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Valve Steam Deck

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Re: Valve Steam Deck

#601

Post by trixie_ »

Ashanmaril wrote: post #478
caconym_ wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about Valve's record with hardware is that the products aren't bad , just extremely niche. If this thing really can play most of most people's Steam games in a Switch-like form factor with a standard gamepad layout, I think it stands to be a hit in a way their past hardware attempts weren't. It's also an interesting counterpoint to all the streaming services popping up these days. PC game streaming to mobil…

I'd argue the Steam controller was kinda bad. But more in concept than execution. The touch pads were just not a good replacement for a thumbstick or a D-pad But I agree with what you're saying. If this thing is actually good, it could have some real mainstream appeal.

Touch pads a better than a joystick by far. You don't need to snap back the stick to stop moving. Where ever your thumb stops is where your aim is at. A fast flick of a touch pad can 180 which takes a lot longer on a joystick. Plus gyro support it's almost as good as a mouse.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#602

Post by friedman23 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #289
chx wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the other hand, it could end up all but killing off PC gaming if it is super successful. Why? I thought PC gaming is about powerful graphics cards you can't have pretty much anywhere else.

There's a relatively niche segment of the PC gaming population that really wants to push the envelope in graphics. I think most PC gamers like gaming on their PC because it is a very open platform that allows them to play games they bought the 90s, all sorts of mods, games from random nobodies on the internet, the latest games, and also emulate a wide variety of game systems and computers.

>I think most PC gamers like gaming on their PC because it is a very open platform that allows them to play games they bought the 90s

This is just not true. Most pc gamers are playing free to play competitive multiplayer games. Think league of legends, fortnite, call of duty warzone, and hearthstone. The people playing these games care about framerate for competitive reasons which means they need good gpus.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#603

Post by Polycryptus »

tus89 wrote: post #253

Stadia should have made something like this obsolete but...Google.

I don't think it's currently possible for any cloud service to make this obsolete, at least in the ways that I'd want to use a portable gaming device. Which is to say, mostly in transit, which tends to have spotty (at best) internet accessibility. (In the air on an airplane, between stops on the subway, ...)

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#604

Post by bmurphy1976 »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #287

I might be the target audience for this. I have a steam account for years but I barely touch it. I don't feel like building a PC, and games for MacOS were limited last time I checked. I've been happy playing my Switch and PS4. My first thought when I saw this was that it better be able to connect to an external screen, and it does! An added bonus would be if I could hook up external controllers to it as well. I've he…

Proton is absolutely incredible. It doesn't support all games, but what it does support work fantastically well. It's a great 80/20 solution for your games library.

You still need to have Windows for a couple bleeding edge must play AAA games and a few slackers that haven't been ported over, but there's a wealth of wonderful games that run great on Linux now. More than enough to last a lifetime.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#605

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

chx wrote: post #187
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #56

Gotta admit, I never saw that coming. I thought SteamOS was dead after the failure of Steam Machines and Valve was only continuing with their Linux efforts because it's still a useful hedge against Microsoft locking everyone in the App Store. I totally did not expect them to copy the Switch use-case with it. I'm anxious to see how this turns out. Valve's history with hardware is not so great, so it could go nowhere l…

> On the other hand, it could end up all but killing off PC gaming if it is super successful. Why? I thought PC gaming is about powerful graphics cards you can't have pretty much anywhere else.

There are various game genres (flight sims, real-time strategy, simulation games like Factorio and Kerbal Space Program) that just don't fit the console + controller paradigm. Individually, the niches may be small but together they're not insignificant.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#606

Post by l0b0 »

css wrote: post #135

From the FAQ [0]: - What OS is Steam Deck running? SteamOS 3.0, a new version of SteamOS based on Arch Linux. - Will people be able to install Windows, or other 3rd party content? Yes. Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes. [0]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/faq

Arch Linux is amazing. The biggest surprise for me was that it's more stable than so-called stable distros, probably because the various packages don't end up drifting several months from each other when keeping up to date.

Hopefully this eventually results in more user friendly Arch Linux installers. The learning curve is an absolute wall when installing, even after several years on Linux, but after that it's pretty standard.

Based on this trajectory I expect they'll be migrating to NixOS (or maybe Nix on Arch) in about 5-10 years.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#607

Post by moosey »

agloeregrets wrote: post #578
caconym_ wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about Valve's record with hardware is that the products aren't bad , just extremely niche. If this thing really can play most of most people's Steam games in a Switch-like form factor with a standard gamepad layout, I think it stands to be a hit in a way their past hardware attempts weren't. It's also an interesting counterpoint to all the streaming services popping up these days. PC game streaming to mobil…

Exactly, used Steam Controllers cost more than retail now. There is a small number of extremely hardcore fans of it.

I am one of them. I have three in the house, mostly for future parts.

I have been gaming for 35 years, and in the 15 of those where I have played first person shooters, no controller compares. Even when I'm playing other kinds of games, the ability to do everything without having to remove your finger from the pads to hit buttons, the size is perfect, everything is so responsive.

They "feel" cheap, but I don't care. They are gaming nirvana for me.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#608

Post by phendrenad2 »

jcelerier wrote: post #489
phendrenad2 wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wonder what it means to be based on Arch Linux. Are users supposed to run packman to grab the latest security fixes? Are users going to be installing apps from the AUR or whatever? Why does this thing even need a package manager at all? Or is there more to a Linux distro that I'm not getting? It seems like a distro is mostly defined by it's package manager and repository paradigm or philosophy, with Debian b…

> Are users supposed to run packman to grab the latest security fixes? there are plenty of graphical frontends for updates on Arch. Another big thing is more recent glibc and mesa for instance which can be huge for performance. Also, Arch makes it fairly easy to rebuild all packages with optimizations for a given CPU ; for instance someone recently made a test of arch built with x86_64-v3. Also there's the way packag…

Why does valve need to use a "distro" at all? LFS exists and is trivial to throw together a custom install. You can grab whatever glibc or mesa you want. Also building a kernel with improvements for a certain CPU is dead simple out of the box with Linux. Distros make it hard, and Arch makes it "easier".

As for packages, why does SteamOS need packages? They can just make one large update package that includes all library updates for the latest SteamOS version. Or are they expecting users to say "Oh I want to update just this one library"? Seems like a huge missed opportunity to make SteamOS a "stable target" that Linux devs can make games for. But if everyone is like "I want this weird glibc!" then that's impossible.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#609

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st »

ilyas121 wrote: post #577

How open is this platform to custom peripherals (wifi/bluetooth) ones? I've always wanted a nice controller for robotics projects with a touchscreen. Right now it seems like most hobby projects use a laptop and ps4/xbox controller.

Sounds like it's just a custom linux install, so if you can get it working on another distro you can probably get it working here.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#610

Post by the8472 »

caslon wrote: post #83
ketzo wrote: post #44

There’s obviously a lot of people who like playing games in a more mobile format, as evidenced by the huge popularity of the Switch Lite / mobile gaming. Giving the PC games market access to that form factor seems, on its face, like an extremely good move. But we’ve seen products like this before — the NVIDIA Shield, for one. Pretty cool piece of tech, but didn’t exactly start a revolution. I guess the question becom…

You have to consider that PC hardware is currently spiraling out of control in terms of price, and $400 for the specs it has presently is a fairly decent buy even if you don't care about the form factor.

PS5 and Xbox are using PC hardware too. The only difference is that they might have secured some supply for those customized parts in advance.
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