Steam! Now on your Couch! The Steamdeck Coming this Winter!

[John]

I’ve got an Anker PD Powerbank that is Switch branded, and does fast charge on those devices. I tried plugging that into my deck, and got an info message that I was connected to a slow charger, and it probably won’t keep up with power drain.

Anyone have the specs of what the deck accepts as fast charging inputs, like what protocols it uses?

 

[Becksworth]

As a status update on Itch.io, I manage to fair a little better using the app rather than just downloading them on my own. The app helps install the games for you, so while not every Linux game is compatible with the Steamdeck, when it's just a matter of a missing dependency it helps (and that was quite a few of them in my case).

Still ironing out getting Windows games from Itch.io running through Proton. Just downloading them and adding them to Steam hasn't worked for me so far, and I haven't figured out how to associate a Wine build with the Itch.io app, which is apparently possible?

 

[ASandoval]

Yesterday, tracking had it that my deck was arriving early and would be here by end of day today.

That was updated this morning to 'on time', which means sometime tomorrow.

This is only a mild annoyance, but aside from the fact that today was going to be my only free time for the next several days, no one's going to be home tomorrow probably and I'm really not looking forward to playing the 'sorry we missed you' game with FedEx in hopes of the thing not getting shipped back to Valve. Fingers crossed I guess!

 

[Kazin]

Fedex sucks so bad, man. I wish they would have just used USPS. I hope it somehow gets there today (which is possible - I got simultaneous texts from Fedex the day mine got delivered that my Deck was both being delivered that day and delayed. I got it that day, Fedex is just useless! lol).

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

FedEx is the drizzling shits, and I think they're the only one where I have to deal with unannounced charges some weeks after the package has been delivered to me.

Nifty logo, though.

 

[Dark Medusa]

I'll try to do some looking up of my own, but now I'm pretty excited to see if I can't get Dolphin working well on the Steam Deck, it'd be sick to have portable Gamecube games. Imagine Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door and Path of Radiance portable!!

 

[YangusKhan]

My order email came in today! Hoo-ray!

Now I gotta figure out what extra hardware to buy for it. Outside of handheld, I really just want to occasionally dock it to my TV and use a Dualshock 4 for games. I also have a wireless keyboard but not a mouse, but also I don't really anticipate needing to use a KB+M? I suppose a carrying case would be nice as well.

 

[Kazin]

Don't buy a carrying case - your Steam Deck comes with a really nice one regardless which model you ordered! If you want to connect it to a TV, you'll need a powered USB-C hub, it won't work with an unpowered one. KB+M use is up to you - I ended up getting a cheap bluetooth mouse for easy use in desktop mode, but if you don't plan on messing with that too much you're probably fine without one.

 

[Sarge]

Speaking of keyboard + mouse combos, do y'all have a good cheap recommendation? I don't know much about the Bluetooth side of things, but tempted to go that way to not have to use a dongle. But if I were going the dongle route it'd probably just be a cheap Logitech KB+M.

 

[Kazin]

I bought the cheapest bluetooth mouse they had at my local Target and it works just fine, played through Wasteland 2 with it, so you're probably fine with whatever.

 

[John]

I've found that once you step outside the Steam Verified bubble, a mouse makes it so much easier. Imagine controlling your computer with just a touch screen and a software keyboard, trying to cut/copy/paste stuff and switch between apps/windows. Actually playing games, you may not need it much, but getting to that point is hard.

I just have a cheap "Arteck" brand bluetooth keyboard, and want to get a cheap bluetooth mouse. Until then, I just use an unpowered USB-C dock and use a wired mouse. Remember when mouse/keyboard shopping that you'll want a bluetooth specific one, not just a "wireless" one that may use its own proprietary dongle.

 

[ASandoval]

Haven't posted too much because I haven't had time to really dive in, but the system is safe and sound here! I've booted up some games and messed around in desktop but my first real chance to explore the system will be tomorrow. So far so good though! Really enjoying my time with it, and pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it is to use in my hands.

 

[Sarge]

I can do mouse navigation pretty well with the touchpads, but it's the keyboard stuff that really bogs me down. Renaming files is an absolute chore, or typing in stuff for custom commands or editing scripts.

 

[YangusKhan]

I've found that once you step outside the Steam Verified bubble, a mouse makes it so much easier. Imagine controlling your computer with just a touch screen and a software keyboard, trying to cut/copy/paste stuff and switch between apps/windows. Actually playing games, you may not need it much, but getting to that point is hard.

I just have a cheap "Arteck" brand bluetooth keyboard, and want to get a cheap bluetooth mouse. Until then, I just use an unpowered USB-C dock and use a wired mouse. Remember when mouse/keyboard shopping that you'll want a bluetooth specific one, not just a "wireless" one that may use its own proprietary dongle.

Hmmm, so maybe my wireless keyboard won't work with it after all? AFAIK it's not bluetooth, it just has a dongle receiver. I imagine the only non-Steam thing I'll want to set up is a SNES emulator for playing randomizers. So I don't expect a huge need for KB+M convenience there. At least for now, anyway...

 

[Sarge]

You'd use that through a USB-C dock/hub, in that case. That's what I'm doing in a pinch right now - I've got a Logitech KB+M I bought years ago for like $20 that works fine.

 

[John]

I switched over to the Beta OS to try out the 40hz/FPS cap. That's pretty good, it smoothed out most of the hitching in Jedi Fallen Order, and is about what Death Stranding can handle with default settings. I haven't dealt with going into individual game settings to tweak much, because sometimes that just straight up crashes games.

I just tried out Death Stranding in my office, and the fan noise went straight to 100, so much that I plugged in my headphones to see if that helped. I had to turn on noise canceling to mostly mute the fan sounds, which aren't loud per se, but at an extremely high pitch. It's like a complement to my already annoying tinnitus. I'm sure Valve will rather it be noisy than having to RMA burned out boards, but I wish you could tweak the fan profiles yourself. It'll probably have to wait for a full hardware revision to get something quieter/cooler, or some type of mod that undervolts the fan.

 

[Becksworth]

So just a word of warning, I scuffed my Steamdeck by bumping it into the side of a bedframe. Just a minor dent on the bottom side, but I thought it was noteworthy because I've done similar bumps with a Switch with nary a scratch, so I don't think Valve is using as durable of plastics as Nintendo is.

 

[Kazin]

I installed like two dozen mods for Stardew Valley and while it takes quite a while to load into the game from launch, it runs great once it does. Weirdly, it also slaughters the battery life - I get about two hours from a full charge now, while I was getting like 6 on vanilla. Oh well! I want all that extra content/QOL stuff, being able to see experience bars for leveling up and being able to see what gifts people like at a glance is just fantastic. I suppose the extra town I installed (Ridgeside) and the Stardew Valley Expanded content are what causes the game to take over a minute (maybe even two? I didn't time it) to load in from launch. Putting the Deck to sleep works great, though.

Love this thing.

 

[Becksworth]

I think file i/o ends up being a big part of the power consumption, especially considering I believe SSDs use significantly more energy than eMMc. I noticed for example the Wall Market in FFVII Remake is the worst area in terms of battery usage, and I don't think it's a processing issue as much as it is just all the different assets it has to load in and out.

 

[Kazin]

Ah, okay - Stardew Valley (and mods) are installed on my SD card, too, so I wonder if that would be better or worse for power consumption than the internal 256gb drive...?

 

[Becksworth]

I think sd and emmc are in the same ballpark, so it might be something hammering the CPU or RAM (I don't know what your mods are doing, just that there are a lot of them)

 

[YangusKhan]

I got mine in the mail this morning! So far I've downloaded a handful of my games and then messed around in Desktop mode to install a web browser and EmuDeck. But then I changed my mind on EmuDeck cause I don't know if I actually want Retroarch on here. I really only want a SNES emulator, but I'd have to investigate how to configure BSNES or something to launch from Deck mode and still be easy to use.

 

[Kazin]

I'm not 100% sure how, but I installed even more mods to Stardew Valley and also set lighting quality to medium, and now I get 4+ hours of battery life. I'm guessing some mod really pushed lighting or something, so lowering the quality did it? Either way, hooray! More battery life!

 

[Becksworth]

Stardew Valley: Raytracing Edition

 

[YangusKhan]

I played my Deck for a heck of a long time over the weekend, and I think it made my right thumb sore? We did also clean our house, but that usually doesn't make my hand sore. It's the area of my palm just below my thumb, which seems likely where I've been "resting" the Steam Deck in my hands.

 

[Kazin]

What were you primarily using to play whatever game you were playing - dpad or thumbstick? I'm curious because I've played games using primarily both from multiple positions and haven't had any issues yet that I don't also get from just playing too much of a regular game on a regular controller...

 

[YangusKhan]

I was playing Crystal Project, 90% using the analog stick. But that shouldn't matter too much because it's my right hand that's sore, not my left. It's probably got something to do with my grip; I'll pay closer attention next time I'm playing.

 

[Becksworth]

Even with the grips the Steamdeck is a relatively heavy device, so I magine for a lot of people it's going to tire their hands out quicker than lighter devices, even if it's not immediately noticeable.

 

[John]

iFixit now has repair guides and replacement parts, including the fan! Anecdotal reports on Reddit say this fan has a different noise profile, and is less whiny. I want to see actual reviews, hopefully including audio frequency/decibel analysis before breaking out the screwdrivers though.

 

[Kazin]

It's so tempting to just order a fan and take it apart, but I'm deathly afraid of breaking the thing lol. Though if they ever offer different shell colors, I'd probably bite...