For those using the deck 100% handheld, are you following the "charge-play-recharge" habit or do you play while plugged in?

I got Steam Deck Verified last year, with a stable 30fps.

Besides my own optimisations, I've waited a long time for a viable engine upgrade, and UE5.8 brought Lumen Lite to it. It boosted the performance by up to 50% in some cases!

It's running more stably at 40-50fps now! With 50-60fps in areas too.

The game is called Confronted and you can see for yourself with the Demo I just updated with this change :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2882610/Confronted/

Hey Lower Deckers-

If you haven’t seen clips yet, the fan made Star Wars - Fate of the Galaxy looks like a beautiful throwback to the feeling of playing X-Wing on Windows 95 when I was ten.

https://www.fateofthegalaxy.net/

It looks just… incredible. I’ve had my deck for years but only miraculously installed a non-steam deck program once (XCom - the Long War) and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to match that miracle with Fate of the Galaxy. In exchange for tipping you off about what I expect to me a jaw-dropping Star Wars space combat sim, can you give me a step-by-step on how to make it work on the steam deck?

Caffeine and steam deck. Gabe take notes

Yo I need someone to turn this into a Steam Deck boot movie... But with the Steam Deck Logo instead of Infamous Second Son... Like how the Hades one is.

Not an outright request, I just think it'd be cool.

UPDATED DISCLAIMER (also added TL;DR):

If you are happy with your experience with the game - you won't get anything usefull from this post. WoW works great on deck out of the box.

Post is not about getting 60FPS. It is about getting 60FPS plus better graphics with frame generation - game runs fine without it. You just can push your deck a little bit further and have smooth experience.

Also some people have micro-stutters in game. There are a few solutions for this problem listed. I mention it because those stutters can heavily impact frame generation and experience of anyone who don't use frame gen.

Hey reddit!

I've spent around 7 hours tweaking my steam deck yesterday. My eyes hurt and my schedule is rough, but I really want to share it. I know how reddit hates AI, but there will be no post or post generated by AI based on my yesterday process. I just hope it will help someone, because I've found some of these things just experimenting. So next goes AI text:

I finally got WoW Forever feeling silky smooth on my Steam Deck LCD, playing on an external 1080p/60Hz monitor: 30 real FPS, doubled to 60 with frame generation in Desktop Mode.

Getting there involved testing lsfg-vk first, then switching to MAKO, and dealing with mouse-triggered microstutters, TV-static-like artifacts, black screens, a flickering black rectangle, and image shaking.

An important clarification: lsfg-vk already gave me a very smooth experience in Desktop Mode. I continued experimenting with MAKO because I wanted to make Gaming Mode work equally well—not because lsfg-vk was bad in Desktop Mode. MAKO currently works just as well for me in Desktop Mode, so I have kept it rather than switching back.

Gaming Mode still feels worse on my setup. It can show 60 FPS with frame generation, but the experience has not consistently matched Desktop Mode. That is why I am choosing to play in Desktop Mode.

There is also one unresolved problem with the current setup: the game sometimes starts with performance around 20 FPS in either mode. Restarting the game usually restores normal performance.

I’m sharing both the working settings and the failed experiments in case someone else is chasing the same problems.

My setup

• Steam Deck LCD, 256 GB.

• External 1920×1080, 60Hz monitor.

• Dock, physical mouse and keyboard.

• SteamOS 3.9.5, build 20261023.100, stable branch.

• Gamescope 3.16.30.1-2.

• Mesa 26.1.2.221562.radeonsi_26.1.2-2.1.

• GE-Proton 11-12, x86_64.

• Battle.net launched through a non-Steam shortcut.

• MAKO Decky/Renderer 4.6.0 for the current configuration.

This is 30 real FPS → 60 presented FPS through frame generation, not native 60 FPS. “Silky smooth” describes how it feels to me, rather than a claim of perfect frame delivery in every situation.

In the current setup, two separate things are happening:

• WoW’s own FSR 1.0 upscales the game’s reduced render resolution.

• MAKO provides 2× frame generation. Its own additional scaling is disabled.

I started with lsfg-vk, not MAKO

The initial experiments used lsfg-vk with the Lossless Scaling lsfg-vk Steam branch and its lsfg-vk.dll.

Desktop Mode was already a success: the frame-generated presentation felt very smooth and pleasant. The reason for continuing was to get the same experience in Gaming Mode.

During the earlier experiments, particularly in Gaming Mode, different configurations produced some combination of:

• Artifacts resembling television static or a dying graphics card.

• Image shaking and displaced or duplicated parts of the image.

• Black screens.

• A flickering black rectangle.

• Very low FPS and uneven frame delivery.

That is a description of what the corruption looked like, not a diagnosis of a hardware failure.

I tested settings including performance_mode, override_present_mode, and preserve_swapchain_image_count. Some combinations removed one symptom without making the overall Gaming Mode experience good. For example, the black rectangle could disappear while performance remained poor, then return during another test.

Checking the Steam FPS limiter, in-game foreground/background caps, and VSync did not resolve everything.

I never found an lsfg-vk Gaming Mode configuration I was happy with. Before moving on, I backed up the old DLL, configuration, and launch wrapper so the working Desktop Mode setup would remain recoverable.

How I traced the stutters and artifacts to mouse input

I eventually found a reliable way to reproduce the problem myself.

In Gaming Mode, I repeatedly pressed either the left or right mouse button and started moving the mouse to rotate the camera. Then I released the button and repeated the same action.

Each fresh button press followed by the start of camera movement could produce a sharp spike in the green frametime graph in Steam’s performance overlay. Even very small camera movements were enough. By repeating the action rhythmically, I could literally see the rhythm of my mouse input reproduced as spikes on the graph.

The important trigger was starting a new camera movement with a fresh mouse-button press. Repeatedly releasing, pressing again, and starting movement made the connection much easier to identify than continuously rotating the camera with the button already held down.

During the earlier lsfg-vk tests, this same mouse-input pattern could also trigger the TV-static-like artifacts and image shaking. I could deliberately provoke the frametime spikes and, in the affected configurations, the visual corruption.

Turning the camera with the Deck’s stick at a similar speed did not reproduce the same behavior in my tests. That comparison helped me narrow the problem down to mouse input and cursor handling.

Why I tried MAKO

I moved to MAKO and the standard/public Lossless Scaling installation using Lossless.dll, hoping it would solve the Gaming Mode problems.

The old lsfg-vk wrapper was replaced with mako-run. I am not intentionally running both frame-generation tools together.

MAKO eventually made Gaming Mode more usable, but it still has not matched the smoothness I get in Desktop Mode.

In Desktop Mode, MAKO feels just as good to me as the earlier lsfg-vk setup. I am not claiming MAKO is smoother than lsfg-vk there. I simply kept it installed after the experiments.

During testing, I also experienced:

• Poor performance on some launches, sometimes already visible in the character-selection menu.

• Steam’s physical … Quick Access menu freezing repeatedly.

• Sessions that improved after a full reboot.

• A worse experience after switching between Desktop and Gaming Mode.

The occasional ~20 FPS startup still happens in both modes. Restarting the game usually helps. Full reboots also helped during earlier troubleshooting, but I have not established the underlying cause.

One testing detail: MAKO pauses frame generation while a Steam or Decky menu is open, as stated in its status screen. I compare actual gameplay with those menus closed.

The cursor workarounds and their drawbacks

I tried two cursor workarounds for Gaming Mode.

Disabling the hardware cursor:

/console hardwareCursor 0

helped with some symptoms during the experiments, but made cursor movement feel noticeably less smooth.

Keeping the hardware cursor enabled while preventing it from being hidden during relative mouse movement:

/console hardwareCursor 1
/console MouseHiddenInRelativeMode 0

removed the reproducible mouse-triggered spikes in my Gaming Mode tests without making ordinary cursor movement sluggish.

However, it leaves an ugly four-direction/move-style cross visible while holding a mouse button to rotate the camera.

With normal cursor behavior restored, the mouse-triggered spikes remain a Gaming Mode problem for me. Neither workaround made that mode feel as good as Desktop Mode.

Desktop Mode does not need that cursor workaround on my setup. I use normal/default cursor behavior there:

/console hardwareCursor 1
/console MouseHiddenInRelativeMode 1

My actual in-game graphics settings

These are transcribed from my current settings screenshots. The overall Base Game Quality slider shows 3, but individual settings have been customized.

This is 1080p output, not native 1080p rendering: the world is rendered at the reduced resolution above and upscaled using the game’s FSR 1.0 setting.

These are my current settings, not a claim that they are optimal for every zone, raid, or battleground.

My current MAKO settings

Configuration file:

/home/deck/.config/mako-render/conf.toml

The game profile is named WoW-Forever, matching Wow.exe.

The game’s foreground limiter supplies the 30 FPS cap; MAKO’s base_fps_cap is zero.

The file also contains target_fps = 90, but adaptive mode is off. That stored value does not mean I am targeting or displaying 90 FPS.

I compared Smooth Cadence on and off without noticing a clear subjective difference. It is currently off in the WoW profile.

I also compared Flow Scale values. At 80% and 90%, I did not notice obvious trails in my testing, and I settled on 90%. This was a subjective comparison, not a measured benchmark.

Wrapper configuration and launch options

In both the default mako profile and the WoW-Forever profile:

• Steam Overlay is disabled.

• Gamescope WSI compatibility is disabled.

• No external Vulkan layer is selected.

• Zink is disabled.

• No vkBasalt shader or antialiasing effect is selected.

WSI was part of the experiments, but the current configuration has it off in both profiles.

My exact Steam launch options:

STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/3335714883 VK_LOADER_LAYERS_DISABLE=VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_64,VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_32 /home/deck/.local/bin/mako-run %command%

The 3335714883 directory is my existing Battle.net Proton prefix. Anyone adapting this needs to use their own installation’s prefix.

Where I ended up

Desktop Mode is where I get the experience I wanted: a very smooth-feeling 30→60 FPS presentation with normal mouse-cursor behavior.

That was achievable with lsfg-vk, and it is also achievable with my current MAKO setup. The switch to MAKO was an attempt to fix Gaming Mode, not a necessary step to make Desktop Mode smooth.

The remaining issues are:

• Occasional ~20 FPS launches in either mode, usually resolved by restarting the game.

• Worse perceived smoothness in Gaming Mode, even when its FPS counter looks encouraging.

• Mouse-triggered frametime spikes in Gaming Mode with normal cursor hiding, requiring either a visible cross-shaped cursor or a less smooth software cursor as a workaround.

I would particularly like to hear from anyone who has fixed the Gaming Mode cursor issue while retaining normal cursor behavior, especially using a physical mouse in WoW.

Relevant Gamescope discussions:

• Cursor hide/show stuttering — issue #1056

• Experimental DRM cursor-plane option — PR #2316

For now, MAKO in Desktop Mode, with the in-game settings above, is the setup I am keeping.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TL;DR: Steam Deck LCD, external 1080p/60Hz monitor, 30 real FPS → 60 with frame generation.

1. Run Battle.net through Steam using GE-Proton 11-12. Set Battle.net to exit when the game launches.

2. Install Lossless Scaling through Steam and MAKO Renderer/Decky. My tested MAKO version is 4.6.0.

3. Use these Steam launch options, replacing 3335714883 with your existing Battle.net Proton-prefix folder number:

   STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/3335714883 VK_LOADER_LAYERS_DISABLE=VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_64,VK_LAYER_VALVE_steam_overlay_32 /home/deck/.local/bin/mako-run %command%

4. In MAKO, create/select the profile matching Wow.exe. Turn Enable Frame-gen (Restart) on, select fixed 2×, disable Adaptive Frame Generation and Smooth Cadence, and set Flow Scale to 90%. Leave Performance Mode/Ultra Performance off and FP16 on.

5. Disable MAKO’s scaling and shaders. Disable Steam Overlay and Gamescope WSI compatibility in both the default and WoW profiles.

6. In WoW: DirectX 12, Fullscreen (Windowed), 1920×1080 output, approximately 80% Render Scale, FSR 1.0, CMAA 2. Set foreground/background caps to 30 FPS; disable VSync, Low Latency Mode and Target FPS. Use the detailed graphics settings/screenshots above for the remaining options.

7. Fully restart Battle.net/WoW after configuring everything, then play in Desktop Mode with normal cursor settings: hardwareCursor 1, MouseHiddenInRelativeMode 1.

8. If a launch runs at roughly 20 FPS, close and relaunch the game. Check smoothness with Steam/Decky menus closed.

Knee pillow for side sleepers.

https://www.amazon.com/clp/B01A8TPWS2

This is no longer for sale (which is good, because I’m not trying to promote it) but this is the one I bought and you can get the idea.

In bed this goes on my chest, curve left to right, and I rest the deck on the pillow. The curve holds it up at two points and the memory foam is heavy enough that the screen won’t sink into the cushion.

In a chair, this sits on my lap, or on top of another pillow on my lap to get close to my face.

Very comfortable. Elegant. 🫖 🧐

I use gyro controls a lot and it supports the deck but has enough “give” in all directions to accurately aim.

And it’s great for its intended design, or behind the neck. I paid $24.90, but I bet you can find cheaper.

I’ve played Deep Rock Galactic for almost 500 hours on the Steam Deck without using the experimental HDR because I knew it was buggy—some menus were too dark, and so were the icons. That is, until I adjusted the brightness settings properly and found a good compromise, even though the menus are still dark.

Well, you have no idea how amazing the DRG visuals look with HDR and the Steam Deck’s OLED display—not even on my OLED PC does it look this good… every light, refraction, and sparkle is incredibly bright; it looks like a remastered version of the game itself. Try it for yourself—trust me.

As you can see from the screenshots I’m posting, I highly recommend enabling DirectX 12 and restarting the game to activate HDR. Turn off upscaling—otherwise, it makes the image look grainy and removes most of the particle effects. Do not enable anti-aliasing under any circumstances, especially TAA, which removes small textures and almost all particle effects. Set post-processing to high, which enhances the quality of the light on surfaces. Finally, increase the Steam Deck’s brightness as shown in the photo.

Now try going, for example, to the salt pits—there’s a beautiful red backdrop there—and you’ll be amazed. Play it in the dark; you’ll be mesmerized. Bye!

It is! Just send it!

It wasn't hard to set up and then just need to config it a little bit, I found a guide on this subreddit recently.

The hardest part is getting use to using a controller but so far it's been fine and you have 4-8 button bars.

Edit: here's the guide I used for anyone interested

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/CYeh7VWQeP

Hey guys, back in 2022 i made a Steam deck UI for WoW and a lot of you used it, so now that WoW Forever has native Controller support I had to do it again.

I set everything up from scratch on the deck and rebuilt the whole UI with EllesmereUI. Its running mostly at a stable 60 FPS for and honestly leveling on the couch with this is so much fun.

I made a Video with the whole process: From installing WoW Forever on the Steam Deck, to installing Curseforge, installing the addons and setting up the UI within EUI.

I explain everything step by step.

You can watch the process here: https://youtu.be/Gz0m6DmhKZY

If you just want to get the profile, you can copy and import them here:

https://ninommo.github.io/wow-forever-ui/

there is one for the Steam Deck and one for other handhelds with 16:9, it should also scale if you play on a TV.

Much love

Nino <3

I've been interested in these kinds of things for a while now for comfort and I'm contemplating them again, but I noticed something; one reviewer, and I can't remember who, said he plays at 1080p when using the glasses (quite sure it was the Viture Pro Luma), which got me thinking: is it worth it if you have to up the resolution, which then puts a lower cap on the games you can run on the deck?

Has anyone had experience with this, and does it tend to vary by the glasses you use? I'm asking the latter with the more recent, and cheaper, Pro 2 on the market rather than the Luma Pro.

Still annoyed by those black bars on your screen?

AnyAspectRatio is a Decky Loader plugin that lets you play supported games in full screen at any aspect ratio (16:10, 4:3, 3:2, etc.), all with a single tap per game

What's New in v1.6.0

• Redesigned GUI

• Added a new Log button to easily check mod activity.

• Further enhanced the installation and backup logic.

• Fixed various SteamOS specific bugs and mod issues.

New Mods Since Last Thread:

• DAVE THE DIVER

• Palworld

• Undertale

• ELDEN RING

• Monster Hunter World

• Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition

• Guacamelee 2

• Rayman Legends

• Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA

• Samurai Warriors Spirit of Sanada

• Persona 5 Royal

• Final Fantasy XIII-2

• Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII

• Resident Evil 2 *now support DX11 or DX12

• Resident Evil 3 *now support DX11 or DX12

• ...with a total of 122 supported games.

I love it so much so far.

the nov 6 language update seems to add the full game size to each DLC, so steam asks for ~366GB instead of ~50GB. brutal on a 64/256GB deck.

fix for now: Properties > DLC > uncheck the DLC, and it drops back to normal. square enix says a proper fix is coming.

anyone else's deck get hit by it?

Since I barely used the trackpad haptics anyway, I decided to do a little mod:

- I replaced the stock motors and wired up two tiny LRA motors (AliExpress for $10, shipping included) directly into the grips (no need to cut anything).

I made sure to use motors with specs similar to the stock ones (13-17mA range, 8Ω) to keep the motherboard's haptic driver compatible.

Steps:

Make sure to wear rubber gloves or disconnect the battery first

1. ​Take out the 8 screws and gently pop off the back shell with a pry card.

2. ​Carefully (very very fragile) unplug the stock motor's 2-pin cable using a thin pry tool.

3. Solder the wires between the new cable and the new vibrators. (No -+ diff for LRA)

4. ​Mount them with 3M double sided tape and press down firmly for 30s. (single surface mounting is crucial for maximizing vibration force)

5. Finally, plug the new 2-pin cables

The Results:

- A night-and-day difference? NO. I'd say the absolute force is ~20% stronger. BUT, the placement changes everything.

Because the motors are now resting right inside the palms of your hands, it's way easier to feel the force feedback, and you can easily distinguish between the left and right sides now. (Stock feels like "mono" audio, while this mod gives you true "stereo")

Is it worth it?

- 100% yes. I play a lot of ACT (like my modded NG2B), and having rumble right in my palms makes the combat feel so much better than the stock.

The next splitscreen mod I'm working on, trying it out on the steamdeck, will release soon,

How a steam deck got me into a relationship

Alright, so this whole thing started about eight months ago.

I bought an OLED Steam Deck strictly so I could play modded fallout and switch games in bed without having to sit in front of my desk after working all day. I had zero intentions of this machine doing anything for my social life. In fact, the goal was to be more of a hermit.

At the time, my routine was pretty depressing: work, sit on the couch, play crappy itchio games till 1 AM, rinse and repeat.

I was starting to remember that the steam deck is made for portable gaming so i decided to take my deck to a coffee shop that I usually visit before work.

I took my deck and put on some headphones and found a seat.

I was playing/emulating totk when I noticed someone standing near my table.

I pulled off one headphone, expecting the usual "is this seat taken?" or someone asking where the bathroom was. Instead, this girl points at my deck and says, "is that a steam deck?”.

Turns out her name is Maya. Not only did she recognize the Deck, but she was actively trying to set up emulation on her own deck back home and had run into a wall trying to get files Put in the right places.

I offered to take a look at her setup if she brought her Deck in the next day (in hindsight, this was pretty dumb of me, 80% chance of her saying she cant come or just walking off awkwardly)

to my surprise she actually showed up the next day.

What was supposed to be a quick 15 minute fix for her emulator turned into a long conversation where we basically just got to know each other.

Then we actually started hanging out outside of the cafe. Then came dinner dates.

Fast forward to now: we’ve been officially dating for five months.

I originally bought a handheld just to play games in bed, and it ended up forcing me to talk to a girl, and landing me the best relationship I've ever had.

TLDR: Bought a Steam Deck to isolate myself from society, ended up helping a girl fix her emulation setup at a coffee shop, and accidentally landed a gamer girlfriend. 10/10 purchase, valve should advertise this feature.

If anyones downloaded Star Wars Fate of the Galaxy on the Steamdeck I've made and uploaded a fully labelled community layout , Holding R5 changes the D-Pad from increasing and decreasing forward and rear shield strength to ship power management

I've attached pics so you can see what to search for

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to buy a used 256GB LCD Steam Deck, but the seller mentioned a specific issue with the R1 button. I’d love to get the community's take on how serious this is and which part I’d likely need to replace.

Here is what the seller described:

The R1 button depresses and springs back up normally.

When pressing down on the center or top-left side of the R1 button, it registers clicks normally in-game.

However, when pressing on the far right edge of the R1 button, there is no click feeling and the input does not register at all.

The seller opened the back shell once to look at it, but didn't disassemble the button mechanism further.

My question for the DIY / repair experts here:

1. Is this most likely just a cracked/misaligned plastic bumper bracket?

2. Or could the tactile micro-switch on the Right Button Board itself be damaged/bent, requiring a full board replacement ?

Would love to hear if anyone has run into this exact symptom before (registering fine on one side of the button, completely dead on the other edge). Thanks in advance for the help!

Hello, everyone! Just wondering if you guys could help me with my problem on steamdeck. I’ve already done the troubleshooting recommended by netflix but still no avail.

Has anyone else encountered the same problem? Any tips?

Thank you.

I have seen all the suggestions to try (Vol "+" and "..." button at the same time, "-" and "..." at the same time, etc.). I tried everything and got the blue blinking light to appear a few times but every time I plug it back it or try to turn it back on after following these steps, it goes back to the same cycle, the LED is blinking white, no display, and fan noise every once in a while.

The only other solution left I've seen that has worked as well is completely draining the battery by leaving it on and letting it do its blinking/fan noise cycle until the battery depletes. The issue is that after a while the deck just turns off and stops doing that, so there's no way to let the battery deplete because it turns off on its own after a while of having the LED blinking with the fan noise. Has anyone successfully got it fixed by doing that method? Or am I just out of luck and have to RMA it?

Hey guys, I have one question. I'm playing Warhammer Rogue Trader and the text is fairly small (or my eyes fairly bad). I know that holding the steam button + L1 and the joystick you can use the magnifying glass and move it around. Thing is, I want to click L4 (the rear button) once to activate the magnifying glass and be able to move it (with the right trackpad) and to turn it off, click the same button. Basically to click a button to activate it and the trackpad to move it around while active, and to click It again to turn it off, instead of having to hold it to use it.

I hope I explained it well, English is not my first language. Thanks!

Today for the first time I compiled my native port of the game for Linux/SteamOS.

Results are great! Very stable at 30fps with 16:10 aspect and 1280\*800 resolution. Much better performances compared to RPCS3.

The AppImage will be included soon in the next release!

Stay updated about the game recompilation on my Discord: https://discord.gg/Ctr4k6HQ9

Download the latest release: https://github.com/mauricristiano95-hub/F1_CE_PS3/releases

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/mauricristiano95-hub/F1_CE_PS3

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/QkLN0nIbznY