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Valve Steam Deck

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Valve Steam Deck

Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2021 19:46

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https://www.steamdeck.com/

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

Trailer
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/ ... nglish.mp4

Steamworks Quick Tips - Steam Deck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_C5KVJbUw

The End of Nintendo Hardware.

First Sony and MS chased them out of desktop hardware, and now Valve will kick them the fuck off handhelds.

Maybe they'll make a "gaming wristwatch" next, who knows, but I think it's over for them. And not a moment too soon.

Who's getting one?

I already have one, it's called a "laptop", and you can actually play games on it. But if crypto blows up again, I'll buy one, I mean why not.

You can use it like a PC. Install any OS, hook it up to a TV and a keyboard and mouse, etc. 7-inch screen too, and it's a touch screen. I don't think Switch does touch.

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December 2021.
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2021 20:07

Turns out the Switch does have a touch screen, I just googled it.

How cool would a Switch emulator be on this thing, if it could run Switch games better lol.
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2021 20:16

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Note that, to the extent this is true, it's true only for the 1280x800 screen on this thing. I am sure when the PC sites get a hold of this, we'll see benchmarks for 1080p, and those will be interesting, especially if they obliterate the Switch versions of multiplats.

Full specs: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech
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Unread postby icycalm » 15 Jul 2021 20:20

Two things Valve shoulda done to sell 10x units:

1. Make it accept SIM cards

2. Make the controllers detachable

It'd be day 1 purchase for me then.

They might still do it down the line. SOMEone's bound to do it at some point anyway, it's a no-brainer.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jul 2021 01:01

To be clear, the only gamers who should buy this are those who already have a Switch. If you don't have a Switch, and you buy this, you are not a gamer. There is not a single game that requires this thing to run, but there are plenty of cool games that require a Switch to run. As a gamer, you go where the games are, because you want to play them, and that's what gamers do. If a console called the "Wii" has but a single interesting game, then you need to have that console to play it. If you prefer the Steam thingy to the Switch, you're a techie, not a gamer.

In conclusion, I'll buy a Switch at some point. I was waiting for a Pro that can do proper 1080p, but it looks like it isn't coming. Maybe the Steam thingy will make it come though.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jul 2021 13:31

Maybe it will work great with Shadow, especially if it accepts Ethernet somehow. Then you hook it up to a TV and it’s like a desktop you can take anywhere, but smaller than laptop and far more playable in portable format than the Shadow app running on a cellphone. If you could get the higher-end Shadow you’d end up with a 2080-powered handheld. Not a bad proposition for the money this thing costs.
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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jul 2021 18:37

So it turns out this thing is quite powerful even by PC-vendor standards, let alone compared to Nintendo hardware which I am sure was underpowered at release four years ago. This is a PA dev, btw, so he probably knows what he's talking about: https://twitter.com/bgolus/status/1415857772231462913

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Unread postby icycalm » 16 Jul 2021 18:41

From the same thread:

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I doubt you'd be able to make much of ray-tracing on that tiny screen anyway. Maybe if it was an entire game based on ray-tracing, but not random reflections on tiny windows and puddles on the road or some shit.
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Re: Valve Steam Deck

Unread postby icycalm » 07 Aug 2021 23:32

https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-deck-can- ... o-8-hours/

Jorge Jimenez wrote:Steam Deck can stream games for up to 8 hours

Valve wants to take advantage of all the ways you play the Steam Deck, no matter where you are.

One of the biggest Steam Deck questions we've had is how much game time we'll get from its 40WHr battery. And, for folks who prefer to stream their Steam games from their gaming PC over playing them locally from the handheld console's SSD, we've got some good news for you. On a trip to Valve headquarters to see the Steam Deck in person, the developer gave us a pretty impressive figure.

Valve's Greg Coomer tells us that you can "play for something like 8 hours of Death Stranding, or a high-performance game, on this unit if you're streaming it rather than playing it locally."

In previous interviews, Valve stated that you could expect a battery life of 2-8 hours on Steam Deck, depending on the game and settings, using the example of Portal 2 running for 5-6 hours when set at 30fps.

"At the same time, we're trying to give people options," designer, Tucker Spofford, tells us. "Because if you're at 30,000 feet on an airplane, and not gonna be able to stream Death Stranding probably through Gogo Wi-Fi. Well, you can still play it on this. And the same purchase that you've made from Steam in both places."

It seems if you want to get the most out of the Steam Deck's battery life, streaming your games from your gaming PC might be the best route for now. Another benefit is that it allows users who might have purchased the lower storage capacity Steam Deck to stream the games in their library that they otherwise wouldn't have the space for on their device.

Valve letting customers play their Steam games any way they want was a central theme in a lot of conversations we had with them, along with the lessons learned from Big Picture Mode, Steam Link, and the Steam controller.

"So a lot of it was just creating a piece of hardware that can hold all those things in one spot," Coomer explains. "The same as a PC gaming experience, where you might want to customize what you get out of it, we tried to put enough types of input and ways to play on there and make it all really easy to use, so that anybody can find a comfortable way to play the game they want to play."

Valve has also told us that it intends to continue making devices in the same vein as Steam Deck, so the idea of a cheaper streaming-only device isn't too far-fetched. For now, though, let's hope Valve can deliver the units due this holiday before announcing any new SKUs.
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Re: Valve Steam Deck

Unread postby icycalm » 01 Nov 2022 02:46

The Deck is now finally in stock without long waiting times. In my region it shows as arriving within 1-2 weeks of purchase: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

I am trying to think of reasons to buy one because I kinda want one. The most utility I could extract from it is as second computer to run Fantasy Grounds Unity in order to run the NPCs as PCs so that they may get a customized profile image instead of the generic goblin that FG uses for NPCs. If all this sounds Greek to you, never mind, but basically I would need two computers side by side to do this, and it would severely hobble my ability to travel, but the Deck should be able to solve all of this, though I would need a keyboard attached to it, but this shouldn't be a problem. There are small foldable keyboards you can buy.

So I headed over to the FGU Steam page to see if it can run on the Deck, and it looks promising with a "Playable" status: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1196 ... unds_Unity

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There are other cool shit I can think of to do with the Deck. I could run a second Star Citizen character who takes care of support tasks, like piloting a refueling ship that follows our fleet or is parked above a staging area. Or manage a character in Rust that can learn all the blueprints and that we pass between us to build and have access to all BPs at any time.

The Deck should also be excellent as a Twitch viewing monitor while I am streaming, or a Discord monitor, especially when I am traveling and can't lug all my TVs with me.

There's got to be more functions I am not thinking now off the top of my head.

Hell, it'll probably be great for the new Makaimura. It even has a "Verified" status, so it must run great: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1375 ... surrection

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Though I am not playing that without co-op. But I can probably play the PSP game with emulation and scanlines.

I am going to do some market research because I am aware of several Deck competitors, some of which may be more powerful, and I would need all the power I can get to run Star Citizen, and even Rust and Fantasy Grounds with decent performance. Either way I see myself getting one of these machines sometime in the next six months or so.


P.S. Btw, if we all bought second Star Citizen accounts and can run them on second machines/laptops/Steam Decks, that would basically double the amount of lives we can take to Jumptown etc. I bet other clans have already thought of this, and I bet ALL of them will in a year or two when the servers get larger and the scope of PVP gets closer to PlanetSide levels of players involved. Just an idea you might want to keep in mind if you're anywhere near as crazy about SC as I am. I don't expect EVERYONE to do this, but a couple of us might eventually, and MAYBE the Deck is the way to go about it (though of course a second proper computer would be 1000x better, for those who can swing it).
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