Steam Deck

lmimmfn · 28-09-2022 6:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119677342#Comment_119677342

Your issue with SD card format on Windows and Linux is a Windows issue, nothing to do with Steam Deck, blame Windows for not supporting ext4 format. I used a third party tool to add ext4 support for Windows, it only has a 10 day trial but I'll figure out how to do it on Windows 10 22H2 update which has added it in a nice user unfriendly way as per Microsoft standard Linux support.

In your situation, you're much better off using the PS5 and Switch for all your emulation needs.

Grumpypants · 28-09-2022 10:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119677342#Comment_119677342

can you drop them into your google drive on your PC and then just drop them onto the SD card on the deck?

Grumpypants · 28-09-2022 10:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119676957#Comment_119676957

Why not have them all? 😝

I use the Deck to stream from the PS5 and Series X and play them all a fair bit more than before. If anything the Deck is a PC the least. I'm either on cloud or streaming from a console. It is rare I play anything natively now as the battery life is eaten up.

quokula · 28-09-2022 11:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119677527#Comment_119677527

It's a steam deck issue in that they chose to run an operating system and file system that is incompatible with the operating system that 90+% of PC gamers (their target market) use, and provided zero tools out of the box to work around it without installing third party software and/or running multiple command line commands on a machine that doesn't have a physical keyboard.

It's a consumer product, it should be designed with consumers in mind rather than the easy "well its Linux so you just have to put up with it" get out of jail free card.

Look at the amazing strides apple have made with their apple silicon laptops, completely different architecture but they've come up with software solutions to allow x86 applications to run seamlessly through emulation without an end user even noticing anything has changed under the hood. It's a cliché but "it just works" and as a consumer you shouldn't have to know or care how it works.

Valve could have written a straightforward system to allow users to easily move files between the computers that practically all existing steam users own and their new steam deck, e.g. a custom UI based SSH solution that used the steam account for authentication or something like that so the user wouldn't have to understand what was happening behind the scenes and could drag things from a folder on one system to the other like they expect since they can do it with their phones or cameras or any other equivalent product.

I'm a software engineer, I spend my life making software as foolproof as possible so that anyone can use it and I have very little patience when I come up against poor UX like this in a consumer product I paid for that puts the burden on me as an end user to spend my free time essentially doing more work instead of just using the damn thing.

lmimmfn · 29-09-2022 1:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119678397#Comment_119678397

I'm also a software engineer and have been programming since I owned an amstrad in 86/87 and I understand OS shortcomings.

I have no interest in defending steam deck as a product, but I will point things out when they are incorrect.

Valve use of Linux instead of Windows - go ahead, you can install Windows and enjoy the 20-30% drop in performance because of how Windows is so bloated. Valve made SD open so every user can do as they want with it. It's a regular PC in a portable format.

However regarding Windows, why would Valve include Windows as the default OS for SD when they have to pay the licensing fee, increase the SD price and have reduced performance.

Apple emulating x86 on their new Arm architecture is an absolute waste of effenciency in terms of power use and processing speed, its onky provided as a backwards compatible emulation layer. Its not the first time they have done this, they had the same issue back in OS 7(Which I was involved with) when they had to support Motorola 68K in the OS which was using PPC(which is RISC as is ARM vs 68k and x86 which are CISC) and 68k code was emulated on OS 7.

Valve have no reason to make it easy to move files between Windows and Steam Deck when the problem us that Windows doesnt support the main Linux file format natively. It's a Windows problem, it's available in Windows 10/11 but awkward to use.

If you want support for that without issue buy one of the 3rd party products for Windows for 20 dollars which supports ext4 natively and is just drag and drop.

Don't blame Valve and the Steam Deck for Windows shortcomings and if you want convienence pay 20 quid and you're sorted.

Grumpypants · 29-09-2022 5:24am

It's core use is to play your steam games in game mode. And that's a button press.

If you want to make it do things it's not primarily designed for, it does let you, but you need the figure it out.

I quite enjoy it, reminds me of my early days when I was 5 or 6 years old and figuring out what my ZS Spectrum could do beyond playing games.

The Deck is a great way to get kids (or big kids) interested in this space. I know I've learnt loads.

Anything I don't know I can find on YouTube too.

29-09-2022 3:29pm

Would you say my friend can expect an order email tonight if he's on 95.01% on getmydeck or probably just short and next week more likely?

MayoForSam · 29-09-2022 6:05pm

Wow - I placed a deposit for a 64GB version on the 19th and I got my confirm purchase email just now (10 days).

I have a One4All voucher from work on the way which I need to buy some Steam gift cards, not sure I'll have it in time before Sunday morning when my purchase window closes. Ah well, can always stick it on the auld Visa card 😁.

I also got a 2230 256GB SSD drive from an Ebay seller with good rep for €30, should have that next week. When the SD arrives, I'll be upgrading it to 256GB after a few days fiddling with it to make sure there are no other issues. a micro SD card can follow in due course.

Christmas just came early. My missus was suggesting puttting it under the tree for December 25th but I'm not waiting 3 months!

feargantae · 29-09-2022 6:26pm

I'm wanting get the 64GB SteamDeck just for cloud gaming mostly. I absolutely love GamePass cloud streaming on my phone and Xbox Series X.

Can't decide if it's a waste of money or not but either way just got the ready to purchase email... 😅

skerry · 29-09-2022 6:37pm

Was hoping to get mail today, order was up to 98% since Monday but nothing. Next week I guess at this stage

robfowler78 · 29-09-2022 6:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119681683#Comment_119681683

I got mine on Monday at about 7:30 so still time

29-09-2022 7:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119680916#Comment_119680916

Only reserved on Monday (256GB) and got his order email this evening.

JimBurnley · 29-09-2022 9:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119668749#Comment_119668749

At 99% now so be next Monday for me. Which is still amazing given short time ago it was ordered

skerry · 29-09-2022 9:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119681713#Comment_119681713

Just came through there. Ordered now, looking forward to it. Getmydeck only started updating progress 10 mins ago and email came through at the same time that started updating so it's fairly on point.

JimBurnley · 29-09-2022 9:54pm

I spoke too soon, just got my email too, happy days :-)

feargantae · 29-09-2022 10:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119681610#Comment_119681610

I caved! Ended up getting it for about €325 instead of €419 because of some discounts through work. Only reserved on the 25th too so I'm really happy with that.

Cant wait now

Vicxas · 30-09-2022 8:36am

My order has been stuck on "Packaged Items" for the last 4 days now :(

MayoForSam · 30-09-2022 9:03am

My order confirmation came through yesterday as well for the 64GB, only 10 days since I paid the deposit.

Almost happened to quickly as I'm also waiting for some work vouchers to arrive to pay for half of it. I could always cancel and start all over again as the wait time is hardly worth considering.

I do have a 256GB SSD on the way, that'll do me for a while once I stick it in.

Markitron · 30-09-2022 10:39am

Just a general recommendation for anyone thinking about ordering, if you can justify the spend, absolutely get the 256 gig one at least. I got the 64 gig thinking I would be fine as I would just leave the internal memory for the OS and use SD cards for games. Now this worked absolutely fine until recently, then I found out the internal storage was full because of shader caches taking up all the space. Valve will probably fix this but if they don't/can't, there may be something else like it down the line. It is worth the extra cash.

robfowler78 · 30-09-2022 10:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119683304#Comment_119683304

Same here

lmimmfn · 30-09-2022 12:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119683849#Comment_119683849

There's a good workaround for this online for the 64GB version.

Move the 2 shader cache and compatibility dirs to the SD card then create symbolic links on the internal storage with the same names as before move to those on the SD card, simple fix and 100% effective.

Mucashinto · 30-09-2022 10:01pm

I canceled my 256gb version and went for the 64gb one as the value proposition seems just too good for me, makes it a lot easier to justify the spend when I really don't need another way to play games being honest. I know I'll end up putting money into anyway tbh. Paid on Monday (ordered 30th August) and shipped today.

Looking at NVME SSD prices, the 2280 form factors often have 1TB for under 100gbp so if that carries down to these (2230?) I'll pick one of those up at some stage I think/hope.

Main hope is that Epic runs well on it as I've a lot of games there that are ideal for the deck. Can't remember which ones I bought and which were free but some library can build up there with their giveaways! Now to bookmark the tracking page and hit ctrl+R for a week...

lmimmfn · 01-10-2022 12:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119687131#Comment_119687131

Epic games are fine, you need to install heroic launcher and then there's the option to create a steam entry per game, currently I just launch heroic game launcher and launch the game from there. I might streamline it but I'm not launching epic games very frequently currently.

skerry · 02-10-2022 9:19am

This will be my first foray into PC gaming and I'm trying to educate myself on shader caches and such. Does the Deck download shaders only when you launch a game or will it start downloading shaders for every game I have installed on the device? Also, if I have an SD card in the deck with e.g. games for emulation, will it download shaders for all those games or just the ones I actually play?

lmimmfn · 02-10-2022 11:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119691290#Comment_119691290

It only uses shader cache for steam games, not emulators or anything you add to the Steam launcher.

It downloads the shader cache for all installed games both when you install them or updates games already installed, I.e. After upgrading proton or a game patch.

skerry · 02-10-2022 11:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119691642#Comment_119691642

Thank you. I ordered the 512gb model so I'm hoping internal storage isn't a huge issue, at least not for a while. Have a 200gb SD that should do for now for emulators and games. Will pick up 512gb SD for additional storage of Steam games once SDs are at a decent price again. I'm only starting on my Steam Library so haven't a massive collection to worry about just yet

lmimmfn · 02-10-2022 12:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119691661#Comment_119691661

I think 512 should be ok for a while, i got the 256GB version and it was nowhere near enough, 3-4 large AAA games and a handful of smaller games and it is maxed. The thing is when you get it you throw a load of stuff on it to see how different genres work on it but after that youll end up settling on a few from your backlog, im back playing Nier Automata again as ive had it since release, played it loads for a bit then parked it with new releases coming out, the deck is fantastic for Steam backlogs.

Its a shame that Sandisk A1 card has shot up again to ~£73 on Amazon, was great for ~37euro.