Steam Deck

Here's the video referenced in the article.

It's honestly more about being able to run path tracing with a low performance hit than it's about the steam deck specifically being able to run it.

The key part of the article is:

The video shows the settings menus before gameplay begins and reveals that the game is running at 864 x 486 resolution, with secondary bounces disabled in the RTX Remix developer menu, which seems to be the secret to maintaining a decent frame rate on the Steam Deck APU.

Portal RTX uses 4 raw bounces on ultra settings, which is enough to bring any modern GPU to its knees at high resolution, so disabling secondary bounces entirely and lowering the res really takes the strain off that poor Deck.

The Steam Deck is a Dev Dream come true. I’ve always dreamt of making a game for a handheld console, but this is better. Let me tell you why.

Long story short: They say “build the thing you’d want to use yourself” and that’s how I ended up developing an action-roguelite game (ahem, check it out on Steam if you’re keen) with the Steam Deck in mind, starting as early as the prototype stage.

Top 20 games played on Steam Deck in the January 2024, sorted by playtime.

#SteamDeck #Palworld

@steamdeck

https://pixelfed.de/p/cammelspit/657887422594974310

After using my Steam Deck for over a year, I had an idea regarding network storage when I was installing Emu Deck. Despite the portability of the Steam Deck, I wanted to mount ROMs, Media, and even a Steam Library from a network-attached storage (NAS) device at home.

Recently, due to health reasons, I find myself bed-bound, making the Steam Deck a great companion. However, It's storage options are rather limited so I attempted to find a solution.

I faced challenges due to SteamOS's immutable file system. To overcome these I explored using NFS shares for a Steam Library, as Samba shares had limitations and wouldnt work on Linux for a Steam Library. Mounting NFS shares worked as long as i used a specific option to make the files executable.

To automate this process I created a systemd service that loads on boot, triggering a script to mount the shares. However, SteamOS's immutable file system posed challenges for typical auto-start methods like the KDE autostart tool and especially fstab.

The key was leveraging the service that loads even in in gamemode so you wont have to do anything manually, not even switch to desktop mode at all. The solution involved that service checking network connectivity before mounting the shares. This ensures the script doesn't run before the wifi comes up, if it has no connectivity it rechecks every 30 seconds for connectivity until it does. Once this happens, the mount script itself is run. On a wired connectionwhile docked the mount is ready before Steam even loads for me so this hasnt been an issue but I felt it was a problem i needed to solve before putting it into production.

I've shared the service file and script as well as a handy script that I used to unmount those same shares during testing, noting that hard-coded paths will need to be modified. The script also logs successful and unsuccessful mounts for debugging but i liked the feature so i left it. Although not the final version, it offers a functional solution for now.

If you use Unraid, the script includes paths relevant to its shares. Server IP, share list, and mount points Will need to be modified to fit your needs or it likely won't work. The script lacks support for authenticated shares, but it persists between reboots and has shown reliability in my testing. I also realize that the script is basically just dumped on my desktop, that's where I created it and the pads are hard coded and I just don't care to change it so if you want it somewhere else you're going to have to do that alteration yourself.

Feel free to modify it or share improved versions and above all, have fun!!

1. netmount.sh

#!/bin/sh

NFS_SERVER=10.10.10.99
SHARE_PATH="/mnt/user"
SHARES=("Media" "Emulation" "Steam" "Downloads" "DUMPBOX" "isos" "NSFWMedia" "Software" "Tools")

# Set up log file
LOG_FILE="/home/deck/Desktop/netmount.log"

# Loop through the shares and mount each one with -o exec
for SHARE_NAME in "${SHARES[@]}"; do
  MOUNT_POINT="/home/deck/mounts/$SHARE_NAME"
  mkdir -p $MOUNT_POINT  # Create the mount point directory

  TIMESTAMP=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
  mount -t nfs -o exec $NFS_SERVER:$SHARE_PATH/$SHARE_NAME $MOUNT_POINT

  # Log the results with timestamps
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "$TIMESTAMP: NFS share '$SHARE_NAME' mounted successfully at $MOUNT_POINT" >> $LOG_FILE
  else
    echo "$TIMESTAMP: Failed to mount NFS share '$SHARE_NAME'" >> $LOG_FILE
  fi
done

2. unmount.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Unmount all NFS shares
for MOUNT_POINT in /home/deck/mounts/*; do
  umount $MOUNT_POINT
done

echo "All NFS shares unmounted."

3. netmount.service

[Unit]
Description=Netmount Script at Boot
After=graphical.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'for i in {1..20}; do ping -c 1 google.com && /home/deck/Desktop/netmount.sh && break || sleep 30; done'

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

You can use these clean versions for your scripts and service file. Adjust paths and configurations as needed.

Does anyone know if the touchpads of the SD (OLED if it matters) have proper multi-touch? As in, you can map two buttons there and both can be pressed completely independently (i.e. hold one while tapping the other)?
It's niche but I lay my Deck down on my lap and drum on the pads with 2 fingers per pad to play a Rhythm game and haven't found the right settings yet. I've found so far that with Steam Input configs, the only way to somewhat get two button presses at once is with the 8 way overlap, but I'm pretty sure that even then, it only interpolates the two touches and sends the input of wherever the interpolated input ends up. So if it happens to land in the overlap area, you get two different button presses as expected, but if you're off by a little, you get two presses of the same button instead. This also means that if you make the overlap area too large, it's also too easy to tap on that with one finger and unintentionally fat-finger.

So I wanted to know if I'm missing the correct settings in Steam Input? Or is there some plugin for this? Or does the hardware not support multi-touch at all and I'm out of luck?

Hi, I'm ~~Troy McClure~~ Localhorst86.
You may remember me from legendary ~~films~~ posts like "Mommy, what's wrong with that man's face?", "Lead paint: delicous, but deadly" and "My Steam Deck decides to spontaneously disconnect from my dd-wrt router".

About 2 weeks ago, I made a post about strange connectivity issues with my steam Deck on my 5GHz WiFi. I'm glad to announce that I was able to further pinpoint my specific issue and how I was finally able to establish a stable 5GHz WiFi connection on my steam deck.

I figured, an update post could be helpful to give it more visibility.

I was getting fed up with my connection issues, so I decided to get a new, dedicated WiFi6 accesspoint, to see if it aleviates the issue. The access point arrived about 10 days ago, and once set up, my steam deck was able to hold a continuous connection the the 5GHz WiFI on it. Downloads would start at full blast of my ISP (~30MB/s) for about a minute, then slow down to about half that speed (12-14MB/s), but it was faster than my 2.4GHz WiFi and it wouldn't disconnect at all.

I tested and observed this for about a week, and it remained stable. With the AP being a fairly cheap device, it wouldn't support dd-wrt or openwrt, so I had to live with the limited options of the factory firmware of the device, that includes a limited combination of network modes (11a/n/ac/ax or 11a/n only), so I left it at (a/n/ac/ax).

But on my DD-WRT router (the one I had issues with), the network mode was set to 11ac only, because that gave me the best reliability and speed for my Oculus Quest 2 airlink setup.

I've then decided to set the network mode to "mixed" (11a/n/ac) and see if it would fix the issues. Unfortunately, this alone did not. I've then played around further with the network settings, and reduced the channel width from 80MHz to 40MHz, and that - in combination with mixed network mode - would result in a stable connection that downloads at full ISP blast for the first minute, then slow down to about half the speed, like it did with the new AP.

[TL;DR] If you have issues with the steam deck maintaining a 5GHz WiFi connection, make sure you enable mixed network mode for the Access Point, and reduce channel width to 40MHz.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some grindy games to play on the deck (any genre is OK).

Currently playing monster hunter world and I think I'll give factorio a try.

Any suggestions?

The jellyfin app (self hosted video streaming) app on steam deck (installed via desktop mode->discovery as a flat pack) doesn't seem to register as 'playing' with the os. The screen will dim after a few mins.

I'm 'playing' the jellyfin app as a non steam game in game mode.

I know I can disable screen dimming in the settings but is there a way to have it auto detect when a video is playing and prevent the screen from dimming?

Courting Miss Emma by Linda Broday https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2024/01/courting-miss-emma-by-linda-broday.html #Adult, #HistoricalRomance @steamdeck

Edit: SteamDeckHQ now has recommended settings and performance data for the game as well.

Proton 8.0-5 Update Changelog:

Now playable:

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes

Welcome to Princeland

Red Tie Runner

Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition

Assassin's Creed Mirage

Made HDR options available on compatible hardware (including Steam Deck OLED) in the following games: Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, Resident Evil Village, Hogwarts Legacy, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Injustice 2, Alan Wake 2, Devil May Cry 5.

I hear talks about drm and kernel anti cheat being harmful for the steam deck. Is easy anti cheat considered under the harmful a malware category, too?

one thing i miss the most about my switch is the joy con. i love being able to game while my arm is pretty much free.

i was thrilled when valve announced joy con support but when i tried it on my pc and my deck the connection is spotty and the input lag is really bad, i tried with multiple joy cons but it still the same, do you guys have the same experience or is there something i have to do with it first.

cheers.

I'm hoping someone can help me. I have my steamdeck in the office dock connected to a monitor. When I turn it on a navigate on the external monitor. I clicked on the "..." Menu and noticed a VRR option. Like an idiot I clicked it. Monitor went black. My monitor does not support vrr.

I have tried display safe mode, rebooting and the monitor remains non functional. The monitor actually is giving me a warning that the current timing is unsupported.

I can get into desktop mode and the external monitor works there but I can not find that vrr option to turn it off.

Any help would be appreciated

Here's a couple of useful info i learned after using emulators for a couple of weeks. This is by far not a tutorial, just things i wish i had known sooner.

YUZU (Switch)

This may vary from game to game, but from my experience seems that Yuzu gives better fps. The XCI roms are a bit bigger but don't require any firmware, instead Nsp does, but you can find the Firmware online pretty easily. Some game more demanding will run way better after activating some mods. Just open yuzu>help>Open Mods page and download what you need, the right click (L2) the game and select > Open Mod Data Location and past inside the (unzipped) mod.

Zelda - Breath of the wild is "kinda" playable on Switch but is way better to use the Wii U rom on Cemu (enable the FPS++ mod to fix the fps) - I can't give any link but the site where i find the best rom is "8bitsdown" (google it)

Cemu (Wii U)

You need some key codes (number and letters) but just google "Wii U keys" and past them in the txt Key file inside the Wii U folder. As yuzu some games works better with mods. Cemu > right click (L2) the game > modify the graphic package> Download the Updated package from the community> check any mod or cheats you want.

PCSX2QT (ps2)

Some roms may need the bios file. You can increase the resolution in graphic setting> internal resolution ( i use 3x native - 1080p)

Retroarch is also good for "clean" the graphics of old snes or psx games using shaders and filters (check these videos Link1 | link2) - BTW Retroarch is installable from emudeck too, after that just add the app to the library as non steam game.

That's it - Feel free to add more info below

👍

Changelog:

• General

Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 109.0.5414.120

Updated the quick access performance menu with descriptions for each setting, including how they affect the system and the expected power/performance/visual quality tradeoffs.

Fixed a case where the sdcard was set as the default install location on reboot.

Fixed a case where the network status icon would fail to render for virtual networks.

Fixed store button on main menu remaining disabled in Family View even if store permissions were granted to the account.

• Steam Input

Fixed occasionally creating an extra virtual controller that is non-responsive

Important note: the updated chromium version will break themes from the decky plugin CSS Loader.

With the advancements in steamlink, do you think we'll be able to use more than one source to render? If I have 2 mid desktops, could steamlink get the resource and computing distribution along with the synchronization(or pre-rendering?) to use both machines to stream to my steamdeck?

Surely, this can't be a coincidence.

Release v1.6.0 brings all these changes:

New touch-friendly and semi-controller navigable GUI.

MacOS support and Windows libplacebo renderer support.

Resume connection from sleep mode on Steam Deck.

Ability to login to PlayStation for account ID via GUI.

Fix Senkusha, lowering time for console connection and properly setting MTU.

Audio Switch to SDL including fixing audio lag building over session.

New Logo.

Qt6 support.