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Latest Comments by Corben
Steam Link VR for Meta Quest on Linux now appears to work in the latest updates
12 Sep 2025 at 8:45 am UTC

After I disabled wlx-overlay in the autostart options of Steam VR, games started to work via Steam Link VR.
Just now I can only play like one game, after quitting the game, either Steam VR, Steam or something else locks up :dizzy:
Yet, it's so cool to see this progressing and starting to work.

Steam Link VR for Meta Quest on Linux now appears to work in the latest updates
11 Sep 2025 at 2:43 pm UTC Likes: 2

So cool to see Steam Link VR finally coming. It was shortly in the beta client but got removed again in may: https://nitter.poast.org/SadlyItsBradley/status/1918820041312678099 [External Link]

It's very much in beta though. Yesterday the Quest App was completely unresponsive to any input, no matter if I purged and re-installed it. Today (I changed nothing, except sleeping) it just worked to pair my Ubuntu 24.04 VR notebook. Needs mesa 25.2.1 and/or nVidia 575.64.5. Though it does show the "empty room" (Steam VR home is disabled) and the Steam VR dashboard, no game really worked for me. After a game started, I might see its splash screen, but as soon as the game should render I'm in a black void. Opening the Steam VR dashboad does show the game too though, closing the dashboard again and I'm in limbo. Somebody mentioned the game started rendering when they toggled the dashboard, but that just crashes the game for me after a few tries.

Instead I tried WiVRn today, that has been around a bit longer, uses Monado and can be build kinda easily via Envision. As I'm a bit familiar with Monado already, have it up and running with my Valve Index, with wlx-overlay, WiVRn worked pretty well. I need to tinker around with its settings though, as compression hit hard on the visuals.

Nonetheless, having Steam Link VR now in beta is a really good sign. Looks like Steam Frame is full steam ahead!

The Lenovo Legion Go 2 launches in October - it's heavier and very pricey
6 Sep 2025 at 3:13 pm UTC Likes: 1

Though I do enjoy using the Legion Go (2023), especially running bazzite, I made some bad experiences with their RMA policy. I can already see the new detachable controllers are also using spring loaded copper pins. On my Legion Go one of them popped out. I was able to plug it back in and it was fine. For a while. After several detaches it popped out again. I haven't used the Go much before, and when I started using it more, it happened more. As I had 4 months of warranty left, I reached out.

No luck, they claim it's a user caused damage, and they refuse to RMA it. I even reached out to the US department of Lenovo, but they just confirmed it. I've sent them a video of the issue, and yeah, they stay firm with their statement, I caused this. I have no idea how I even could have caused it. My guess is a small mistake in the manufactory that slipped through QA, as it can pass the detaching test.

They offered me to have a look at it at their repair shop. Minimum cost 53€. And if I decide to let it get fixed, minimun another 35€. Well, a new controller was 61€.

They said, I should have done RMA right after it happened the first time within 14 days after purchase. I thought I'd be nice and save them the hassle if it doesn't pop out again... but my takeaway here is, don't wait.

Here's the video I sent them (showing the device running Windows and the Legion Space software, I didn't want to give them any other reason to decline support when I run bazzite):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77XyQchUdv0 [External Link]

Mewgenics from the dev of The Binding of Isaac gets a long gameplay video and will be Steam Deck supported at release
5 Sep 2025 at 7:12 pm UTC Likes: 2

This brings me back to Indie Game: The Movie, where Edmund and Tommy were a big part of it, and I think Edmund talked about Mewgenics after the success of the movie and Super Meat Boy. Nice to see it getting a release soon.

Quite some nostaliga coming up... as back then Linux gaming was very special, with Humble Indie Bundle being a major source of native Linux games.

Steam Survey for August 2025 is out and here's the Linux / SteamOS details
2 Sep 2025 at 8:09 pm UTC

I was part of the August survey :)
And I did let them count all... desktop PC, VR notebook, old VR notebook, surface pro tablet, old surface pro tablet, LCD deck, OLED deck, rog ally, legion go... so 0.001% has for sure been me! And no, I don't have a problem... that stuff just accumulated over years :whistle:
Haven't bought new hardware in the last two years. I guess the Legion Go (2023) was the latest aquisition, and that's already 2 years ago.

Unfortunately my VR headset wasn't detected in the survey each time I had it attached. No idea why.

The popular Linux distro CachyOS has a big upgrade and some fun stuff for gamers
29 Aug 2025 at 7:30 am UTC

On my ROG Ally I switched from bazzite to cachy os. Not because bazzite wouldn't be great for the ROG Ally, yet I wasn't able to get VR running.
Also I have the 2022 XG Mobile (6850M XT) with it, which does work on bazzite too (after I enabled it in Windows). Yet, only on cachy os I was able to get Steam VR and Monado up and running.
There are more steps involved to get it running fully and how I wanted. E.g. I prefer handheld deamon, so here are some tweaks needed, and I need to disable the igpu via all-ways-egpu when I want to run VR with full performance. Looks like copying the image from the egpu to the igpu does take some performance otherwise. Also I need an external monitor when operating it with the egpu only.
And now I can operate the ROG Ally in gaming mode for the handheld purpose of the device and still use it in desktop mode for VR when wanted.
And I'm impressed how I can go down to 8W TDP (with VRR enabled) and have a fluid experience in Fall Guys, while that was neither possible in Windows nor bazzite. Under 10W TDP I always got stutters there. And with 8W lets me play about 2h of Fall Guys, while before it wouldn't last an hour.
Cachy os is for sure a bit more effort and more tricky to setup than bazzite (e.g. you need to sign files manually for secure boot), yet once you got the hang of it... it's a really nice experience.

The original Splitgate will live on with player-hosted matches
21 Aug 2025 at 2:16 pm UTC Likes: 22

This sounds like exactly what the "Stop Killing Games" initiative aimed for. Noice!

I can't wait to fire that massive cannon in PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant
21 Aug 2025 at 9:32 am UTC Likes: 2

Ah, that's nothing...

Read this!

Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

(cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law)

Also looking forward to this game... ONL had been pretty underwhelming, except maybe "Cronos: The New Dawn" it seemed to me just more and more of the same, so many sequels...

R-Type Delta: HD Boosted announced for release in November
14 Aug 2025 at 10:45 am UTC Likes: 3

Good old times... there is also Gradius Origins just released:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2897590/GRADIUS_ORIGINS/ [External Link]

NVIDIA 580.76.05 released for Linux as the new recommended stable driver
13 Aug 2025 at 8:54 am UTC Likes: 2

tl;dr use 550 for VR and Monado with recent presentation env vars.

The 580 driver is probably great for pancake (=non VR) use, but for VR it's better to use 550.
If you are using the Valve Index and a game maxes out your GPU, heavy stutters occur. Steam VR has issues with async reprojection since Steam VR 2.0, and though it's technically working again with nVidia, it's still not giving the experience it should.

Instead Monado got recently some fixes that adressed the headset tracking latency (the image is a few ms behind your movement, and it feels like swimming in VR) and in general its async reprojection implementation is much better than Steam VR's, yet since driver 555 (and up to 580) apparently the driver is not giving priority to async reprojection which then results in stutters in VR. These don't happen with 550.

This thread has most of the information and also mentions the needed env vars for Monado:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/substantial-drm-lease-presentation-latency-resulting-in-unusable-vr-hmd-experience/332386/ [External Link]