Based on the recent development work that appears to be happening in SteamVR for Linux, which hasn't gotten that much love since a couple months after Alyx released, my money is on this being a "standalone" VR headset. That said, I'll be happy with almost anything at this point, I really enjoy pretty much all the hardware Valve has made over the years, and trying out their ideas for new ways to interact with games is always fun.
Steam Deck
A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
I would be so happy for a stand-alone gaming VR headset that isn’t run by Facebook.
Even the steam controller?
The Steam controller is a miracle. Yes, it's a first Gen product that needs iteration but a controller with track pads, gyro, paddle buttons, and wireless for $50 is still the best value controller ever made imo.
Throw in steam input, which if you haven't tried it lately is fucking amazing at this point, and I honestly can't understand why companies aren't clamoring to integrate it.
Full controls customizability with 1000's of options and, something very few controllers seem to have for some reason, digital+analog triggers.
Plus it helped normalize paddles.
Steam controller is amazing and I'd love a gen 2 that matches my steam deck layout.
It was killed by patent trolls because of those back paddles. I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing some when they were clearance for $5.
I'm glad I picked one up when they first came out though.
Wait what was killed? The steam controller?
Yeah, they stopped producing them due to the patent trolls. They ultimately won the case though, which is why the deck has back buttons.
You could only buy one during the sale, I already had one but grabbed another.
The steam controller is fucking fantastic. No other controller lets you play mouse based games the same way. With its trackpads and gyro aiming you can be way more accurate than a normal controller. If you're using it expecting it to be just a variety of a traditional console controller, you're in for a bad time.
The steam controller is more personal, you can remap any button to be anything, and any modifier to enable on any button press. (Like turn on gyro aim when you hold R2) there's a ton of aiming options, you can use the trackpads to create circular menus for weapon or skill selections.. the possibilities are endless.
But instead people just bought it, and thought 'this not as comfy as xbox, why only one joystick, why no dpad' and put it down again.
People had the chance for better but it meant learning something new.
It has a pretty significant learning curve and because you're not at all familiar with the layout it's hard to decide on a layout that works for you. That 'more personal' aspect is part of the problem, at least at first. It's going to feel awkward no matter what, but without a consensus on how to use it, it gives me analysis paralysis trying to decide how to set it up.
My steam controller is almost worn out I've used it so much... and I never bought any when they were on sale for 5$ I'm so mad, so hopefully a new one somes out before mine finally dies but I doubt it.
You can take my steamtroller when you pry it from my cold dead hands. Fucking love that thing. Not just for gaming either, couch computing is all possible via the steamtroller. LOVE IT.
I use the steam controller. Nothing wrong with it in my mind (except maybe the fact that it uses batteries and is slightly too large).
except maybe the fact that it uses batteries
I disagree. Because of swappable batteries my controller is still relevant 7 years and half worn down stick later.
If I were to complain, it's about unpleasant hollow sound on trackpads and L1/R1 button clicks.
Those are my two gripes too. They seemed to have fixed those issues on the deck though. If they ever do a v2 I'm sure those improvements will carry over.
The AA batteries last really, really long and you can get rechargeable ones. You swap them in a few seconds and can continue playing.
The ones that were included with the controller lasted me for several months before I had to swap them.
Yeah, they do last a long time.
I own two and use them
Yes, it's imo the best controller to ever exist... For my needs at least. Also the most comfortable
I actually bought one for my collection. Takes a lot of tweaking, which I think is what detracts a lot of people, but it's not bad hardware at all.
My money is on Steam Controller 2, but what do I know.
Controller with 5ghz wifi? Hmm.
Yeah, wouldn't need that unless it was something more, I suppose. Either a super fancy controller or something else.
Fancy controller with embedded screen and CPU?
Don't be crazy.
That would be a nice accessory for the Steamdeck
A new Steam Controller gamepad wouldn’t have an entire Steam Deck chip inside, though, so that seems less likely.
yeah the timing is right. I sorta figure they are planning on a sorta back and forth cadence between vr and handheld.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
South Korea’s National Radio Research Agency has certified a “low power wireless device” from Valve with the designation “RC-V1V-1030,” as spotted by @dxpl at Arca.live (via Brad Lynch).
The South Korean certification tells us basically nothing about the device, save that it uses 5GHz Wi-Fi, which most computers already have at this point.
But telecommunications regulatory agencies typically don’t require certification for internal prototypes — only if you’re going to import at least a small quantity of devices in a country, and maybe put them on sale.
There are other hints in Valve’s own code, however — Phoronix’s Michael Larabel spotted that Valve has added new changes around the Steam Deck’s Van Gogh APU, including the mysterious product name “Galileo” and product family “Sephiroth.” (Aerith, closely connected to Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, is another name for the Deck’s APU.)
While Larabel initially suggests it might just be a Steam Deck refresh reference board, Valve’s Greg Coomer told me in 2021 that the Steam Deck’s existing APU might make sense in a standalone VR headset.
A standalone VR headset codenamed Deckard was at least being prototyped inside Valve, sources confirmed to YouTuber Brad Lynch and Ars Technica back in 2021, and some patent images made the rounds last June.
The original article contains 429 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I would love a slightly narrower and overall smaller steam deck. It’s great at home but I think twice about bringing it when flying already with a laptop and iPad.
Personally, I left my laptop behind, and just brought my Steam Deck and eInk tablet, along with a Bluetooth keyboard. I was able to get most of my light work done on the Steam Deck, and remoted into my home PC for a couple things I needed Windows for, or when transferring a large file over hotel WiFi didn't make much sense when I could just work on it remotely and leave it on my PC and NAS back home.
Though admittedly my trip was a personal trip. If you were on a work trip and needed to present something or do some serious photo or video editing, I can understand needing the laptop.
This is exciting, regardless of what it could be!
Steam Deck 2 with detachable controller, like the switch. I'd buy one right away.