Steam Deck |OT| Your Games are Going Places

TetraGenesis · Apr 23, 2022

Winnie said:
Okey i have tested the PowerTool plugin trying Super Mario Odyssey in Yuzu:

Docked at 1x resolution and GPU accuracy at normal:

CPU SMT enable (stock Steam Deck):

CPU SMT disable:

Amazing performance boost!

I'm not familiar with this plugin. It looks like it's running at an OS-level — is it an official Steam plugin?

Mivey · Apr 23, 2022

Winnie said:
Okey i have tested the PowerTool plugin trying Super Mario Odyssey in Yuzu:

Docked at 1x resolution and GPU accuracy at normal:

CPU SMT enable (stock Steam Deck):

CPU SMT disable:

Amazing performance boost!

Interesting that disabling SMT improves things, you'd generally assume it's the other way around. I guess this might just be due to how incredibly CPU heavy emulators are, having two threads scheduled to the same physical core might hurt you there quite a bit.

Ouroboros · Apr 23, 2022

Wigsy said:
In Settings somewhere you can change the default I believe.

It's also worth mentioning that if you install a game from your library, it only installs to your default install location. But if you install from the store then it gives you the option to choose where to install.

A bit odd, it'd be nice to have that option for library games too. But that's the workaround for now.

Good to know! Thanks!

SPRidley · Apr 23, 2022

SolarLune said:
Not sure about the Deck UI, but you'd go to Help > Steam Support > Games and Software, select the game, and then you can say you're having trouble with Steam Play / Proton (not sure how they word it on the Deck).

Will try this, thanks solarlune!

DemonFox · Apr 23, 2022

I got a question.
Every time I boot up the deck, steam updates every single game with like an 300mb update. Which is weird to me, because these are old games.
Anybody know what's up with that?

Winnie · Apr 23, 2022

TetraGenesis said:
I'm not familiar with this plugin. It looks like it's running at an OS-level — is it an official Steam plugin?

Not official!

It's this:

GitHub - SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader: A plugin loader for the Steam Deck.

A plugin loader for the Steam Deck. Contribute to SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

And this:

GitHub - NGnius/PowerTools: Moved to

Moved to. Contribute to NGnius/PowerTools development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Rodney McKay · Apr 23, 2022

DemonFox said:
I got a question.
Every time I boot up the deck, steam updates every single game with like an 300mb update. Which is weird to me, because these are old games.
Anybody know what's up with that?

It's some kind of pre-caching thing. Not entirely sure why it does it, but what I did to fix it was to go into the settings for the games I had installed and turn off auto-updating (changing it to updating only when starting them).

The Master Chief Collection was seemingly downloading an entire GB every day which was annoying.

Mr.Deadshot · Apr 23, 2022

can anyone confirm that The House in Fata Morgana is not working properly on Deck? Bummer if true, but protondb lists problems with saving the game.
It's currently on sale and I wanted to give it a try finally.

chrominance · Apr 23, 2022

I don't think I understand what Lutris is supposed to do. I've installed it, connected a bunch of my accounts (though Ubisoft and Origin are either flaky as shit or just not working), and tried to install an EGS game. This appears to work, sort of, but then when I try to run it in desktop mode it... opens the EGS client? Why bother showing me a library of all my EGS games in Lutris if it doesn't actually install anything and requires the original client to install stuff anyways?

I was sitting here for the longest time trying to figure out why I couldn't get the game added to Steam, when it turns out it was never installed at all. Lutris is frustrating. Probably going to chill out on trying to be SUPER LEET HACKER and just try to enjoy some Steam games for a while instead of wasting my weekend on this.

rock3tz · Apr 23, 2022

Mr.Deadshot said:
can anyone confirm that The House in Fata Morgana is not working properly on Deck? Bummer if true, but protondb lists problems with saving the game.
It's currently on sale and I wanted to give it a try finally.

Just tried it on the Steam Deck and yeah... Save/Load does not work.
Game freezes when trying to load/save.

It's a shame because the game supports steam cloud saves (my old desktop saves are available on the Steam Deck but unusabe).

Calijor · Apr 23, 2022

I've just realized that I can set the TDP limit to 3W while downloading to keep the Deck from screaming. All of my loud fan lads may want to try this out if they're annoyed by the screeching fan on their desk while downloading stuff. It didn't even noticeably slow down the download though my internet is only ~20 MB/s.

Rev408 · Apr 23, 2022

TrademarkTM said:
I ordered on Monday. Got shipping info on Wednesday and received it on Friday

Got the Shakes said:
My email arrived on a Thursday and I paid same day. Got a shipping notification and tracking from Valve the following Monday and it was delivered two days later on a Wednesday. Six days total from order to delivery, but there was a weekend in there so it was like four business days total.

Awesome, thanks! I'm just being an impatient baby it seems. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

Charpunk · Apr 23, 2022

chrominance said:
I don't think I understand what Lutris is supposed to do. I've installed it, connected a bunch of my accounts (though Ubisoft and Origin are either flaky as shit or just not working), and tried to install an EGS game. This appears to work, sort of, but then when I try to run it in desktop mode it... opens the EGS client? Why bother showing me a library of all my EGS games in Lutris if it doesn't actually install anything and requires the original client to install stuff anyways?

I was sitting here for the longest time trying to figure out why I couldn't get the game added to Steam, when it turns out it was never installed at all. Lutris is frustrating. Probably going to chill out on trying to be SUPER LEET HACKER and just try to enjoy some Steam games for a while instead of wasting my weekend on this.

It was intended to be the all in one place to launch all of your games from in Linux. You still need the launchers since it can't just download games from the various services. The biggest highlight for me is the community installers so installing things like guild wars 2 and ffxiv become super easy.

chrominance · Apr 23, 2022

Tried Ys VIII, and even though it's listed as Verified I was shocked at just how well it worked out of the box with absolutely no tweaking. It wasn't quite a rock-solid 30fps but it looked very good. Then I realized I'd left the framerate limiter on 30, and it turns out it CAN do a rock-solid 60! So I think the game just doesn't work perfectly with the limiter built into SteamOS; I only thought to check when the opening movie that plays after the Prologue was weirdly stuttery. It doesn't play properly in 30fps but works fine in 60fps.

At 30fps the expected battery life was somewhere in the 4-5 hour range, which seems really good to me.

Charpunk said:
It was intended to be the all in one place to launch all of your games from in Linux. You still need the launchers since it can't just download games from the various services. The biggest highlight for me is the community installers so installing things like guild wars 2 and ffxiv become super easy.

So if I install something in (say) EGS, will the game-specific entry in Lutris update to point to the game I installed, or is that entry basically pointless and I'll need to dig through the filesystem in Steam manually to add the game?

Cassius Bright · Apr 23, 2022

chrominance said:
I don't think I understand what Lutris is supposed to do. I've installed it, connected a bunch of my accounts (though Ubisoft and Origin are either flaky as shit or just not working), and tried to install an EGS game. This appears to work, sort of, but then when I try to run it in desktop mode it... opens the EGS client? Why bother showing me a library of all my EGS games in Lutris if it doesn't actually install anything and requires the original client to install stuff anyways?

I was sitting here for the longest time trying to figure out why I couldn't get the game added to Steam, when it turns out it was never installed at all. Lutris is frustrating. Probably going to chill out on trying to be SUPER LEET HACKER and just try to enjoy some Steam games for a while instead of wasting my weekend on this.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. What is the point of Lutris when you have to install and launch games from the EGS client anyway? I was thinking it was just not possible to launch and run games without EGS...yet Heroic Games Launcher does that just fine.

I've uninstalled Lutris now. Hoping I've got rid of most of it's dependencies too.

OtakuCoder · Apr 23, 2022

Is it possible to set custom wallpapers when in Steam Mode, or just for the Linux desktop?

MisterAnderson · Apr 23, 2022

Winnie said:
Okey i have tested the PowerTool plugin trying Super Mario Odyssey in Yuzu:

Docked at 1x resolution and GPU accuracy at normal:

CPU SMT enable (stock Steam Deck):

CPU SMT disable:

Amazing performance boost!

Is there any word of Valve intending to release an official version of this power management tool/CPU boost thing? I kind of want to download it but I definitely prefer official tweaking tools with stuff like this, and I'd rather hold off if there's any hope of Valve just implementing something like this in the future.

BringBackSonics · Apr 23, 2022

Does anyone know how to bring up the steam keyboard in game? I'm trying to get to console commands

MisterAnderson · Apr 23, 2022

BringBackSonics said:
Does anyone know how to bring up the steam keyboard in game? I'm trying to get to console commands

I think it's Steam button + X if I remember correctly?

BringBackSonics · Apr 23, 2022

MisterAnderson said:
I think it's Steam button + X if I remember correctly?

Let me
Try that!

Edit: that was it! Thank you!

BringBackSonics · Apr 23, 2022

Ugh. Not sure how to use /~ as a console command to bring the console in the windows. I have seen some others mention that they mapped the function to a different key?

Calijor · Apr 23, 2022

BringBackSonics said:
Ugh. Not sure how to use /~ as a console command to bring the console in the windows. I have seen some others mention that they mapped the function to a different key?

If you press the steam button to modify the controller layout you can map that key to a back button or something if you want. Lmk if you need a more specific walkthrough.

MoogleMaestro · Apr 23, 2022

chrominance said:
I don't think I understand what Lutris is supposed to do. I've installed it, connected a bunch of my accounts (though Ubisoft and Origin are either flaky as shit or just not working), and tried to install an EGS game. This appears to work, sort of, but then when I try to run it in desktop mode it... opens the EGS client? Why bother showing me a library of all my EGS games in Lutris if it doesn't actually install anything and requires the original client to install stuff anyways?

I was sitting here for the longest time trying to figure out why I couldn't get the game added to Steam, when it turns out it was never installed at all. Lutris is frustrating. Probably going to chill out on trying to be SUPER LEET HACKER and just try to enjoy some Steam games for a while instead of wasting my weekend on this.

Charpunk said:
It was intended to be the all in one place to launch all of your games from in Linux. You still need the launchers since it can't just download games from the various services. The biggest highlight for me is the community installers so installing things like guild wars 2 and ffxiv become super easy.

Lutris is not used to "install" games or always act as a launcher. What it does is creates a compatibility environment for the game to run in that makes the game think you're running on a Windows system. This includes faking a windows file structure (think C drive), installing native dlls (libraries), providing needed dependencies, and managing other necessary tweaks for the game to run properly on a non-windows system.

Some windows games require specific tweaks to get running properly on a Linux system and Lutris makes setting that up super easy. If you really want to know why Lutris is necessary, you should look into how people used to do this way-back-when where they needed to know how to use the wine CLI and manually install fixes as needed until the program would work. Basically, lutris lets people share their work when it comes to figuring out how to configure the Wine compatibility layer for each game.

SolarLune · Apr 24, 2022

SPRidley said:
Will try this, thanks solarlune!

No problem - sorry that the language changing wasn't working properly. Hopefully Valve will double-check it, though it's understandable that some things fall through the cracks with a verification system.

chrominance · Apr 24, 2022

MoogleMaestro said:
Lutris is not used to "install" games or always act as a launcher. What it does is creates a compatibility environment for the game to run in that makes the game think you're running on a Windows system. This includes faking a windows file structure (think C drive), installing native dlls (libraries), providing needed dependencies, and managing other necessary tweaks for the game to run properly on a non-windows system.

Some windows games require specific tweaks to get running properly on a Linux system and Lutris makes setting that up super easy. If you really want to know why Lutris is necessary, you should look into how people used to do this way-back-when where they needed to know how to use the wine CLI and manually install fixes as needed until the program would work. Basically, lutris lets people share their work when it comes to figuring out how to configure the Wine compatibility layer for each game.

I guess the part that confuses me, then, is doesn't Proton basically replace all this? And also I guess I'm not sure how it's supposed to set up the proper compatibility settings and whatnot if it can't even install the game in the first place. I asked this already but does Lutris automatically detect the game install after I go through the EGS client to install it? Because if not, I have no idea how any of this is supposed to work.

EDIT: Okay, I managed to get as far as installing a game, and hitting Play inside Lutris now loads the game itself (after loading the EGS launcher, which is a little inelegant but more than acceptable). But adding a Steam launcher shortcut doesn't actually run the game; it opens the main Lutris interface instead, and I don't seem to have mouse input so I can't actually do anything. Oh well.

Casper · Apr 24, 2022

Casper said:
I sure wish I knew what I was doing wrong/did wrong with Heroic Launcher/HeroicBashLauncher. I've done everything correctly as far as I can tell, flatseal access, Legendary, AddtoSteam.sh, etc.

The .sh files launch the games fine from the folder. Launching the game from within Heroic itself works fine.

What doesn't work is 1) launching the games directly from the files the BashLauncher added within Steam 2) launching Heroic within Steam and launching them via THAT Heroic or 3) either of the above in SteamOS... really wish I knew what was going on. Seems like it is probably a minor thing I missed. Steam launches Heroic fine but from there cant launch a game. Says running for a few seconds then stops and Play button is green again.

Casper said:
I took a look at the few games I have installed and I dont see any spaces anywhere unfortunately. I'd hoped that was it.

Replying to myself in hopes anyone else that has my dumb issue will see it if they need to. So my entire issue of not being able to run Heroic Games via SteamOS (or via Heroic Launcher via Steam in Desktop)... was because I had a greek character in my EGS Display Name. Totally ok in EGS. Not ok in Steam.

Changed my display name in EGS Account, all four games (Daemon X Machina, Unexplored 2, Eastward and Absolute Drift) that I have installed now launch via SteamOS just fine (some needed Proton compatibility forced). I am so relieved, I have been trying fixes for this for weeks now off and on...

nmkd · Apr 24, 2022

Winnie said:
Okey i have tested the PowerTool plugin trying Super Mario Odyssey in Yuzu:

Docked at 1x resolution and GPU accuracy at normal:

CPU SMT enable (stock Steam Deck):

CPU SMT disable:

Amazing performance boost!

Why docked? The Deck isn't 1080p anyway

Sirhc · Apr 24, 2022

nmkd said:
Why docked? The Deck isn't 1080p anyway

Docked mode switch games sometimes have better graphics options enabled, and not all docked games run 1080p, even for ones that do you should get a nice little image quality buff from a little super sampling.

TetraGenesis · Apr 24, 2022

Winnie said:
Not official!

It's this:

GitHub - SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader: A plugin loader for the Steam Deck.

A plugin loader for the Steam Deck. Contribute to SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

And this:

GitHub - NGnius/PowerTools: Moved to

Moved to. Contribute to NGnius/PowerTools development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Thank you for this! For some reason though it won't let me add anything to the plugins folder… i'm just trying to copy over the unzipped PowerTools-0.1.1 folder but I get "Could not make folder home/deck/home brew/plugins/PowerTools-0.1.1". I even modified the permissions for the plugins folder but it still won't let me. Linux is so baffling sometimes

EDIT: okay I was able to get it working by making a new "plugins" folder and deleting the old one, but this is what Power Tools looks like for me hahahaha

wtf man lol. Why does it all have to be so hard

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

Winnie said:
Okey i have tested the PowerTool plugin trying Super Mario Odyssey in Yuzu:

Docked at 1x resolution and GPU accuracy at normal:

CPU SMT enable (stock Steam Deck):

CPU SMT disable:

Amazing performance boost!

Woah! I have to test this.

Does disable CPU SMT does what I think it does, which is putting all the seperate core power into 1 basically? And does it the same when I just go down the numbers? Cause that would be the solution to maybe play Witcher 1. That's the most one core focused game I've played yet. 1 core always at 100%, all the others close to nothing, game goes down from 60 to like 10fps depending on what happens on the screen, it fluctuates so badly, this could maybe help.

What exactly is the CPU boost doing here?

TyrantGuardian · Apr 24, 2022

TetraGenesis said:
Thank you for this! For some reason though it won't let me add anything to the plugins folder… i'm just trying to copy over the unzipped PowerTools-0.1.1 folder but I get "Could not make folder home/deck/home brew/plugins/PowerTools-0.1.1". I even modified the permissions for the plugins folder but it still won't let me. Linux is so baffling sometimes

EDIT: okay I was able to get it working by making a new "plugins" folder and deleting the old one, but this is what Power Tools looks like for me hahahaha

wtf man lol. Why does it all have to be so hard

You can't use white space in file paths.

AOL Power User · Apr 24, 2022

My Steam Deck comes this week!

Question - can you combine a native control scheme with a custom one? For example, if I want to keep the controls of a game as is, but bind an empty button to a keystroke like F3, can I do that?

Mr.Deadshot · Apr 24, 2022

rock3tz said:
Just tried it on the Steam Deck and yeah... Save/Load does not work.
Game freezes when trying to load/save.

It's a shame because the game supports steam cloud saves (my old desktop saves are available on the Steam Deck but unusabe).

Hi, thanks for trying. I've found a solution in the Steam board that works. Switch to desktop mode and start the game there. Loading and saving works after doing so. I've tried it several times now and there is no problem anymore.

I also got Cosmic Star Heroine to work. Just set it to forced Proton 7 in compatibility mode. It will then download the game (1,49 GB) and it can be started and played.

TetraGenesis · Apr 24, 2022

TyrantGuardian said:
You can't use white space in file paths.

Sorry, I'm completely uninformed, can you elaborate? (If you're referring to the space I had in "home brew" that was actually just autocorrect.)

Alvis · Apr 24, 2022

AOL Power User said:
My Steam Deck comes this week!

Question - can you combine a native control scheme with a custom one? For example, if I want to keep the controls of a game as is, but bind an empty button to a keystroke like F3, can I do that?

yes

Just edit the default scheme and add that

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

Same problem. "Simply copy the plugin's folder into ...." Just doesn't work for me. 🤷‍♂️
Incomplete instructions?

TetraGenesis · Apr 24, 2022

AOL Power User said:
My Steam Deck comes this week!

Question - can you combine a native control scheme with a custom one? For example, if I want to keep the controls of a game as is, but bind an empty button to a keystroke like F3, can I do that?

Yes, easily, and much much more. You can (in like 5 seconds, even mid-game) make any open button (i.e. the rear ones or the touchpads) correspond with an input from controller, keyboard, mouse, or a system function, etc. And, since Steam Input is so flexible, you could bind macros and selection wheels and action set modifiers and all sorts of extra stuff.

I'm honestly so fucking psyched about the Sims 4 profile I spent 5 hours perfecting, but sometimes all you need is to plop F3 on a back button.

TetraGenesis · Apr 24, 2022

Sangral said:
Same problem. "Simply copy the plugin's folder into ...." Just doesn't work for me. 🤷‍♂️
Incomplete instructions?

"Incomplete instructions" seems to be par for the course for a lot of the tutorials and ReadMes I've come across for Steam Deck stuff…

While mine is broken in another way, how I got the plugins folder to work was to go to the folder's properties, select Can Be Viewed or Modified (I think) then immediately change the folder name (otherwise it won't let you delete it). Then I made a new "plugins" folder and trashed the old one.

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

Got it! TetraGenesis

The plugin folder simply doesn't have permission to write on, right click, properties and then change to this.

After that simply copy the unzipped powertools-main folder into that and you're done.

TetraGenesis · Apr 24, 2022

Sangral said:
Got it! TetraGenesis

The plugin folder simply doesn't have permission to write on, right click, properties and then change to this.

After that simply copy the unzipped powertools-main folder into that and you're done.

ahhhhhh so I solved the first issue (as mentioned in my near simultaneous post with yours hahaha) BUT My dumbass doesn't know how to use GitHub and I was injecting the source code download "PowerTools-0.1.1" rather than the actual plugin ("PowerTools-main"). Which I only realized since the file name in your earlier image was different. So thanks!

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

It really does raise the FPS in certain games like Witcher 1 and 2 if you deactivate CPU SMT, highly impressive.

Now with such an open tool as plugins, toggleable via the right menu like official settings, I'm wondering why we don't have the 40hz/40fps setting already as plugin, this seems perfect for it.

Edit:

And damn, the CPU boost also put some work in. One big area in Brutal Legend goes from stuttery 50-55fps to near locked 60 with just toggling the boost option, oh man, this will help in so many games which are just a finger tip away from a stable performance.

nmkd · Apr 24, 2022

TetraGenesis said:
ahhhhhh so I solved the first issue (as mentioned in my near simultaneous post with yours hahaha) BUT My dumbass doesn't know how to use GitHub and I was injecting the source code download "PowerTools-0.1.1" rather than the actual plugin ("PowerTools-main"). Which I only realized since the file name in your earlier image was different. So thanks!

No, you did the right thing, it's just that the releases were not yet updated with that improved UI.
The instructions are pretty unclear here.

TyrantGuardian · Apr 24, 2022

TetraGenesis said:
Sorry, I'm completely uninformed, can you elaborate? (If you're referring to the space I had in "home brew" that was actually just autocorrect.)

Ah, nevermind :)

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

So, here is a little CPU boost test. (No sound)

I'm not imagining things here right, that does boost the FPS a lot.

1-D_FE · Apr 24, 2022

Sangral said:
So, here is a little CPU boost test. (No sound)

I'm not imagining things here right, that does boost the FPS a lot.

What's there to imagine, though?

You've turned off boost. You've gone from topping out at 3.5Ghz to topping out at 2.8Ghz instead.

The only thing interesting in that video is seeing how much more power the CPU is drawing with boost working to 3.5Ghz. With such a large increase, I doubt we'd ever be able to boost beyond 3.5Ghz because it does seem like it's already being pushed hard as is.

SMT would have been interesting. IE: wonder if you could have hit a constant 60fps with boost off and SMT off. Locked 60fps and lower power draw.

BeI · Apr 24, 2022

I've noticed that manually locking gpu clock speeds tends to break sometimes and won't start working again until you toggle the setting off and on again. Might be sleep mode or changing games that does it.

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

1-D_FE said:
What's there to imagine, though?

You've turned off boost. You've gone from topping out at 3.5Ghz to topping out at 2.8Ghz instead.

The only thing interesting in that video is seeing how much more power the CPU is drawing with boost working to 3.5Ghz. With such a large increase, I doubt we'd ever be able to boost beyond 3.5Ghz because it does seem like it's already being pushed hard as is.

SMT would have been interesting. IE: wonder if you could have hit a constant 60fps with boost off and SMT off. Locked 60fps and lower power draw.

The point about this video is, before installing the plugin, the game always ran like it's running with CPU boost off in my video, so without this boost and plugin I guess the CPU is normally topping out at 2.8Ghz?
Then seeing how it runs with the 3.5Ghz is what I'm showing here.

Tested what you suggested now and SMT off and Boost off does run pretty great, basically identical and almost stable 60 in this particular area at least.

You can't see the drawing statistics tho when having SMT off, only the FPS counter, if you open the other settings the overlay crashes and you have to restart the Deck for them to reappear.

Ales34 · Apr 24, 2022

The steam deck is really impressive for a handheld. I'm running Skyrim SE with SKSE and nearly 100 mods, many of them graphics/animation mods and script-heavy quests, and the game is running at locked 60fps. I'm so impressed.

Joqu · Apr 24, 2022

chrominance said:
I guess the part that confuses me, then, is doesn't Proton basically replace all this? And also I guess I'm not sure how it's supposed to set up the proper compatibility settings and whatnot if it can't even install the game in the first place. I asked this already but does Lutris automatically detect the game install after I go through the EGS client to install it? Because if not, I have no idea how any of this is supposed to work.

EDIT: Okay, I managed to get as far as installing a game, and hitting Play inside Lutris now loads the game itself (after loading the EGS launcher, which is a little inelegant but more than acceptable). But adding a Steam launcher shortcut doesn't actually run the game; it opens the main Lutris interface instead, and I don't seem to have mouse input so I can't actually do anything. Oh well.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Does any of this help? Because Lutris is definitely supposed to be able to do what you're describing. It might still be a tad buggy though

I haven't been able to play around with it yet myself

Sangral · Apr 24, 2022

Here is something else. Choosing CPU SMT off gives you a constant around ~10fps boost in Valheim.

Steam Deck |OT| Your Games are Going Places

Sky Van Gogh

Sky Van Gogh

One Winged Slayer

Sky Van Gogh

Hasn't made a thread yet. Shame me.

alt account

Saw the truth behind the copied door