lot of time in it, I did download a bunch of games and showed it off to a friend and colleague the next day. Loaded up Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and WOW, that looks pretty freaking good. It's not super portable as folks mentioned here and elsewhere. Unlike the Switch, I can't fit this one in my handbag, or at least, not unless I'm hauling my bulkier handbags, and even then, it gets heavy. But I'm looking forward to tackling some VNs in bed or in the couch. Or even outdoors later this spring and summer. Kinda feels silly because I have a Steam Link which could totally help with gaming on the couch, but to be honest... firing it up is always a bit of a song and dance. The Deck is going to make it really smooth, and I'm so looking forward to putting it through its paces.
Might have to calibrate the battery though.

Latest Steam OS beta adds hardware raytracing support but only for Doom Eternal so far. Apparently runs around 30fps most of the time. Considering that’s a highly optimized game that may not be that impressive but it’s at least possible now. Early days.

Are there less graphically intense games out there that use ray tracing in interesting ways? I wonder if some ray traced experience is worth it on the Deck. I’m in no rush to turn it on when gaming on my PC (my RTX 2060 is weak) so I’m definitely not expecting to turn it on much when on Deck.

I don’t want to rule out the possibility that someone has made a compelling lower graphics game that really benefits from ray tracing and would work good enough on a Deck. Maybe that Lego Builders Journey game or things like it? Not action oriented but still very nice looking with ray tracing.

On this size of a screen, I think it'd be hard to appreciate it. Streaming Cyberpunk to my Deck with ray tracing enabled, it looks better than running it on the Deck, for sure.

But... the difference with ray tracing enabled/disabled isn't THAT big unless you're paying really close attention. And I can't imagine a game using ray tracing on the Deck where it'd be worth the inevitable performance hit.

My right bumper is acting wonky, takes a lot of pressure to activate.

Submitted a ticket to Valve support and they immediately sent an RMA. But I kinda don't want to send it in and not have my Deck for 3 weeks. Whomp whomp.

I'd say take the rma, but you could go the self repair route
7 bucks from ifixit
https://www.ifixit.com/products/stea...

ccoates wrote:

My right bumper is acting wonky, takes a lot of pressure to activate.

My left bumper started acting wonky a couple months ago as well. Pressing on the outer edge (the bit that's closest to my left hand) works occasionally, but pressing on the inner edge (i.e. the bit that's closest to the middle of the Deck) works better. Definitely annoying. And the replacement process (as per ifixit) looks to be rather non-trivial.

ccoates wrote:

But... the difference with ray tracing enabled/disabled isn't THAT big unless you're paying really close attention.

Really depends on the game and what it's using RTX for. The RTX global illumination and other lighting effects in Metro Exodus are great. Really change the atmosphere of that game for the better. So far I'm a bigger fan of RTX GI than other RTX effects I've seen. Shadows can be good and reflections can be pretty but GI often makes a very big difference in a game.

pandasuit wrote:
ccoates wrote:

But... the difference with ray tracing enabled/disabled isn't THAT big unless you're paying really close attention.

Really depends on the game and what it's using RTX for. The RTX global illumination and other lighting effects in Metro Exodus are great. Really change the atmosphere of that game for the better. So far I'm a bigger fan of RTX GI than other RTX effects I've seen. Shadows can be good and reflections can be pretty but GI often makes a very big difference in a game.

The context of my comment is clipped out of your reply, but I'm referring to the Steam Deck specifically, not whether or not ray tracing in games in general is noticeable.

I got curious, so I booted up Metro: Exodus on my Deck and compared no ray tracing vs. ray tracing. It looks good! But it's a huge difference in performance, and I don't think the game is really playable this way.

There are also people who can readily notice the difference in 4K Blu-rays vs. regular Blu-rays, so if you have that much of an eye for detail, fair enough. I wouldn't count myself among them, and generally I have to pause a film or compare direct screenshots to really see those distinctions.

So to circle back to what I originally said, on the Deck, on this screen, at this resolution, I don't think ray tracing in games makes a huge difference unless you're paying very close attention. Or that it's likely to offset or be worth the performance hit you'll take.

And in the case of Metro: Exodus in particular, in the beginning when that first monster jumps out at you, I was dead and looking at the quick load screen before I even knew what was happening.

Even as performance is improved going forward (and you don't have to jump through hoops to enable ray tracing), I think there's always going to be a significant hit. Is it neat in a "look at what's possible" way? Absolutely. Is it something I'm likely to enable on any game I'm running on the Deck? For me, I just can't see the tradeoff being worth it.

If other folks want to give it a try:

ccoates wrote:
pandasuit wrote:
ccoates wrote:

But... the difference with ray tracing enabled/disabled isn't THAT big unless you're paying really close attention.

Really depends on the game and what it's using RTX for. The RTX global illumination and other lighting effects in Metro Exodus are great. Really change the atmosphere of that game for the better. So far I'm a bigger fan of RTX GI than other RTX effects I've seen. Shadows can be good and reflections can be pretty but GI often makes a very big difference in a game.

The context of my comment is clipped out of your reply, but I'm referring to the Steam Deck specifically, not whether or not ray tracing itself is noticeable or worth it. But to clarify, are you saying that on a screen of the Deck's quality and size, you personally think the difference in quality between ray traced and non ray traced graphics for Metro: Exodus is specifically noticeable, and that you think it's worth the performance hit?

I booted up Metro: Exodus on my Deck and compared ray tracing vs no ray tracing. It looks good, for sure! But it's a huge performance hit, and I don't think the game is playable with it enabled.

There are also people who can readily notice the difference in 4K Blu-rays vs. regular Blu-rays, so if you have that much of an eye for detail, fair enough. I wouldn't count myself among them, and generally I have to pause a film or compare direct screenshots to really see those distinctions.

So to circle back to what I originally said, on the Deck, on this screen, at this resolution, I don't think ray tracing makes a huge difference unless you're paying very close attention. And in the case of Metro: Exodus specifically I think the chunkiness makes the game close to unplayable. In the beginning when that monster jumps out at you, I was dead and looking at the quick load screen before I even knew what was happening.

Sorry for the loss of context. I didn’t mean to take your comment out of context. I was just trying to reply to that part.

I think we are essentially agreeing but let me know if I’m misinterpreting your answer.

I was using Metro Exodus as an example of a game where RTXGI is really impactful. Not a case where I think it’s worth it on Deck. I frequently use my Deck docked on a bigger screen which requires even more power to upscale to higher than 720p.

I can’t think of a current game with RTX that would perform well enough on Deck for RTX to be worth it to me. I wouldn’t play Doom Eternal at 30fps just to get reflections for instance. Not a good trade off. Maybe the Lego one? Can’t say as I don’t own it on Steam to try.

What I was trying to say is that there are games where effects like RTXGI really improve the experience and maybe someone will make a game where that is true AND the overall graphics aren’t so taxing on the Deck that it would be worth enabling RTX. I don’t have an example that meets both those things.

RTX is another brush that game devs could use to make compelling experiences. It’s likely not something most devs want to rely on now since it currently limits your customer base too greatly. But if RTX becomes possible on nearly all hardware I’m interested to see what devs come up with.

I’m reminded of a recent Digital Foundry video where they were talking about how totally new graphics features only supported by some hardware have been very rare for a long time but we used to get them more frequently. Some new feature that devs could use for compelling experiences but had to wait for it to be more widely available in hardware before relying on it. RTX feels a lot like that. It’s in the limited/early stages where it can only be an optional add on for enthusiast users. It should one day be ubiquitous. Including on things like Deck where you’d only ever use it when it’s critical to the game and not just pretty.

Edit: I quote replied before you added some edits so some of your post isn’t in my reply.

No worries, I tend to go on too long, so I try and adjust/clarify what I say after I post!

tl;dr, yes. I think ray tracing is super neat, in general. I don't think the Deck is powerful enough to make it worth it, though.

It's possible someone could make a game that counters that point of view, but I can't imagine it at this point (or that one would release before the next generation of hardware hits the scene, anyway.)

So I think we agree, but you may be more optimistic than I am.

If Hitman 3/WoA goes on sale I might buy it (still not a fan of their always online/monetization, but it's pretty fun handheld).

I've been having a lot of trouble with Remote Play recently. Like the screen turning green or freezing on the client (Steam Deck) side of things. Seems to affect Stable, too.

Dropped my quality settings from "Beautiful" to "Balanced", and that seems to help. It does seem to have more bursts of macroblocking/quality drops, but maybe I'm just thinking it happens more often.

However, I haven't had as many instances of the green screen/freezing since making that change. Worth trying out if anyone else is having similar Remote Play issues.

System Shock remake got delayed, I was looking forward to playing that on the Deck this month.

I can't recommend Hitman strongly enough, although I haven't tried it in handheld/offline mode.

But it's by far one of the best games of the past decade.

Deck is 10% off during current Steam sale. That’s the first time it’s been discounted. I wonder if sales have slowed down or they really want to get it into more hands asap while there is momentum and they can now meet more demand.

Maybe it's part of the birthday celebration?

*Legion* wrote:

I can't recommend Hitman strongly enough, although I haven't tried it in handheld/offline mode.

But it's by far one of the best games of the past decade.

I own Hitman 1 & 2 and all the DLC. I'm just continually frustrated by their always online requirements and exploitative monetization.

Like even though I own the Hitman 2 expansion, in Hitman 3/WoA I don't get the New York and Haven maps. Their previously saying it was becoming WoA to simplify things has an asterisk for New York, Haven, and the Sniper Assassin maps.

You can also only figure out those are what's missing from WoA if you A) buy it and find out afterwards or B) read the comments/reviews. It's not in any of the current Steam descriptions, and IOI removed the support pages on their site that previously listed which DLC packs contained which content. It's just seemingly so intentionally frustrating and opaque.

I replayed all of Hitman 1 & 2 in handheld mode, and it is quite fun. But if IOI collapsed as a company tomorrow, part of me would think "serves them right".

There are separate accessibility settings for subtitles and for UI elements, so you can adjust it to suit you on the Deck screen pretty well.

I did bite the bullet and buy WoA, but having connection issues with IOI, maybe they had a surge of new players. Figure I'll try again later. (But a good example of why their approach is annoying.)

I've only played the first Hitman 3 map, but running pretty decently on the Deck with default settings. Bounces between 40-60fps without any adjustments.

Lowered the refresh rate and framerate settings in the Deck options to 40. You could probably tweak things for 60fps, but I didn't feel like futzing with it.

Edit: I take it back. Each subsequent map the framerate tanked. Like 30fps and below, very chuggy. Think I'm going to go back to using Remote Play.

ccoates wrote:

I've only played the first Hitman 3 map, but running pretty decently on the Deck with default settings. Bounces between 40-60fps without any adjustments.

Lowered the refresh rate and framerate settings in the Deck options to 40. You could probably tweak things for 60fps, but I didn't feel like futzing with it.

Edit: I take it back. Each subsequent map the framerate tanked. Like 30fps and below, very chuggy. Think I'm going to go back to using Remote Play.

How much juice are you giving it?

pandasuit wrote:

Deck is 10% off during current Steam sale. That’s the first time it’s been discounted. I wonder if sales have slowed down or they really want to get it into more hands asap while there is momentum and they can now meet more demand.

The Steam Deck is 10% off and I literally bought it 10 days ago. *sadface* I have the worst timing.

Contact Support?

I'm not sure what the distance-selling laws are where you are, but they might be accommodating to you if the alternative is you refund the one you got, and re-bought one at the cheaper price - some retailers will be willing to just refund you the difference? The hassle may not be worth the price difference to you, though.

ccoates wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

I can't recommend Hitman strongly enough, although I haven't tried it in handheld/offline mode.

But it's by far one of the best games of the past decade.

I own Hitman 1 & 2 and all the DLC. I'm just continually frustrated by their always online requirements and exploitative monetization.

Like even though I own the Hitman 2 expansion, in Hitman 3/WoA I don't get the New York and Haven maps. Their previously saying it was becoming WoA to simplify things has an asterisk for New York, Haven, and the Sniper Assassin maps.

What a bizarre choice. That stuff transferred just fine into plain Hitman 3, even when going from Steam to Epic.

Edit: Oh, I see. Since all the base stuff is now included in WoA, they no longer support location importing of any kind. Had you wanted to import, you would have had to have puchased Hitman3 before WoA became a thing, which certainly would have been the cheaper option given that it got a pretty decent discount a few times leading up to the release of WoA.

omni wrote:

Contact Support?

I'm not sure what the distance-selling laws are where you are, but they might be accommodating to you if the alternative is you refund the one you got, and re-bought one at the cheaper price - some retailers will be willing to just refund you the difference? The hassle may not be worth the price difference to you, though.

I sent an email, we’ll see. EU laws say there’s a 14 day period of “send it back, no questions asked” and I’m not above sending it back and getting another one.
Yes. I’m that petty. ^^

Hopefully they see sense and can offer a partial refund to cover the difference, rather than waste the shipping time and energy for both sides .

10% off is a decent amount of difference at any sku for a steam deck, nothing petty about it.

Yesterday I decided to download Dead Space 2023 to my Deck to see how it would run. The Deck automatically started downloading it from my local desktop PC that already had the game installed. Slick. I didn’t realize that feature was out of beta already.

It wasn’t faster than downloading from the Internet but I still like this. I often put a campaign game on both desktop and Deck and play on whichever is convenient at the moment. I might still often just tell it to download faster from the internet since I don’t have a monthly bandwidth cap. Would be great if they found a way to download parts from both to go even faster.

If you have a monthly bandwidth limit and download games on multiple devices this feature may already be really useful to you.

Edit: Found out it already also works between Steam on desktop PCs as well and is totally faster than downloading from the internet if the PCs and their network connections are fast enough. Transferred some games to another desktop PC very fast. Maybe not as fast as if I used the game backup/recovery feature to move games using an external SSD but far more convenient.

From Reddit

Don't send the Deck back if you want the better price

If you bought the deck on an eligible credit card in the last 30 days (I believe) just ask them to refund the difference. I believe all Mastercards offer price protection but just make sure and contact them if Valve says no.

However, many comments point out that credit card companies have dropped that feature.

Personally, if you can wait to get it I would send the one back and get the one on sale.

Tycho the Mad wrote:

10% off is a decent amount of difference at any sku for a steam deck, nothing petty about it.

Exactly this. If it was 10% off a £10 game, then maybe not. But even the cheapest deck, 10% would pay for many copies of Vampire Survivors.

farley3k wrote:

From Reddit
Don't send the Deck back if you want the better price

If you bought the deck on an eligible credit card in the last 30 days (I believe) just ask them to refund the difference. I believe all Mastercards offer price protection but just make sure and contact them if Valve says no.

However, many comments point out that credit card companies have dropped that feature.
Personally, if you can wait to get it I would send the one back and get the one on sale.

Pretty sure that might apply in the States, but not my neck of the woods.

If they don't offer a refund, I'm actually considering getting the midrange option instead of the top of the line. As nice as it is to have the anti-glare glass, I'm not sure I need 512 gig of storage, SD card or no.
At this rate, I'm not sure they'll get back to me by Monday, though...

Saturday morning edit: they replied back and offered Steam Wallet credit! Now I'm wondering if I should settle for that or push to return the 512 one and go for the midrange option!.... Decisions, decisions!

Personally, I'd just keep it and start eyeing games I can get for 'free' with the credit Mentally I'd have already committed to spending the original amount and made peace with that expense. If they hadn't unexpectedly offered a discount, returning wouldn't have entered the picture

Yep. Take the credit. After all, the Deck is for Steam games, and the credits buy you Steam games, so...

I thought this was a good comparison - despite not being "in action"

Comparison of Steam Deck Screens

Left: 64G + non-glossy film

Middle: 512G (frosted glass)

Right: 256G (glossy glass)

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/q4meiamr04pa1.jpg)

Does that mean that the non-512G versions have more a vibrant appearance by default>

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Does that mean that the non-512G versions have more a vibrant appearance by default>

I saw some early reviews indicate that was the case.