Steam Deck Beta update tweaks notifications, boot video length upped to 30 seconds

I mean it's good that they give people the freedom to do what they want, but I get the impression that some people just want to do it for the sake of it - and not because they actually want to watch a 30 second boot video every time. There's no benefit to it.

Indeed, I've never once said I wish my boot times were prolonged by a stupid video...might as well be an Ad at the start of a YT video...

Hey, don't give them ideas!

I mean it's good that they give people the freedom to do what they want, but I get the impression that some people just want to do it for the sake of it - and not because they actually want to watch a 30 second boot video every time. There's no benefit to it.

i think its the same as puting your favorite song as an alarm clock.
it looks like an good idea until you do it.
so yes, people wanted longer boot times, they probably will regreat it... but hey! all they have to do is not to chose this option once they realize its a bad idea.

the main issue is that a lot of other people will start making longer boot videos and get their effort wasted.

and I was thinking it takes hella long to boot.

The problem with Steam Deck boot video is that it plays after boot is completed ie. you can "patch out" the boot loader and your boot time will decrease. Otherwise, PS1 intro is 20 secs but no one cares about that because it plays during boot.
Also Deck probably has long boot time because boot includes starting Steam which takes quite a bit.

I mean it's good that they give people the freedom to do what they want, but I get the impression that some people just want to do it for the sake of it - and not because they actually want to watch a 30 second boot video every time. There's no benefit to it.

Indeed, I've never once said I wish my boot times were prolonged by a stupid video

and I was thinking it takes hella long to boot.

It's an option. The change thing says "max length" was increased. So I don't see what the problem is; you might have no desire for it, but plenty of people seem to want to fiddle with this. Is there a reason Valve should be telling them, "No, thou shalt have no videos longer than 10 seconds"?


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 13 October 2022 at 4:28 pm UTC

I think that one cell organism understands better than users here why Valve did this 30 s option for boot video! So we must get psyched and visit local hospital to have a lobotomy surgery - myself included!. Maybe then we understand. Eh a joke and of course nobody understands it. But It's a cool thing to have this option. I won't use it even though I got my Steam deck couple weeks ago. For me it's enough that I can use it and have some fun at the same time!

Am I missing something or are we going backwards? Hasn’t the point & focus been to speed up load & boot times? Not make it 3 times longer.

Am I missing something or are we going backwards? Hasn’t the point & focus been to speed up load & boot times? Not make it 3 times longer.

I will repeat:

It's an option. The change thing says "max length" was increased. So I don't see what the problem is; you might have no desire for it, but plenty of people seem to want to fiddle with this. Is there a reason Valve should be telling them, "No, thou shalt have no videos longer than 10 seconds"?

OK, in case you're unaware, in the last few days there have been several articles on GoL about how users figured out ways to substitute their own boot splash videos for the official one, how Valve responded by making this easier to do, how someone then made a script to make it still easier. Now Valve have made it so people substituting their own boot splash videos do not have to stick to a strict 10-second limit for the substitute video they drop in. How evil?

And it's just amazing me how in a space about Linux, where I might expect people to be happy at more freedom to tinker being enabled, everyone's totally dissing this move of Valve to let people do what they want to do. Really, WTF?!

I actually saw the Valve employee in the steam discussion who was answering questions on the previous update that added the boot video override folder, and responding to folks asking for a longer maximum length.

It's kinda funny.

Someone:
"Do Custom boots work over 10s? Prior to that, we were modifying the JS file. "

Valve Employee:
"What kind of lengths were people using for these? The 10s limit is a safety net that could be extended if we have a good reason for it."

Few responses like
"The old Valve Half-Life 2 intro is about 16 seconds long. Black Mirror is also 16. Prior to the update, we were changing i,1e4 to i,2e4 on the JS file which seemed to extend the duration to about 30 seconds. "

Now this update, they upped to 30 seconds.
Not 2 years later or something either, just a few days later, responding to the requests they're taking directly from the community and implementing them just like that.

Thanks Valve people, y'all awesome.


Last edited by gradyvuckovic on 14 October 2022 at 2:21 am UTC

Am I missing something or are we going backwards? Hasn’t the point & focus been to speed up load & boot times? Not make it 3 times longer.

you know nothing about workflow:
https://xkcd.com/1172/

The problem with Steam Deck boot video is that it plays after boot is completed ie. you can "patch out" the boot loader and your boot time will decrease. Otherwise, PS1 intro is 20 secs but no one cares about that because it plays during boot.
Also Deck probably has long boot time because boot includes starting Steam which takes quite a bit.

Is this a thing? How much shorter the boot time would be?

The problem with Steam Deck boot video is that it plays after boot is completed ie. you can "patch out" the boot loader and your boot time will decrease. Otherwise, PS1 intro is 20 secs but no one cares about that because it plays during boot.
Also Deck probably has long boot time because boot includes starting Steam which takes quite a bit.

Is this a thing? How much shorter the boot time would be?

The default animation is about 4-5 seconds, so that much shorter.

Am I missing something or are we going backwards? Hasn’t the point & focus been to speed up load & boot times? Not make it 3 times longer.

I'd say you're missing something.
You don't *have* to wait 30 seconds or use a 30 second boot screen. You *can*, if you want to.

Lots of hype over boot screen videos recently, and some creative work arounds to allow longer videos for those that wanted it. I wouldn't do it either, and I imagine most will go back to shorter times after the novelty wears off.

Uhh so I have not seen anyone talk about the fact that it is also very easy to replace the suspend animation the loading icon as well as the bootsplash image.

Is it because there is no interest in these things?
Because I personally love that my Deck says Goodbye to me when I suspend it and it is as easy as replacing the boot animation.

Valve is so cool for noticing how much fun people are having making and adding custom boot videos and making it easier, then making it easier to add longer videos too.

The only thing missing now is to make them skippable!!!

This is not a "useful" feature at all, it's strictly a "fun" feature... including the original boot animation, it also has no useful purpose

It shouldn't allow a 2-hour movie as a boot video for safety reasons, but 30s is a pretty ok time to wait before you can regret choosing a long boot video and have access to the system to change it back to a shorter one.

Also the steam deck's entire purpose is "fun".

Also Valve is smart, this creates more hype for the Deck among creative folk, and they spread the word, just like game modders are the life and blood of longstanding moddable games.

Also it's coherent with and a dirt-cheap showcasing of the "Steam Deck openness" characteristic, one of if not THE main selling point compared to other consoles.

If you want to shorten the boot time, use a shorter video than the default. At the moment the shortest videos available on https://steamdeckrepo.com/ are 2s and 3s in duration, but I bet some creative folks will soon see to it that a selection of cool 1s videos are created as well (and there are probably some in the wild that could be included there already).

Everybody wins.


Last edited by Marlock on 16 October 2022 at 1:48 pm UTC