Pyrian on 3/1/2023 at 21:56
Quote Posted by Malf
In reality, you're probably going to have to sync saves to the cloud on at least one end, and possibly both. It's not a massive pain, but it's not the seamless dream. Yet.
Speaking as both a user and developer with experience on this topic... Not quite sure what you're saying, here. Of
course the saves have to be synchronized. But it's not a manual process. What you, as a user, have to watch out for, is having both instances running at the same time, or starting/ending without internet access. The Steam cloud save
by default synchronizes when you start and end the game (it just loads save files from the cloud when you start, saves them to the cloud when you end). It is entirely
possible for a developer to make it much more real-time, but this requires having the game itself hook into the Steam API and either trigger the process manually or send data directly through the API, which is kind of a pain in the ass, so developers rarely do it. (Steam objects to being played by the same account on multiple devices at the same time, anyway, but if you leave a game running and it goes to sleep/hibernation, the save file won't have been uploaded.)
If you have connection always on and stop the game on one platform before starting it on another, the cloud save should "just work" with no more input from the user and very little work on the part of the developer (just need to tell Steam what save file(s) to vacuum up).
One other thing to worry about is old saves. Steam allocates a pretty small amount of cloud space for save files and tends to delete old ones. If you're shelving a game for a while, maybe keep a local copy around with your latest save file if you don't want to lose it.
Malf on 4/1/2023 at 16:08
Yeah, I was thinking of save states a la emulators, if that helps clarify things, but it's purely from a non-coders perspective, and is probably completely pie-in-the-sky.
henke on 10/6/2024 at 08:58
Have been resisting the temptation of the Deck but when my office mate Ville started talking about getting one, I offered to chip in. We now have shared custody of a 512GB Steam Deck OLED. Our pride and joy. I had it last weekend. Played some new games from last week's Humble Bundle, including a couple hours of En Garde, which is a very fun game. Also installed some of my own prototypes using the Developer mode. Works well enough, tho has some weird quirks like you can't have any spaces in the filenames of your .exe files. Of course tried my own Steam releases and they work well enough, gotta get around to seeing what I need to do to get them labeled fully Steam Deck-compatible. Did install the itch.io desktop app as well but haven't gotten around to trying any games through that yet.
demagogue on 10/6/2024 at 14:49
I'm thinking I'll get the ROG Ally X (its 1.5 version) when it comes out later in the month. I know the OLED is a nice thing, but I want Windows device, and the Ally X seems to be the best of that bunch. People dog on ASUS for their shit support though. It was annoying dealing with them for a past gaming laptop. So it's a factor, though I'm not sure it's determinative by itself.
WingedKagouti on 10/6/2024 at 22:55
Quote Posted by demagogue
I'm thinking I'll get the ROG Ally X (it's 1.5 version) when it comes out later in the month. I know the OLED is a nice thing, but I want Windows device, and the Ally X seems to be the best of that bunch. People dog on ASUS for their shit support though.
I have an original Ally, and ASUS has done a solid job at supporting it IMO. I don't use it often, but that has more to do with my general gaming patterns.
Briareos H on 11/6/2024 at 05:51
Be very certain that's the experience you want though. The recent Windows devices look rather neat, especially being more powerful than the Deck which starts to feel limited with newer releases, but the experience of tinkering with a Desktop-based OS on such a device is not something I would wish upon anyone on a regular basis. You'll end up having to do it anyway, especially if you want to install itch.io games or emulators, but the ease of use of the SteamOS GUI and the amazing support (Valve & community both) that the Deck is receiving really make it feel like a console more often than not. And Proton has handled perfectly almost everything I've thrown at it so far.
If you don't mind connecting a mouse and keyboard, then the arguments in favor of the Deck tend to disappear. I know that SteamOS can be installed on the Ally but that's more tinkering and I'm past the age where this is enjoyable, especially with Linux.
