Steam Deck and Linux Gaming

Balthezor wrote:

You guys recommend Cryo Utilities for the deck?

Yes. Some of the changes it makes really ought to be defaults in SteamOS.

I too have used it and it is good. I wont says I saw the huge boosts others have noted but I did see some improvements

Same here. Nothing but good things to say about it.

Cool. What is the settings you guys use? Is there a guide at the site?

I got the Aya Neo 2 and Microsoft should look at some sort of handheld UI for Windows 11. As it is now I just have Steam boot at start and in big picture mode which helps a bit.

Plugged my Steam Deck into an external monitor for the first time (via an Anker USB-C hub) and booted up Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Watching the opening cut scenes, I'm thinking, "yeah, okay, I guess I underestimated just how much the 7" 800p display obscures the lack of graphical fidelity, this looks really jaggy, you can totally tell that this is the ugly downscaled portable version of this game."

And then I got into the actual gameplay, and, like... dang, never mind. It still looks amazing and plays buttery-smooth. What a little miracle machine the Steam Deck is.

Balthezor wrote:

Cool. What is the settings you guys use? Is there a guide at the site?

I just use the recommended defaults it gives.

TheGameguru wrote:

I got the Aya Neo 2 and Microsoft should look at some sort of handheld UI for Windows 11. As it is now I just have Steam boot at start and in big picture mode which helps a bit.

Have you tried the Deck UI on Windows? IIRC you have to enable it with an argument to Steam unless it has already replaced big picture in stable Steam.

hbi2k wrote:

Plugged my Steam Deck into an external monitor for the first time (via an Anker USB-C hub) and booted up Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Watching the opening cut scenes, I'm thinking, "yeah, okay, I guess I underestimated just how much the 7" 800p display obscures the lack of graphical fidelity, this looks really jaggy, you can totally tell that this is the ugly downscaled portable version of this game."

And then I got into the actual gameplay, and, like... dang, never mind. It still looks amazing and plays buttery-smooth. What a little miracle machine the Steam Deck is.

If you turn on the FSR scaling filter in the Steam Gamescope settings for that game, change the display resolution to native, while keeping the game resolution at 800p, does it help much?

I’ve had mixed success with this. Depends on the game whether this looks good or gross. Often using the games own upscale settings is better if it has a good one but then you have to change the game settings when not handheld.

I'm not super stressed about it to be honest, like I said the actual gameplay looks very good and plays amazing, that's all I'm actually worried about.

ccoates wrote:

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing! Once you read the actual person's Twitter thread/reddit posts they're much more reserved about claiming any official Microsoft capacity.

tl;dr it was a hack-a-thon proof of concept, but they stress some accurate pain points like how bad the Windows on-screen keyboard is.

Reading this made me take another look at the state of Windows on the Deck (my Game Pass subscription expired in January, so I haven't booted into Windows very often on my Deck).

Tools for getting a good experience on the Deck with Windows seem to have come a long way, and these two seem to have superseded what I was trying last year:

https://github.com/Valkirie/HandheldCompanion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtGy...

https://github.com/ayufan/steam-deck-tools

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfP...

Since you've been looking into the current state of Windows on the Deck what's your impression of it? Is it a good option for someone who needs Windows but wants the price/performance of the Deck? What about if it's docked and used as a desktop most of the time so the lack of handheld mode doesn't matter?

pandasuit wrote:

Since you've been looking into the current state of Windows on the Deck what's your impression of it? Is it a good option for someone who needs Windows but wants the price/performance of the Deck? What about if it's docked and used as a desktop most of the time so the lack of handheld mode doesn't matter?

My impression is essentially "it's fine". Windows kinda sucks on a small device, a touch screen device, or a gamepad device.

If I knew someone who needed a PC, and handheld gaming wasn't their primary use-case, or if they wanted something that "just works", I'd never recommend the Deck. It's a first gen device that can do all sorts of fun stuff, albeit sometimes with hoops. It's not the computer for someone who needs a work laptop or desktop. Running Windows doesn't really change any of the calculus on whether someone should or shouldn't get a Deck that hasn't been covered in the conversations here.

Tinkering with Windows or tinkering with Steam OS/Proton is more of a pick your poison situation. For me, front loading the effort of installing Windows on an SD card, setting up tools like swicd/glossi/etc., and using it for specific games is less of a hassle than getting every single game running in Steam OS, although sometimes I still try and get specific things running just for fun.

But it's workable, with the right combination of tools tweaked to your specific tastes. For me, if I'm booting into Windows, it's to run a game that didn't work "out of the box" with Proton, because I want to play a Game Pass for PC game, or that I want to launch a game with GoG Galaxy to track achievements.

From that perspective, you only need to deal with Windows as long as it takes you to launch a game. It'd be amazing if Windows was as slick as Steam OS, but if the goal is to spend more time playing games than poking around the OS, I also don't consider it much of a dealbreaker.

Using it as a PC with a mouse and keyboard, doing basic tasks like web browsing, it doesn't really feel much different than any other device with similar specs. Would I use it to encode my Blu-ray rips in Handbrake for my Plex server? Not unless I had literally no other option. Could I? Technically, yes.

But gaming with it on a TV and monitor? Personally, I think to get workable performance on a lot of games you have to make too many compromises. And that's not even anything to do with Windows. Setting the resolution to 1080p (or more likely lower), games look pretty damn ugly to me on bigger screens.

That's going to vary a lot based on personal tastes, but I'd rather just use my actual PC or a console if I'm not going to be playing a game handheld.

So the tl;dr in my opinion is "Being able to run Windows on the Deck doesn't change anything about whether or not it's a good option for a person".

That's what I'd say, ccoates. The pull is the very nice experience running tons of full-bore Steam games on a small, well-designed portable system. If that's not your primary use, you're better off with a small laptop.

Finished Dredge. Pretty fun game, but it's short. You could probably do a completionist run in 15-20 hours.

It's not particularly scary/creepy, if anyone is worried about that. If anything the sea monsters are annoying, because rather than lurking and making you wonder when they might show up, they are constantly harassing you. The characters, designs, and lore are pretty interesting. Money might seem like a problem initially, but I'd advise against farming money or boat resources for upgrades. Instead, visit new areas as soon as possible so you can complete quests (some take you to different regions on the map) and collect the resources you'll need naturally. You can definitely farm it out if you really want (crab traps to farm money, saving and quitting the game seems to reset shipwreck materials), but that gets tedious.

One caveat: the only timed quests in the game are the "Hooded figure" ones. If you start one, complete it as soon as possible.

The game is overall solid but has some un-fun design decisions like that, bafflingly. Like why add ONE quest type in a game that's on a time limit, but then don't inform the gamer the time limit exists? It's not critical to finishing the game, but I was still irritated when I permanently failed one of them because I waited too long.

Another design decision that seemingly goes against the game's own mechanics is that in Dredge, time only advances when you're moving. The exception being... sea monsters move normally no matter what. So if you're sitting there managing your storage because you filled it up, one can show up and damage your boat (causing you to lose items, even a quest specific fish you just spent a bunch of time looking for) or even kill you. Which doesn't instill any dread, just irritation, because it's not like you're going to notice it showing up while the menus are open.

The fishing mini games aren't complex, but I liked filling up the fish encyclopedia, and talking to the different characters. Upgrading your boat progresses at a decent clip. The lore is interesting. There's a no monster mode coming out in the next month or two, and I'd genuinely consider replaying when it does.

Also beat Cult of the Lamb. I liked the game overall, but I struggled with the combat, so if you're like me don't sleep on the demon summoning circle, which can help. You also really need to start growing food as fast as possible, which I don't think the game emphasizes enough. There's actually multiple systems I don't think are explained very well in-game. Once I watched a few videos on starting strategies and general how to play tips, I had a much, much better time with it.

I don't think the micromanagement of the village is handled well. Things that automate tasks are fairly high in the tech tree. I don't think this is how it should be done, it makes it tedious. Instead, IMO it's better if micromanaging yields *more efficient* results, but you have the option of not doing it. Instead, even late game there's some stuff you have to personally click on and manage, and once you had lots of cultists it's hard to even click on the right people.

I kept thinking of Frostpunk, which isn't a similar game, but you don't *have* to micromanage everything. If you're going for specific hardcore achievements it helps a ton, but it's never a requirement. I think Frostpunk also balances the different tech tree options in a way Cult of the Lamb doesn't. Some of the skills/abilities are just inherently most powerful or useful. I don't see myself starting a new game to try a different gameplay approach like I would with Frostpunk.

It mostly ran fine on the Deck, but later in the game when I had 20+ cultists it seemed to struggle. It would freeze, sometimes crash. Some ritual animations would seem to freeze, seemingly just waiting for every cultist to waddle on-screen. It was unclear though, and at times it was just easier to force quit and restart. Some stuttering at times, which in an action game is non-optimal. If you're trying to kill a boss without getting hit, one little stutter is the difference between achieving that and losing that 20% resource bonus.

Neither is a lengthy game, but I think they're both worth the price.

Great write-ups and helpful hints. Thank you.

ccoates wrote:

Finished Dredge. Pretty fun game, but it's short. You could probably do a completionist run in 15-20 hours.

It's not particularly scary/creepy, if anyone is worried about that. If anything the sea monsters are annoying, because rather than lurking and making you wonder when they might show up, they are constantly harassing you. The characters, designs, and lore are pretty interesting. Money might seem like a problem initially, but I'd advise against farming money or boat resources for upgrades. Instead, visit new areas as soon as possible so you can complete quests (some take you to different regions on the map) and collect the resources you'll need naturally. You can definitely farm it out if you really want (crab traps to farm money, saving and quitting the game seems to reset shipwreck materials), but that gets tedious.

One caveat: the only timed quests in the game are the "Hooded figure" ones. If you start one, complete it as soon as possible.

The game is overall solid but has some un-fun design decisions like that, bafflingly. Like why add ONE quest type in a game that's on a time limit, but then don't inform the gamer the time limit exists? It's not critical to finishing the game, but I was still irritated when I permanently failed one of them because I waited too long.

Another design decision that seemingly goes against the game's own mechanics is that in Dredge, time only advances when you're moving. The exception being... sea monsters move normally no matter what. So if you're sitting there managing your storage because you filled it up, one can show up and damage your boat (causing you to lose items, even a quest specific fish you just spent a bunch of time looking for) or even kill you. Which doesn't instill any dread, just irritation, because it's not like you're going to notice it showing up while the menus are open.

The fishing mini games aren't complex, but I liked filling up the fish encyclopedia, and talking to the different characters. Upgrading your boat progresses at a decent clip. The lore is interesting. There's a no monster mode coming out in the next month or two, and I'd genuinely consider replaying when it does.

Also beat Cult of the Lamb. I liked the game overall, but I struggled with the combat, so if you're like me don't sleep on the demon summoning circle, which can help. You also really need to start growing food as fast as possible, which I don't think the game emphasizes enough. There's actually multiple systems I don't think are explained very well in-game. Once I watched a few videos on starting strategies and general how to play tips, I had a much, much better time with it.

I don't think the micromanagement of the village is handled well. Things that automate tasks are fairly high in the tech tree. I don't think this is how it should be done, it makes it tedious. Instead, IMO it's better if micromanaging yields *more efficient* results, but you have the option of not doing it. Instead, even late game there's some stuff you have to personally click on and manage, and once you had lots of cultists it's hard to even click on the right people.

I kept thinking of Frostpunk, which isn't a similar game, but you don't *have* to micromanage everything. If you're going for specific hardcore achievements it helps a ton, but it's never a requirement. I think Frostpunk also balances the different tech tree options in a way Cult of the Lamb doesn't. Some of the skills/abilities are just inherently most powerful or useful. I don't see myself starting a new game to try a different gameplay approach like I would with Frostpunk.

It mostly ran fine on the Deck, but later in the game when I had 20+ cultists it seemed to struggle. It would freeze, sometimes crash. Some ritual animations would seem to freeze, seemingly just waiting for every cultist to waddle on-screen. It was unclear though, and at times it was just easier to force quit and restart. Some stuttering at times, which in an action game is non-optimal. If you're trying to kill a boss without getting hit, one little stutter is the difference between achieving that and losing that 20% resource bonus.

Neither is a lengthy game, but I think they're both worth the price.

Like chooka said, thanks for the write up.
I've held off Cult since it seems like it would have the same issues I have with Don't Starve.
Maybe when it's next on sale.

Finally gave Handheld Companion and Steam Deck Tools a try for Windows on Deck.

Both are definitely easier than setting up glossi or swicd.

The overlay for Handheld Companion is really slick. It's nice because that means you only have to remember one key combo shortcut to open the overlay to access all of the settings you need.

But... I found it wasn't always reliable. The overlay didn't always open, and other shortcuts I had set or memorized for tasks like opening the keyboard were also unreliable.

I found it has the same issues swicd did, where you really need to disable the Handheld Companion gamepad functionality before you play anything with Steam, because Steam's own controls wouldn't play nice with it.

So I uninstalled Handheld Companion and gave Steam Deck Tools a try. It's not as fancy, there's no slide-out overlay and the UI is pretty utilitarian.

But it seems rock solid. It has a ton of shortcuts preset/built-in, such as holding down the options key to toggle between gamepad/desktop modes.

https://steam-deck-tools.ayufan.dev/shortcuts

Another plus is whatever Steam Deck Tools' approach to emulating a gamepad is, it seems perfectly compatible with Steam itself. I didn't have to disable it to launch a Steam game. When Steam Deck Tools is running Steam treats the Deck as an Xbox 360 gamepad, so I'm not sure if you'd have to disable it to make use of Steam controller profiles that involve the back buttons. But for games that have native Xbox controller support, I haven't noticed any issues.

Adjusting the fan/power/etc. is done via taskbar tray icons. Or if you have the keyboard shortcuts memorized.

tl;dr Handheld Companion seems like it'll be great if it becomes more reliable. But Steam Deck Tools seems like the more solid option at the moment.

Not the Asus ROG Ally thread, but does anyone know if it has quick resume like save state Steam Deck has?

My understanding is that it does not.

IGN comparison

Unfortunately, the Ally does also lack the Steam Deck’s ability to suspend and resume a game at the touch of a button. This means that any time you want to stop playing for longer than a simple pause, you’ll need to save and quit out of your game entirely, and load up again fresh the next time you want to play. This is, of course, the standard way things go on desktop PCs.
merphle wrote:

IGN comparison

Unfortunately, the Ally does also lack the Steam Deck’s ability to suspend and resume a game at the touch of a button. This means that any time you want to stop playing for longer than a simple pause, you’ll need to save and quit out of your game entirely, and load up again fresh the next time you want to play. This is, of course, the standard way things go on desktop PCs.

Windows normal sleep mode doesn’t work then? Don’t think I ever tried it with a game running but it works for most other apps.

pandasuit wrote:

Windows normal sleep mode doesn’t work then? Don’t think I ever tried it with a game running but it works for most other apps.

Games don't tend to recover from Windows sleep (or they just keep it from being able to go into sleep in the first place).

Developing a sleep mode that won't kill Windows games on resume is one of those things Valve put a lot of time into.

*Legion* wrote:
pandasuit wrote:

Windows normal sleep mode doesn’t work then? Don’t think I ever tried it with a game running but it works for most other apps.

Games don't tend to recover from Windows sleep (or they just keep it from being able to go into sleep in the first place).

Developing a sleep mode that won't kill Windows games on resume is one of those things Valve put a lot of time into.

I know that used to be an issue, but FWIW that hasn’t been my experience over the past 2-3 years. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but the only game where this has been sort of an issue in recent times has been Microsoft Flight Simulator, and that has been more because the sudden change in weather from when I put the machine to sleep to when I wake up can make flying hard.

I'm a little surprised to see the Asus thing get the praise it has since it seems to me a lot of the magic of the Steam Deck is in the OS. Though I am still excited for the official dual booting support if that ever becomes a thing

I can see why people would prefer the 'no hassle' of game support due to running on Windows, but there are just far too many plus points for the deck that the Ally won't have. Reading The Verge overview, there are quite a list of downsides, though a lot of them are software based so will hopefully be rectified in time. It sounds like their bundled software for configuring the controller is quite far off the pace - I wonder if you can just leave it as mimicking an xbox controller and use Steam Input to configure as needed instead?

Competition is good, etc, so I'm glad more will happen in this space, and hopefully Valve and Asus can drive things on to even more new heights. If it makes for an even better future SteamOS based Steam Deck, then I'm all for it!

I would buy a higher performance Steam Deck immediately and give my current one to my son but I don't really "need" more performance right now. Maybe if I was trying to play new AAA on it and didn't have a PC for those I'd feel a bit different. I just want Rocket League to play at a smoother high framerate while the Deck is docked and outputting to a bigger screen.

I really want Game Pass PC games to run directly on my Deck but I don't want a handheld Windows device until that is a good handheld experience. Valve has shown how to do handheld well so Windows could maybe copy a lot of that.

I use the Deck touchpads a lot and love how they feel but I think I could live with gyro mouse support if I had to so I'm not sure it's a major problem that devices like the ROG Ally don't have touchpads. Clearly they didn't either.

Personally my main excitement for the ROG Ally and future devices coming into this space is that these new AMD APUs are finally becoming available in more reasonably priced consumer devices. That is awesome. Low end dedicated GPUs need to die a horrible death.

Spoiler:

I've said before that if there was a laptop with Steam Deck level performance at anywhere near the same price I'd have bought one for my dad by now. It would need Windows for him tho because a lot of what he plays does not work well in Proton yet.

I recently picked up a laptop for $600 USD ($800 CAD) with an i5-1240p and I'm surprised at how far the Intel integrated graphics have come but it’s still crap compared to an AMD 680m or 780m. This is a 28W CPU with an 80 EU GPU so not the best Intel has but close. If I find a device at a similarish price point running an AMD APU with a Radeon 680m/780m I'll get that and hand this laptop off to my wife.

Great news for me. I can usually tell well within 90 minutes if I am going to want to keep playing a game.

Steam Now Offers 90-Minute Game Trials, Starting With Dead Space

farley3k wrote:

Great news for me. I can usually tell well within 90 minutes if I am going to want to keep playing a game.

Steam Now Offers 90-Minute Game Trials, Starting With Dead Space

Does this only apply to Steam Deck? Or will the 90 minute trials be available on regular PC Steam client?

I maintain that the smartest thing the Xbox 360-era Xbox Live Arcade did was requiring all games to have a demo, which was usually just the first hour or two of gameplay and let you continue seamlessly from that point if you purchased the game. I bought so many games I never otherwise would have that way, and it's baffling to me that nobody (including, as far as I can tell, Microsoft themselves in post-360 iterations of the Xbox) has taken that ball and run with it since.

The headline makes it sound cooler than it is. It seems more like, "Steam now supports the ability for games to offer trial periods". Which seems mostly like an extension of the "free weekend" feature they've always supported, but now available on-demand.

Which is cool, but like free weekends, I feel like it's gonna end up being used very selectively.

I was never into custom boot screens but that one might get me to do it. Feels like I'm about to load up Duke3d or Doom