Steam Deck (Valve handheld PC gaming device)

[Hawkbit]

Based on the deck subreddit I'm guessing some of these delays are due to fine tuning - quite a few controller drift issues and other oddball bugs. It looks pretty awesome though, once the kinks are worked out.

[Tebonas]

Yeah, I ordered mine today after waiting how it turns out. Planning this to become my new retro emulator console, right now it looks like this even works out of the box.

[Trippy]

Windows 10 drivers now available. Windows 11 requires a BIOS update so that's not working yet. Still no dual-boot support for Windows + SteamOS yet, though, so right now it's one or the other.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3131696199122435099

[schild]

SIGH

[Sky]

Sometimes the negative articles make me chuckle: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/03/steam-deck-verified-has-issues-grand-theft-auto-v-edition/

Honestly, when I read 'playable (launcher issues) this dude's experience is exactly what I expected to see, except I apparently understood that a bit better than he admitted to. I had almost exactly the same experience with the wonky launcher bullshit on my (then) new Windows 10 PC, to the point where I cannot use Steam to launch it, I have to just launch the Rockstar launcher, which launches Steam, which launches the game. Had every other thing he mentions come up in that process.

So honestly it sounds like it works better on Deck than on my top end gaming pc (except for performance obv). Which I'm pretty stoked about, launchers are going to be interesting, so I'm glad to hear that Rockstar's is at least workable. Speaking of which, just seeing this as a reality blows my old gamer mind (RDR2 gameplay on Deck): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyvDp18eAg

[Trippy]

Yeah software and UI issues like in the article will be fixed over time. More worrisome are the hardware issues like the sticking "B" button and the noisy ass fan.

[Trippy]

Looks like email batches are going out on Mondays now. Today and March 7 were batches 3 and 2.

Lawrence Yang, one of the Steam Deck designers, has been tweeting email batches if you want to follow him:

https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang

Edit: Mondays not Tuesdays I blame Daylight Savings

[schild]

No I don't wanna fuckin follow

[Sky]

SIGH

Don't sigh too loud, Valve fixed Elden Ring for Deck (in Proton, not Windows): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1HuX2_Hhss

[schild]

:thinkicide:

[Trippy]

Looks like email batches are going out on Mondays now. Today and March 7 were batches 3 and 2.

Lawrence Yang, one of the Steam Deck designers, has been tweeting email batches if you want to follow him:

https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang

Edit: Mondays not Tuesdays I blame Daylight Savings

Some weeks will have two batches, so emails Monday and Thursday:

https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang/status/1511045220493787136

[Trippy]

Here are the approximate order times for the first batch of US Q2 emails:

https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/twe3fd/us_only_here_are_the_latest_fulfilled_reserve/

64GB
[rtReserveTime missing]
10:25 - 10:30 PDT (couldn't find many commenters with the US 64GB)

256GB
rtReserveTime: 1626455705
Translated: 10:14:43 PDT

512GB
rtReserveTime: 1626455255
Translated: 10:07:35 PDT

I'm 10:41 AM for the 512GB so it's still going to be a while for mine.

[schild]

yeesh
no wonder I ended up in Q3 a minute after launch

[Sky]

11:24am, I guess I get mine for xmas? 

[Trippy]

512 GB US now up to ~10:10:31 AM PDT (+00:10:31 launch).

https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/tyhfo3/if_you_got_an_email_today_time_ordered_model/i3s7zio/

[Sky]

So fulfillment is about a day per minute of sale time. Woah! I wonder how many people are backing out of the reservation, and along which skus.

So if that pace continues, maybe May 31st for mine? 

[Setanta]

Knowing very little about the Steam deck, is 512GB enough to have more than 6-7 games on the console? I'm just thinking that some of the games in my library can use up to 80+ gig per game

[schild]

Probably not but you can't get more

so

[Rendakor]

Does it not have a MicroSD card slot?

[schild]

Storage
64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1)
256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)
512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)

All models use socketed 2230 m.2 modules (not intended for end-user replacement)
All models include high-speed microSD card slot

MicroSDs are about 150 read / 100 write.

So, yes, but also no. I'd barely call it expansion. Use it for indie sub 5gb bullshit.

[Trippy]

Knowing very little about the Steam deck, is 512GB enough to have more than 6-7 games on the console? I'm just thinking that some of the games in my library can use up to 80+ gig per game

You answered your own question, pretty much. It looks like the OS plus Steam Deck UI takes up around 18 GB so that'll leave about 494 GB on the 512 GB model for game installs, shader caches, saved game files, etc.

Does it not have a MicroSD card slot?

It does and the Steam (Deck) UI has a feature for setting up Libraries, which can be on different drives, and moving games between them, so you could use that to shuffle currently "active" games to the SSD and "backburner" games to the MicroSD, analogous to how Xbox and PS have UI for shuffling games to and from USB storage.

Edit: typos

[Trippy]

Probably not but you can't get more

so

You can get more, in theory. I.e. any single-sided M.2 2230 SSD should fit, though it may cause other problems (EMI, power draw, etc.). And Micron announced in January the world's first single-sided 2 TB M.2 2230 SSD and will presumably be the go to model for Steam Deck users with fat wallets wanting maximum space once it becomes available (assuming it works without issues).

[schild]

Probably not but you can't get more

so

You can get more, in theory. I.e. any single-sided M.2 2230 SSD should fit, though it may cause other problems (EMI, power draw, etc.). And Micron announced in January the world's first single-sided 2 TB M.2 2230 SSD and will presumably be the go to model for Steam Deck users with fat wallets wanting maximum space once it becomes available (assuming it works without issues).

I feel like this one isn't worth fucking with. That said, if Valve updates it in a few years, they absolutely should add a nearly external m.2 slot on the back that's easily accessible.

[Sky]

You've probably seen the DF look at ray tracing on the Deck. Gamingonlinux has clarified a few things. Pretty cool what the Deck is doing to promote linux gaming, I don't know that I've ever read a linux gaming site, let alone fairly regularly.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/04/yes-the-steam-deck-will-eventually-get-ray-tracing-once-the-amd-gpu-driver-matures/

I share the same takeaway, that basically it will be supported but it doesn't matter much. I'm seriously in love with ray-tracing, it's brought out a lot more immersiveness in Cyberpunk...but I'm don't really care about it on the Deck. It's been weird seeing pc master race doing its thing but so often forgetting the small screen/portable nature that makes much of that normal graphics whoring take on different parameters for success.

[Trippy]

Ray tracing stopped being a #pcmasterrace thing after the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X came out. Though Team Green still has much better ray tracing hardware (and drivers) compared to Team Red.

[Sky]

Sorry, I was as usual unclear in my post. I was kinda lumping all kinds of pcmr stuff into that comment, the whole gamut of stuff I've heard complained about: lower resolutions, stripping down settings, etc. I get how people push against that kind of stuff for desktops but for the Deck? That's not the point, the games will look good enough for handheld use on that screen at a lower res with reduced settings. Ray-tracing goes from a huge improvement to barely noticeable on the small screen imo (and more importantly perhaps, besides the point of the device, which is having the game library on the couch while the wife watches tv or of course in the can).

As a side note, I've been pulling for team red since I had a 9700 Pro that was awesome for its time...but also had shit drivers. It's weird that they've never been able to shake the driver issues, 20 years later. Team green's complete surrender to wattage is appalling (I've been running mine capped at 300W) and looks to continue worsening.

[Samwise]

It's weird that they've never been able to shake the driver issues, 20 years later.

When I was messing around with OpenGL programming at work about... oh, twenty years ago, ATI's shitty-ass drivers were the bane of my existence.  Every single app crash was because someone had an ATI card and their driver would shit the bed if you asked it to draw a line on the screen.  I ended up going to a huge amount of effort to add in a "compatibility mode" OpenGL emulator, solely so I wouldn't have to keep explaining the concept of "driver problems" to non-gamers whose PCs had come bundled with ATI cards because they didn't know any better.  Fuck ATI in the ear.

[Trippy]

Sorry, I was as usual unclear in my post. I was kinda lumping all kinds of pcmr stuff into that comment, the whole gamut of stuff I've heard complained about: lower resolutions, stripping down settings, etc. I get how people push against that kind of stuff for desktops but for the Deck? That's not the point, the games will look good enough for handheld use on that screen at a lower res with reduced settings. Ray-tracing goes from a huge improvement to barely noticeable on the small screen imo (and more importantly perhaps, besides the point of the device, which is having the game library on the couch while the wife watches tv or of course in the can).

Gotcha. I would imagine that Steam Deck early adopters have PC builds more powerful than the average Steam user and therefore aren't used to having to twiddle with graphics settings much to get acceptable frame rates while most PC gamers do need to do that. I.e. the "average" Steam user has a 1060-class GPU and a 4 core < 3 GHz CPU. Even at 1080p that setup will struggle to hit stable 60 fps at even "High" settings in 3D games. But most of the people complaining about the Steam Deck's performance presumably have >=2060 class GPUs and Intel Comet Lake (10xxx) or AMD Zen 2 CPUs or better.

I've had my Switch for a while now so I'm used to that style of portable gaming and the Steam Deck is way more powerful than that (roughly 3x) so that's plenty powerful for me for a next-gen portable gaming device.

[Sky]

One of my favorite quotes is 'happiness is a function of realistic expectations'.

[Sky]

Here's a look at a control setup for Civ V. I haven't seen footage of strategy games like this, so it's nice to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSEsFB_30R4

[schild]

The steam estimate calculator has my "Q3 delivery" window as July 4th - July 25th depending on which estimation method I use. They're definitely increasing shipping pace.

[Trippy]

Both of those dates sound very optimistic but we'll see. The order time delta has increased by about 4 minutes in 2 weeks -- which would put me at 12 weeks from now or way past Q2. April 7th it was +00:10:31 for US 512 GB, today it's at +00:16:00, and I'm at +00:41:00 so at ~2 minutes a week that's 12.5 weeks from today.

Obviously the orders are "front loaded" so the deltas per week should continue to increase as things progress but I don't know how anybody can make an estimate more than, say, a month in the future given the uncertainty.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/u8sa7f/order_email_megathread_april_21_2022

Edit: 7th not 8th (I posted on 8th)

[Sky]

They should've sorted the deposits by account age 

[schild]

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/udz36r/order_email_megathread_april_28_2022/i6jvlo6/

It's movin, I guess (this is apparently a mostly Q2 batch, so that's good)

[TheWalrus]

My boy wants one of these. He's got a pretty solid laptop, so I'm kind of at a loss as to why he'd need this. Am I missing some aspect here, besides being able to play from the couch?