In my dreams Valve makes a stationary Steam Machine for my living room. I would buy one the second it releases, it's amazing what Valve has don't to PC gaming for me with the Deck
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I wonder how much the removal of the screen and controller interface could cut from the costs. A refurb 64gb Deck is already quite good value for the power profile. Such a device would be a fantastic entry level PC in a market that's otherwise expensive unless you're pretty savvy about choosing components.
On one hand I feel like the Deck fulfills both purposes, same as the Switch. Just the cut-off of games a perm. docked Deck can run at 1080p/4k w/ upsampling probably isn't as current as one prefers.
But a Deck 2 would bring that much more current, and certainly bring higher resolution gaming, and so forth. Maybe not to the level of the PS5, but a lot closer than we have with the Deck now.
Still, what you're saying is pretty much business 101 IMO. I cannot fathom a Steam console that connects to your TV and is on par/better with the PS5, and provides roughly the same experience as the Deck (well it would be the same OS, etc etc) where most stuff runs great, but you can drop to the desktop to tweak if needed, etc.
Something like that IMO would be exponentially more popular than the Deck. And Valve really would only need to release a new version each console gen so their games continue to run as expected.
What's going to really sour people though is if they release it in a SFF and solder/prevent people from swapping out video cards and CPUs and ram and so forth, like a console. I'm sure many would prefer that, to a Frankenstein device where you're encouraged to buy it and then start adding/switching all the internals to make it better.
IMO the Deck simply cannot provide a good 4k docked experience for current gen demanding games. The AMD upsampling methods to a 70+ inch TV at 4k are really poor. Like I said if you restrain yourself to the PS360 gen you can at least run everything at 1080p60 or even 1080p90+, but once you have to drop under 1080p the Deck is terrible on big screens. And hardly anything will run 4k - even from that gen I don't see stuff running at 4k60 on the Deck 1.
This is where the Switch 2 with DLSS will run circles around the AMD hardware in the Deck 1.
Just to throw out a quick comparison, my very dated laptop can run games at 4k60 fine, most times even better - like with max options and ray tracing on Pinball Arcade it'll do 144fps at 4k, and the Deck - even with ray tracing off and at 800p the deck barely can hold 60. Turn the res up to 4k or ray tracing on and it'll drop to a 1-2 fps, very literally a slideshow.
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The current docked experience of the Deck is indeed kinda miserable, but imo mostly because it's so buggy (which makes me all the more frustrated they sell an official dock for such a poor experience). I play it on a simple 1080p/180 monitor that I also play my Switch on, and in terms of image quality it's fine for that most of the time. I haven't hooked it up to my TV because it's not really a gaming screen (read: slow).
Is it a laptop with a discrete GPU? I haven't been keeping up with contemporary laptops with integrated graphics, but I would think anything that can do what you're describing is more expensive than the OLED Deck.
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I don't really have any interest in docking the Deck since getting the OLED. The screen is so good, and I'd rather watch TV on the TV while playing on the Deck.
My dock is basically a charging stand now.
My dock is basically a charging stand now.
Right, part of the problem is something to do with the hardware itself. I know some people don't have issues, but you'd have to feign ignorance to claim the Deck provides as seamless a docked/handheld experience as the Switch.
It simply does not work like it should. Maybe it's all just software, but I kinda doubt it. I think it's something hopefully that will work better in the next version.
But I could not imagine playing stuff that's demanding like BG3 - which would run at ~25-50fps at below 800p, with some weird sort of FSR2 or FSR3 performance upscaling to a 70" 4k screen - it looks barely passable on an 8" screen, the result on a 4k TV would be like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or what have you, where you're running a sub 480p image up to 4k and the pixels are the size of golf balls (though I guess that's a bad example to call out, because that was the non-docked experience, the Switch docked boosts itself and runs it better quality, but still not great).
It's the curse of PC gaming, I think. The Switch is able to handle docked better because every single Switch game is designed explicitly to run in both modes. Some games handle it better than others, of course, but the Deck doesn't have that luxury due to how absurdly much PC game specs can vary from title to title.
It just means that from my perspective I just have to be careful about which games I choose to run docked, but I also primarily use my Deck for indie games and classic-style RPGs so I rarely run into issues most of the time.
I would want a much more capable stationary device, and considering the performance I get with the Deck that should be possible. I would except at least PS5 levels of performance which would be fantastic for games that profit from a larger screen. Like strategy games for example.
Nah. A Deck without the screen wouldn't be enough for me personally.
I just bought a cheap Ugreen Dock if I need to fiddle around in desktop mode or play something with mouse and keyboard. My weird 5k2k Ultrawide is way too much for my Deck anyway.
It'll be interesting see just what the Deck 2 SoC looks like. If it comes out late 2025, maybe 6 Zen4 or Zen5 cores+12 RDNA4 CUs on N4P or N4C? LPDDR5X RAM, 24GB?
Whatever it releases with, I just really hope it isn't weaker than the Switch 2 outputting to a Monitor/TV.
I'll be pretty conflicted with my purchasing preferences if games suddenly start playing better on the Switch 2 after I've now mostly moved on from buying on the eShop and back to Steam again for the Deck.
If the Switch 2 with DLSS is able to provide a higher framerate and better looking docked experience than the Deck 2 is able to with FSR, well, I'll probably just migrate back towards the eShop again haha. Damn, I hope not.
Honestly I think this is probably exactly what will happen in docked mode simply due to DLSS. To beat that, the Deck 2 would need AMD to come through with ML hardware powering a spectacular FSR4, and the fact that Sony is going with custom ML in the PS5 Pro points away from that.
I think the Deck 2's advantages over the Switch 2 will mainly be in the advantages of the PC space in general - greater settings options, much larger game library, etc. Plus comfort, like the current device. On the same process node, ARM Ampere will pretty much beat x86 Zen4+RDNA4. Only big advantage I could see the Deck 2 getting would be shared 3D V-Cache, which I don't think has been done before, and I don't know how much it would help.
Random Q about the OLED
How does 30 fps content look on it? Know that perceived smoothness for low framerate content is often a problem with OLED TVs. Imagine the smaller screen size here compensates somewhat but that the faster switching will still make it feel less smooth than 30 fps on the LCD model regardless.
Not really looking to upgrade, but just wondering if this will be a potential issue for a successor if they skip straight to OLED panels. Maybe they have some integrated smoothing or whatnot help compensate.
How does 30 fps content look on it? Know that perceived smoothness for low framerate content is often a problem with OLED TVs. Imagine the smaller screen size here compensates somewhat but that the faster switching will still make it feel less smooth than 30 fps on the LCD model regardless.
Not really looking to upgrade, but just wondering if this will be a potential issue for a successor if they skip straight to OLED panels. Maybe they have some integrated smoothing or whatnot help compensate.
Is it only me but does every controller except for PS4 so finicky with the deck?
My switch pro will randomly disconnect. The joy cons will unpair it won't sync as one... The PS4 is the only one that just works. It's weird.
My switch pro will randomly disconnect. The joy cons will unpair it won't sync as one... The PS4 is the only one that just works. It's weird.
Its better than fine in stable games, but not game changing.
I believe the trick here is that Deck Oled uses 90hz to refresh 3 times the same frame. It performs better than a 30fps game on my LG OLED CX at 60hz.
I tried that with Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade (at 1080p high textures and low settings and modded dynamic scaling off) and it looked more fluid than on PS5 on 4k quality mode.
I don't think valve will release a new deck without at substantial performance update as they've stated before. At that point I expect it will be able to keep up with the switch 2 just by raw performance alone. The switch 2 is rumored to have around the performance of a current deck, but will obviously be able to scale better due to dlss.
Awesome. I already have my custom installations of Voxel Doom 1 and 2 set up, but nice for those who don't. Very cool these folks are paying specific attention to Deck with updates too.
Glad to hear I had to resort to the windows version too to get native controller support.
Considering grabbing a steam deck oled sometime later this year, is there a consensus on the etched screen vs the regular one? Also would like to make use of my pc to stream games to the deck, is there much latency to deal with there or is it pretty smooth overall?
I went with the non etched OLED. I think the best option is the 512GB non etched, a 1TB SD card, then put an anti glare screen protector on if you want less glare. As for streaming, it's great! No latency, or if there is, it's not noticeable.
Places like DF seem to expect it to match the Steam Deck because of DLSS. I think people expecting it to be better than Deck are in for disappointment. The priorities for Nintendo are getting build costs as low as possible and having it have a low enough TDP for battery life. Power/Cost/Battery life. As usual, pick two. It's a pretty safe bet which two Nintendo will pick.
Nintendo games will look amazing. But I wouldn't expect third party stuff to run any better than Steam Deck.
How's Starfield running these days for folks? Have the recent updates made it respectable enough? Honestly if I can be locked 30fps for 99% of the time I'll be happy, but I'm reading mixed reports out there.
This would be the nail in the coffin for consoles (save Nintendo) for me. I'm getting too fucking old for PC gaming bullshit (and cost) but the deck has been so transformative in making a console-like experience with the ability to tinker just enough if I'm really in the mood for a specific game (like FF9 to get moguri working).
Don't you think if the Deck Console were released there would be like an unprecedented demand that it be basically a shell you can swap parts in and out of, like a normal PC?
I'd expect regular PC users who build their own PCs would laugh that thing silly if you can't upgrade the GPU to like a 5090 and add in another 32GB of ram, swap in the fans, and switch the PSU and so forth. Certainly, put in an 18TB HDD or upgrade to an 8TB SSD etc.
That's why I said it's almost crazy to imagine Valve releasing a desktop Deck/console that competes in the PC space that you can't modify.
I think the general idea is that this wouldn't target regular PC users, it would target the other people who don't often do PC gaming precisely because they're not interested in everything you just listed.
Yeah, I'd presume the interest in a standalone Deck would be primarily in bringing PC games to a standalone, big-screen console experience. If it doesn't need to be light(-ish) or have a specific form factor, doesn't need to have a battery, and doesn't need a screen, then Valve could more easily design it so that its components could be swappable. However, considering that their original vision for the Deck was for other PC manufacturers to make their own versions, I think setting the standard of off-the-shelf hot-swappable components would probably considerably hinder that possibility.
I want to play Eiyuden Chronicle on the deck through game pass rather than on the TV so I think it's finally time to try and install windows, I've played a few games through streaming before and it works but the quality does drop quite regularly
Edit - actually reading through the instructions to do it as dual boot on the SSD, fook that, I'll just play it through streaming
Edit - actually reading through the instructions to do it as dual boot on the SSD, fook that, I'll just play it through streaming
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I use Luxtorpeda for my Doom stuff - launch into Doomrunner and from there into the port of my choice (currently Nugget Doom). Nice to see there's slightly quicker ways at least to get stuff running via discover. I wonder if that version ships with sensible visual settings or if it's the horrid defaults.
View: https://i.imgur.com/NJxOt9h.png
Nugget is nice and customisable software rendering (I turn down the internal resolution for nice chunky pixels) with QoL improvements and lovely custom HUDs which let me keep a WADs character while not having the status bar fill so much of the screen in widescreen. Took the above when running it via steam deck on my external display.
View: https://i.imgur.com/NJxOt9h.png
Nugget is nice and customisable software rendering (I turn down the internal resolution for nice chunky pixels) with QoL improvements and lovely custom HUDs which let me keep a WADs character while not having the status bar fill so much of the screen in widescreen. Took the above when running it via steam deck on my external display.
I think Valve has probably learned the right lessons from the Steam Deck: vertical integration and tight control are everything. If they're going to make a static living room "console" then I'm willing to be they're going to do it by themselves rather than setting a standard for other OEMs to meet.
Yeah I didn't realise this is what I wanted until getting the Deck, but its completely changed me. The Deck has just the right level of letting me fuck with it while also having a console-like experience up front. A more powerful version in a box under the TV would be an instabuy for me, too.
There's already several linux distros that let you run Steam game mode on basically any PC with a modern AMD card. (Bazzite, ChimeraOS, etc.) So tweakers can already effectively run SteamOS on their custom box. Anything official by Steam would be fine being more locked-down to reach the kind of people not already served by existing options.
I'd only be interested in an official SKU, when I'm problem solving I want others to have an identical setup, lots of others.
this, the Deck works so well because it's a single device with a dedicated fanbase and ongoing support by Valve. It's almost like a console, with the difference that there is the full thing waiting for you behind the scenes (if you need it).
I don't want to mess around with Windows and shit in my living room, I want a more powerful Steam Deck like device below my TV, that's good enough for playing games at 4K60, that would be the dream.
What's the optimal way to run TW3 on Deck? Should I use the next-gen version renderer or run it the old way?
I wish "trackpad dampening" was a thing. Trigger dampening can lower trackpad speed when you pull the trigger; It'd be nice to have something similar that slows the movement as you apply pressure to click the trackpad. Or even like a "click mode" where it slows long enough to let you click something before going back to normal speed.
I play quite a few games, like Yugioh, where mouse region works amazingly with left click on trackpad press, but any slight movement makes clicks not work how you expected. And similarly for RTS games, slight mouse movement can cause you to do a completely different action like selecting an area, rather than clicking on a unit. It's just a slight annoyance that could use a software option to easily fix.
I play quite a few games, like Yugioh, where mouse region works amazingly with left click on trackpad press, but any slight movement makes clicks not work how you expected. And similarly for RTS games, slight mouse movement can cause you to do a completely different action like selecting an area, rather than clicking on a unit. It's just a slight annoyance that could use a software option to easily fix.
I'd like to know this as well, because I'd fancy a replay since my last one in... 2015!
By the way, anyone here tried the W3EE Redux mod? Seems like a great way to replay the game.
I've noticed my speed wasn't great too, with it only getting 1-5 MB/s when downloading.
I enabled Developer Mode (Steam button -> Settings -> System -> Enable Developer Mode), and then disabled Enable Wifi Power Management (Steam button -> Settings -> Developer -> Enable Wifi Power Management set to disabled). Since doing that I'm getting ~35 MB/s. Still not super fast, considering that is when its supposedly downloading the content via my PC rather than from the Internet, but it's a lot better than it was.
If you're transferring from your PC, I feel like you're better off using WinSCP. I'm still not convinced Steam isn't doing encryption/decryption when doing transfers. At least that would explain the slow speeds.
Oh ok so the etched oled is more for anti glare, probably not necessary since I plan to mostly use it in doors.
If you are mostly playing indoors, I recommend getting the 512GB. Best of both worlds with a 1TB SD Card, then you have storage for days.
I still think it's going to fracture into hundreds of versions right away.
Oh, your new Steam Console runs Cyberpunk at 4k w/ ray tracing at 60 fps? But you want DLSS frame generation and 120fps+ for your fancy 32" 240hz OLED VRR monitor? You just need to swap out the GPU and get this one instead (but there's of course 6 different manufactures of each GPU and hundreds of GPUs).
But I get there'll at least be a base model that everyone has, it's just within day, no within an hour, there's going to be hundreds of posts about how to get better components in the device for faster performance.
that's true, of course. If it's expandable it will be great fun lol.
I wouldn't mind a closed down system that's easily repairable, if that would keep the costs down. Just like the Deck, but with more power. :)
You're assuming they'll sell this as a normal PC with like an ATX motherboard? Valve doesn't want to be Asus or Lenovo.
IF they did this, and that's a big IF, I think it will be a tiny box with an APU and sold for dirt cheap. It would be as upgradeable as the current Deck is.
This is also why I don't think they'll do it. Not now anyway. There isn't an APU available right now that's powerful enough to justify the effort of selling and supporting a second device.
I find the read speed on the SD card to be too slow for some games though. I might have gone 1tb if I'd known it was so slow.
I'm not sure? I use my SD card for my emulation side of the house. I replaced the 512GB storage with 2TB.
Yeah, the SD card is perfect for emulation stuff. Wasn't good enough for a satisfactory Skyrim experience though and that's quite old. Just something worth considering if you're deciding between 512 And 1tb
So I'd always understood that Manhunt (Rockstar, 2003) was a hopeless fucking mess on Steam - and I think I'd tried it previously and confirmed the same - but I recently took the plunge to try to get it working, and... succeeded.
It really just needs Manhunt Fixer which can be run as an .exe by adding it to Steam and selecting a proton version, then selecting your installation path. After that, you just need to tell Steam to use the DLL files using the launch command:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8,ddraw=n,b" %command%
Currently running at 60fps, native resolution, using a community controller profile. Apparently, crashes can be an issue but I haven't come across any. Just figured I'd pass it along.
It really just needs Manhunt Fixer which can be run as an .exe by adding it to Steam and selecting a proton version, then selecting your installation path. After that, you just need to tell Steam to use the DLL files using the launch command:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8,ddraw=n,b" %command%
Currently running at 60fps, native resolution, using a community controller profile. Apparently, crashes can be an issue but I haven't come across any. Just figured I'd pass it along.
Holy crap. Nos is even easier than ever to play your GOG/Epic games on the Deck:
steamdeckhq.com
There is a login issue that can be resolved in Desktop mode, but now I can install my games directly from Game mode and have them on my library
How to Integrate Epic Games Into Steam Deck Library With Junk-Store Plugin - Steam Deck HQ
Did you know that you can put access your Epic Games library on your Steam Deck in a similar way to your regular library? Here is how you can do it!
steamdeckhq.com
There is a login issue that can be resolved in Desktop mode, but now I can install my games directly from Game mode and have them on my library