With the Steam Deck delayed until February 2022, Valve has produced new developer documentation giving a helping hand to devs interested in testing ready for it using Linux.
They're not quite ready to put out SteamOS 3 Linux just yet (which is what the Steam Deck uses), or even an official developer image to install but "soon" something should be available in that way. Until then, they've come up with a way for developers to test everything on Linux a little easier.
It starts by going over the already expected essential things like gamepad input and resolution support but this time there's more detail on actually testing it on a Linux system. Specifically, Valve are now suggesting developers go for Manjaro KDE, as it's also based on Arch Linux and has the same Plasma desktop as you will find in the desktop mode with SteamOS 3 on the Steam Deck.
On top of that, Valve has created two new tools to help developers test their builds (either a native Linux build or a Windows build with Steam Play Proton) with the SteamOS Devkit Client Tool and the SteamOS Devkit Service. These tools allow developers to deploy game builds from a development machine to either a Steam Deck or another Linux machine for full testing. Valve also said to ensure developers use Proton Experimental when testing Windows builds.
Valve even gave a hint for developers wishing to buy a mini-PC with somewhat similar specifications to the Steam Deck, with their pictured suggestion being the MINISFORUM UM700 Ryzen NUC available on Amazon (US / UK) along with a picture using the banana scale:
This includes:
- AMD Ryzen 7 3750H
- Radeon RX Vega 10 Graphics
- 16GB of DDR4 RAM
While it has a stronger CPU, weaker GPU and less memory bandwidth they say "it will definitely run well on Steam Deck" if it runs well on something similar to that.
Nice to see some more clear documentation go up, although it's a little crazy to think this has only just gone live considering the Steam Deck was supposed to launch next month.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
slaapliedje Nov 12, 2021
Quoting: rustybroomhandleThis just reminds me of this;Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: 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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dhjmSp30jc
Quoting: rustybroomhandleStill not complete though. They don't say which kernel to test against and which branch of Proton Experimental.
We're four months from the release. I'm pretty sure, they might update the kernel and Proton will definitely progress a lot.
Quoting: rustybroomhandleI have 9 cats to supportI'm using that line the next time I ask for a raise!
(Also, wtf? I had one (1) cat, with her own room and own queen size bed, and she was impossible to control. Nine!?)
Quoting: psy-qIsn't "NUC" an Intel-specific marketing name (Next Unit of Computing), nothing to apply to AMD-based hardware? So it's now a proprietary eponym like Band-Aid, Kleenex, Hoover etc.! 🤔
Intel must be proud, especially since they didn't even pioneer the concept 😛
Yes, it is. It's more catchy than the "proper" term barebone PC though, which is probably why it's being used to describe non-NUC barebone PCs as well.
Comandante Ñoñardo Nov 12, 2021
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoAnd the technical purpose of the banana is....????https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale
they cant produce enough steam deck devices to cover the needs of developers who want to develop for then...
but they expect to produce enough devices to the people who want to buy then?
there are 50.000 games on steam, and considering some devs made more than 1 game, less than 50.000 developers/publishers, i can understand that big companies that need tons of developers to make/port their games are an priority, but how many devices is valve producing?
Quoting: elmapulso let me get that straight...They don't charge developers for dev kits; they do charge customers for retail units, and they've essentially sold two years' supply already. If they cannibalise their retail units to send to devs, they're costing themselves $400 a pop and making their customers (who also give them money for games) unhappy. They had intended to have a second batch of dev kits available by this point, but there's a component shortage on at the moment, so they're giving some information so that devs can make do.
they cant produce enough steam deck devices to cover the needs of developers who want to develop for then...
but they expect to produce enough devices to the people who want to buy then?
there are 50.000 games on steam, and considering some devs made more than 1 game, less than 50.000 developers/publishers, i can understand that big companies that need tons of developers to make/port their games are an priority, but how many devices is valve producing?
Quoting: GuestQuoting: rustybroomhandleStill not complete though. They don't say which kernel to test against and which branch of Proton Experimental.
As for recommending Manjaro, that's a big oooof. Much wiser to either install EndeavourOS *SNIP*
Full stop right there. lets not continue the old adage of "you should be using this" that the Linux community has. the main reason Valve picked this, is for 1, ease-of-use and 2, its more then likely what the DE is closest to Valve OS. at the same time, just because the coders hold the title of game Devs, doesn't mean they are well versed in the ins and outs of Linux environments.
Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: elmapulso let me get that straight...They don't charge developers for dev kits; they do charge customers for retail units, and they've essentially sold two years' supply already. If they cannibalise their retail units to send to devs, they're costing themselves $400 a pop and making their customers (who also give them money for games) unhappy. They had intended to have a second batch of dev kits available by this point, but there's a component shortage on at the moment, so they're giving some information so that devs can make do.
they cant produce enough steam deck devices to cover the needs of developers who want to develop for then...
but they expect to produce enough devices to the people who want to buy then?
there are 50.000 games on steam, and considering some devs made more than 1 game, less than 50.000 developers/publishers, i can understand that big companies that need tons of developers to make/port their games are an priority, but how many devices is valve producing?
400 include cost of production (and i guess shipping?) i dont know if its subsidized as consoles are to make a profit on games sold.
i dont know, i just think valve investment is too small.
- Nintendo paid 1 billion to unity to support their platforms a few years ago
- google paid capcom 10 millions to port Resident Evil 7 and 8
- valve on the other hand seem to expect developers to support their platform for free, while they have an umproven track record on hardware compared to others
- we were praising valve for hiring 1~2 developers to write/improve an driver while modern games take up to 1500 developers to be produced and sometimes windows get drivers specific for an game
- valve said they aim to make every game run on steam deck, but there are still 3000 open issues on proton github, some of then are 2 years old (the same age as proton, so they might be even older issues that existed on wine)
- valve missed the critical window to relase it that is the end of the year, they will have to wait another year to sell as much as they could
its just seem that valve dont know how much money they need to invest to make this product reach it full potential, and they are orders of magnitude below what they need.
i hope this can sell at least as much as the first xbox, so we might have an second chance next gen, but at this rate microsoft will enter the portable pc market before steamOS can make any dent, and they will compensate any performance loss of windows with an better hardware.
Last edited by elmapul on 13 November 2021 at 9:13 am UTC
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