None of the steps to get the DX version and mod working bother me. I’ve had to do quite a bit for some games so no trouble there. The audio issue is bothersome though. I pretty much exclusively play with headphones on. I wonder what causes that issue.
1 Like
In case this comes in handy, here are the “Launch Options” I had to specify in Steam for things to work as expected:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d8=n,b" %command%
My understanding is that the mods include a custom Direct3D 8 driver replacement and this command tells Proton to use that one, not the one it includes already.
The version I played on was good ol’ Proton 7.0-2. It’s possible that other versions might not have the same audio thing happen.
1 Like
Dolphin runs, as do Dreamcast emulators. But isn’t the GameCube one considered a step down from the Dreamcast version?
There are some serious UI issues related to the Steam wish list on Steam Deck. Aside from the serious lack of sort and filter options, the list loads properly upon first entering it, but if you select a game and then return to the list it doesn’t load several elements, fails to load every game in the list and will no longer allow you to use the dpad or analogue stick to navigate, as the selection cursor gets stuck in the search text field. You can scroll with the dpad or stick, but you can’t select games. Every time you want to view a game on your wish list you need to completely exit and reenter the wish list.
One byproduct of owning the Steam Deck is that I am now aware of some of the more painful elements of the Steam UI and thus its UX. I was just trying to retrieve photos from Steam, and aside from the fact that the photo browser is severely limited and forces you to access photos one by one, things like game selection drop downs often fail to work. And this isn’t specific to Steam Deck, this is in the web interface and the Steam client on PC/Mac. There are just so many elements that feel like someone said “good enough” before moving on, never to revisit.
3 Likes
It’s hilarious how much of a Sonic machine my Steam Deck has become…
- Sonic 1: Installed the Windows version of the 2013 decomp using the data from my legal mobile purchase, with the Sonic 1 Forever mod. Had to change Steam’s control scheme from keyboard/mouse to gamepad, seems to work perfectly after that.
- Sonic 2: Same as above but with the Sonic 2 Absolute mod.
- Sonic 3: Installed Sega Genesis Classics from Steam and then Angel Island Revisited from the Discover Store, works great!
- Sonic R: Used the Sonic R Updater, after configuring the controller it seems to work perfectly.
- Sonic Adventure DX: Installed from Steam and then used SADX Mod Installer to fix bugs and restore Dreamcast features. Recently discovered what seems to be a fix for the audio glitches by making sure “3D Audio” is set to “off.” Only annoying bit is that sometimes Steam installs a phantom update, requiring me to re-run the mod installer.
I’ve played a bunch of Sonic Mania and Sonic Generations as well, without issue. I haven’t tried them yet, but Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces are all “gold” or “platinum” on ProtonDB.
1 Like
@BorisY potential good news:
Valve is doubling Steam Deck shipments, so you might get yours faster - The Verge
Valve is doubling the number of Steam Decks it ships to customers, the company announced Monday. “Production has picked up, and after today we’ll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week!” Valve said in a tweet from the official Steam Deck account. And in response to a question from my colleague Sean Hollister, Valve designer Lawrence Yang spelled out the change more clearly: “in previous weeks we were shipping x units / week to customers, starting this week we’ll be shipping 2x units / week.”
If you’ve been eagerly refreshing your inbox every Monday and Thursday for the chance to order your Steam Deck reservation, the increased production could be a sign that you might be able to buy your device sooner than you expected. My own reservation hasn’t changed from its Q3 estimate on the Steam Deck Steam page, but maybe now that email will arrive sometime in the earlier side of the quarter. And if you’re also in that Q3 window, you should start keeping an eye on your inbox on June 30th, as Valve said the first Q3 order emails will go out then.
3 Likes
I’m not there yet but I suspect a lot of Sonic will be played on my Steam Deck as I continue to make my way through the series.
1 Like
Re: Doubling shipments.
That’s great news! Can’t believe we’re pretty much Q3 already!
2 Likes
I just tried out Steam recently. I eventually got Ultra Street Fighter IV working on it, but haven’t had success with Street Fighter V as-of-yet. I wonder if it would work better on a Steam Deck
I don’t understand much about computers, except the basics
1 Like
Maybe @tylerisrandom knows more but given there’s a mod to fix all the issues in Sonic Adventure DX on PC, I wonder if there is something similar for Sonic Adventure 2.
Weird, I’ve played it on Dreamcast, GameCube and PC and I don’t recall experiencing such severe issues on PC. Then again, I might not notice since I’m not as big a fan of SA2 to begin with.
There is a modding scene for SA2B, but it’s a lot more focused on alterations rather than fixes since generally the “Battle” versions of the game did more good than harm.
2 Likes
I’ve discovered an odd side effect of owning a Steam Deck. It has made me appreciate my Switch more, and even led me to playing it a bit more than I had been for a bit. I love the fact that the Steam Deck is highly flexible, friendly to tinkering and can run almost anything under the sun. And I appreciate that despite being a bit big, it’s still portable. It’s a great console for a whole host of games and I am really happy I bought it. But it also granted me renewed appreciation for the simplicity, size and design of the Switch. Carrying the Steam Deck around with me served to provide a stark reminder of just how easily the Switch pops in my bag and travels with me. And now that I resolved the Switch’s biggest downside, the lack of a d-pad, I am back to regularly playing games on my Switch, during my commute, on lunch at work, on my couch attached to my TV, or in bed briefly before going to sleep. If the Steam Deck is the perfect example of all the reasons why open systems are great, the Switch really does a great job showing how tightly controlled and curated consoles can provide an opposite yet equally satisfying experience. I’m very happy both exist.
4 Likes
Decided to pick up where I left off in Rogue Legacy 2 and it resulted in almost an hour of troubleshooting.
First it would launch in console mode, and I had to switch to desktop to find out why. Checked the error log and I was logged out of Epic in Heroic. Tried to log into Epic and couldn’t. Realized I had to update Heroic. The updater crashed and I had to restart desktop mode.
After it installed I was able to log into Epic. But I still couldn’t launch the game. Checked the log again, noted that the game was out of date and needed to be updated but the update icon was missing. Regardless, Heroic is supposed to launch the updater if you press “Play Game”. Since that wouldn’t work and only resulted in the same error message in the log, I had to poke around for a solution for a bit. Turned out I needed a newer Legendary binary ( .27 and I was on .25).
Downloaded the recent binary, but couldn’t install it. Kept getting an error that said the file couldn’t be accessed. Went into Flatseal to adjust file access permissions. Still failed. Rebooted and the newest Legendary binary appeared to be installed. Now I could update the game and start playing.
So while it’s working, all of that is incentive enough to never buy a game from anyone but Steam. Which is good for Steam, but maybe not for the rest of the industry. Hopefully Epic sees the sense in building a solution for Steam Deck. It opens them up to more sales and I doubt Steam will block them from using their own storefront and payment methods, which is their major obsession on iOS and Android.
2 Likes
Odd new development. I am playing Rogue Legacy 2 and when docked to my TV I play using a DS4 controller. I’ve noticed that the controller vibrates for much longer than it should when triggered. So I decided to toggle the rumble feature, which did solve the problem. But it introduced a new issue: whenever I press the PS button to bring up the Steam menu, the controller vibrates. This is despite the fact that rumble is off. I’ve searched around to see if anyone else has experienced something similar, but so far it doesn’t seem anyone who has is posting about it. It’s not a significant issue, but it is an oddity.
1 Like
I’ve had that same problem using the 8Bitdo Pro 2 controller. I couldn’t find an answer, so I just did the same thing you did and turned off the rumble. Anytime a game made a rumble, the controller just wouldn’t turn off. Even after disconnecting the controller it would keep going.
I love the Steam Deck, but I do seem to have lots of little quirky things happen. I have to reboot the thing about every third time I take it out of sleep mode while still in game with Hollow Knight. I also had all sorts of weird graphics issues with that game where I had to go into the launch settings and force it to use the OpenGL drives instead of Vulkan to clear it up. When going back and forth between desktop mode when it’s docked, it gets locked on a black screen every so often and I have to reboot it.
1 Like
You had that problem with Hollow Knight? Are you running a version from Steam, or a different install.
I’m having a problem with shaders in another game wherein the game crashes after launch because there’s a fatal error related to shaders. I think it’s because the game wants a specific version of directx and none of the builds of Proton seem to work.
Yeah, I basically had this issue: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/5801
I’m just running the version installed from Steam. Sometimes when I would transition from one room to another, the screen would just go black, and I would just have to reboot. I’ve read several theories on it. One Reddit post said that it was because by default the Linux version of the game is installed on the Steam Deck, and that if you switch it over to use the Windows version with Proton, it works better. I also saw on a different Reddit thread that if you turn off Half Rate Shading (whatever that is) with the 3 dot button, it also fixes it. I did the -force-opengl in the startup options to make it work, and it’s been fine ever since.
So far, I’ve pretty much only played Vampire Survivors and Hollow Knight on the Steam Deck, and it’s been worth every penny 
I started messing around with EmuDeck and putting some of my various ROMs on there, and that’s been real cool too.
1 Like
So I am now the proud owner of a 512GB Steamdeck! Hurrah! It arrived about a couple of weeks ago (about 5-6 days after getting the email confirming purchase.
I’m really pleased with it. So far i’ve only played Genesis Noir (which I didn’t really enjoy for some reason) and I’m now playing Sable, which I am really enjoying. It really does open up gaming options for me. Now having to option to play some Windows games again if I want to, is just amazing!!! (I haven’t had a Windows PC for about 20 years! So up until now have been limited to PS4 / PS5 or MacOSX).
Everything has run really smoothly. I’ve done nothing fancy so far, ie both games just purchased straight from the Steam store and running on pretty much default settings. Only had one occasion where I had to reboot (were I got a black screen) but otherwise no real problems and no tweaking as of yet.
PS I’ve reduced the screen brightness down a bit and locked the frame rate to 30 FPS to try and squeeze out a bit more battery life, but I don’t tend to play for extended periods so it’s no big deal.
3 Likes
Hmm, I only played up to and including beating the Failed Champion. So maybe I didn’t play long enough to run into a problem. I’m 100% certain I have the Linux version installed as well. Maybe I didn’t run into it because I stopped playing there and switched to my Switch.