Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve Steam Deck

steamdeck.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 1001 posts

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#621

Post by Crespyl »

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.

I felt almost the exact opposite, in that I think the concept was great but the execution fell a little bit short, mostly in build quality/button-feel.

The biggest single win for me is replacing the right stick for camera control, as the trackball emulation with haptics on the touchpad is so much faster and more responsive than a traditional thumbstick. There are some games that I'd still prefer the standard twin sticks or dpad (twin-stick shooters maybe, some platformers, or hyper-specific designed games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons), but overall I've much preferred the touchpad over thumbsticks for almost every first- or third-person game I've played.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#622

Post by dm319 »

fermentation wrote: post #108

At a cursory glance this thing seems to be well-equipped to handle emulation. There are a lot of (sometimes sketchy) portable emulation devices on the market but most are pretty underpowered. This seems significantly more powerful (at a higher price point of course). I'm curious if more folks interested in portable emulation will go for this or wait for an FPGA-based Analogue Pocket.

That's a good point. I reckon it'd be fairly trivial to get EmulationStation working nicely on it.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#623

Post by awill »

danso wrote: post #115
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…

Had to google what you meant by NVIDIA Shield (wrt portable gaming): https://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-SHIELD-Portable-pc/dp/B00E3667... One major difference (besides the form-factor obviously) is that the Deck doesn't require WiFi + desktop to play your PC games. I'd also argue that the trackpads will be a major difference. The Steam Controller's trackpad wasn't perfect, but it made possible to sanely play a ton of desi…

The Nvidia Shield ran Android. So either bad Android games locally, os streaming. The Shield might do better today as a client just for Stadia, Xcloud or PS Now.

However, this is far better. Not only are the specs very impressive for the size/power, but it runs an OS that can plan anything (with Proton). It's like mixing the switch with a ps4. Imagine playing the Witcher 3, or Doom Eternal on this compared to the 480p blurry Switch version. I hope this does well.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#624

Post by yellowapple »

jcastro wrote: post #585
alanwreath wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`Steam Deck is a PC, and players will be able to install whatever they like, including other OSes.` this is probably this most exciting thing about this release. How many days until this thing is running k3s and/or serving up a prometheus dashboard on the same device that is touch capable?

Finally, someone thinking outside the box! :D

Or, more accurately, thinking inside of many tiny boxen.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#625

Post by silicon2401 »

practice9 wrote: post #456
capeterson wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair though, Valve does make the best consumer VR headset available (Valve Index).

It's still one of the best tethered headsets even considering it's 2 years old already. Other ones have disadvantages in many areas (like tracking) still. I'm waiting for some company to release a decent hybrid standalone + tethered headset (that can compete with Oculus Quest at least on the hardware specs), but most companies are only interested in selling very expensive devices for enterprise

is there any indication of a valve index 2 coming? given that facebook is a no-go for me, that makes the index the most appealing VR option for me. but it would suck to buy soon and have the next iteration come out right after I buy

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#626

Post by dm319 »

Arrath wrote: post #221
danso wrote: post #10

Well I guess their time developing the Steam controller isn't all for naught. Looks similar in concept, except with dual joysticks and thumbpads (instead of just 1 each) and extreme deemphasis the traditional X/Y/A/B buttons, and 4 (instead of 2) back paddle triggers. Which is great, I loved the paddles on my Steam controller.

I wonder if the triggers are also two-stage, like the Steam controller's. I loved that feature, found some niche uses in some games.

The IGN video seemed to suggest that.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#627

Post by awill »

I'm a little disappointed that Valve is focused on Proton only. This can also play native Linux games. A well written native game should perform better, and, more importantly, get better battery life.

Maybe Valve is going about this the right way. Focus on Proton now, and if it takes off, game devs will make the effort to do a native port.

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#628

Post by gchamonlive »

mr_sturd wrote: post #618
l0b0 wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Manjaro Linux provides a nice, easy installer for Arch. With different editions based on your preferred DE. https://manjaro.org/download/

For pure arch, there are some helpers, like Arcolinux and anarchy Linux.

Only recommend using them for subsequent installations. You have to get the basics right first, so you can troubleshoot anything in the arch forums

Re: Valve Steam Deck

#630

Post by yellowapple »

5Qn8mNbc2FNCiVV wrote: post #614
JeremyNT wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an amazing bit of kit for the price, and it's just a normal PC running Arch Linux! I hardly ever even play video games these days, but I'm absolutely buying one of these just to have a nice little portable PC.

Yeah I can imagine this being super nice to have even just lying around at home to connect to as a remote development environment or better: Plug it into the TV like a switch and have a powerful PC that fits behind the TV. At least for me it's super convenient since I wanted to play old games on emulator anyways (but not on a underspecces raspberry)

> Plug it into the TV like a switch

Speaking of: I wonder if it'll work with a Switch dock? Probably would require some physical modification of the dock itself, but it'd still be neat if they're interchangeable and I can stick either one into any dock.

Post reply on HN