Steam Deck Review - Testing Mods, Emulation, and More
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2024
- The Steam Deck has a wealth of coverage, sure, but I fiddled with it harder than ten normal TH-camrs combined. Listen to me complain about it for 35 minutes! While I have a cold! Welcome to hell!
Patreon support: / nerrel
Discord: / discord
0:00 Intro
0:53 Hardware and controls
6:37 Steam games on Deck (setup and installation)
9:47 Steam games on Deck (gameplay)
12:22 Docking
15:13 Desktop mode
16:47 Emulator setup
24:00 HD Texture packs
25:34 Modern game modding
27:36 Installing non-Steam games
31:20 Conclusion - เกม
I've received a lot of polite (thank you) feedback about what may have caused some issues, which I'll collect here in case anyone wants to try installing the things I showed:
-I should have run Modmanager from the same Steam entry as RE2 by relinking the exe (the same way I ran SH2 and its installer from the same entry). When adding Modmanager as its own Steam entry it receives a separate compatdata folder, so the app may not have access to RE2's install location
-The Silent Hill 3 script may have hung because of an issue with Reloaded accessing the SD card; it may have worked if installed to the internal storage.
The number of issues games and installers have with accessing the SD card in general does make a stronger case for getting a higher capacity model than I made in the video
-A program called Flatseal can be used to give flatpacks like bsnes access to the SD card
-Citra now supports moving the touchscreen to a separate window, so dual screen setup should be the same as Cemu
-Dino Crisis apparently failed to download a dgVoodoo2 ddraw file, which isn't related to the Rebirth mod ddraw file... just in case that helps anyone troubleshoot
-A delete file option can be added to the right-click menu in the Dolphin settings (Dolphin the file browser, not the emulator) so that you don't need to use the keyboard combo
-Protontricks can apparently be run with commands and is not necessarily meant to be launched from Discovery, so maybe it's not totally busted
-People seem to greatly prefer a program called "Bottles" to Lutris. I had never heard of this, even after searching through a lot of Linux installation guides, but it would likely be better to start with it before resorting to Lutris scripts, because holy hell. DAMN. Woof. It couldn't be any worse, bub.
No way?! you got polite feedback?!?? 😮😮😮😮
I was curious on why you didn't opt in and use something like Emudeck for setting up all your emulators? It's pretty simple and really useful for getting everything set up for you.
Also, I'm going to start Majoras mask and use your texture pack, amazing work as always!
@@avid5985 I second this. Don't get me wrong, the SteamDeck is kind of a portable PC, but it also... isn't. Let's be real: it's a gaming console with the flexibility of a portable PC, a bit like when the PS3 had the OtherOS function, except actually based on it rather than a separate entity. You can set things up manually, but going in with a "Well in Windows..." mentality is like doing the same with an Android phone or iPhone: they aren't Windows, that's the point.
Granted, I do have some Linux experience, but even then, I didn't have to use any console guru moves to get things done. So much so, I challenged myself at times to avoid doing it to see how things could be done without it, and the answer is "quite a lot." EmuDeck was made to ease the way of getting things working so people don't need Linux knowledge, and even my Linux server IT nerdy self uses it. It's like saying that you can't run an emulator unless you compiled it yourself, something I have done once for curiosity and don't recommend for the casual goer.
Of course, it could be just different choices in games. Most titles I played ran fine, but getting Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon to work was a nightmare. Fire a bullet and the game crashes. I solved it by using GE-Proton, which I wanted to avoid, but then the servers being offline required a hex edit, which also applied to Windows. The latter is technically optional, and something I would do on a normal PC, but some titles do require more work. Elder Scrolls Online is great, except for the part I don't own it on Steam. Installing it manually does require some work, and is doable, but it is going through hoops by comparison to a Windows setup.
I'm no stranger to SteamOS acting silly either, but just saying it isn't as often and most games, even some older titles, tend to work fine out of the box.
@@FlameSoulis As someone entirely new to linux it's so cool seeing it's capabilities. I'm glad you brought up proton because I've used it here and there on games that didn't seem to budge just without proton tricks.
Finding all of these great tools just in the discovery store is also a godsend. The further I get using my steam deck the more impressive it becomes to me.
I managed to get MGS2 with Vs Fix on Steam Deck with the lutris installation script, apparently you need to get an updated version of it or something. I'll post the instructions later.
Seeing the dual screen for the wiiu being emulated properly is incredible. I hope the ds/3ds development keeps going along because as much as i love that system it’s trademark dual screen makes it unintuitive to play when emulated.
made me realize Nintendo could do the same with the Switch to play Wii U, DS and 3DS ports but that would require them to not be anti consumer about their legacy software
The 3ds should not be emulated (and the wii u too) as they're still somewhat relevant. And you do realize the wii u just had to gamepad for the "2 screens" while the ds/3ds was literally built for 2 screens right? It's just not worth it
@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 now I’m doing it out of spite.
@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 The 3ds and WiiU eshops are both closed now so I don't know how they're considered relevant anymore.
@@skullerclawerbandicoot7966 the Wii U stopped being relevant the second the Nintendo switch released
I knew watching since the Majora's Mask 3d review was a good idea. Really helpful guide for my current deck escapades.
Wow, look who's here!
Hey Andrew
@@mcride9773 Hello
Imagine your favourite old games with better controls
As a linux user, Lutris is actually one of the most incomprehensible pieces of software I have ever used.
Fully recommend Bottles as a Windows application emulator as it's essentially a virtual machine for each program, however, for GOG games (And Epic Games), there's another launcher (Yes, another one), called Heroic which is extremely well-made and intuitive for installing and running games.
I can second Heroic!
i am also a linux user, started using it full time last year, and every time i try to use lutris i get a headache and give up after an hour
i hate lutris with every fiber in my being, and an alternative called "bottles" is only slightly better in that it *sometimes* works. sometimes!
@@EeveeEuphoria For games I have .exe for, I can't say that I've ever had an issue with Bottles although I have only tried smaller indie games. Actual programs have been a bit of a ballache if I'm using something like Clip Paint or a similar program that needs to open a second window.
Are your issues in that ballpark or does it flat out not work 95% of the time?
Not trying to be rude or snobbish, but what is "incomprehensible" about Lutris?
I'm from the time of manually configuring (sometimes compiling) wine for each game, so when Lutris and PlayonLinux first appeared they made the whole process much easier.
Today, I use Lutris for all non-steam stuff (mainly GoG, Ubisoft and some emulators) and I don't remember the last time I had to do any tweaking... as some marketing people would say "it just works".
I never personally understood why people liked Lutris so much. Each time I tried to use Lutris, it was either buggy or compatibility was anywhere from utter garbage to slightly playable.
I was stalking your channel for days because I knew you would review this thing, there's not a single reviewer I respect more.
Majorass mask 64HD might need a different person(Yes I intentionally said majorbutt)
He’s the king isn’t he
He should review more games
Renns reviews and this dude are the bestest
Day improved
Fr lol
I second that.
Day ruined
Night improved
This counters the departure of Nibel
Really appreciate how in-depth and organized your hardware reviews tend to be and this is no exception. Primarily want one because I like the idea of having a portable console that can play a large amount of my steam library so I will probably not wait too long to get one.
If you're the kind of person who watches videos like this, I feel like the odds are very high that you'll love it. I've really really enjoyed my time with mine.
The only thing to watch out for is some of the more in-depth anti-cheat stuff that hasn't been updated (or may never be updated) to support proton. The latest MW2, for example, will likely never work. That said, I still love it.
I want one as a replacement for my laptop
@@internetguy7319 I drive a truck for a living, and I bought my Deck solely because breaking out and setting up my gaming laptop is a chore, and I obviously can't bring my home rigs along. It's not replacing the laptop, but it is supplementing it.
@Sp08 Exactly, if you're the type of person who doesn't mind tinkering, or actually _enjoy_ it, then the Steam Deck is amazing. The anti-cheat stuff doesn't bother me so much, because those games I'll likely just play on laptop, but if the Deck is going to be a broke college student's main PC, then obviously there'll be roadblocks.
22:23 The fact that it can dual screen is incredibly cool. You can now play games as a Wii U, 3DS, and DS. No more having to resize the screen when you have *two* screens!
@official_Nerrel2scam
Someone finally got this man a deck.
Huzzah.
Huzzah!
Bonus ducks!
He wants to pay
I've watched quite a few Steam Deck reviews but this is by far one of the most comprehensive ones! You basically went over everything that could be considered a pro or con with the system while still considering WHY someone would be interested in getting one. Excellent breakdown!
your art is wonderful!
I want it to play GBA games
I know this is super random, but this video has a very special place in my heart:
It released while I was waiting in a Tokyo Cafe for other outlets to open during my 18-hour layover after visiting my now wife in Korea. I was so exhausted that I actually went to a little corner after ordering some food and drinks and totally crashed while watching this video. But every time I woke back up, I’d start this video again and then crash haha
I think it ended up lasting me a solid 2-3 hours, which was exactly what I needed until I could wander to other places. Very fun, and this video will always resonate with me because of that memory
I am SO HAPPY that you called them out for the Steam Input UI. I don’t see a lot of people talking about it and it’s frustrating that we may lose the better version of Steam Input.
Aaand we did!
-You can still use "-oldbigpicture" launch command to use the old UI, but we don't know how long this will last before they remove it-
Edit: Impossible as of the last update. New godawful UI is now the only option. RIP
Lol
I remember when the deck first came out, people figured out about how to install emulators through desktop mode and so many of them just thought valve made that and put it in as a funny secret workaround for emulators on the deck. Really that's just been what desktop linux has been like for a decade now.
Well, people are finally waking up to how much better Linux gaming is
What? Who considered that a workaround in the first place. It's a PC and they made that clear from the announcement, why wouldn't you be able to install anything you want?
its a portable gaming PC, they were clear about that
It was kind of funny that they showed yuzu in an official promo recently though
@@Snooopy28 🤓
CONGRATS ON FINALLY GETTING YOURS!
Im glad i can finally hear your opinions on it after having my own for 7 months
Did you watch the video? He stole
Gaben’s personal model of the Steam Deck. Nerrel is a master thief.
@@zacharynovak2180 Nerrel: The Deck Project
I wish I could've responded when you made this, but I suppose you'd just berate me due to your incredibly high standards for comedy.
@@Zonic3451 im gonna fucking get you.
This was a fantastic video but oh my god I got so much second hand anxiety just listening to you describing the emulation setup process.
I’d argue it’s still easy without emudeck. Install emulator with a single click in discover. And if you need access to it’s files you can find them all in /home/.var/emulator name, where the folders are the same as on windows. It’s arguably easier than windows.
"My first impression of Lutris is that it's a buggy mess and a waste of time." Don't worry that impression never goes away.
Having had a deck for a while, I just want to say two things:
1. Use emudeck. Unless you're really, really good at setting up emulators, which you can do anyway, emudeck automatically integrates the gyro and establishes a lot of basic settings. It also regularly updates while keeping all of your settings. Aside from some occasional hickups with desktop mode, it's an extremely smooth experience and I think this review undersold how good emudeck is.
2. Get a hub that can function more like a wire extender than an actual deck-holding hub. I found one with an ethernet port, an hdmi port, a handful of usb 3.0 ports, and a port for micro and regular sd cards. Even without using the sd ports (I'm too scared to, I don't know how steam will interpret data coming from a hub-attached port), it was only 25 dollars and works perfectly. When I want to play fully "docked" i use a separate 5 dollar stand, and most of the time I use this set up to stream my games via a video capture card or to play games on a big screen while having discord open on my steam deck, which is a concept that should have any wii u owners absolutely salivating.
Why not both? I have a set the deck in a stand dock for my desk and a charger with a HDMI port for my TV. My TV setup is a bit unique since I also have a HDMI cable and a power extension routed under my couch. The power cable was originally put there for having a convenient phone charger by the couch. This way though I can have my deck plugged into the TV while still easily using it as a controller.
@@chronossage I guess that works too! It's not really a this or that thing, I just feel like the cheapest option is to use a wire-extender hub and use a standalone stand. I just think relegating yourself to only having the steam deck on a desk when it's docked is a bad idea is all. I love using it as my controller for everything.
Nerrel just seems to have something against emulator hubs, not anything harsh about them, but just his preference is to use the normal software and set it up normally
@@alvareo92 Right, and I respect that for him. I'm mostly warning people viewing this review. I totally agree that stuff like RetroArch is much clunkier than just getting the handful of emulators you want. Emudeck is a different beast, esp since it comes with rom manager to make that "pretty steam icons" issue easier too. Windows has a lot of issues on deck so I totally agree with not using it.
I have to second emudeck. I'm also good with setting up emulators, but Emudeck just took a lot of the busywork out.
I knew you'd beef with the Steam Input UI. It was a total shock to me how raw the interface was, as someone who loves Steam Input and the Steam Controller on PC. It was a total "it can't be this bad, can it?" moment.
Same here, the worst thing by far is the "move cursor on screen" mapping
On desktop you just click on where you want the cursor to be and done
On the deck you have to set X and Y, what unit of measurement do these values use? Good question, it doesnt tell you, might as well be kilograms, they dont represent screen percentage, like the rest of the X and Y fields on the deck, they are not pixels either since their maximum values far exceed the default resolution
You basically have to do a lot of trial and error to get it to work
It makes you miss Big Picture, which I thought couldn't be possible. BPM runs way better too. It's a shame they abandoned it. If they actually kept Big Picture up to date, they could just had used that on Deck.
Even the Steam Dekstop Launcher has become a Frankenstein monster, with old interface bits, the new library design (that hasn't been completely integrated 3 years later), partial Big Picture screens like the Gamepad Chords functions and now the new Steam Deck UI beta...
Hello, I'm the creator of the Fluffy Manager mod manager program thing! I think I know why my mod manager failed to work for you. Mods in RAR format are supposed to go into the "mods" folder, and it looks like you had put them those into a sub folder within "mods" making the mod manager fail to detect the mods contained in the RAR archives (instead, it thought you were trying to install one mod that consisted of a ton of RAR files).
That makes sense. Would modmanager still be able to replace the files when the game now has them packed in that DLC format? I had the DX12 version installed on PC, so I couldn't test it there
@@Nerrel The game (as with all RE Engine titles) always uses PAK files for all its assets, DLC or not, and the mod manager is designed to modify those. However, with RE2 and RE3 specifically, there are a lot of mods that only work with the old non-ray-traced builds. This is because the new RT builds use a newer version of the engine where a lot of asset formats are different, and that build was released 2-3 years into the lifespan of the games, so there's a ton of mods that only work with the old versions.
Flufflyquaaaaak ! Man I love your videos
Thank you for making the mod manager. RE2/3 VR works like a charm with costumes and fun models. You're awesome. My friend is coming over with his steam deck. He loves RE games so this was good to know.
HELPFUL TIP: If you do not feel like setting up mouse inputs for ANY program you can hold the steam button and control the mouse with right touch pad or thumb stick and left and right clicks are the triggers.
Hope I helped a few headaches.
This is amazing, thank you!!
This might be the best video someone's put out for the deck, you managed to neatly explain all the amazing features this thing has with the incredible frustrations that can sometimes come with venturing off of steam, great video!
Gaming on Linux was always great for the emulator community, but sucked for AAA gaming, but thanks to Valve AAA gaming is getting better, and at a way faster pace. It's far from perfect, but instead of waiting decades for massive improvements it's only been a year or two (I've been using Linux (both part time, and full time since 1999.) Now every major update these last few months has had a ripple effect for all in the Linux community, and now it's looking more and more acceptable to the general public as a real alternative to Microsoft. In fact the main reason I am not on Linux 100% is my huge steam library which is as of right now 70% playable. Once that hits >95% I will switch over for good.
I don't know how to properly say this but I will consider the steam deck to be close enough to perfect if every game can run just as well as they do on Windows which sometimes they don't run very well. One of the things I've noticed is that some games are labeled as unplayable when they work perfectly fine and the only issue is that the multiplayer is f'ed up. Sometimes the game just sucks so that's the same as Windows but other times it's the anti-cheat. I think there should be an extra rating for games that says basically the single player works fine but no multiplayer. Also Pac-Man World Re-Pac doesn't have any multiplayer as far as I'm aware yet it's labeled unplayable so the whole labeling systems is f'ed up.
70%? Mine is like 90% playable (after some tinkering)
@@joseaca1010 Yeah for me it's now at 75%, but the ones with DRM (or are real old) are still giving me grief.
@@JeremyLeePotocki the only DRM problem i had was when ubisoft updated their godforsaken launcher, it broke every single one of their games on the Deck, i decided to uninstall Child of Light while it got fixed
Supposedly it all works now
I bought my Deck and a dock for TV gaming. My sister wanted to get a new laptop since her current laptop is pretty old. I ended up docking it to a monitor and it became my sister's new gaming PC lol. Overall a very good experience
Tons of detail. No ambiguity. Best reviews.
A steam deck review on TH-cam? Never thought I'd see the day!
I love your videos, they are really damn elaborate and informative. Seriously, we need more channels like yours.
This is amazing. Great review. you covered a lot of my gripes with the controller settings that most reviewers skip out on.
Finally someone talks about the deck problems with Lutris! I had many problems trying to get scripts to work, but, one thing i like about Lutris is that you can create a wine directory, installing a lot of useful .dll, and use that directory for various .exe. I got most of my non-steam VNs to run using that method.
Overral, Linux gaming is not as intuitive or plug and play as Windows, but if you aren't afraid of touching is really satisfying to get stuff running of the blasted thing
I've had almost zero issues using Lutris, but I'm using the 'Add locally installed game' option to point to the installer then after installed, point to the game .exe.
Tried script a few times, always had issues..
The problems with Lutris are mostly due to how its packed as a flatpak. Scripts fail due to how its packaged in the flatpak container. Under a normal linux PC with lutris installed via a normal package manager, you're gonna have a ton less issues.
not on a deck, but on desktop linux I've consistently had lots of problems with lutris, absolutely not a fan of it
Sadly even on my desktop Lutris can be, eh. It does its job if you go manually, but its scripts almost never work, as they often are abandoned and rely on workarounds that are no longer needed nor exist anymore.
Edit: Lmao, just tried lutris again to make sure things havent changed, and it does this, cool bit of software isnt it? media.discordapp.net/attachments/290033726518460416/1036890648923603014/Screenshot_20221031_233301.png
As much as I hate adwaita, there's no real reason to use lutris over bottles.
Part of the fun of these things is getting your shit to work, esp when the OS is fighting you.
As someone who's been daily driving linux with KDE for almost a year, It's nice to see that it's not a huge leap for people coming from windows to use the plasma desktop on the steam deck. I've heard really good things about Lutris from a lot of different people, so hopefully the experience will improve on deck soon. Also while the flatpacks from Flathub are great for getting a piece of software and can be the only available option in a lot of cases, all flatpacks install and sandbox their own dependencies, so if you have a ton of them, you'll use a lot more space than the native system packages, so it's always worth checking if they can be installed natively to give yourself another option if it's there.
The problem is you kinda have to use flatpaks on deck. I just switched a bunch of stuff to native packages and saved like 5GIB.
@Martino Fontana Huh, I didn't know that, but that makes a lot of sense on Valve's part to limit the amount of damage that could happen from all the regular rolling release distro things you have to watch out for on Arch.
@@moose7445 that's why I said you kinda have to use flatpaks :'( but maybe in the future they'll have something like distro box, but I don't think that will happen, really just have to make flatpaks better I guess.
They're pretty good but I have a screenshot of the Command line saying rpsc3 not installed when I could launch it from the GUI, so yeah the command line doesn't always work I guess...
Also, The problems with Lutris are mostly due to how its packed as a flatpak. Scripts fail due to how its packaged in the flatpak container. Under a normal linux PC with lutris installed via a normal package manager, you're gonna have a ton less issues.
@Martino Fontana The Steam Deck comes with systemd-nspawn, which allows a crafty developer to install a containerized version of Linux while leaving the main system untouched. I am developing for the Steam Deck using a Fedora 37 container and it works extremely well.
The only caveat is that you have to be a huge Linux wizard to begin with to even know that this functionality exists.
Would love to see you revisit the deck sometime with whats changed or maybe the state of handheld pc/linux hardware (if possible of course)
This is my favorite review by far, highlighted most if not every issue I've ever had with the deck, you sir are fantastic.
You're literally the first channel I came to when I got my Deck cuz I knew you had some good emulator guides, thank you moon-man
Days since Nerrel has mentioned he's made a HD texture mod ̶1̶ 0.
Nice review as always.
I'm very proud of what Valve does recently, i'm really, really super happy, but ... Gosh ... They should hire someone that can acutally knows how a UI should look like. And i'm not talking about the Deck only.
All modern UI design is crap.
@@CubeDaWoop but that doesn't mean it has to be
sounds like a you problem xD
@@n9ne "xD" bro 😐
@@Your_Local_Milk_Man "😐" bro :/
This video perfectly captures the anxiety of PC gaming troubleshooting. Everything is a dead end and even if something works, it doesn't. Silent Hill 2 is fine though!
This is one of the best reviews on Steam Deck I've seen, thank god I've mostly been using desktop mode with mouse and keyboard as it's still bloody hard to use on the Deck itself.
Also, I didn't know about the RE6 controller switch mod, Il def have to try it out!
I don’t really mod or emulate with games. But I always enjoy your notification in my feed. Another stellar video
Props for going into so much detail with edge case, or more obscure, yet important issues.
I don't have one but the deck looks like a great piece of kit, but videos like this help set expectations. Nothing is perfect.
You state your arguments so clearly and so bulletproof regarding emulation that it's impossible to disagree with you, and you're videos are always fantastic!
idk bout you but i’d gladly listen to nerrel talk about a thing i don’t necessarily care about
Every Nerrel video is an adventure. Gaben bless you.
After Valve announced the deck was out without having to go on a waiting list, I was hoping to see you cover this. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the deck, though I would be interested to see you come back with an update in a few months, since you mentioned all the new stuff thats being added currently.
Thanks for talking about the d-pads, I was actually kinda worried that they would be like the switch ones and that 2D platformers would be clunky
This too is exciting to me! And I liked that the test subject was Super Metroid's infamously convoluted wall jumps!
I've had issues with the D-Pad though, but those issues ultimately depend on what you're playing specifically. It's an actual D-Pad, meaning they aren't separate buttons placed in the cross pattern of a D-Pad, but because of this, I noticed when playing on one specific title that it was really easy for me to input the wrong direction on the D-Pad quite frequently, when attempting to press left & right rapidly, I would frequently unintentionally press down. I don't play 2d fighter games like street fighter so I'm not sure if this would be a problem for those users as well.
Something to point out about modding, specifically with injectors, you'll need to set the WINEDLLOVERRIDES environment variable to have Wine (the Windows translation layer for Linux) either load the native DLL (rather than built-in) or load native and then fallback to built-in (the case for injectors).
So for things like ASI loaders you may need something like WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dinput8=n,b (there's a nicer UI for it in Lutris) if you find that mods are inexplicably not loading.
Is all your knowledge based upon personal experience or is there a forum or repository of info on the steamdeck/portable Linux gaming that I can go to? You seem to have a much deeper understanding of this stuff that I want, lol. Forgive me for going through your comment history on this channel, you know your stuff.
Wendell lovers
Also for Steam you can add overrides through environment variables in the launch options with something like "WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dinput8=n,b %command%" (the command keyword will be replaced with the command Steam runs the game with).
@@squeedles_1943 WINED LOVER RIDES
The most underrated TH-camr returns! Seriously, you have some of the best reviews I’ve ever seen.
Thank you for saying that old big picture mode has its merits! I love the old big picture mode especially the aesthetic and the ambient music is really haunting
Normally, it's always great to see you upload a video but this specific video is the one that I've been looking forward to the most ever since the Steam Deck got announced, going off your previous Valve tech videos.
This is probably my favorite channel in this platform. 👍
Thank you for this in-depth post launch review! I was on the edge for awhile, but I think I'll wait a bit longer now. The problems you have are very likely to be things I encounter and I don't want to deal with that stuff.
I don't know, man. It's kind of freeing. Running into a problem or inconvenience and being able to hunt down the right levers to pull to make it go away is, bar none, the most satifying thing about this handheld.
@NotSoFamousPaul Dude, I haven't really even been using Steam for around 5 years. I'm not praising it for the challenge. On every other handheld if I don't like the way a game plays, I either have to put up with it, or hope the developer deigns to patch it. The way that I can not only iron out stuff like that, but also be able to go as far as effectively changing what's playable on the system, instead of praying for a port, is simply amazing.
So much more useful than other reviews to actually see the process of getting games to work. Thanks a lot for this!
Great overview!
I got my Steam Deck back in August and you summed up the tinkering experience pretty well. There are things you can't do, which you will tend to focus on, but this is still the most freedom I've ever gotten from a handheld system before needing to jailbreak it. It's incredible that the end user CAN take the device to its absolute limit. After I hit that wall and understood what the Deck can and cannot do while learning how to navigate around some of the weirder things I wanted out of it, it's such an enjoyable device.
The shader cache seems like it's designed to fill up as much HDD space as possible, then automatically clear the caches for your least used games if it needs more HDD space.
Unfortunately, this doesn't stop the "Low Storage" warnings from appearing even though the OS will clear that data if it needs more storage. The OS also has trouble clearing large caches, like A Hat In Time and VRchat (7 and 11 gb respectively)
You can also move the shader cache entirely to the SD card and use a symbolic link (fancy shortcut), so that there will only be one folder
@@icyjiub2228 does that work if I use multiple SD cards?
The fact that you 1) took the time to do all of the stuff you did with emulation, 2) suffered through the headaches involved to get everything ready, and 3) are even capable of figuring anything out at all on a piece of hardware my tiny mind cannot comprehend enough to even use at all, that boggles my mind. I'm incredibly impressed by the effort you put into this.
Great review I appreciate that you were very critical rather then just praising it the whole time your also the first reviewer that I've seen mention the issue with the hidden compatdata folder and as someone with a 64gb deck it can be a big issue. I bought a 512gb micro SD card loaded it up with games and emulators, never payed attention to storage until the internal storage got maxed and I was unable to launch a game.
Great video. I can see you put a lot of work into putting it through it's paces.
One of the best in-depth reviews I've seen so far.
Tbh I really loved the new way controller configs are handled. When compared to the old way it can be hard to learn, yes. But for someone like me that never learned the old way I was able to pick it up and figure it out pretty quick.
Ok, Nerrel just became my favorite TH-camr. So much love put into one video man.
Are you an engineer, Nerrel? Your problem-solving abilities are on point and the level of detail you provide on your approaches gives off serious engineering energy.
I'm pretty sure he's just really, really, REALLY used to troubleshooting
The first few days I got my deck and loaded it up with classic Win98-Vista games was the biggest roller coaster. Finding what worked and what didn't, finding plugins that made compatibility better, and getting updates that just happened to fix an issue with a game. It gives me hope in that there's so much more coming and owning one basically makes you a beta tester for games that only you'd want to play. It's seriously a great investment, especially now that Lord Gaben has made the deck purchasable directly from his personal warehouses.
Probably the most interesting Steam Deck review anyone has made so far.
It's not ideal, but because so many modded games require exes and modloaders to work properly, my go to for playing big modded games like skyrim or w/e is just to do all the modding on windows first, and then either copy the files over to deck with warpinator, or if that fails then I'll just use remote play and stream the game to my deck. That's how I've been playing Fallout 76 and Conan Exiles recent (neither of which work natively on deck) and it's been a pretty much great experience.
that pumpkin in your outro is SO cool man, well done
Great vid. I suspect your issue with getting certain mods to load is due to the way Steam handles the game directory, Proton and the rest of the 'fake Windows environment' it creates automatically per-game, known as a 'wine prefix'. These are usually found in /steamapps/compatdata//pfx. One of the tools you couldn't get working, protontricks, is built to allow you to mess with these per-game prefixes (you know, when it works), but you can manually go to them and have a look to see where the extra stuff the game expects from Windows is, such as save file directories, Program Files, etc. Steam stitches this prefix directory, Proton, and the game directory together at runtime to get the game going in an environment that it thinks is Windows.
Often you can get a mod to work simply by making a slight change to this. For example, a popular modding tool for RE Engine games, REFramework, which requires a dll drop-in in the game directory: In Linux you additionally need to modify the user.reg in the game-in-question's prefix to use the mod dll, then everything works as intended.
I hope your Steam Deck experience continues to get better.
Really glad to see you cover the deck. Would you do a video on Playnite and other game launcher compilers? It seems like a subject you'd be interested in. Playnite also integrates with emulators very well.
I have never used any of your HD texture mods, nor have I ever fully played through a LoZ game. That being said, your reviews have been so well-thought out, organized and funny that I can't help watching your content. Cheers, looking forward to more deck vids + workarounds in the future!
Playing the Wutai music whisper quiet in the background made me think I was going crazy. Great video!
This is exactly the kind of video I was looking for. I'm using my deck for emulation, but I'll likely need some workarounds to finish my emulation project. All I needed to know : thumbsup:
Love you Nerrel, never change. That ending was amazing, right up there with the Digital foundry one. I always think about that one and laugh for like an hour.
The size of the trackpads shouldn't be a problem because you should rotate the input by 45 degrees anyways.
your thumb's "left and right" movement is naturally much more diagonal and it's how I've played games on the steam controller anyway.
This means the square shape is treated more like a diamond anyway and you also get the same range.
If you're using a deck or steam controller, please try it out!
+1 I thought i was the only one
Love the video bros. Ur style of monotone voice reminds me of Robert Stack's unsolved mysteries.
I always learn from ur analytical videos.
Keep it up broski.
Thanks for the last part mate, had a blast 😂😂
You can use the Normal Click instead of Soft Click to stop that double clicking action from happening
For RE2:Remake I got those mods working by installing on my PC and copying the files into the Steam Deck directory
I heard about Steam when it came to Linux, all the attention the deck has given desktop Linux has taken the whole platform from 0 to virtually first-class support in just under a decade. Really great to see Valve finally made something that's worth it so everyone else can reap the benefits of all that work, Linux otherwise wouldn't be a big enough market to support like that.
For real! It makes me wonder if in the future SteamOS will be commonplace on gaming desktops lol
Dude I just finished your video, it was an amazing trip, thank you!
i love watching this today and seeing just how far it's continued to come since then. steam input menus not being perfect aside, it's all a lot more stable and dependable in my current experience than what's shown here
I'm so glad you showcased the mod manager headaches. I'm so tired of the "my mods work you don't know what you're doing" crowd. Bro I've been a pc gamer for 10 years, been a tech guy my entire life, and graduate with my degree in IT next year. The deck groups are so toxic towards criticism. How will devs know what to fix with a community pretending the device is perfect 😅
I actually have a custom controller setup just for using desktop mode since I don't own a dock. It works well enough, but setting up important hotkeys is a bit of a chore.
Also, for future reference, Linux and Mac do this thing where everything on the system is a file. Devices like the C: drive or even your headphones are found in a folder called dev/ and can be accessed from there. The run/ directory isn't technically the correct way to find drives. It's a shame that this isn't more clearly explained somewhere on the Deck, but the Plasma desktop is mostly developed by users and wasn't designed specifically for the Deck, so that might be why.
My first time on your channel, and a hesitated to watch another steam deck review..... I'm glad i watched lol like listening to how i felt the last 3 months with my steam deck, probably the best review i have seen, such a dream come true, even with the quirks
Fantastic, comprehensive review. Love the content
You should totally make an updated review again, at least if enough has changed.
maybe after a year?
Nerrel probably is one of the best test reviewers on TH-cam even if he isn't officially one.
Love your vids, thinking about getting one now so this is perfect timing
I really appreciate this kick-the-tires style of review! It didn't sound negative, just realistic and exploratory. Thanks for the video!
One day, I will be able to figure out what Nerrel's accent is... one day...
4:50
Actually the bottom display is still there, but for some reason it's hidden by default. If you tap the area with the touchscreen, the buttons reappear. It's such a weird change that I have to assume it's some kind of bug.
Its not a change, on windows it doesn’t pop up till the mouse hovers over the window. The touchscreen is the mouse
Always appreciate the videos dude. And great pumpkin carving!!
Stellar review! As someone who has exclusively used EmuDeck and Steam Workshop mods, I had no idea how lucky I was :P
11:43 For the ShaderCache stuttering, I recommend using ProtonGE (any version) and in the launch arguments of the game you put DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command% and there is the posibility the shader cache now is building on asyncronous, that means while is compiling you may experience things that don't load, invisible items or walls momentarily, but that means, the stutter was changed for that. Try it out for some games and tell me what you think!
The Steam Deck is really a thing.
Soon you'll just be able to use dxvk 2.0.
What are your thoughts on the OLED? Also curios…based on the Steam Deck pricing in 2024 I wonder how much we can extrapolate and expect from Nintendo come 2025 with the Switch successor/Switch Pro/2. I don’t think Switch 2 will be on par with Steam Deck simply because of the price point and second but also very importantly is the battery life. On Steam Deck OLED you can get roughly triple the battery of the original Deck with nearly 3 hours which to me is the acceptable point for a handheld system. I can see the next Switch being between $350-$450 but will be very surprised if there aren’t varying SKUs at launch. I think the next Switch will aim for closer to 5 hours battery life for peak performance. I expect Nintendo will make a larger console at least with the joy-con and controller options. I think it will be about on par with PS4 with some newer tech that will allow it to run modern games but still at a very compromised state unless totally optimized by devs. If Nintendo came out with a device as powerful as Steam Deck OLED with the battery life, screen quality, and Nintendo games I’d be thrilled personally but I don’t think those specs are up to snuff for Nintendo’s pricing and battery life emphasis since the Gameboy. Reflecting more and more since 2017, despite the Switch being ‘inferior’ and low spec even for its launch -- the people at Nintendo really thought through the engineering. The fact it’s still getting tons of games in 2024 and still selling as well as it is and that the console battery seems to hold up very well over time VS past consoles like GBA and DS where there was a large fall off for Lithium Ion battery max charge retention. My OLED has gotten 1000s of hours of play and still feels brand new. The Switch was a well thought out console with obvious compromises made up front to maximize sales and keep battery life up. I just wish Nintendo introduced a premium tier product for fans who want something a bit beefier in the specs and performance departments. I don’t think they are ready to create that schism with their fans yet though. They’d probably still sell more of the cheaper devices like how Xbox Series S has sold incredibly well compared to X. Ok meandering rant over. Is it worth buying a Steam Deck OLED in 2024 or should I hold out until 2025 to see what Nintendo is cooking up next?
You really do make the best videos Nerrel! Always look forward to your in depth videos. Much love!
Aside from that. As a full time Linux user and someone who has headbutted the "Linux wall", when it comes to gaming. Over and over and over again, since a few years; on desktop that is. I look forward to plunging head first and getting Origin, Uplay, Epic store and all the rest running through Lutris, or Wine proper, on the deck as well. Might be I can add to the repertoire of knowledge getting this stuff running more smoothly. I have some pretty significant "no runners" running fully on my end through hacks and bodges.
My first experience with it was disappointing since I had a unit with a faulty APU. I got a new Deck from the RMA process today and now I see what all the hype it about. Great review! I'm definitely going to have to look into modding some of my games now I can actually play them without constant crashes.
I know this is late, but are you gonna make a video on the Steam Deck’s current state? Especially since valve released an OLED version with a big update alongside it.
Спасибо огромное за столь подробный и интересный обзор! Я использую стим контроллер (и биг пикчер тоже) и мне очень важно знать куда движется вся эта история. Бета steam deck UI не работает на моём пс и мне нет нужды сейчас возится со стимом в линукс. Очень печально видеть новый UI, я ждал кардинальных улучшений, а не этот провал.
Your videos always make my head spin but that's why I'm here. It's interesting seeing what the tech wizards out there can do.
Damn, didn’t even realize 35 minutes even passed till I read the description. Keep up the nice work!
Protonfix cannot be launched in the discovery app, it needs to launch by the app list in the startup menu. I had the same issue and the developer told me this.
As a nerrel fan and a steam deck owner I watched this tutorial, then installed emudeck I'm sorry I couldn't handle the pain of setting emulators up on a deck with this power
I love this content! This is exactly scenarios and issues I wanted to know. I still order my deck, can't wait to tinker around! 👍
@@official_Nerrel1scam
I honestly loved this video, especially since the first chunk of it was dedicated to the sort of gripes with the device thast could make/break it for me and seemingly weren't covered by every other channel when this came out
I've waited for your unbiased review of the Steam Deck and seeing the configuration steps needed to set up emulation without EmulationDeck, I'm so happy about the work they have done.
I'm also with you with the unpolished Desktop mode experience, I actually find myself using the Desktop mode more than the dedicated Gaming mode and there are many, many things that bug me.
Just as an example, I installed and activated the German keyboard layout and, it does work, but every 10 minutes, it switches back to English without any notification whatsoever. That's especially funny if you're typing out a password and don't trust your fingers anymore because there's a 'Wrong Password' message three times in a row.