Steam Deck

Mostly sharing this for Marvel Rivals, since Indiana Jones still probably runs poorly on Deck due to mandatory ray tracing.

Indiana Jones did get both the green eye bug fixed and improved FSR support recently though, so it is in better shape on deck now than ever before.

It has flip out thumb stick locks to protect the thumb sticks as well, and can be used as a kickstand in the back of the deck.

It's on Kickstarter right now. Seems like an interesting idea, although I think I'll stick to cases like the Killswitch/modcase for protecting my deck in a backpack.

Hadean Tactics, Backpack Hero, Death Roads Tournament and The Way Ash Of Gods are all great deckbuilders for $16

(are game deals for games I think are good on the deck considered ok/relevant here or should I post them elsewhere?)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/38020983

Before We Begin
Hello deck-ers, this guide walks you through installing Waydroid, a tool to run Android apps on your Steam Deck. Links are included below for troubleshooting and updates. Enjoy ;)

Step 1: Set Up a Password

Your Steam Deck’s terminal (Konsole) will ask for a password during installation. If you haven’t set one yet:

1. Switch to Desktop Mode and open the Konsole app (found in the taskbar or applications menu).
2. Type passwd and press Enter.
3. Create a password. For simplicity, a 4-digit code like 9876 works, but use something stronger if security matters to you, (as it should).
   • Note: The password won’t show as you type, this is not a bug.
   • Re-enter the password when prompted to confirm.

Why? This password grants temporary "sudo" access to install software.

Step 2: Install Waydroid

Prerequisite: Ensure your Steam Deck is connected to the internet.

1. Open Konsole (still in Desktop Mode).

2. Copy and paste these commands one by one, waiting for each to finish:

   Command 1 – Download the Installer:

   cd ~/ && git clone https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/steamos-waydroid-installer
   

   This downloads the necessary files to your home folder.

   Command 2 – Run the Installer:

   cd ~/steamos-waydroid-installer && chmod +x steamos-waydroid-installer.sh && ./steamos-waydroid-installer.sh
   

   This makes the script executable and starts the installation.

3. Wait for the magic to happen!

   • The installer sets up Waydroid and applies custom configurations.
   • Installation takes ~5 minutes (varies with internet speed).
   • When finished, close Konsole and return to Game Mode.

Step 3: Launch Waydroid

1. In Game Mode, navigate to your Library > Non-Steam Games.
2. Find and launch the script named Android_Waydroid_Cage.sh.
3. Waydroid will boot, give it a moment to initialize.

Need to Uninstall?

1. Back in Desktop Mode, open Konsole.
2. Paste these commands:

   cd ~/Android_Waydroid && ./uninstall.sh
   

   This removes Waydroid and its files.

Troubleshooting & Tips

• Issues? Check the official GitHub for known bugs, compatibility notes, and updates.
• Keyboard/Mouse Not Working? Some users report needing a Bluetooth or USB input device for setup.
• Performance: Close background apps in Desktop Mode and try again, otherwise I recommend checking opened issues over on github.

Enjoy your Android apps on Steam Deck! 🎮
Credits to ryanrudolfoba and the Waydroid contributors, cool guys!

Last tip: If this is your thing, check the AndroidTV installation option for a cool docked experience !!!

Metaphor: ReFantazio startup movie now available in the point shop.

I had 3 configs I was testing for No Man's Sky, and since the last couple updates the community configs are broken. If I launch the game those configs come up as totally empty of assigned controls. I can switch to a Hello Games config and it works fine. I can't seem to find any way to delete a configuration once it's been downloaded. I was hoping that deleting and re-download would fix the issue.

From the linked patch notes:

• Reduced polling rate while the Steam Frame Limiter is active to save additional power. This can save up to 6% on battery life when running at 30fps in a low-power game like HL2

Has anyone had success getting FreeTube to run full screen when in game mode? I've messed with settings to no success, and can't find anything online about it either. It always has black bars top and bottom that take up a good portion of the screen.

Edit: I've added a picture to show what I mean

Don't sleep on the splitscreen potential of your deck!

I am on mobile I will have to edit with links later

Devador

Folk Hero

Battle Planet

Flipon

Galactic Thunderdome

Nom Nom Galaxy

Ultra Foodmess 2

Danger Scavenger

Jelly Car World

Bunny Hill

Super Volley Blast

Plunder Panic

Dungeons Of Sundaria

Herosiege

Hyperbrawl

Pool Panic

Suika Shapes

Bones Cafe

Endgame Road To Salvation

Dunk Lords

Mutant Football League

Shadowkin

Wizard Of Legend

The Crackpet Show

Shipped

Unspottable

Cosmos Quickstop

Super Blood Hockey

Lumencraft

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix

Rubber Bandits

Blazing Beaks

Critter Crunch

Full Metal Furies

Petal Crash

Ms. Splosion Man

Chronicon

So far I only found some obscure mention of this issue on reddit (somewhat buried too), but for the sake of not relying on that platform anymore I thought the info should be on lemmy.

I recently got an 8bitdo ultimate 2c wireless controller to try out with my steam deck which I mostly use docked in TV mode. (Edit: I use the jsaux 6-in-1 dock.)

After initial testing looked good (2.4g mode connects, all buttons work, rumble works) I quickly ran into an issue where the controller would disconnect and shut down every minute or so or begin to rumble continuously without apparent reason. Not so in Bluetooth mode or with a cable.

What fixed the issue for me was connecting the 2.4 dongle not directly to my dock (which only has USB 3 ports) but doing so via an extension cable (edit: just a cheap male to female USB extension, the shortest one I could get).

Apparently, the active USB 3 port causes some kind of interference with the 2.4g signal, which is fixed by a few cm of physical distance. My dongle is now lying maybe 5cm away from the dock and the controller works flawlessly.

For anyone unfamiliar with DeckFilter, it's an android/iphone app that lets you view info on games from your library and wishlist.

For games it will show you:

• Deck verification status
• ProtonDB rating
• Steam user rating
• HowLongToBeat times
• Steam tags
• IsThereAnyDeal prices (wishlist games only)
• Game settings from ShareDeck
• Links to game's Steam page, PCGamingWiki, SteamDB, SteamBase, and SteamCharts.

The app also lets you filter your library/wishlist by things like compatibility, tags, ratings, how long to beat, and more. It's a really good way to pick out games to play.

The app just got updated with much faster sync (up to 10x faster), fixed wishlist sync, IsThereAnyDeal integration, steam API support (no longer requires your steam library to be public), sort library by last played, and more. See here for full changelog.

I'd also recommend SteamDeckHQ's recommended couch co-op games list. This one isn't limited to games $5 and under.

I'm having some trouble finding an answer for this. While in the gaming mode, just navigating the regular steam ui, the default behavior of the left trackpad acts as a redundant directional pad. I'd like that trackpad to control the screen navigation behavior instead (swipe up/down to scroll vertically, swipe left/right to scroll horizontally).

Is there an easy way to do this?

So Decky-Dication is a really cool plugin that lets you use voice typing in game mode. The github is here, but unfortunately they were never able to get the plugin small enough for it to be in the Decky store, and the project has since been abandoned.

Luckily, the plugin still works really well. You can build it yourself from the github, or if you're trusting enough you can download an already built .zip file here.

Once you have the plugin file, unzip it on your deck, and move it to the homebrew/plugins folder. That folder is usually write protected, so you may need to move it using a terminal command (ie if you extracted the folder on the desktop, the command would be sudo mv ~/Desktop/decky-dication ~/homebrew/plugins. Then switch back to game mode and it should be in your plugin list.

Once the plugin is installed, you press steam+b+L2 to start speech to text, and then steam+b+r2 to disable it.

After seeing some folks noticing a comment I made elsewhere in this instance, I thought a full post would be best. For those who don't know, the Steam Deck has a feature called Nested Desktop, which allows fast access to Desktop mode without needing to leave Game Mode or reboot into and out of modes.

To use this, go into desktop mode, open the menu and use the search function to look for "Nested Desktop". Now right click and add that to Steam. When you boot into Game mode, you'll see a new item added called Nested Desktop, which you can open to access desktop mode while still in game mode.

I found out about this almost a week ago and so far I use it most for referencing my digital game guides or searching NMS portal codes while still gaming. It's pretty seamless and really opens up some nice options, like modding a game and being able to boot it faster while having Game mode controls available.

Especially since one of the best features is basically unmentioned. Turn on your steam deck and before you sign in for the first time, you can boot straight to the desktop. Just wish there was a toggle in Plasma to boot to desktop by default.

For all intents and purposes, you don’t need to log into steam to play games on the steam deck which is honestly shocking where most new hardware basically requires you to agree to sign in to begin using your device.

Looking at you Windows 11

LGR is a YouTuber who talks and shows lot of oldschool games and computers. And he is a fan of the Sims games. The Windows re-release has still problems, but works perfectly fine out of the box on the Steam Deck. I thought this is notable and want to share his experience: Though oddly enough, the one that I've had the most success with is the Steam Deck

Report any issues or bugs in ⁠🤝-community-support on Discord. It's a big update :)

Check the website for links:

https://retrodeck.net/