It’s been kinda a slow week as far as Deck news goes, so seems like a good time for a discussion post.
What’s something that’s significantly improved your deck experience? It can be a hardware accessory, software, decky plugin, etc.
Heroic launcher, kdeconnect
I got a gaming pillow from Mechanism. It holds the deck exactly where I want it, so my hands don’t fall asleep during long play sessions.
Hardware-wise:
I have to say that when I’m docked, it’s my 27" 1440p monitor. I love the way it looks, and it perfectly integer scales with 720p, so I have the option of running stuff in 720p native with no jaggies, and it looks fantastic.
When I’m handheld, I use a pair of light and thin bone conduction headphones so I can be anywhere in the house and have my ears open. I also use a simple pair of clip on 2x reading glasses to blow up the native screen, they cost me maybe $10 and really help out my 40s eyes.
Software wise: This is my main PC, and you know I always sing the praises of Nested Desktop because I’m always needing to bounce to Desktop mode. Decky Loader has also been transformative over the years with so many good plug ins.
But finally, I would have to say that the most impactful thing in recent times has been the Lossless Scaling frame gen… that’s a literal game changer. If you had told me three months ago that I’d be playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on my Steam Deck at 90 FPS, I’d have looked at you like you had a third eye growing out of the middle of your forehead, but here we are.
I’ve got a JSAUX modcase, and it’s been great for deck portability. The case that came with the deck is great for protection, but too big to fit easily in my bag I take to work. The modcase provides enough protection to put the deck in a bag, and has made it a lot easier to take with me. dBrand did this first with the Killswitch case, but it was a bit more expensive than I was willing to pay. I think some other brands have since made their own versions of it, but I don’t have any experience with those.
Back button “enhancement set”.
Hated the stock back buttons and just never used them because they lined up exactly with the joint on my finger.
These just stick on with some 3M tape (definitely clean prior to application) and my fingers rest on the buttons now - and they’re way easier to click.
I also grabbed some thumb stick cover things, but those aren’t as “game changing”
Hahaha this post made me realize that the deck does have a back button. I never used them
I used a Dell Thunderbolt dock to dock my Steam Deck with my third monitor at work, so when it gets slow I can play with my Dualsense I keep in the drawer at work.
It hasn’t been slow in a while but when it was, oh boy, I made some progress in my games.
