ZIMA
Published
Great on Deck! Default graphics options work tremendously well, and highest settings are great at 30 FPS. 40hz is not smooth; stick with 60.
At 60 FPS, the game draws 15w of power. To mitigate this, a 30 FPS limit was applied in Steam's performance settings. This reduced power draw to 8w.
Some frame stuttering at 60 FPS using default (medium) graphics settings. Steam Deck's 40hz mode is not smooth due to the game's 60hz target. 30 FPS produces the most stable and smooth experience.
Additional notes and musings:
- Skip account creation/sign-in at first launch. There's no benefit + input isn't easy on the Steam Deck.
- Title supports 800p.
When playing on the Steam Deck, I recommend setting the display type to "Double" to produce the most crisp output. "Fill" works just as well if you don't mind blurry upscaling.
In order to get gamepad emulation to work on Deck, you must manually specify the version of Proton to use. This will force Steam to download the Windows version and run the game through Proton, and it fixes gamepad input.
At the time of writing, Valve's decision to label this game Verified on Steam Deck is inaccurate. However, you can still enjoy this game with one minor configuration change.
- Open the Properties window of the game.
- In the Compatibility page, enable Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool.
- In the dropdown list that appears, select the latest version of Proton.
- Close the Properties dialog. Steam will redownload the Windows version of the game.
Factorio on the Steam Deck offers a great on-the-go experience for fans of the game, despite some minor control limitations.
I recommend increasing the user interface scale to 125% to improve legibility for players who find the default text size difficult to read.
Factorio on the Steam Deck offers a fantastic on-the-go experience for fans of the game. The native Steam Deck controller support and long battery life makes for an exceptional experience, especially with longer play sessions. It may take some time to adjust to the controls, but the ability to play on the go outweighs this minor inconvenience. The game is one of my favorites, and it sparks just as much joy on the Steam Deck as it does on PC.
Enabled joystick mouse emulation and adjusted sensitivity.
Plays as you'd expect, but you'll have to customize your controls before playing. The game only supports keyboard/mouse. I highly recommend using one of the community layouts and tweaking from there.
Limiting the framerate can marginally improve battery life. I recommend limiting to 30 or 40 FPS regardless, as the performance on moons will be smoother.
Controller support seems to be resolved in v49. I no longer experience issues others have reported about older versions of the game.
When the game is in fullscreen mode and an overlay is in use, the render can be seen at the top and bottom of the overlays. Switch to windowed mode to fix this issue.
Despite a minor bug in fullscreen mode, the game plays as you'd expect. Fun game for short sessions while on the go!
Recommendations:
- Set the game to render in a window. This prevents the render from escaping the overlays when in use.
- In the performance panel, set the frame limiter to 60 fps. There is no built-in vertical sync, and the game runs at 62 fps uncapped.
If you don't care about your battery life, this game works well. Specify a virtual resolution before playing to fix fullscreen.
Text is harder to read at higher resolutions as the game does not upscale.
You must specify a virtual resolution in the game's properties in Steam, then set the game's internal resolution to match the virtual display.
Huge power draw on Steam Deck.
I do not recommend this title on Steam Deck at this moment due to battery drain. Please note that I did not try this with OpenRCT2, which may or may not change battery impact.
No tinkering required to take Spore on the go. Have not tested 60fps patch but it's very easy to do. Keep at 30fps for better battery life.
Text in menus may be difficult to read.
Despite small text in menus, everything is legible. Default controller mappings are compatible. Plays as you would expected. For those who tinker with power settings, you should be able to limit power draw without compromising performance.
Some text in menus is extremely small. While legible if you have excellent eyesight, you'll want to use the magnifier to avoid straining your eyes.
It was a nice surprise to find Universe Sandbox not only playable on the Deck, but enjoyable as well. A bit of a battery hog, but the Deck is more than capable of running this title.
- Default graphics settings works well. GUI renders at native res but sandbox render is downsampled. YMMV with sandbox render at native res.
- Text can be hard to read in certain places. You'll want to make use of the magnifier if you're struggling to read the properties of objects.
- Quite the battery drain. Would not recommend playing on a long haul.
- Smoothest experience when locking framerate to 30 fps in Steam's performance settings.
