Update 14/06/23: after some more testing, one thing I have found on Steam Deck is that you can use the built-in gamepad controls. However, they only work correctly in battles. The entire menu / lobby and god selection seems to not work with gamepad controls. So you can use touch screen, emulated mouse input or hold the STEAM button to activate mouse cursor. Seems this is a problem even on Windows going back years. It does not have "Full controller support" as advertised on Steam, only Partial.
Original article below:
Titan Forge Games and Hi-Rez Studios have updated their popular MOBA game SMITE, and with it an improvement to allow it to now work on Linux with Easy Anti-Cheat.
After playing a couple of games myself today, I can confirm it is working very nicely on my Fedora KDE 38 desktop. No performance issues anywhere that I could see and no kicking due to anti-cheat. This change to the Linux support status was mentioned officially in the release notes, where they said:
SMITE will now run on Linux systems – Special thanks to the SMITE community for helping with this. A group of players in the r/smite discord made a big impact on this change
So that's some great news for gamers on Linux!
However, when it comes to the Steam Deck, there it's a bit different. SMITE's controller support doesn't seem to work properly as far as I could see. Even on desktop Linux just to double-check, it didn't work right there either. So you'll need to use a Community Layout in Steam Input that sets keyboard and mouse controls up or make a layout it yourself. And make sure you keep it set to keyboard and mouse with the in-game settings, otherwise it gets confused and just doesn't seem to work when in a battle. Trying out the most upvoted "Xbox One Style Controls" on Steam Deck - it actually worked quite well.
A bit annoying needing to learn the binds manually but doable certainly and after a few games once you get the controls down, it really does seem to work quite well on Steam Deck (and really smooth on Medium settings too). But hopefully the game developer can fix the issue, or perhaps Valve can with Proton to get controller support directly working. Given how many thumbs up the community layout has though, it's likely controller support is iffy on Windows too with so many using the custom layouts.
You can see some Steam Deck footage in my below video:
Direct Link
On desktop Linux, apart from the controller issue, no other problems. Everything works as expected and performance was again very good. It felt perfectly natural to click and play so nothing to really report there.
SMITE can be found on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by Raaben on 13 June 2023 at 6:52 pm UTC
Before installing the first Smite you find on the Steam Deck, check the title is "SMITE" and not "SMITE - Public Test". On the Steam Deck they are listed side-by-side and the image/banner is of no help. To obtain the effective textual name of the game I had to open the settings of the game (cog icon on the right in the page of the game).
hardpenguin Jun 14, 2023
* rushes to install it *
hardpenguin Jun 14, 2023
A group of players in the r/smite discord made a big impact on this changeThis is a big win and it proves to never lose the hope & keep asking (politely) developers for Proton or Linux support.
hardpenguin Jun 14, 2023
And make sure you keep it set to keyboard and mouse with the in-game settings, otherwise it gets confused and just doesn't seem to work when in a battle.I assume setting Joystick as enabled in-game did not do the trick? I will look into it...
hardpenguin Jun 14, 2023
Damn I didnt even realise SMITE was still a thing......Still in the top 100 most played games on Steam with a daily peak of 16,000 players:
https://steamcharts.com/app/386360#6m
Not to mention players playing outside of Steam, as well as on multiple consoles.
Still in the top 100 most played games on Steam with a daily peak of 16,000 players:
Then maybe it could have put us noobs up against a different team than the same one of all vet players we got stomped on by for like 10 matches in a row...
I just spent all last night dragged in by some friends who got a sudden interest in the game, some good timing on this working. Desktop controller seems to work for me after setting the Enable Steam Input override in controller settings (rather than Use default) for the game; after that the game recognized it. My DS4 works fine now with no custom layout needed.I have the exact same issue across Fedora and Steam Deck. The gamepad controls only work in battles, not in the main menu / lobby. Disabling / Forcing On Steam Input makes no difference on desktop (you can't do that in Gaming Mode on Steam Deck).
Article updated.
I just spent all last night dragged in by some friends who got a sudden interest in the game, some good timing on this working. Desktop controller seems to work for me after setting the Enable Steam Input override in controller settings (rather than Use default) for the game; after that the game recognized it. My DS4 works fine now with no custom layout needed.I have the exact same issue across Fedora and Steam Deck. The gamepad controls only work in battles, not in the main menu / lobby. Disabling / Forcing On Steam Input makes no difference on desktop (you can't do that in Gaming Mode on Steam Deck).
Ah you're right, it isn't working for me there either. I got it working in a game and in the settings menu there, didn't think about it maybe not working elsewhere; I didn't test for too long since I quickly found I prefer M/KB for this game.
At least it's not Linux specific but janky implementation - so far I've been the only player in my group that hasn't crashed or disconnected a few times so I got to throw a bit of OS banter the other way for a change.
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