Home
Artists
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register
Partychan Telegram ThePornDude
Home Artists Posts Import Register
S

Questions for Steam Deck Direct Special + Coming this week (Week 29, 2021) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-07-19 11:59:49
Imported:
2022-03

Content

Hi everyone, Rich here! So, the Steam Deck reveal happened *after* we'd completed filming on DF Direct Weekly #20, but it's clear there's still a ton to discuss so we will be convening tomorrow to talk about it in a special we'll get out as quickly as possible - and we would love to take your questions on it. So get them all in as soon as you can please!

As for what's happening this week...

* Steam Deck derailed the schedule last week, meaning Rich's Ratchet and Clank 40fps analysis is still an early access exclusive, but will likely be going live tomorrow.

* Alex is still on vacation - so please be patient if he doesn't appear on Discord etc

* John is working with Audi on the next DF Retro full episode, but will dramatically pivot if and when certain titles we're expecting appear!

* Tom continues and hopefully concludes the under-the-wraps project we've talked about in the past.

* We'd hope to get the Stream Deck direct out on Wednesday.

* We'll be running DF Retro Play on Sunday, based on little known PS2 gem Flipnic, and there should be a new one arriving for DF Retro subscribers to replace it.

So, a lot of stuff going on, some stuff we can't talk about, but expect good things!


Comments

Anonymous

Have not found information on this, but does the screen on the steam deck support freesync/vrr and fsr? What are your thoughts on this? What in your opinion will be more beneficial?

Anonymous

The somewhat inset control sticks on the Steam Deck look like they could be a bit uncomfortable. Does the team have any thoughts on this? More generally, how does the team feel about the control compromises that seem to have been made between the controls working well for console games and for PC games?

Anonymous

"but will dramatically pivot if and when certain titles we're expecting appear!". Very interesting little snippit. I wonder if it's EA Play related and why would John be the one to cover them hmmm

Anonymous

I've pre-ordered a Steam Deck with the goal of using it as a portable Game Pass device. Do you think it's likely that Microsoft will create an optimised Windows Store app for this purpose, or similar? I'm thinking this could include controller mapping presets, or graphics profile presets for certain games. Another angle, what about using it as an xCloud device? All in all, I guess I'm just wondering if this likely to work well in reality.

sj33 (Jake)

Microsoft seem to be bending over backwards to bring Game Pass to as many platforms as possible, how likely is it that Microsoft would release a Linux-native Game Pass application for the Steam Deck? Would Valve oppose competition to the Steam store and Microsoft oppose a rival to Windows 11, or will both see the bigger picture?

Eric Benoit

The real question Alex is that how does it play Rome Total War?

Anonymous

Will the steam deck be able to support Fidelity FX? Could be a game changer for a handheld. Also, how far along is Fidelity FX? I haven't heard anything new about it in some time and I haven't seen any games using it, I'm not even 100% on how it works compared to DLSS.

Anonymous

In addition to the questions on xCloud, what about the ‘local’ streaming options built into the current Xbox and PS Remote Play applications? These have native Windows/Android/iOS apps, and there seem to be no issues with this local option getting through App Store review at Apple etc, so is this a more likely inclusion as a Linux native app in the Steam storefront? I use these constantly with my iPad+xbox one controller or my iPhone with Backbone, but a Steam Deck seems like an even better option. Assuming one installs Windows on the SD then sure, use the native PC apps there, but having native ports to Linux would be nice. Also, another way around this is having the Steam Deck run Android apps, possibly through a similar mechanism to Windows 11. Thoughts on the possibility to side load Android apps/have an Android App Store on the Steam Deck?

Anonymous

Could you please share your take on the longevity of the current Steam Deck iteration? It seems a "bonus" of the Steam Deck that some are touting is the capability to play their Steam games well into the future. But since the APU is not upgradeable, how soon will it be before we see the same conversations surrounding the Switch of hardware that desperately needs a true upgrade? The onus would also lie on Valve or other manufacturers to release new Steam Decks.

Anonymous

What do you estimate the performance to be, given were getting a weaker zen 2 cpu than similar handhelds, emmc or micro sd storage, but considerably better gpu architecture, and ram?

Anonymous

How good do you think the Steamdeck will be when connected to the dock compared to the portable mode? Do you think it will be able to run games when connected to a 1080p screen at a acceptable frame rate (30/60fps)?

Anonymous

I would love to see a PC build with similar hardware to the Steam Deck, to get some performance ideas before the official release. Would you guys be interested in doing something like that?

Anonymous

I thought one of the most interesting things that came out of the reveal was Gabe Newell’s comments around how they’d be quite happy for other hardware manufacturers to step in and provide devices that were on a similar level to the steam deck. Do you foresee the likes of Razer and Alienware or potentially a platform holder like Epic stepping in?

Ben McSkelly

Battery life is going to be a key consideration, given most of the library wasn't built with power usage in mind. To that end, what genres or tech do you expect will be especially heavy on the battery? (p.s when it comes out Alex can add another strand of recommended pc specs, the battery saver recommendation)

Anonymous

So among the team who's buying a Steamdeck and why do you or don't you ?

Eric Hurst

Valve has been touting the Deck as a PC that can do everything a PC does, and I see why they’re trying to appeal to PC users and current Steam users. But how successful do you believe Steam Deck will be with non-PC gamers and gamers who have never used Steam before and have no plans to add peripherals or install another OS? Do you think Valve will provide a good experience on Steam Deck out of the box, or will it require tinkering and installing 3rd party software to truly enjoy?

Anonymous

How do you think Steam Deck can compete in a market traditionally dominated by Nintendo and are they even trying for that segment (they did feature a child in the launch trailer)? I have a hard time believing that Steam Deck isn't doomed from the start because the handheld market has proven extraordinarily difficult to crack. Is their marketing team up to the task?

Anonymous

I have recently started doing some cloud gaming testing in our DF Discord. So far PC game Streaming via GeForce Now seems to give more sharper image vs xCloud whereas xCloud seems to have more consistent framerate at 60fps when the game is running on Series X blade with minimal input latency while connected to a controller like Razer Kishi. Do you think we'll be hitting a point with Deck where reducing the resolution/fidelity of games on Deck to make it work natively would affect the art and gameplay so much that the better idea would be to have them streamed. Similar to Switch but obviously better. Depending on Valve's partnership with a provider. Currently they already partner with GeForce Now with Steam Cloud Play (beta) to run "some" Steam games directly on GFN.

Anonymous

While Steam Deck is going to be an open platform, many publishers don't have their game launchers available on Linux so without Windows the Deck is "limited" mainly to Steam. Do you think that a radical enhancement of Proton will lead to more game launchers being made available on Linux?

Anonymous

Not a question, but it would be great to get some Windows Vs Proton performance and image quality comparisons. (I don't even know of image quality could vary, but I'd guess different drivers may have an impact).

Anonymous

What is your opinion on steamOS vs Windows for the steam deck? Outside of DF testing/analysis would put Windows on or leave as is? Interested to hear your thoughts.

André Scheffler

Has anyone in your team taken a deeper look at Proton and it's current performance? Also do you think Valve will offer profiles to optimize game experience, like GeForce Experience or Intel Gameplay allows you to do with it's automatic config optimization feature?

André Scheffler

I see this machine more as a PC back catalogue device and not that much as a current gen console competitor. Mainly because Switch has Nintendo exclusives (and would otherwise be ignored like the nVidia Shield) and PS5 & XS(S/X) offer way more performance. How do you see the device?

Anonymous

Hi guys. Do you (all of you), see the XBOX game pass as sustainable in the long term and do you believe it diminishes the individuality of game developers?

Anonymous

I want to ask about the Steam deck Ray tracing capability. Do you think the 8 RDNA2 CUs will be enough for utilizing it in current and future ray tracing games at 720p/800p? And if not, is there any way to make Ray tracing viable on the Steam deck?

Anonymous

Do you reckon we could run Crysis 3 at 720p60fps without all the settings thrown on low? Also is Crysis 3 (or Crysis games in general) going to be part of your launch content for the Steam Deck?

Anonymous

If I want to hook the Deck up to my TV, is there any way to take advantage of HDMI 2.1 features such as freesync/vrr and eARC?

Anonymous

Question: As someone who has no experience with steam OS I’m wondering if the steam deck will have the ability to install 3rd party apps on steam OS itself as opposed to a separate operating system.

Anonymous

What do you guys think of valve's new steam deck? Do you think it is in competition with the switch or are the games / fanbase different enough for them to exist and do well along side each other?

Anonymous

Is there any indication Valve will open source SteamOS 3.0? Suspending games is something I’ve wanted on PC for a while and it would be really interesting to use their software on a custom build.

Anonymous

Given the lack of thunderbolt connectivity, do you believe eGPU support may come with a future iteration of the Deck, or do you think that this functionality is too expensive and too niche for them to realistically worry about it? There have been a small number of AMD socket motherboards that offer thunderbolt, but their scarcity would imply extra cost and/or difficulty. Perhaps the future USB 4 standard would allow this functionality at minimal extra cost?

Anonymous

What do you think about the potential for the Steam Deck to be the most comprehensive handheld machine yet released for emulation purposes?

Anonymous

Do you think the Steam Deck has the specs (both hardware and SteamOS compatibility) to run 60fps PC versions of 7th and 8th gen games that are trapped at 30fps on console? Using the dock, is there any era of PC gaming that the Steam deck should be able to run at 1440/60 or 4k/60? What do you make of the non-traditional control options for PC genres that don’t map well to modern controllers like RTS -- is there a possible appeal here over mouse + keyboard? Also, how big of an advantage would a Steam Deck have at pulling off a Zerg rush in Starcraft over a Thinkpad Trackpoint (the little red nub)?

Anonymous

Hi Digital Foundry! Long time follower since the game engine analysis days when Richard did them. Love your content and you just keep getting better. The Question: I know valve says that people can install any OS they want on there but how likely is this going to work well for Windows when we don't know if the driver support for this custom APU will be any good. Do you think AMD will release a unified graphics driver for the APU?

Anonymous

Most people have questions about Steam Deck but i rather leave it for later this year, now... Do you think that Nintendo Switch has enough room for tech like FSR to make newer games have better visuals and keep performance?

Anonymous

Another question. Why Nintendo Switch games/ports has like a weir lightning/shadow system (doesn't look as old ps3 titles but neither as newer as pc/consoles titles). I've noticed it also in DBZ: Kakarot comming to switch, looks slightly different in how is the game casting shadows.

Anonymous
>>64061737

Doubt it - the spec page on the website says HDMI 2.0. https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

Anonymous

What are your thoughts about the quick resume feature? If Valve is hinting at bringing Steam Cloud support and multiple quick resume sessions, does that mean that we could see system-wide quick resume on PC? Quick resume is a huge feature for console gaming and I've always wanted PC to have a feature like it.

Anonymous

Would it have been better for Valve to create an ARM-based Steam Deck instead one based on x86? Rather than investing in creating a compatibility layer for running Windows games on SteamOS with PC hardware, should they have invested in making Windows games run on ARM hardware (similar to Rosetta 2 on M1 Macs)? Hardware-wise, Apple Silicon and the Nintendo Switch have shown ARM can deliver meaningful performance in small form factors, whereas Valve seems to be hitting the limits of how small they can go with PC hardware. Also, from a software view, Proton is in direct competition with the native Windows software stack: both are acting as the link between Windows games and PC hardware. An ARM focused Proton could enable Valve to be in devices Windows itself struggles to work well in. Is Valve missing an opportunity by sticking with x86?

Anonymous

There seems to be a lot of confusion around VRR, what it is, how it differs from Freesync or Gsync and what is required for it to work, is it part of the HDMI 2.1 specification? Could you help to clear this up, many thanks, TTG

d0x360
>>64195414

It's part of HDMI 2.1 and is the same as freesync. Gsync required a module in the display to work but at this point that seems to be ending.