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Topic: Valve's Steam Deck console Thread

Posts 301 to 320 of 332

skywake

@Matt_Barber
Not Steam Deck and possibly something you may have been aware of already. But I noticed recently that both EB Games and JB HiFi have store pages for Ayaneo handhelds now. Not sure when that happened but it's a little bit surprising

Of course the prices are.... high.... well above what I'd want to be paying for something along those lines. Even if the price I think is pretty well justified given the spec. Hopefully the Steam Deck comes in and changes the equation a bit here soon. Because I think we all know Valve's margins are significantly tighter

Some playlists: Top All Time Songs, Top Last Year
"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"

Matt_Barber

@skywake Yeah, those mark-ups are very steep and I doubt they'll be properly localized for the Australian market. I'd probably just buy one directly from China.

If I was to get an Aya Neo it'd probably be the forthcoming 2 Geek model because that gets the 6000-series APUs, where the current models are still using last generation GPUs. It'll also be a fair bit more expensive than a Steam Deck, but at least you'd be getting something more for your money with it.

Matt_Barber

JaxonH

Got Spiderman and it runs great!

Unfortunately, the Achilles heel of the Deck is the battery life, and that's true as ever for Spiderman.

AAA games aren't meant to run on High settings on Deck- its a handheld. Battery life MUST be a considered factor. But even so, using the following:

  • Ultra Low Settings (lowest setting possible)
  • 30 fps (lowest setting possible)
  • 900 x 600 resolution (lowest setting possible)

The game still runs at near 20W on average, meaning about 2 hrs battery life on a full charge. I can only imagine how low it would be on Normal or High graphical settings, 40-60fps or a higher resolution. An hour 20 minutes, maybe?

So ya. I've realized more and more, Deck can run current AAA games, but it comes at an extreme cost of battery life. I mean, at least 2 hrs is better than nothing, but I'm so used to 5 hr battery that 2 feels grossly insufficient.

Of course, playing with the charger plugged in is always an option, and I do have a portable battery battery in my elastic band of the case, which will add at least 75% extra battery life. So 2 hrs becomes 3.5 hrs.

This really illustrates the hurdle Switch 2 will face. If it uses an Orin chip, designed for lower power draw, and keeps the OLED screen to lower power draw, and games are designed for the system or ported to it with its architecture in mind using 10W or less in handheld mode (maybe 15W but they'd need a larger battery) it's possible they could reach somewhere near Steamdeck graphically/performance-wise yet retain 3.5+ hrs battery life on super demanding games.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

JoeDiddley

@JaxonH interesting to know. I’m still adding games to mine so I’ve not unplugged it yet. I usually only get a couple of hours once the kids are in bed so maybe it won’t impact me too much.

Have you tried connecting or casting it to a tv or monitor as yet? Wondering if it’s worth a go.

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

Mii_duck

So, in reply to my earlier moan about my deck not reading my SD Card - I reformatted it for a second time and it's now working fine. Phew.

Currently playing Cyberpunk 2077 (using the Steam Deck default setting for the game). Looks amazing and runs fine, 11 hours in and no bugs or crashes. Approx two hour battery life.

Mii_duck

JoeDiddley

@Mii_duck that’s good going given the games initial reputation.

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

JoeDiddley

I’ve been mostly setting up my retro games on my Deck so far. I need to be playing more than the beginning of games to test them out.

The meta game.

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

markmarkmark

JoeDiddley wrote:

It’s arrived! I’m not home until tomorrow but IT’S ARRIVED!

Congrats on getting your steam deck. 🎉😉

Game on. 🤘 Rock on. 🎸

JaxonH

I need to set up Dolphin one of these days.

How to get the games onto the SD card though? Since Windows can't recognize the file system Deck formats the card to. Is there another format both recognize that could be put into the Deck, have it recognize it, then copy onto the internal storage?

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

BinaryMessiah

@JaxonH External USB-C hub. I recommend the JSAUX dock. Works great. You can then just drag and drop everything onto the SD card or internal storage.

The Deck writes partitions in ext4 format which Windows can't recognize. This is a Linux thing. While the Deck can read Windows partitions Windows can't read Linux's. There are special programs you can use to read the SD card in Windows, but it's a hassle and you risk corrupting the SD card. I just used the JSAUX dock and never had an issue using USB drives to transfer games and files. I also use Emudeck for emulators. It's a one-click solution with every emulator setup for use with the Deck.

For the Deck I gave up on optimizing games for battery. 2 hours is plenty on higher end games for a single session most of the time and I'm usually always near a power outlet somewhere and have a 20,000mAh battery pack too. I prefer the game looking good over battery life.

My main issue is this is going to kill the battery's life a lot faster than other handhelds. The constant charging means you will have to replace the battery within 2 years or even sooner.

Edited on by BinaryMessiah

BinaryMessiah

Nintendo Network ID: ivory_soul | Twitter:

BinaryMessiah

Just be aware, for anyone ordering large SD cards, that Steam stores all pre-cache data on the internal storage and there's no way to move this. The Steam Deck wouldn't be possible without this. The pre-cache is necessary for a smooth gaming experience. I've seen so many threads on the sub-reddit of people complaining that their space is being eaten up fast and that they can't install anymore games on their SD card despite the space. Non-Steam games won't install large pre-cache files, but this adds up fast. About 1/3 of your storage will be filled with pre-cache data.

BinaryMessiah

Nintendo Network ID: ivory_soul | Twitter:

JoeDiddley

@BinaryMessiah I’m regretting not getting the 1TB and sticking with 500gb SD card as I’ve realised hot swapping or backing up to a hard drive and upgrading later aren’t as easy as I initially assumed.

Edited on by JoeDiddley

Switch: SW-2923-8106-2126
Steam ID: joediddley
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JoeDiddley

Mii_duck

Has anyone here tried Forza 4 on the Steam Deck?

It was originally listed as Playable, then Unplayable, then Playable again so I bought it in a sale.
It worked fine for a couple of hours, but now I have no car sound or GPS voice, along with regular crashes (the game, not my driving) and repeated crashes on the loading screen.

I've tried all the Google recommendations like turning Bluetooth on, trying a different version of Proton, wiping Proton, launching it from the desktop and verifying all the files again.
Nothing has worked though, which is hugely frustrating because this was one of the main games I wanted the Steam Deck for and I really enjoyed it for the few hours it was playable.

Doubly odd because the much maligned Cyberpunk 2077 has been generally bug and crash free, apart from very rare occasions.

Mii_duck

rockodoodle

I am getting the 512 on Thursday…. I am thinking I should have just gotten the 256 and used the expansion card instead. Oh well, go big or go home….

rockodoodle

CJD87

@Zuljaras How severe is the tinkering required? I'm 90% about to grab the 256... but want as close to a Switch-style "plug and play" experience as possible.

(Not wanting to faff with emulators or alternative OS options.... I'm fine just playing Steam titles, mainly buying it for BG3, SF6, RE4, AC6)

Thanks and hope you're enjoying it!

CJD87

Zuljaras

@CJD87 if you are to play mainly steam games I do not even think you need to go in desktop mode.

Just login, download verified or playable titles and start them.

However you may need to tinker with options like visuals, resolution, power consuptuon etc. But that is the easiest tinkering on the deck.

None of the other expensive handheld pcs will give you the console experience like the deck.

Pizzamorg

You tinker with your Deck as much as you want to, really. Most games should auto set themselves for the hardware of the Deck, so you could within theory not do any tinkering and it be fine. But if you want to squeeze every drop out of the Deck, some tinkering is required. Same if you want to focus in on performance over battery, or battery over performance or whatever, then there is a wealth of tinkering available to you. Both in terms of the deck itself and also within your games.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

CJD87

@Zuljaras Thanks and doesn't sound too onerous thankfully... I'm guessing the level's of tinkering are built into Steam OS, and would be equivalent to turning a bar option up/down to adjust a metric like 'brightness' or 'FSR' etc? And reddit/subs would likely have users to recommend best setting per game?
Sounds great, think I'll order tomorrow

CJD87

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