Valve's huge Steam Deck update is now ready for everyone, including rival AMD handhelds
New SteamOS handhelds, here we go?
lol, ‘Rival’ I’m sure Valve cares much more about the 30% take of Steam games sold on other handhelds than they do about selling more Steam Decks
Steam Machines showed them they needed to enforce a quality floor that other manufacturers would need to exceed.
Yes, I'm still mad Steam Machines didn't take off.
Valve has been moving slow and steady, but it seems like a master plan for Steam Machines could finally be coming into focus.
Honestly if Valve launched a new Steam Machine today, I’d buy it in an instant.
If they’d just release Steam OS for desktop with proper support, they wouldn’t even need to make a steam machine. Someone else is likely already selling hardware in that form factor that’s more than adequate.
Not to mention many would stop using windows for gaming, oh wait they are already doing that…
For me, it's not the steam machine itself but the peripherals like the steam controller that would come with it. There still isn't a proper replacement for the original SC that has: trackpads, gyro, back buttons, and full steam input support.
Everything else is missing trackpads and aimed at emulating a console controller, so you get weird situations where one mode supports gyro because it emulates a switch controller but doesn't support the back buttons and analog triggers, and another supports the back buttons and analog triggers but not gyro.
Funnily enough, the steam deck itself is the best option as a controller if you want all of these features.
Of course, a new steam machine wouldn't be required for a new SC to happen, but it makes sense to pair them, as they did originally.
I know they make money off the store but making a quality, repairable product and selling it at a reasonable price is a really good business model. Other companies should try it. When Steam Deck 2 comes out, I’ll be buying it. And probably repurposing my original Steam Deck as a media server or something.
There’s like six companies left on Earth that do that and they’ll probably be around forever. I know it costs 30% more for quality and Valve has the store to supplement it. But I have a 20 year-old leather jacket and an even older kitchen knife. I saved up for both because I was broke and in my early 20’s. They’re probably both better today after going through their paces. I know a guy who works at a shipyard who gets his boots re-soled because he likes his boots. Same boots for decades. Occasional maintenance required.
I think we're going to need to see a generational shift in compute before we see steam deck two. I have the original deck, and the OLED. Kicked down the original to a friend. Both are great pieces of kit. I've basically survived without a gaming machine for almost 4 years because of these devices. I've experienced almost 0 desegregation on either. Just phenomenal devices.
I've finally bit the bullet on a more serious machine (for both work and pleasure). I've got a Asus ROG Flow Z13 on back order, the 128gb variant. I think this is the direction things are going to go. We just can't make CPU's/ Video cards faster/ more efficient if we keep them separated.
My speculation: the next steam deck is going to take on this design, so long as the stryx halo generation proves itself. It might not be a "full force" variant like I've bought into, but the rub is the temperatures and power to performance relationship. The stryx halo design is the only thing I've seen that would warrant a generation refresh.
Yes, thank you for mentioning the Strix Halo CPUs from AMD. I had this exact same thought before as well ever since I've seen these CPUs come to market. The SoC design is much more similar to the Apple M chips that can provide absurd memory bandwidth as well. I could imagine a cut down/low power version provided by AMDs semi-custom program where Valve would get a unique design again like with the first Steam Deck. Due to the high bandwidth LPDDR5x memory they would wipe the floor with every existing handheld SoC on the market today.
Which other companies come to mind? I'll support them too!
I said six as a joke but I thought I’d put together a list anyway.
To be clear, every single one of these companies might have been bought by a private equity firm that intends to ruin it and milk the brand equity while making everything worse. I’m not endorsing any corporation. I just have found those companies to be worth paying a bit more for compared to generic.
Fairphones are modular, repairable smart phones.
"Piracy is a service issue" taken to the extreme.
Direct link to the release notes:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/820329049655084700?l=english
Yeah, why is that article the pinned post and not the real thing (I'm the first to submit it a few minutes ago, no cross-posting info displayed by Lemmy)?
No one had posted the actual patch notes yet when I pinned this, and the headline on this one covers what's probably the most significant news item about this update.
Personally I really like reading the patch notes directly, but it seems like usually it's the articles talking about the changes like this that get more traction on lemmy and other sites. I think having the patch notes directly linked in a comment here is a nice middle ground of having the higher traction headline/article and the more info rich patch notes both easily accessible.
Thank you
SteamOS on my legion go for about a month now, it's been great. The future is now
How does the mouse function work on that device? Feels good? To me it seems like a really good functionality for shooters.
Tbh, I don't use it much, I'm ether playing with the controllers, using the touchscreen, or set it up with keyboard and mouse.
To use the mouse function, the charging bar(?) needs to covered for comfort, the joystick pulled off so it doesn't get in the way, and the scroll wheel feels odd to me. I think it's cool they designed the option, but I just prefer a standard mouse.
Steam Deck keeps getting better.
The Deck update is great so far, but the Dock update is not. I couldn't get any video on DP until I rolled the dock firmware back.
I like a lot of things about Valve, but it has never felt like the dock is well supported.
This new firmware is the first one that outputs HDMI to my TV, and it breaks DP for you...
Lol. I was kinda hoping that $80, and "made by the same vendor", and "made by a reputable company" would get me a dock that works better than a $20 SIXLTR off of Amazon.
This update completely messed up my workflow unfortunately. My monitors randomly turn on and off now and the headphone jack and ethernet port on my dock don’t work anymore. Of course I’m using a thinkpad dock so it’s probably not fully supported but it’s still disappointing to see.
I would really love it if the new update makes the GPU compatible with Blender for GPU rendering.
