Oh! Something that jumped out at me during the talks was about the verification process. Originally when they announced Deck Verified, it sounded like they were proactively testing all games, but something said in the Q&A made it sound like developers have to manually submit games for review. If this is the case, I predict the likes of Ubisoft won't even bother.

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Quoting: LoftyInteresting, i wonder if this will create an uptake in appimage's. Given it's self contained ease of use (download and click icon) simulating a feeling of a windows .exe for the normie user.

Maybe, but the one app that lots of people will maybe want to install is Lutris, and I don't think that developer can be talked into releasing a self contained version of that.

In my mind the ideal situation is a set of Steam Deck tinker apps that's actually installable/runnable directly from Steam. RetroArch, Blender, Krita all exist on Steam, so no reason why others can't too.

And I mean ideal from the perspective of us trying to help out less technical users.

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The read only default mode for the system is understandable. This is why it might be handy to have some utilities installable directly through Steam. Mainly things like Lutris, GOverlay/mangohud, Bottles, ?? If RetroArch can do it, then I see no reason others can not.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: rustybroomhandleStill not complete though. They don't say which kernel to test against and which branch of Proton Experimental.

They're on 5.13 for the kernel, not sure about Proton Experimental.
Also, installing the Zen kernel will definitely be beneficial, as it's pretty close to the SteamOS specific kernel Valve will eventually ship.

As for recommending Manjaro, that's a big oooof. Much wiser to either install EndeavourOS if you're new to GNU+Linux or use Arch if you're an experienced user/dev.

5.16 would be the logical target.

And as has been stated, Manjaro is fine. It's close to their setup, easy to install, and has Steam installed already and that is pretty much all they need. They don't need to use the OS beyond running Steam, so it really does not matter how user friendly any of it is.

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Quoting: tgurr* Does it *really* work on NVIDIA?
* Does multiplayer work as well?

The issues reported there for nvidia look very similar to the same issues that still exist today in Forza Horizon 4. With that game it did a weird thing for me where it crashed a lot when I started, but then gradually got less crashy. Maybe related to shader compiling?

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Quoting: Janhouse

Quoting: rustybroomhandleStill not complete though. They don't say which kernel to test against and which branch of Proton Experimental.

They did specify selecting "Proton Experimental" in Steam. It is a specific "branch".

And they also specified to use Manjaro, which is Arch based distro. It is a rolling release distro, meaning it always has the latest stable Linux kernel (at this point in time Arch is on 5.14.16).

Steam Deck won't ship with 5.14, it will likely be 5.15. Manjaro does currently have a 5.15rc selectable in kernels, but will likely get 5.15 soon. This is all relevant because 5.15 contains things that will affect how proton games run.

Also, Proton Experimental has several branches:
none
bleeding-edge
debug
touchtest

In github, proton experimental is a branch, but in Steam it is set up as a separate application with its own branches.

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Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: rustybroomhandleThat NUC is frickin' adorable tho.

There are some others that come with Linux pre-installed that GOL has reported on before, if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Alas, I have 9 cats to support, I cannot spend 600 bucks on electronics. :P

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Still not complete though. They don't say which kernel to test against and which branch of Proton Experimental.

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That NUC is frickin' adorable tho.

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Quoting: fearnflavio

Quoting: LeopardForza Horizon 5 videos/tests that shows it working on Proton were made with non-legit version.

Currently a Steam copy of Forza Horizon 5 doesn't work without that non-legit executable.

So OOB it is borked.

Ah, didn't know this detail.
Thanks for clarifying.

Forza Horizon 5 works now for some people using the bleeding-edge branch of Proton Experimental (found in BETAS tab under Properties). Up to you whether you want to try it or give it more time in the kitchen first to get tested and into the stable branch.

Note, the "some people". Others still report crashes. Performs very well though, so that's good.

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