mucoromycotina
Published
The graphics are set to "Fantastic" by default, but this causes frequent fps dips and constant fan noise. I set the graphics to medium, turned off vsync, and limited fps and screen refresh rate to 50 hz. The game still looks great and the lower power consumption means the fan was completely silent.
The game plays perfectly with the mentioned adjustments.
Useful keybinds: I (inventory), Space (show objects), Esc (skip dialogue / main menu), F5 (save/load menu), F8 (settings menu), F9 (quicksave), F10 (load quicksave), M (mute music).
The game occasionally started with incorrect mouse boundaries. The bounds would be shifted to the upper left so everything along the bottom and right side of the screen were inaccessible. Restarting the game sometimes worked, but usually the issue persisted through multiple restarts. The solution I found was to go into the settings, check "windowed mode", change the resolution to 1280 x 800, and restart the game. The bounds would be fixed and the game would automatically revert to fullscreen. There is also an option to force a specific resolution from the game's properties in SteamOS. I didn't try this, but I would assume that forcing it to 1280 x 800 would also fix this issue.
Another issue that happened more rarely was that the game could stop detecting inputs. It seemed like it occured when I tried to skip dialogue too quickly with Esc. The game would be stuck on the main menu and ignore all inputs. Restarting the game fixed the issue, but there was no way to save first.
-opengl
Customized the layout for menu shortcuts, Shift for quick sell, Alt for splitting item stacks.
Audio is completely garbled with the native build. Forcing proton fixes this.
Game eventually starts slowing down the longer you play. Using the "-opengl" launch command fixes this.
I heavily customized the layout to fit all the necessary actions for an MMO. This included activatable gyro aiming, radial menu for in game menus, touch menu for mounts, a second action layer activated by holding down a back grip button, customized mouse/camera movement, and more.
Locked framerate at 30 fps.
Noticeable fps loss during big events or areas with lots of players/effects. Noticeable input lag with game mode fps cap. Leave fps cap as unlimited in SteamOS and use in game fps limit to avoid additional input lag.
Game crashed a couple times, but they were rare over long play times.
Average ping was higher than expected compared to my desktop PC on the same wifi network. Ping was usually 60-70 ms but would occaisionally spike to 150 ms on the Steam Deck.
I copied the game files from my Windows PC, added as non-steam game, and forced Proton GE. No installation necessary. Game launcher updates and patches with no issues. Keep files on SSD to avoid long load times. Average 30-40 fps with medium settings. I switched to mostly low settings because of performance drops during big events. About 2.5h battery life when not much going on and under 2h with constant action (farming drizzlewood).
I set the back paddle buttons to the d-pad directions. This made it easier to access the map and use flasks without taking my thumb off of the left stick. Then I remapped the d-pad to buttons that are slightly inconvenient such as start, select, and left stick click.
PoE doesn't support mixing gamepad and keyboard/mouse inputs. However there are a few things you can still access with mouse. I set the right trackpad to mouse and the trackpad click to left mouse click to make some menu navigation easier like switching stash tabs.
I set an fps limit of 50 to get slightly more battery time.
Performance is impacted as expected when there is a lot of stuff on the screen. Otherwise the game runs very well with a few settings turned down and an fps limit of 50. I set the SteamOS fps limit to uncapped, changed the refresh rate to 50, turned off vsync, and used the in game fps limit option. SteamOS fps limit uses triple buffered vsync which adds some input lag. Usually it doesn't bother me, but I play hardcore in PoE. I didn't notice any screen tearing with vsync off.
No problems whatsoever with online connectivity.
PoE's controller layout takes a little bit to get used to, but it works well for the most part. A couple annoying aspects are the A button priority and only 12 slots for skills. The A button is used for both a skill and picking up loot. It can be hard to tell which one the game prioritizes at times. The 12 skill slots are usually enough except for aura heavy builds or minion builds. Inventory managment is a real pain with controllers. Use the right stick to jump to each corner in your inventory and stash tabs. The right stick can also be used to highlight loot to pick up, but it is pretty finicky.
I didn't time my battery life, but it was at least 3 hours with my settings, maybe close to 4 hours.
Replace the game exe as other reports described to fix fps during plant selection screen. Here's how to do this on the Steam Deck:
- Switch to Desktop Mode and open the file explorer (Dolphin).
- Turn on "show hidden files" in the upper right menu and open the following folder: /home/deck/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/3590/pfx/drive_c/ProgramData/PopCap Games/PlantsVsZombies
- Click the split button in the upper right to open a second folder side by side.
- Open this second folder. It will either be in mmcblk0p1 for the SD card or the same steamapps folder as before for internal storage: /steamapps/common/Plants Vs Zombies
- Launch the game and turn off fullscreen in the options to access the desktop easily. Make sure to keep the game running or else the popcapgame1.exe doesn't show up.
- Rename PlantsVsZombies.exe to something else and copy popcapgame1.exe to the second folder. Then rename popcapgame1.exe as the new PlantsVsZombies.exe
- Restart the game.
By default the game only supports touchscreen on the Steam Deck. Use a controller layout with mouse controls.
If you want to get fancy, you can set up individual buttons for each plant by using the Move Cursor binding. The x and y values take trial and error to figure out, so I recommend pausing the game and trying different values until it lines up over a plant. Leave the "return mouse cursor" option checked and add left mouse click as a sub command. This will make the button select the plant and return the cursor to your previous location for quick planting. I also set the left trackpad as a mouse region over the plants bar as an alternative access option. Set vertical scaling to 0 for a horizontal only mouse region.
The game runs at less than 10 fps during the plant selection screen. This also causes the Deck to consume more power. Replace the game exe to fix this.
The game is still enjoyable without tinkering. However I highly recommend replacing the game exe because the extra power consumption and increased fan noise during the plant selection screen can get annoying.
I customized the keyboard/mouse template. In addition to the standard waldo shortcuts consider adding 1-4 for playback speed, ` for stop, ctrl for copying symbols, del for deleting symbols, and ctrl + z and ctrl + y for undo/redo.
Switched to proton for a specific level that was broken on native build.
One specific puzzle is broken on the native build. A box isn't able to go through a ^^^^^ section with the trampoline. I thought I was doing the puzzle wrong until I realized it was a bug. I switched to the proton build to finish the puzzle and switched back to native afterwards.
taskset -c 0 %command%
Apply the community made bug fix patch from https://github.com/M3tox/TAOOT. This fixes bugs like low resolution textures and incorrect game pathing.
Keybinds: WAD for camera/movement, right trackpad for mouse, Esc for skipping dialogue/scenes, ctrl + F1 and ctrl + F2 will increase/decrease in-game brightness (brightness doesn't update until you move or interact).
The audio occasionally crackles. The dialogue audio sometimes cuts off before the character is done talking. Use the launch command listed above to fix this. The command forces the game to only use one CPU core.
There are multiple black screens throughout the game:
- After the Cyberflix intro. Position the cursor at the center of the screen and slowly move down. The cursor will turn into a hand icon at two spots. Click the first one to start the game or the second one to start the "tour" mode. Alternatively, pressing Esc also starts the game.
- Opening the Help menu. Move the cursor around the center until it turns into the hand icon and click. The black screen will go away, and the Help menu will appear.
- Various other black screens. Some interactable objects or scenes don't show up. Move the cursor around the lower right corner and click the hidden OK button or press Esc to exit the black screen.
The game settings (volume, subtitles, etc.) are reset each time the game is launched. There are some annoying game pathing bugs if the community patch isn't used.
Make sure to save your game in the SAVES folder for Steam Cloud to work.
