Steam Deck (handheld from Valve) - shipping is 4-8 days from NL to UK

[bradigor]

49 minutes ago, Siri said:

 

 

Also, 2K games are wank after they shoehorned their own launcher into it. If the above doesn't work, look into going into desktop mode and changing the properties of the game so it points towards the game executable, not the launcher.

 

Just to note. I tried that with Midnight Suns and it failed to load. 

 

But it works fine using no launch options. Which was a tad unexpected.

[Siri]

28 minutes ago, bradigor said:

 

Just to note. I tried that with Midnight Suns and it failed to load. 

 

But it works fine using no launch options. Which was a tad unexpected.

 

It probably works by default because it's Midnight Suns, I think it's the same deal with The Quarry -  unlike older games, they should be expecting to be loaded through the launcher.

 

Older 2K Games titles are basically retrofitted with the launcher, but all the update is doing is pointing you to the launcher, and then loading up the original .exe file through the launcher because nobody could be arsed to repatch the games to make it work. In those cases, you can just cut out the middle man.

[bradigor]

5 minutes ago, Siri said:

 

It probably works by default because it's Midnight Suns, I think it's the same deal with The Quarry -  unlike older games, they should be expecting to be loaded through the launcher.

 

Older 2K Games titles are basically retrofitted with the launcher, but all the update is doing is pointing you to the launcher, and then loading up the original .exe file through the launcher because nobody could be arsed to repatch the games to make it work. In those cases, you can just cut out the middle man.

 

Ah that makes sense. 

[Gotters]

This is a handy little utility which comes with a big 'run at your own risk' warning, it finds the shader caches on your drive and lets you delete them if clogging up too much space, also hunts out compatibility files too which can take up room.

 

Shame it's needed and something Valve need to tidy up and make work better in the OS, cache files apparently don't always clear down if you delete a game.

 

 

 

[alex3d]

1 hour ago, Gotters said:

This is a handy little utility which comes with a big 'run at your own risk' warning, it finds the shader caches on your drive and lets you delete them if clogging up too much space, also hunts out compatibility files too which can take up room.

 

Shame it's needed and something Valve need to tidy up and make work better in the OS, cache files apparently don't always clear down if you delete a game.

 

 

 

 

Thanks - and yes, Valve need to find a solution for this.

[Siri]

All Valve really needs to do is change the Linux Steam client to delete the relevant compatdata folder along with the steamapp data when you click uninstall on a game. I'm surprised it wasn't implemented when Proton was a thing in the first place - they've clearly thought of something by having the 'delete Proton files' option in the settings to do exactly that, but haven't made it a prerequisite action before uninstalling games.

 

Of course, non-steam apps need not apply because all of the data is under compatdata. But they don't have an option to be uninstalled anyway, just removed from Steam.

[StephenM]

12 hours ago, Siri said:

 

 

Also, 2K games are wank after they shoehorned their own launcher into it. If the above doesn't work, look into going into desktop mode and changing the properties of the game so it points towards the game executable, not the launcher.

Cheers! Haven’t cracked it yet but I’ll continue to tinker ways around the launcher. 
 

Looking forward to the warm glow of making it work, then playing it for a sum total of ten minutes. 

[Lorfarius]

Ran through the setup yesterday and it def needs some work for first time users. My SD card was working on PC and would even show up on the top bar of the SD launcher but didn't appear in the Storage section. I had to find the format option under System which it failed to do a couple of times with no real error message. I tried different cards and all had the same issue, in the end I formatted them ll on my PC in NTFS and tried again and the Deck recognised it.

 

I went for the 256GB version thanks to a brighter screen and really is a joy to behold. Spent a few hours last night prepping ROMs for it with a nice pile of Wii games so looking forward to plodding away on some later. Mario Kart is at the top of that list for sure.  With the recent sales I've picked up a fair few cheap games but Vampire Survivors is too damn addictive, spent ages on it this morning and broke away to play something else. I picked up Huntdown which is a sort of Contra/Terminator style futuristic run n gun where you have to hunt down loads of bounty hunters, full of cheesy one liners and action cliches but all part of its charm. Damn hard though on normal but I've been blasting away this past hour and want to go back for more.

 

When I first picked it up I thought it was too hefty and way too bulky but its just desgined so well. I've not had any cramp or finger claw in all the hours and I mean hours! I've been playing. Balance and weight is perfect for me so def my handheld for the next few years. Only problem is its way too big to sneak into the office at work 🤣

 

I love this console so far, its unlike anything else I've ever used. I did dabble with the dock last night but only briefly to setup EmuDeck and need to play with it more. It's a handheld so playing the games as they were intended but I'm hoping to drop into Dwarf Fortress on the TV with a wireless mouse at some point. Few oher titles I tried were Strider and Alex Kidd which suit a handheld well, fast paced and loads of fun. Sorry, think I'm warbling but I'm just so impressed with it!

[Strafe]

4 hours ago, Lorfarius said:

I went for the 256GB version thanks to a brighter screen and really is a joy to behold.

The screens are identical across all 3 models. The 512gb model has anti reflection glass over the screen but it’s still the same LCD as the other two.

[Lorfarius]

1 hour ago, Strafe said:

The screens are identical across all 3 models. The 512gb model has anti reflection glass over the screen but it’s still the same LCD as the other two.

 

The 512GB looks a lot dimmer from all the close footage I watched side by side with the 3 models. I will never play it outside so not much benefit for me but seen loads of comments in different places about what you lose in brightness on the 512GB screen and seems you can't remove it.

[Strafe]

Ah right. I’ve seen varying results on that on videos. I’ve got a 512, the anti glare was good in the summer, my place gets quite bright inside

[Yiggy]

1 hour ago, Lorfarius said:

 

The 512GB looks a lot dimmer from all the close footage I watched side by side with the 3 models. I will never play it outside so not much benefit for me but seen loads of comments in different places about what you lose in brightness on the 512GB screen and seems you can't remove it.

I have seen people say that there is a slight real world difference but it’s swings and roundabouts as to which one is better. I’ve played both and couldn’t tell the difference but maybe you can if they’re side by side. 

[Lorfarius]

This was a good comparison vid I looked at:

 

 

The loss of storage didn't bother me as I used the extra £100 on decent 1TB card.  I don't do many massive games (storage wise) so there was plenty left for me. 

[ontwofronts]

There are plenty of steam games available cheaper at cd keys compared to the steam store. If I buy Elden ring on cd keys and enter the code, am I getting the same deck friendly version as if I’ve bought in the steam store?

[Siri]

7 minutes ago, ontwofronts said:

There are plenty of steam games available cheaper at cd keys compared to the steam store. If I buy Elden ring on cd keys and enter the code, am I getting the same deck friendly version as if I’ve bought in the steam store?

Yes.

[ontwofronts]

Jackpot!

[Lorfarius]

CDKeys will also give you points and you can use those to get discounts in future. Pretty good if you are planning on buying loads of games! I want to take the plunge on loads but believe there's rumours of a big sale coming up over Xmas/Boxing day.

[Siri]

6 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

CDKeys will also give you points and you can use those to get discounts in future. Pretty good if you are planning on buying loads of games! I want to take the plunge on loads but believe there's rumours of a big sale coming up over Xmas/Boxing day.

 

I wouldn't be surprised by a Christmas Sale over on CDKeys - pretty much all the sites compete with the Steam Winter Sale, which is always around that time.

[Lorfarius]

I switched the Deck on earlier and tried to load a game, don't think it had connected to the wireless yet and it threw up a message to say it couldn't load the save game because it couldn't connect to Steam Cloud. It was just a platformer, nothing with online play.. am I going to have problems with it uploading save files? Is there an option tucked away so it will work without internet?

[Gotters]

This channel sticks out a nice short weekly vid of top 10 verified/playable on Deck games, it's a good watch for helping to pad out your wishlist even more awaiting the next sale

 

 

[alex3d]

32 GB of Ram recommended for Returnal PC... O_O

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/11/23504346/sony-returnal-pc-ram-recommendation

[Popo]

I picked up a few cheapos from Fanatical on the weekend, think I'll give them a spin later:

 

Redout - a Wipeout inspired racer, looks very nice!

Blazing Chrome - a run 'n gun platformer with chunky-looking sprites

Darkwood - a horror-inflected survival game, looks like Don't Starve crossed with Resident Evil

 

All part of a 'Deck Verified' bundle, that includes a load of other times I already have, such as Blasphemous.  Worth a 👀

[monkeydog]

15 minutes ago, alex3d said:

32 GB of Ram recommended for Returnal PC... O_O

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/11/23504346/sony-returnal-pc-ram-recommendation

 

Min spec's still 16GB.  Bit of a wank headline really.

[Siri]

14 minutes ago, alex3d said:

32 GB of Ram recommended for Returnal PC... O_O

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/11/23504346/sony-returnal-pc-ram-recommendation

 

 

Steam Deck isn't anywhere near a 'recommended' setup, both in terms of the grunt it's got to run things and the baseline of power it requires to do it. Remember, you only need to run games at under 1080p at 40fps at minimum on a Deck to get a decent experience.

 

Also, most suggestions for PC requirements in corporate spiel are exactly that - suggestions. They tend to be fucking god-awful too and don't indicate actual performance, but you only get to learn that from years of running modern games on discontinued hardware.

[bradigor]

It's also such a small number of people who have anything close to a recommended setup that they still need to cover 'worse' hardware to get the needed sales.

[Siri]

Testing, too - it's practically impossible to scope out every PC configuration, so they'll usually recommend what's on their test benches (which, even in very small businesses, get a consistent turn-over in hardware due to IT contracting).

[PaB]

1 hour ago, alex3d said:

32 GB of Ram recommended for Returnal PC... O_O

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/11/23504346/sony-returnal-pc-ram-recommendation

I wonder how much of that is due to not having a nvme 4 SSD ( or whatever the ps5 has) as a standard on PCs, so it has to do it all from RAM from an access time point of view 

[Siri]

15 minutes ago, PaB said:

I wonder how much of that is due to not having a nvme 4 SSD ( or whatever the ps5 has) as a standard on PCs, so it has to do it all from RAM from an access time point of view 

 

Could be that, could also be down to the unified GDDR6 offering faster I/O streaming, although a portion of that will be required for VRAM like the Deck - Standard PCs have dedicated VRAM, and System RAM.

 

Of course, that's with the highest grade assets getting pushed around at 4K, too.

[alex3d]

Okay, fingers crossed. Gave up on Evil West on SD as I found its performance too lacklustre.

[AK Bell]

1 hour ago, Siri said:

Testing, too - it's practically impossible to scope out every PC configuration, so they'll usually recommend what's on their test benches (which, even in very small businesses, get a consistent turn-over in hardware due to IT contracting).

 

The minimum spec is usually quite high because they have to draw the line in what they're going to test. Not just configurations and combinations, but availability... they aren't going to go on eBay looking for a shit graphics card (that is still a stupidly high price). 

 

They're better off with a high minimum spec as a disclaimer to not go crying to them if it doesn't work. 

 

My money is on that Returnal will work, everyone will get it based on the early word of mouth, but will keep dying on you after a while. I think the slower storage will actually be more an issue and it'll run a lot longer if you can squeeze it onto a 256 or 512 model's internal storage.