Steam deck discussion

[Pax Animi]

To y'all who plan to get the Gabeboy, I have a bunch of questions:

1) Storage: Any tips for good SD card for secondary storage? Something with good price/capacity ratio and decent speed. I won't be playing from it, but don't want to spend hours just copying stuff around.
2) A dock/dongle? With video outputs, USBs, ethernet, charging, that won't be completely atrocious to use while handheld-ing. 2,5" SATA bay would be a plus too.
3) GOG.com games should be playable in Steam OS?
4) Any info on how, or how well the button mapping will work?
5) Is there a Windows version of the UI?
6) How the **** am I going to make it dualboot Windows?

@mods This should probably be cathegorized somewhere, so if you'd be so kind...

[GhostRoadieBL]

1 - if you want to go pure speed you'll be looking at V90 standard cards, they are the fastest available and have price to match. A good price to performance balance card is Sandisk Extreme Pro cards as they go onsale often.

2 - need to wait for reviews testing, Linux can be flaky with things like this so it's down to what valve allows on their system if they don't follow the Nintendo playbook

3 - no clue, probably not natively at first but it's linux so it's a good bet someone will run wine through steam os

4 -

5 - not listed on their site, the specs are nothing super unique for PC parts so you should be able to boot windows

6 - git good at 'puter stuff?

 

[Mark Kaine]

I mean i could be wrong (???) but

 

-I believe this thing will be extremely niche

 

-die very soon (1-3 years) cause Steam/Valve isnt exactly well known to support their products for long (typically)

 

-most people will run windows on this, it just makes more sense / is what people are used to, its Gabens long term dream to have an OS/actual windows competitor, but he has until now utterly failed at this (not at last due to missing commitment)

So, yeah, expect to run windows on this for compatibility and usability reasons .

 

 

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 not sure, others could answer

2 I believe that valve said they’re going to make one but don’t quote me on that

3 probably not, but the os it like bassically a front end for steam and steamplay, so maybe

4like any controler, with the toutchpads working like a steam controler

5 yea, if you install windows

6 like any other pc, partition the drive and instal it on the other partition

[motomat86]

i bought a 512gb a2 u3 from sandisk as well as a 1tb 2230 single sided ssd from micron  for mine.  Im going to fresh install windows on it, not going to bother with steamos or linux,  the whole point of this for me is to pick up and go and have quick access to games, i dont want to spend an hour messing with config files or reading github.  

 

Im pretty excited to play forza horizon on this later this month.    

[Mark Kaine]

23 minutes ago, motomat86 said:

i bought a 512gb a2 u3 from sandisk as well as a 1tb 2230 single sided ssd from micron  for mine.  Im going to fresh install windows on it, not going to bother with steamos or linux,  the whole point of this for me is to pick up and go and have quick access to games, i dont want to spend an hour messing with config files or reading github.  

 

Im pretty excited to play forza horizon on this later this month.    

Also a small portable windows machine sounds actually fun (thats besides me neglecting any portable devices that arent  my phone or laptop lol…) 

[motomat86]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Also a small portable windows machine sounds actually fun (thats besides me neglecting any portable devices that arent  my phone or laptop lol…) 

yea i mean its basically a Neo just cheaper.   I never would have bought it if it was a grand,  but for a couple hundred bucks and a chance to play with rdna2 sure why not.   I do agree with you I think this endeavor from valve is a moonshot project.  I doubt this will change gaming at all,  It wont be the future of gaming (looking at you stadia), and linux gaming will still be a headache I believe.   Its an amazing piece of tech, and its from valve, which is probably the real reason I bought it.   But I dont see myself using this more then a handful of times, the novelty of it will wear out pretty fast.    

[Srius1]

I never understand how big this market is or what the point of devices like this are. If I’m home, I have a pc. If I’m traveling, I can survive a day or two without gaming. Or use one of the many cloud services. Or just my phone.

[saltycaramel]

Why is Linus giggly and peppy like he had too much sugar in every video about the Steam Deck like he’s desperate to make this happen? For all we know this could be the next Ouya or the next Steam Controller. 

 

”the sound stage, oh the sound stage”

”the most innovative gaming PC in 20 years, more maybe”

 

[Ultraforce]

24 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

Why is Linus giggly and peppy like he had too much sugar in every video about the Steam Deck like he’s desperate to make this happen? For all we know this could be the next Ouya or the next Steam Controller. 

 

”the sound stage, oh the sound stage”

”the most innovative gaming PC in 20 years, more maybe”

 

I guess maybe this is coming from someone who mostly played consoles and thinks that at least excluding VR there's more potential for unique and interesting experiences with consoles but isn't the Steam Controller generally considered to have been a good but niche device? And as far as gaming PCs are concerned there's not a huge amount of innovation in that space since innovative gaming focused prebuilt isn't a huge field.

[Amias]

3 hours ago, Srius1 said:

I never understand how big this market is or what the point of devices like this are. If I’m home, I have a pc. If I’m traveling, I can survive a day or two without gaming. Or use one of the many cloud services. Or just my phone.

I think we're at an interesting point in gaming history where PC gaming hardware demand has stalled out, and PC gaming hardware has caught up. Resulting in devices not possible before (aka handheld PC gaming). Lots of company's have figured this out, spurred on by the Switch, and decided to dive head first into a potential new market. 

 

The real question is now ... does that market exist? People scoffed at the iPhone, and it changed the world. People scoff at the Google's Stadia and that died a death. Until the industry pushes and tests the water we don't know.

 

For now I'm sort of in your camp, but I'm sort of curious as well. I travel a little and it would be nice to play some games, however I'm tied to k&m ... so not sure if I can stomach switching PC games to console controls.

 

Interesting time nevertheless. Still, I'd rather we had more powerful standardized hardware so game developers can push more interactive, dynamic, larger worlds. But ... <looks at silicon shortages> ... guess I've gotta wait another decade for that.

[Kazlehoff]

Honestly my big question, as of right now, is can ALVR be sideloaded on the device while its in desktop mode, allowing for VR uses? its obviously never going to run something like Alyx, but i'd love to know if it can handle very basic VR titles that are nowhere near as demanding.

I know Valve has said the index won't be compatible (obviously, theres a LOT of stuff in making an outside-in HMD like the index work) but what about a headset like the Quest 2, where its all self-contained, and much of the processing can be offloaded to the Android OS on the headset?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

7 hours ago, Srius1 said:

I never understand how big this market is or what the point of devices like this are. If I’m home, I have a pc. If I’m traveling, I can survive a day or two without gaming. Or use one of the many cloud services. Or just my phone.

its for the people who would buy a switch, or a game boy, or ds, or game gear, but want to play specific games, or be able to do something else. 

4 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

Why is Linus giggly and peppy like he had too much sugar in every video about the Steam Deck like he’s desperate to make this happen? For all we know this could be the next Ouya or the next Steam Controller. 

 

”the sound stage, oh the sound stage”

”the most innovative gaming PC in 20 years, more maybe”

 

because its exciting.

this actually has a reason the exist, unlike the ouya or steam controler. Those had better alternatives with more support.

This will have acces to basically every pc game ever released once you get windows on it, and bassically all of them without it.

Theres a bunch of people buying like GDP wins and the like, and those are both slower, and over twice the price.

 

The sound stage is ligitamatly good, so hes saying that?

 

[Donut417]

5 hours ago, Amias said:

where PC gaming hardware demand has stalled out,

Demand hasn't stalled. People just cant afford scalper prices or the stuff is just out of stock. 

 

5 hours ago, Amias said:

he real question is now ... does that market exist? People scoffed at the iPhone, and it changed the world. People scoff at the Google's Stadia and that died a death. Until the industry pushes and tests the water we don't know.

Based on how well the Nintendo Switch has sold Im going to say there is a market. The Steam is like $50 more than a Switch and is pretty much a full computer. The fact is I can see a lot of people wanting it. Hell Id almost consider going for a top tiers model. My only issue is availability. 

[kitnoman]

I pre-ordered the middle tier as I'm was confident I would be able to replace the 256 ssd inside and I don't think I would be playing games in a bright sunny area(I'm in a tropical country, do that and you'll get sun burn),so I don't need the better screen. I anticipated that valve will make it serviceable and they delivered.  The only thing that would made this better is if we don't need to remove the whole backplate to replace the ssd. But I guess watching reviews like gamernexus, it's probably due to their thermal solution that they made it that way.

 

2 hours ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

 

this actually has a reason the exist, unlike the ouya or steam controler. Those had better alternatives with more support.

 

 

Steam is really not good at marketing new products and create excitement if there isn't one yet(controller innovation). Steam mainly and directly only sell their products in UE and/or North America and leave the rest of the world on their own on how to get their unit. This is what happened to steam controller/link.  I have steam controllers and they work wonders. But I had to ask a relative who lives in US to buy one and manually ship it to me. The only and major downside of a steam controller is that it does not support non steam games natively like a traditional xbox controller. But yeah, if this time valve opens and directly sell steam deck to other regions, specially Asia, it's going to sell big.

I can actually see this as a budget pre-built pc competitor. You literally just buy the dock, monitor, mouse, keyboard and you are all set. Students that can't afford a gaming laptop or pc yet can get this instead. At home it would function like a pc you can do your homework on, but it's also a handheld you can game anywhere as well.

[wasab]

1) pick your posion

 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sd+card&rh=n%3A516866%2Cp_n_feature_two_browse-bin%3A13203835011&crid=ZOAF17TJCZAT&nav_sdd=aps&rnid=6518301011&sprefix=sd+card&ref=nb_sb_ss_w_sbl-tr-t1_sd-card_k0_1_7_5

 

2) it does have a dock that turns your deck into a desktop computer

 

3) yes, if they have linux version. you can toggle on the linux filter which will show you only linux compatible games on GOG

 

4) dont know. On linux i personally wrote a python script for keybinding in video games

 

5) yes but you need to install windows

 

6) you install windows on it

[saltycaramel]

7 hours ago, Helpful Tech Wiard said:

because its exciting.

this actually has a reason the exist, unlike the ouya or steam controler. Those had better alternatives with more support.

This will have acces to basically every pc game ever released once you get windows on it, and bassically all of them without it.

Theres a bunch of people buying like GDP wins and the like, and those are both slower, and over twice the price.

 

The sound stage is ligitamatly good, so hes saying that?

 

 

I think sometimes Linus approaches non-sponsored coverage of new products in a way that feels more “QVC for young geeky gamers” than “big youtuber that can afford to be rigorous and objective”, in order to gain intangible returns (early access, industry connections, etc.) from this approach.

 

His coverage of the Steam Deck has been the epitome of this so far. In the unboxing video he even pretty much guaranteed there will be a huge community around it, sounded like those guys trying to sell you on a crypto “project”. No need to oversell this experiment so much in advance. He risks sounding like a fool if this eventually tanks. (that said, he would be a fool “all the way to the bank”, given the amount of video content they will squeeze out of this anyway)

[Amias]

11 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Demand hasn't stalled. People just cant afford scalper prices or the stuff is just out of stock. 

 

I meant game design isn't pulling down more power. No one is making more advanced games that need more powerful hardware.

[Giganthrax]

3 hours ago, Amias said:

 

I meant game design isn't pulling down more power. No one is making more advanced games that need more powerful hardware.

Well, the new consoles are still relatively new and Unreal Engine 5 hasn't even come out yet. With the pandemic complicating everything, we'll still have to wait another 1-2 years for truly next gen games made for PS5/new Xbox to see the light of day. Not that I expect anything revolutionary on those consoles. Graphics are going to get better and that's it.

 

Steam Deck is obviously a product that's going to have its fans and will be at least moderately successful. Being a handheld it's clearly not intended for everyone, but it's obvious why someone who loves handhelds like Linus would be stoked about it. I myself am very happy because of what Valve is doing for Linux gaming. Would be nice to be able to completely leave Windows behind. 

[tkitch]

20 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

Why is Linus giggly and peppy like he had too much sugar in every video about the Steam Deck like he’s desperate to make this happen? For all we know this could be the next Ouya or the next Steam Controller. 

 

”the sound stage, oh the sound stage”

”the most innovative gaming PC in 20 years, more maybe”

 

Linus gets excited about portable PC gaming.  He does the same thing with the Aya Neo, and GPD Win series.

 

He LOVES playing with fully portable devices and have a good experience.  

 

And the Ouya was (mostly) destined to fail, as it wasn't backed by any companies, and had a lot of really questionable claims.  For the price?  You're not going to get a better performing device for /years/.  Literally.  

[CerealExperimentsLain]

9 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

His coverage of the Steam Deck has been the epitome of this so far. In the unboxing video he even pretty much guaranteed there will be a huge community around it, sounded like those guys trying to sell you on a crypto “project”. No need to oversell this experiment so much in advance. He risks sounding like a fool if this eventually tanks. (that said, he would be a fool “all the way to the bank”, given the amount of video content they will squeeze out of this anyway)

Eh, I disagree.  I think his response is personal enthusiasm.  It's something a lot of PC gamers wanted; A mobile PC, that isn't a laptop, that is decent, that costs under $1000.  It's hard to say if the Steam Deck will succeed or if it's just lit up a very loud niche.  I'm in the same boat frankly, I have some doubts that the Steam Deck will be gang busters amazing and even concerns that Valve will be like 'We tried, oh well' in 18-24 months'.  Not to mention I think some consumers imagine it being 'An idiot proof console like experience' but in the end, it's a computer running a desktop OS, it'll eventually do some 'dumb computer shit' and that'll turn users off.  But it's also a freakin' handheld PC I can game on and the price is not insane.  Weather it fails in the market or not, if I get one, and there's drivers for it, I'll think it's awesome.

[Giganthrax]

1 hour ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

It's hard to say if the Steam Deck will succeed or if it's just lit up a very loud niche.  I'm in the same boat frankly, I have some doubts that the Steam Deck will be gang busters amazing and even concerns that Valve will be like 'We tried, oh well' in 18-24 months'.  Not to mention I think some consumers imagine it being 'An idiot proof console like experience' but in the end, it's a computer running a desktop OS, it'll eventually do some 'dumb computer shit' and that'll turn users off.  But it's also a freakin' handheld PC I can game on and the price is not insane.  Weather it fails in the market or not, if I get one, and there's drivers for it, I'll think it's awesome.

Worst case scenario (Steam Deck fails & Valve gives up in 1-2 years), people who bought it will still have a high-quality, upgradable, repairable handheld PC that can they can just install Windows on and play their games. 

[tkitch]

11 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

 

I think sometimes Linus approaches non-sponsored coverage of new products in a way that feels more “QVC for young geeky gamers” than “big youtuber that can afford to be rigorous and objective”, in order to gain intangible returns (early access, industry connections, etc.) from this approach.

 

His coverage of the Steam Deck has been the epitome of this so far. In the unboxing video he even pretty much guaranteed there will be a huge community around it, sounded like those guys trying to sell you on a crypto “project”. No need to oversell this experiment so much in advance. He risks sounding like a fool if this eventually tanks. (that said, he would be a fool “all the way to the bank”, given the amount of video content they will squeeze out of this anyway)

Not at all.

 

If Linus were just shilling, it'd be fairly easy to tell.  Plenty of other tech type tubers have been hands on with the Deck, and nobody has complained about it.  This included the early hands on a few months ago.  Everyone who touched it thought it was pretty awesome.

 

Is it going to be a perfect device?  Probably not.  Nothing ever is.

 

For a sub-500$ PC, are you going to be able to touch it elsewherE?  NOPE.

 

Hell, you couldn't fuckin' build that box for 500$.  Nevermind including a display, or controllers.  He wants this to succeed, and I think he's right in this one. 

[saltycaramel]

“He wants this to succeed” is not exactly a recipe for objective reporting. 

 

“For that price there’s nothing like that” doesn’t mean much if the business is not sustainable in the long run. For all we know they’re selling at a loss. Sure even some of the big game consoles are sold at a loss initially, but those are huge pop culture juggernauts that eventually will turn a profit, not a niche toaster-fridge where half of the appeal is in shoehorning old games meant for kbd+m+24”_screen to a switch-like format. 

 

Also, most of LTT videos are scripted, so saying “that’s just personal enthusiasm he can’t contain” is a bit naive. 

 

All I’m saying is that the coverage could be just as interesting if the approach was more “let’s wait and see where this goes” than “THIS IS THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST”. But more power to Linus to play the boy who had too much sugar for some products and the cynical industry pundit for other products. More power to me to suspect there are business relationships at play sometimes. 

[Needfuldoer]

Considering you could hear Linus in the background of most of the other videos shot during his session of the hands-on press preview day at Valve, I highly doubt his excitement is just acting. Hamming it up a bit, maybe.