this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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PC Gaming

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Weekend PC game deals (www.neowin.net)
submitted 1 year ago by tangelo@kbin.social to c/PCGaming@kbin.social
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[–] ivlarac@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What’s the alternative for those of us who own a steam deck and don’t want can’t install windows? Streaming with xcloud is not a viable option since the main feature I need (besides portability) is the hability to stop the game in any moment and resume in the same place instantly.

I think game pass is great with all the games they provide. I’ve used it for some time and I really like it but I’m on a different place now where I need certain features more than a lot of great games

[–] JanoRis@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also have a steamdeck, but that is a hard ask.

Without Windows you will have to stream it probably:

  • if you have a normal PC but you just prefer using the steamdeck anywhere at home, you could stream your PC with Sunlight&Moonlight (kinda like steamlink but people say it works better)
  • GeforceNow might also work
  • If you own an Xbox you can also stream from there instead of using xcloud. This should also be no issue for quick resume.

Other Options requiring Windows:

  • I believe you can install Windows to a microSD so you can just use the SD card if you want to boot to windows instead.
  • Other option would be to get an Asus ROG Ally
[–] ivlarac@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That was my point, there’s a lot to do if you want to experience the steam deck capabilities with game pass. I’m not saying it’s not great, of course it is, but as a parent with very very very limited time, it’s not useful for me (yet). Here’s hoping we get a client for Linux some time soon or I’ll have to tinker to install windows on my ssd.

Thank you anyway for all your recommendations, really appreciated.

[–] tangelo@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

With Steam you're essentially paying a (sometimes) premium for a whole suite of features: Steamworks (drop-in support for matchmaking and multiplayer lobbies), numerous edge servers on a global CDN (faster downloads), Steam input (plethora of configuration options for any controller or HID), remote play (play local games with a remote player), shared shader caching, upstream contributions to the Wine, Vulkan, DXVK et al stacks, a highly open and permissive API, streaming video of your game while you play it, Steam cache servers (build a local fileserver to cache game downloads), the list goes on. And if you find a bug, you can report it on their bug tracker and someone will actually investigate it. It is a no-brainer.

Other services just give you a desktop shortcut at best. People say, "I don't need these features, I just want games." If they've ever launched a game on Steam, they've probably benefited from these features and more without realizing it.