[Discussion] Playing GOG and Epic games on the Steam Deck, your experience wanted. (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by HumbleHobo@beehaw.org to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've got a substantial library of games on GOG and Epic that I wanted to play on the Steam Deck, and I've used the Heroic Launcher with some success to access a lot of my libraries on those two platforms, but managing the compatibility per game is a bit frustrating and sometimes after an update things break.

Can anyone else share any success or failure stories here? The only other place I've seen this discussion was on Steam itself and I wanted a non-steam take on the practice of running non-steam platform games and what works.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

Not a dumb question at all. I see it's already answered, but I'll add a little detail.

It's functionality that is readily accessed, but Steam doesn't really advertise it. Desktop mode is very useful, and accessing it is a first step to unlocking lots of the Deck's potential. Assuming you (or anyone who finds this later) have never used the Desktop mode, I'll give a brief overview.

I recommend having a USB-C hub/dock so you can connect to an external keyboard and mouse, but it's not necessary. The right track pad along with the trigger switches will work as a mouse, and the Steam + X will still bring up an on-screen keyboard.

To switch to desktop mode:

Press the "Steam" button, select "Power", select "Switch to Desktop", wait while the Deck reboots into desktop mode.
You will be presented with a fairly typical (Linux) desktop environment. In the lower left the Steam Deck icon opens a "Start"-like launcher menu. Next to the launcher icon, there should be Firefox, System Settings, Discover, and Dolphin shortcuts.
Using a mouse or the right trackpad, click the Discover icon, this will launch the Discover application, which is kind of like the software store. You can search for Heroic and Lutris using the search field in the upper left.

With desktop mode, you can also install LibreOffice and use that keyboard and mouse to get some work done. Heck, install an IDE, graphics editing software, whatever.

You will need to return to desktop mode and Discover to update the software installed with Discover (unless you use AutoFlatpaks with Decky loader).

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023

47 points (88.5% liked)

Steam Hardware

21235 readers

23 users here now

A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Follow the rules of Sopuli
Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
No piracy, there are other communities for that.
Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
Have fun.

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

Moxvallix@sopuli.xyz

Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz