Do people actually pay for Paramount+? I figured people just got it for free with Walmart+.
Now the question is who did it better, 8-bit guy or Technology Connections?
AI generated csam is still csam.
Idk, with real people the determination on if someone is underage is based on their age and not their physical appearance. There are people who look unnaturally young that could legally do porn, and underage people who look much older but aren't allowed. It's not about their appearance, but how old they are.
With drawn or AI-generated CSAM, how would you draw that line of what's fine and what's a major crime with lifelong repercussions? There's not an actual age to use, the images aren't real, so how do you determine the legal age? Do you do a physical developmental point scale and pick a value that's developed enough? Do you have a committee where they just say "yeah, looks kinda young to me" and convict someone for child pornography?
To be clear I'm not trying to defend these people, but it seems like trying to determine what counts legal/non-legal for fake images seems like a legal nightmare. I'm sure there are cases where this would be more clear cut (if they ai generate with a specific age, trying to do deep fakes of a specific person, etc), but a lot of it seems really murky when you try to imagine how to actually prosecute over it.
That was a common issue for me on an older build of steamOS, but I almost never have any issues with it anymore. Sorry to hear you're still having issues with it.
Elden Ring's DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is finally released, and it is playable on the Steam Deck. Here are our impressions so far:
![Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is Playable on Steam Deck - First Look - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/9d573429-469e-4b45-a2b9-8b11ea8ec048.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Assuming it still works, you can always startup desktop mode nested within game mode, and that will have it running through Wayland.
What dock issue are you having?
That does sound super annoying. There's actually a Decky plugin that will let you delete the shader cache, might be worth using for the easier game-mode access.
Elden Ring just updated a day ago for the DLC, and it introduced multiple issues. If you haven't played a lot of sessions in the past day you probably wouldn't have noticed the issue.
What storage issue are you talking about?
Valve has launched another small update for the Steam Deck with SteamOS 3.6.6 Preview now available for testing which may be essential if you're playing ELDEN RING.
![SteamOS 3.6.6 Preview for Steam Deck has fixes for ELDEN RING, system memory leak and more](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/b9885f06-0685-4536-a1a8-a0f14095d252.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
- Fixed a an issue with a rare session crash during early startup of ELDEN RING
- Fixed a general issue affecting all units on 3.6, and OLED units on 3.5, causing a slow memory leak during gameplay
- Fixed a DSP firmware crash with previous 3.6 versions that could result in internal sound disappearing until next reboot
- Improved responsiveness of session restart in case of session crashes caused by certain GPU errors
- Fixed an issue that could cause videos to stutter in titles such as BlazBlue Centralfiction
Some pretty good fixes. Unfortunately you'll need to be on the beta/preview channel to get them, but hopefully it won't be long before they come to stable.
A new Steam Deck Client update was released with a couple of fixes, along with a beta update that fixes Steam Input issues.
![Steam Deck Client Gets Small New Update To Fix Browser Issues - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/82b785d8-4b6e-436b-a72a-20661b017381.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Updates available for stable and beta channels. Both are pretty minor, mainly just bug fixes.
Finally. It was announced in 2017, and then development was restarted in 2019.
I hope it will be worth the wait.
Other people are making good counter arguments, so I'm just going to address one bit:
You can also look at how despite charging a 12% platform fee, Epic Games Store does not sell games 18% cheaper.
Epic hasn't been running their game store for very long, and they've been operating it at a loss to secure market share. They lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year on their store. This is mostly due to them buying exclusive rights to games, but my point is that the EGS is not a successful, self sustaining business. Epic taking a 12% cut doesn't mean that 12% is enough money, because their whole business model is about losing money to attract users.
You also have to remember that the storefront cut is an upfront cost with an unclear long-term cost. Valve is promising to always host the game and cover the bandwidth for every future download and update, no matter how many updates or how many times someone downloads it. Not to mention that they also will host mods, provide matchmaking, video streaming, and many other benefits.
No, the version they released isn't the full parameter set, and it's leading to really bad results in a lot of prompts. You get dramatically better results using their API version, so the full sd3 model is good, but the version we have is not.
Here's an example of SD3 API version:
And here's the same prompt on the local weights version they released:
People think stability AI censored NSFW content in the released model, which has crippled its ability to understand a lot of poses and how anatomy works in general.
For more examples of the issues with SD3, I'd recommend checking this reddit thread.
A few reasons:
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I feel like any other major company with Steam's marketshare would be far less consumer friendly than steam.
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Steam funnels a lot of money into Linux, and Linux is very popular on Lemmy. If you use Linux, you are benefiting from Steam's success.
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Steam is just nice to use, and has good deals. It's nice to have my games in one place, and I don't know if any other storefront with as many nice user benefiting features as steam.
Only the OLED model. The OLED model's Bluetooth chip supports BT low energy mode, while the LCD model does not. Low energy mode is required for the wake up functionality, or it would consume far too much battery in sleep mode.
Lots and lots of improvements and bug fixes have arrived in the latest stable update to the Steam Client for Linux, macOS, Windows, VR and Steam Deck.
![Steam Client updated with improvements for Steam Deck, Linux, VR and Steam Input](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/64311500-8d9d-4115-b299-dd9bdf1d4329.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Steam Deck specific changes:
- Show battery information for connected Bluetooth devices under Settings->Bluetooth and in the Quick Access menu.
- Added a per-device toggle to Settings->Bluetooth that controls whether a device is allowed to wake SteamDeck from sleep.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the UI to show stale data for Bluetooth devices.
- Fixed clickable screenshots in the post-game summary and library screenshot section not opening the screenshot dialog to the correct item.
- The magnifier scale can now be configured in Settings->Display.
This update has replaced 3 different Decky plugins for me: Controller tools (for showing controller battery), BT wake control (for controlling what BLE devices wake the deck), and the Bluetooth plugin (used for quick connections to Bluetooth devices that don't automatically connect).
The update also has a lot of desktop changes, click through to the article to see them all.
Valve just released the latest stable update to Proton, the compatibility layer for running Windows games on Linux desktop and Steam Deck with Proton 9.0-2 bringing some fun additions.
![Proton 9.0-2 brings better controller support in launchers, more playable games, lots of bug fixes](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/1db9b3ac-4871-486a-939b-67dae30bac68.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
That lawsuit is from 2021, and was thrown out later that year for failing to meet "the most basic requirements of an antitrust case,"
they also protected themselves against that by including a clause that prevents selling games cheaper on other stores
Is that even a real thing? Other stores sell games cheaper all the time. Even when buying steam games it's usually cheapest to buy the steam key from another store, because someone else will have it on sale for cheaper.
It's still the market standard for digital stores, and if steam was greedy they could absolutely charge more with their market dominance.
For comparison audible has audiobook market dominance, and takes a 75% cut. If you agree to make your audiobook audible exclusive, they'll "only" take 60% of the profit, and many audiobook authors take that deal because getting an extra 15% cut on audible is worth more than the sales from other audiobook stores.
Audible is what you get when a greedy corporation has market dominance, in comparison Steam's cuts are very tame for all the benefits they give.
They use the xbox brand for microsoft store pc games too, and it's probably those + gamepass that it would run. Those should let you lower the graphics.
Also if the device is successful, it might actually get more devs to release their games on the Microsoft store instead of just on Steam, which would be a win-win for Microsoft.
Living the dream
A big part of the Deck outselling the competition is price. An Xbox handheld could be sold at a loss (like the deck) with the plan of making the money back on Microsoft store/Xbox store sales.
More than just streaming, playing games locally "is really important" to Spencer.
![Microsoft Gaming CEO: “I think we should have a handheld, too”](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/24958499-900c-416a-8c1a-bdab722490f1.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Not an official announcement, but it's probably safe to assume an Xbox handheld is in development.
At Summer Games Fest, we got direct confirmation that Path of Exile 2 is being optimized for the Steam Deck!
![Path of Exile 2 Is Being Optimized For the Steam Deck - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/1a10256a-7c2d-46f5-9e7f-ec8745feb880.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
![](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/cf076c11-cc0f-4cc0-98d8-f6f516c44a0e.webp?thumbnail=1024&format=webp)
Source: https://x.com/OnDeck/status/1797695554891481455
The rumors have come true: God of War Ragnarok is coming to PC, and we hope it will be playable on the Steam Deck.
![God of War Ragnarok Has Been Announced for PC with FSR 3.1 - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/177b25c4-d2ab-4b3f-9d0a-525c9c1c4d6d.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
The company who's handling the port is the same company that ported the previous God of War. That one ran pretty well on the deck (other than a memory leak requiring a larger swap file in some cases), so I'm hoping this one will run acceptable with the addition of FSR.
Valve could be working on being able to record clips directly in Steam/on the Steam Deck if this rumor is to be believed.
![Valve Working on Clip Recording and Sharing in Steam Client - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/9e3f0a68-564c-47a8-a42a-7b0c918784d9.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
According to some data mining from the guy who runs SteamDB:
> Steam is still working on clip recording. It supports background recording, includes timeline markers in supported games for various events.
>Clips can be shared similar to screenshots, via the Steam community.
We don't actually have any proof that this will be coming to Steam Deck yet, but I'm pretty optimistic that it would.
I recommend clicking through to the article, it has several screenshots showing how the feature will look.
Another round of Steam Client Beta updates are here with Steam Deck and Desktop PC seeing lots of improvements and bug fixes, and it's especially nice for people using Bluetooth on Steam Deck.
![Steam Beta adds Bluetooth device battery info for Steam Deck, various desktop PC updates](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/6ba8aca0-5982-4951-938c-e113812ec78f.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Steam Deck Specific changes:
- Show battery information for connected Bluetooth devices under Settings->Bluetooth and in the Quick Access menu.
- Added a per-device toggle to Settings->Bluetooth that controls whether a device is allowed to wake Steam Deck from sleep.
- Fixed a bug that would cause the UI to show stale data for Bluetooth devices.
Rest of the changelog is here and is mostly desktop client improvements
Another Majora's Mask PC port has dropped from HarbourMasters, and it is working wonderfully on the Steam Deck!
![Another Majora's Mask PC Port Is Here For The Steam Deck! - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/ce671312-e7c8-48ac-9fb9-37d14b922cbd.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
We sent in some questions to Penny's Big Breakaway developer, Evening Star, to see how they optimized the game for the Steam Deck! Here's what they said:
![Penny's Big Breakaway's Optimization Techniques Revealed - Developer Q&A - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/6cf2735f-d04f-4e4b-9191-52964a37af5a.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
This is a developer Q&A session with Steam Deck HQ. It specifically covers a lot of questions about what was involved in getting the game running well on Steam Deck.
Quite a popular recent Steam release is MULLET MADJACK, a very vibrant single-player FPS set inside a retro Anime. It looks absolutely wild and the developer has made improvements to it on Steam Deck.
![Insane FPS 'MULLET MADJACK' gets updated for Steam Deck](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/38d41ebd-df6a-4100-a7f8-b6afb5002632.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
Valve's popular handheld gaming PC recently passed 14,200 officially rated games, meaning there's never been a better time to own one.
![Steam Deck game library now 29% larger than that of Nintendo Switch](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/41b3678e-5f42-40b9-8106-e124725db623.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
This is just talking about games approved through Valve's verification process. There are a lot of games that work that are "unverified", not to mention the entire history of gaming available through emulation.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/21835717
With the new Antec Core HS preparing to enter the market place, how will Steam Deck competitors like Valve respond? Do they need to?
![Valve has little to worry about as new Steam Deck rival arrives](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/4c8e7217-4010-4aed-8579-f8a02c269217.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
TL;DR: Antec is going to be selling a Steam Deck competitive device, based on the Ayaneo Slide. The device has a slide up screen that reveals a keyboard, which is good because using desktop windows is much easier with a keyboard. However the device's lowest estimated power draw at low/no load is 15w, meaning it will use comparable power to the deck running at max power. This means the battery life will probably be pretty rough when compared to the Deck. It will also likely have a much higher price point.
Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut plays smoothly on the Steam Deck - shame about its Windows-only PSN login requirement blocking co-op play.
Braid Anniversary Edition got a new update that improved support for both models of the Steam Deck!
![Braid Anniversary Edition Gets Better Steam Deck Support in New Update - Steam Deck HQ](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/93ee4c9d-149b-4c6a-9aca-a7f1892addf4.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
An update many have been waiting for, Caves of Qud, one of the best roguelikes ever has a Beta available that includes a huge overhaul to the UI. Much better for gamepad and Steam Deck players.
![Caves of Qud gets a huge new Beta released with the big UI redesign](https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/b2a28531-c424-49a6-85d9-d7a79643a51f.webp?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
There's a new beta for Caves of Qud, available by opting into the beta from the game's steam properties.
Noteworthy changes for Steam Deck users:
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🚨ALL NEW INTERFACE🚨 Our transformational UI redesign is complete! Fully mouseable, fully gamepaddable, and much prettier, but all carefully designed to maintain the essence of what makes Qud Qud. More polish is coming, but everything functional is in.
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Support for Steam Cloud saves. Play between PCs or between Steam Deck and PC, at your leisure
There are a lot of other good changes too, full patch notes are here.. This patch will exit beta on June 6th.