Thanks for the recommendation. The 8bitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless has most of that, but competition is always a good thing.

I agree about the capacitive sticks though, I’ve never used gyro without that so I imagine it’d really only be useful for ADS and other situations where you’re already holding a button. Capacitive sticks were a genius move from Valve.

That’s a big deal then. So far I’m not aware of any controllers that have all of the following:

• Analogue triggers
• Gyro input
• Back buttons
• Xbox layout (preferred)

The dual shock is close, but no back buttons and not my prefered layout. All the Nintendo clones have digital triggers, and almost none have gyro input that steam can use. This will make 8bit the best possible Steam Deck companion until a proper Steam Controller 2 comes out.

Edit: This would also add the ability to map extra buttons to new functions instead of a duplicate of the buttons that already exist. I’m waiting to hear the details but I’ll likely buy one if all this is true because I haven’t seen anything else offering this level of functionality.

That’s also possible by piping your generic controller through Steam Input.

Now, if 8bit is actually supporting native Steam Input, that’s a much bigger deal because we could potentially get access to raw gyro data, stuff that is normally converted to joystick input by the time Steam gets it.

There is but only on one side and, while I’ve not personally used it, the size and placement seem to make it more of a cursor aid than something that can be used well in games.

I totally agree. I want the touch pads so I can play old games that were designed for a keyboard and mouse or a shooter that works better with them. Younger gamers aren’t going to want to tinker getting an old game to run and are likely to have been brought up on a controller and don’t see it as a hinderance.

That’s why I love the Steam Deck, it was built for all the nerds out there and it’s fabulous.

I won’t consider these new devices because they don’t have touch pads, but if inwas gifted one or had a friend that had one I would definitely recommend Bazzite if they don’t play many multiplayer titles.

Great to see it taking off.

We’d need a suitably powerful APU upgrade in order to make running a 1080p screen viable. Most of the reason the Steam Deck performs as well as it does is because games are only rendering at 720p.

My wishlist for a Deck V2 would be a

• Higher res screen (if it makes sense as I mentioned above)
• Higher refresh with VRR (partially handled by thr OLED 90hz but no VRR)
• Second USB-C port supporting USB4
• Fingerprint reader
• QoL improvements like smaller bezel, modern wireless chipset, etc.

AND a Steam Controller v2 as a companion with the exact same buttons/sticks/touchpads as the Deck.

Nope. I was actually able to get it working the other day after ditching flatpak and re-installing Steam, Gamescope, and MangoHUD with DNF instead. All the guides I read said that flatpak would be no issue, but it was clear that as soon as I referenced any of the above applications in the launch arguments it would fail to load because it didn’t understand what I was asking to launch.

So, all in all, I now have Rocket League running at a high framerate with FSR on integrated graphics. It only took two days :P

Yes I am. I appreciate the help though. It seems pretty clear that it’s failing to recognize the gamescope argument because even if I use it barebones without any resolutions or FSR arguments it still fails to launch. Wish I could see thr output somewhere so I could know what to look into.

That said, I have since looked into Nobara and Bazzite and they look really promising. They should have all this stuff I’m trying to do baked right in. The point still stands though that these are extra complications that I wouldn’t have on Windows with a full driver suite.

Like you I’ve tried to game on Linux and each time have had to go back. I really want it to work, and to be fair, it DOES work. I love my Steam Deck and it’s proof that with enough tuning you can get a good experience.

However if you want to get more than a game just running, that’s when you have some issues. Like you I had the X11 multiple monitor issue people describe. Wayland is the fix these days but there were still issues using both different high refresh and VRR at the same time (may be fixed now).

My current issue is trying to get gamescope running when launching games from steam on Fedora 40. I have the flatpak of each and guides say it should just work, but every time I use gamescope as a launch option nothing launches. I imagine there must be a log somewhere but I don’t know where that is. I found some open bug reports that say gamescope just broke a few versions ago with Steam, who knows.

The only reason I need to use gamescope is that there is no AMD control panel, so no way to get FSR. This is a lower end GPU and I really need FSR for this particular game to run well. This is the biggest issue IMO, with only basic GPU drivers the community has to figure out how to implement the latest gaming features on their own, which means it is years behind. The VRR/High Refresh multiple monitor issue for example is something windows was doing with ease several years ago and Linux is getting it now.

So you have to give up a lot of multiplayer games, and you have to be OK with just running the game, not anything modern like DLSS or frame gen, or whatever is cutting edge. For this reason I can still only recommend gaming on Linux if you’re on a Steam Deck, or if you’re a techy person who mostly plays single player titles. Anything more and you will be messing around more than playing.

This is my fear too. No doubt there are great people working at Valve, but Gabe is responsible for how customer first the company is. I too worry that Valve will fall when he’s gone.

Valve is my favorite company. Not just because I like video games, but I love the way Gabe runs it. Valve is so customer focused and deserves the “don’t be evil” slogan. I am very scared of the day we lose Gabe because it’s his vision that drives them. Selling to Microsoft would destroy everything that makes them good.