I don’t think you’re talking about the Outlook I am talking about because I’m talking about the Outlook Mail and Calendar apps, not the Office ones. And that’s fine and dandy about proprietary software and all but frankly I haven’t really seen any non-proprietary mail apps that look aesthetically pleasing. But that’s besides the point, it’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to visuals after all.
... I am not just talking about little details and preferences here? Windows products are increasingly broken and dysfunctional at every level. Features don't work, features are randomly changed and broken, nothing is consistent, core features of the computer are made opaque, any given Linux package manager is about 1000000 times more trustable than the ad ridden, sketchy, bloatware filled Windows store where you have to hunt for actually useful and trustable tools. One of my old bosses had his work windows computer update to a new windows OS without really asking him (technically it did, but then it just kept scheduling an OS upgrade until he missed it). It didn't break his computer, but he had thousands and thousands of hours of cad drafting work on that computer and Windows could have EASILY fucked up in the update process, or the old software we were using could have EASILY not been compatible. Windows basically flipped a coin for whether they were going to utterly grind my bosses business to a halt and cause utter panic or just have the computer update. This is not "user friendly" software design, this is not "easy to use software made by an extremely competent software company".
I’d also like to add, nowhere did I ever mention using laptops. All my experiences are with desktops that I had a hand in building from scratch. So I’m not sure what you’re even getting at with those assumptions.
....because for 99% of people who are going to be using a computer for light email, research and text editing work they are going to be using a laptop? I don't really understand what about my argument doesn't apply to windows prebuilts that have good driver support for linux...?
It’s somewhat concerning that you have such a strong obsession over the topic that you would go and whether intentionally or unintentionally offend people and I hope that you are a much more pleasant person to converse with outside of this topic or even this site.
I think it is completely reasonable to be upset when someone is condescendingly foreclosing the possibility that something can happen when the evidence they are using for it is outdated and they refuse to update it in their heads. The only response at that point when someone refuses to re-evaluate their position and continues to "speak for the group" when they really don't represent the group anymore is to make it even clearer that they don't speak for a group, and I am sorry if my method offended here, I believe your heart is in the right place but please stop trying to tell us about how stupid and unwilling people are to learn new things. Please please please just keep your mouth closed, it doesn't help anyone, period. Even if you were right, there would be nothing to change in our actions as it would just be hopeless to even try?
This isn't 2015, a good Linux distribution is as polished, easy to use, and easy to explain to a newbie computer user as Windows is. If you aren't ready to accept that shrugs I mean fine but don't push your outmoded narrative into conversations that might actually convince someone who doesn't know about Linux that it isn't worth checking out as a serious alternative. You are actively doing damage to the future of this software movement by dismissing it offhand like this.
No next time you don’t condescendingly assume someone acting in a neurodivergent way is an AI/chatbot and you actually take the time to learn about humans who act in ways that confuse you.
That is how this goes.
I don’t need to change my behavior, sorry.
Outlook is atrocious what on earth are you talking about? Just trying to use it at work it is so frustrating and the UI is horrendous for everything. Truly even basic things like trying to read when a meeting actually starts just from looking at the calendar is a headache, and because all of this is proprietary unlike with Linux, tough luck, that is how things are and you can’t do shit to change it. Neither can an experienced computer user trying to help you.
I am sorry you really don’t have an accurate handle on the state of things anymore, I think you are stuck in your ways and stressed out by life and you don’t realize that emotion and lack of mental plasticity is leading to you assume everyone else is as stuck in their ways as you (including your future self when you are able to feel less overworked and stressed).
Windows is atrocious at this point, search doesn’t work and purposefully confuses new computer users about where is being searched and what is being searched. Ads pop up everywhere in the UI and will continue to spread like a terminal cancer in the UI.
Search on windows also just sucks and takes ages with the default settings (an inexperienced computer user will be using).
The file manager on windows in most marquee windows programs like word, excel etc.. all open up an entirely different file manager half way through the process of saving a file in perhaps the most insane UI pattern to keep from the mess that was Windows 8 (even though I actually really liked the core idea at first).
Windows is buggy AND windows is constantly playing head games with its user by trying to force them to use the edge browser. It is very very confusing to a new computer user what the hell is even going on.
I mean, Windows illegally changed the entire operating system countless people had without getting consent because it would look good for their numbers.
Seriously you are WAYYY out of your league if you are going to claim a nice Linux distribution on good hardware with good driver support (such as some dells or thinkpads) is categorically wayyy worse than trying to use a windows laptop in 2024….
…please get your head out of the sand :)
I mean do you want to get into the massive security vulnerability at a tactical and strategic level that Microsoft’s co-pilot represents? This is endgame for business security, Windows is in a worse spot than it has been in probably a decade at least and they deserve it. IT people and corporations have to seriously wonder if Windows even cares about following the law, which makes trusting Windows for the software relied upon by their company a complex question indeed…..
It used to be that Linux was better ideologically because it gave you agency over your computer, but now things have gotten so much worse that the reason is practical and no longer ideological.
You know the weirdest shit about fractals is that if the fractal is space filling (you repeated the pattern at all scales for infinity and end up filling a 2d area with lines somehow than that fractal exists between the integers definitions of dimensions). A 1d simple line fractal pattern can through the bullshit magic of math have a dimensionality of 1.65 or whatever, it is weird shit.
I am sure I got something wayyyy wrong about this lol, but whatever.
I feel like I did when I impulsively splurged on Motor Town because it clicked with me so well, which is a very confident feeling of no regrets. This game has already blown me away with the clarity of its gameplay vision.
I hope resource use can come a bitttt down on the deck but its fine it is an absolutely perfect handheld game in gameplay.
Oh damn I never knew that, see in games like that I never even bother to jump in a sailboat when I see one because I know chances are it is going to be lame and make me sad and the sailboat wasn’t put there as a drivable vehicle to make me happy but rather the programmers just made it so you could drive all the boats even if some of them were painfully boring and oversimplified to the point of being an utter waste of time and honestly kind of a middle finger to sailing. Like Saints Row style comedic games should just have the character go down into the cabin, come back up with a chainsaw, cut the mast down and then turn on the outboard to make it into a motor boat, that would be way less horrendous than programmers spending a bunch of time animating totally fake sails that just magically spin the wind direction every which way they go (it hurts my brain a little just trying to explain it from the standpoint of actually understanding the very barebones basics of sailing).
I have always had a bit of a grudge against Rockstar for not having their sailboats behave like sailboats in their games. They absolutely have the money and they have shown the aptitude to make mechanically superb focused games like the midnight club series or more specifically the table tennis game they made that is… just a damn fucking good table tennis game.
Rockstar could have made their sailboats behave like sailboats at least in GTA 5 and when people realized that was awesome they could have stupendously easily turned it into it’s own entire separate sailing game built on the GTA engine… from there small rowable sloops for inland waterways useful for running rum covertly to unexpected and unwatched places where cargo could be discretely offloaded would naturally slot PERFECTLY into a Red Dead Redemption 2 dlc focused on swamps and waterways….
…sigh
No excuses game developers, learn to sail, go play Pancake Sailor, I will not accept this level of extreme sailing ignorance going forward. Sailing is one of the dopest skills humans have ever mastered (and is certainly one sentient aliens on ocean planets all over the universe must have mastered as well, certainly before becoming a spacefaring race if that is even possible right?) and unlike space video games, the moment to moment skill of sailing a ship is fundamentally rich in sensory feedbacks and necessary minute control corrections.
Dredge looks pretty awesome. I have to say though, I get just as hot and bothered about the idea of a game like Ships At Sea/Fishing Barents Sea .
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1266540/Ships_At_Sea/?curator_clanid=40205009
I want both lol.
I will say Windbound looks like it kind of launched with some frustrating game bugs and confused players a bit, but it is at a crazy steep discount right now and looks like it is worth buying. It has real sailing mechanics as far as I can tell and involves the exploration and navigation aspect of sailing that I love.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1162130/Windbound/
Sail Forth also looks like another dime a dozen pirate ship games with ships that don't act at all like a sailing ship but rather just look cool with animated sails and drive like a tank... but the sailing mechanics are actually apparently really deep and fun. They are arcadey, but the spirit is real sailing.
I was so fucking hyped when I realized Valheim actually has the fundamentals of real sailing in it, certainly I had already fallen in love with Valheim at that point, discovering the sailboats weren't half-asssed just reaffirmed to me in that moment that the lifelong partner I had been looking for and never finding in Minecraft was here, waiting for me, with a beard and torch. This whole time it wasn't me for being weird and always getting really disconnected from the core gameplay loop of Minecraft after the initial rush of revisiting the game after awhile ran off in the way others who liked the game as much as me didn't seem to... and this whole time I wondered what was wrong with ME.
Valheim whispered into my ear "honey, you KNOW what you want and I am going to give it to you" and shattered that whole complex in an instant when that shitty raft popped into the water in front of me after I crafted it for the first time.
Bringing it back to the whole thing about Linux, can you imagine how frustrating it would be to have to help debug a user’s Linux installation when they already need help with installing a browser add on? I work with tech and Linux on a daily basis and I already find it frustrating doing it for myself (fuck Nvidia drivers). No way am I gonna recommend it to someone else.
Are you honestly going to still claim at this late date of 2024 that a decent popular linux distro is actually going to be MORE of a headache than Windows?
....?
Have you tried Windows recently?
Hey sorry if that was a long reach
joke rimshot sound
Oh gosh if I wasn't broke right now I would instabuy Sailwind lol, it looks exactly like what my heart has wanted from sailing games forever, but have always gotten arcadey, shallow action experiences that use the theming of pirate ships as a thin veneer to mechanics that have nothing to with sailing.
I don't know when I will get Sailwind but when I do I will play the ever living shit out of it.
edit well I watched too many Sailwind videos because I was curious and then suddenly out of nowhere I smelled something weird and I realized I had in my excitement for imagining being able to stack cargo in my sailing ship like a kid in a sandbox playing with toys that I had already lit a $20 bill on fire with a lighter I had unconsciously pulled out of my pocket and at that point it would have been a waste not to buy Sailwind so shrugs no way I can win I guess, you got me corned again life.
Well, video games are a good distraction from being hungry at least!
yeah the free pancake game I linked is very very simple in scope,it isnt meant to be a main game or anything (marineverse cup is the nonvr "main" version I think).
The sailing model is good though and the simplicity is a perfect intro into sailing skills, which I think is the point. Think of it as a simple meditative idle game where you learn a very real skill.
I am interested in trying other companies sailing games like sailwind, sail forth (arcadey but apparently true sailing in spirit) and maybesome of the more expensive ones at somepoint idk.
I think I will get marineverse cup for $5 on sale but idk I havent played it yet and other sailing games look really good too (sailwind thoooo).
What I can say for sure is Pancake Sailor is perfect at what it is trying to be and it is a pleasure.
I would love to hear other's recommendations on games with deep and nuanced true sailing mechanics, it is almost impossible to deduce from the outside with a game even if sailboats are everywhere in the theme. I also dont vibe with sailing for the intense racing vibes, more for the experience of wandering, that is what a sunfish always represented to me growing up, I could care less about zooming around a specific track, small pancake sailors are the mountainbikes of nearshore choppy but moderate inland coastal waters.
I really wanted to live in the timeline where I grew into adulthood in a society that accepted neurodivergent people and loved them beyond a superficial performance of acceptance.
Instead I got one full of people that poorly hide their disgust for the way I stim and get excited in conversations about a current hyperfocus under a myriad of disguises, I guess the latest one being that I am clearly too weird and inchoherent to be human, the AI thing being an unconscious way to gatekeep what "human" and "non-human" conversations look like.
I struggle not to hate people like you, you destroy my life over and over again simply because I don't make sense to you. Then you get upset when people like me react aggressively because it isn't your fault you didn't allow space for a mind like mine to exist, how could you have known?
Maybe you could work on listening better so you aren't so incredibly lost when it comes to evaluating whether a human being or algorithm is talking. I will not defend myself, I am wordy, annoying, opinionated and holy fuck my sentences run on and on but my oh my it is insulting to your own intelligence to lazily pass my words off as maybe AI generated you fool.
True actual sailing games are underrated and a criminally underexplored genre of video game simulation... which is why Pancake Sailor is the next free game you should try!
Relaxing sailing experience. Discover Akalana Islands.
"pancake" refers to a colloaquial term for tiny nimble classic recreational racing sailboats like sunfishes and lasers, essentially the hull is shaped like a pancake (well a bowl more like but whatever) and all of the lateral resistance to getting blown sideways (that would be provided naturally by a long slim hull that sat deep in the water) is focused on the narrow point of the single daggerboard and to a lesser extent rudder. This is what makes sailboats like this an absolute joy to sail even in fairly light wind in real life, they take almost no wind to go and can take advantage of passing bursts of energy from even the most capricious wind gusts, so it makes sailing them a very direct and deeply calming conversation with the immediate elements of the wind and water around you.
Sailing in light wind is fun in a chill way but for long sailboats that have a consequently big turning radius, often it is difficult to keep any speed when turning the front of the boat directly past the onblowing wind because you can't pick up any speed in that moment, you have to rely on inertia. A pancake sailboat like this is made to spin like a top with a flick of the rudder so that even in light wind the hull can carry momentum through multiple quick tacks (changing direction by rotating the bow past the direction of the onblowing wind) or jives (changing direction by rotating the bow the other way, so that it never directly passes by the direction of the onblowing wind, can be very difficult to control in a small sailboat like this).
With this kind of sailboat you basically have two controls, you aim the rudder with an articulated handle in one hand and you control the angle of the sail/boom through a rope held in your other hand that runs through a pulley. In real life you also are able to control the center of mass of your personal meatcube for minute corrections as well, but with essentially just those two control inputs an incredible variety and complexity of movement is possible.
Even if you have never thought about learning sailing, it is worth learning for its own sake because of how primal and direct learning how to sail a pancake boat like this is that only has one rope to hold and one rudder and that is the whole dashboard of controls. If you have ever met sailors, they probably are really intense and get all hyped about racing around in conditions that look absolutely awful to a non-sailor lol, but it is just as valid to sail around in light wind normal on a blustery afternoon summer day as wiser and lazier alternative to paddling a kayak :). Honestly it takes an astonishingly little amount of energy to move a tiny sailboat like this at a pace faster than you can paddle a kayak.
Pancake Sailor and the developers non-free games are marketed definitely pretty heavily towards VR, but Pancake Sailor actually works bloody fantastic as a Steam Deck game. It is an immediate cozy and chill experience, the moment you open the game and start playing. I can easily see myself talking with someone on the phone while I focus on the conversation and mindlessly sail around in pancake sailor.
Check it out! It is free!
Also the main game is on sale for $5 in the steam summer sale, the game doesn't seem to go cheaper, it isn't necessarily a super rare sale either though so shrugs honestly I recommend just downloading Pancake Sailor and having some fun!
This game will genuinely teach you how to sail, and the really wonderful thing is that if you learn how to sail a really really simple sailboat like this you will understand the basics of how to sail any sailboat, no matter how complex. Yes there are a billion more things to learn with larger sailboats with multiple crew and sails and ways to manipulate those sails... but at the end of the day you are trying to accomplish the same set of maneuevers that will become deeply intuitive to you if you practice sailiing a simple sailboat like this. Honestly, master a boat like this and if someone threw you onto a typical 40 foot monohull sailboat and you had to sail it back to a harbor to save your life, you would be fine. You would do a really shitty job, but again the fundamentalis are the same. This is a human skill I think everyone should explore through video games!
Warning though, once you learn how to sail every time you play a video game where sailboats are just normal boats but with an animated sail that magically changes the wind direction around.. or even if there are true sailing mechanics but they are shallow af, you will become very sad.... :( but then valheim will give you a hug and remind you that there are people out there that really do care.
Can y’all IT people please stop with the condescending “you don’t know how stupid people are about computers”, it seems like there is always one of you showing up in a comment thread to tell us that we can’t have the future literally all of us want including you all as well… because WE are too stupid and lazy about computers.
I helped a grown ass human who was my age at 40yo how to install a Firefox extension.
Were you as condescending to them in person as you are being in referencing them right now? Why is not knowing how to install a Firefox extension some indicator of foreclosure on the possibility of that person becoming computer literate along whatever metrics you define? There are plenty of smart people out there who can learn how to use a computer for very complex tasks who have just simply never learned about extensions for Firefox. This is a very feasible and normal reality.
Do you know how to change the oil on your car yourself? Do simple plumbing jobs? Could you run a classroom of middle schoolers and keep them all focused while keeping your eye on the shy sad kid in the back who tends to disappear if you don’t engage them? What about basic healthcare changes or cooking? What about outdoor work or basic small engine maintenance? Do you even know shit about the most basic species of trees in your backyard? Do you know the species of songbirds you often hear outside your window? Do you even pay attention to that? Do you know how to drive a dirt bike extremely fast on a rough dirt road? Do you know how to adjust for the violent explosive power of turbo lag in a car with a turbocharger so that torque oversteer doesn’t launch you off the road? Do you know how to sew and repair basic garments? To weave? Can you even fish? Like could you literally even just catch a fish to save your life right now if I handed you a fishing rod unassembled with no instructions?
My point is, don’t go looking for confirmation of how stupid or lazy people are or how limited their capacity is to evolve and grow by casting the shapes of their ignorance onto the floor and trying to read some magic language from that.
Maybe they don’t know because they are hopelesssly stupid, but maybe not? If they are intelligent and they don’t know computers then those are the perfect people to teach linux. Then it is their first language instead of windows, many linux distro are perfectly fine for this at this point.
See here is the bottom line, legions of IT people show up online always arguing they think they know that the average person is too dumb, lazy and uninterested in computers for Linux adoption to seriously take off in the personal computer market and challenge Microsoft, but y’all don’t know shit about humans. You are experts in computers who think that makes you experts in human potential.
Go take some theater classes (or get an degree in education) and get educated before you start drawing conclusions about people when you really haven’t spent time closely studying how people engage with their potential and what situations facilitate that in basic human interaction and framing of conversations (both literal and abstract).
I’m sorry if I snapped at you but I think it is existentially important to recognize here that we don’t know what people are capable of, you can’t know the essential capacity of people to change, don’t try to predict it. Focus on creating the material opportunity for change and the rest may follow depending on what people desire, no matter to us, we desire to create that positive opportunity for change because it is the right thing to do, not because we like the future growth charts of the things we believe are important and vital.
Do you have a mod pack you like or a list you have made?
Motor Town - I am now on the top 10 leaderboard for taxi driving because I play on my steam deck lots. It is perfect for it. Sometimes it gets the steam deck too hot I need to fiddle with settings.
Easy Red 2 - just buy it, it runs awesome on the steam deck, and with joysticks you can get a p51 mustang deadly locked in, maybe not quite a joystick but close.
Operation Harsh Doorstep - free realistic modern shooter with vehicles and modding support with a lot of potential, most maps run decent and scoped weapons arent bad on steam deck with gyroscope on, it really helps with recoil.
Maniac - yes
Have you heard of Driftwood? Gotta get in your diversity of skateboards
The 2d one or 3D one?
I haven't played the board game but I have heard it is a brilliant complex multiplayer strategy game that really captures the shifting factional politics that the books and movies are so focused on.
I am super happy there is a digital version of Dune Imperium, really good digital versions of really good board games are super underrated. Especially when the core strategy of the board game is so good it makes super complex pc strategy empire games with terrible UIs, confusing resources and a million little fiddly useless decisions look pretty absurd in how much useless stuff they add just for stuffs sake.
I think the digital version will allow many more games of Dune Imperium to practically happen remote than otherwise would happen.
Gonna need to read this because damn this is scary new world with this utterly insane supreme court ruling.
Recent Sales Including Steam Sale and Fanatical not sure what region locks apply to these? I am in US
There are some decent deals going on right now, not so much for AAA titles really, they don't seem to be going on sale much in my opinion in the past year or so.
Indie games on the other hand have been having some really great discounts.
Here is the /r/gamedeals steam summer sale thread
https://old.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/1dpxrdr/steam_summer_sale_2023_day_1/
The thread you are really interested in is the Hidden Gems thread tho...
https://old.reddit.com/r/GameDealsMeta/comments/1dpxyff/steam_summer_2024_hidden_gems/
Even more so than steam... I think some of the recent Fanatical bundles have been really great for indie games, I bought almost everything from these bundles
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-revival-bundle
I also picked up a bunch from this one too
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-handheld-heroes-bundle
I really like the digital board games from direwolf like Instanbul, Everdell, Wings Of Glory. Concordia is also a brilliant digital board game and perhaps one of the best board games ever invented by humanity... (not kidding).
How about y'all? Have you picked up any good indie games for your steam deck lately?
Kinda spent a lot, but with a lot of these indie games, like the big metroidivania games and such I just don't think they are ever going to come down below $3, they aren't worth that little lol anyways.. but just look at the isthereanydeal stats for some of the indie games in the fanatical bundles they straight up destroy steam's "summer sale" in my opinion at least at a cursory glance.
For example, look at "Trinity Fusion" in the "handheld heroes bundle", Steam advertises it on "sale" for $12, but if you buy 5 games or so on fanatical's bundle it is $3....
...just saying, might be a good time to flesh out your steam deck's indie, local co-op, party and retro style catalog!
Sky Islands playthrough by TheMurderUnicorn
This youtuber makes Sky Island playthroughs and I think they are really well done and deserve more views!
The countries with the most Fediverse servers are rich and former/current colonial powers. One of the best true barometers of the success of the Fediverse is how quickly we can turn that on its head.
In the end I don’t think internet users in rich powerful countries are the users most likely to benefit and invest their time into in the fediverse. They might be the ones with the most free time, money and privilege around computers which makes being on the leading edge of niche technologies far easier, but I don’t think using the fediverse vs commercial social media is thattt crucial of a difference for most (add a million qualifiers here except if you are black, queer, trans etc… I am talking in relative terms here) livimg inside the borders of colonial powers like the US, France, Germany etc..
Speaking as a hetero white dude who grew up with a decent amount of privilege the fediverse isn’t for the countless versions of me living within the borders of colonial powers…
It might have been programmers living within the borders of colonial powers that did most of the labor to create the fediverse, and most of the early users might have come from within colonial powers but I think it is important to recognize that the gift that the fediverse represents to the world is the capacity to empower people living outside the borders of colonial powers to own and run their own social networks instead of having some random Facebook employee who doesn’t have the time or basic knowledge of a country to make major decisions about what news accounts to moderate as dangerous spam and what to allow.
From a 30,000 foot view, speaking in broad terms and specific values and priorities, what do you think are the best strategies for flipping the script on the fediverse being mostly a tool used by people within the borders of colonial powers to one used by without and within?
I wonder about the capacities of fediverse software being useful as a compliment to HOT open street mapping type initiatives in the wake of disasters and just in general?
(Are server costs just generally cheaper/easier in colonial countries to run or is it purely a money and time thing? I don’t really know)
The Only Difference Between A Map Enthusiast And A Mapping Enthusiast Is ing
An Easy Way To Copy A Controller Layout Configuration From One Game To Another
I have unfortunately not been able to figure out how to load controller configurations that I have shared to steam into games that weren’t the original game I made that controller config in. I click on the controller layout and it fails to load and reverts back to the layout I already had selected.
My recommendation (cobbled together from recommendations from others) for getting around this is adding the file manager "Dolphin" (steam deck already has it) as a non-steam game to steam as well as “Corehunt” (which you have to download from Discover, it is made by the same people that made CoreKeyboard). Or you can just use Dolphin and Corehunt in desktop mode.
https://flathub.org/apps/org.cubocore.CoreHunt
https://gitlab.com/cubocore/coreapps/corehunt
Before I start, if y'all have a better way feel free to chime in and show me the light :P.
——
Go to the game you want to copy a controller layout into. Edit one of the default controller layouts, make a random change to it, rename the controller layout to a unique name like TARGET_game then export the file as a personal save (or a personal shareable save I can’t remember which).
———
In Corehunt, search for the file, Corehunt should find the file fairly quickly (it is muchhhh faster, fuzzier and more thorough than the other file search programs I have used on the Steam Deck so far). Note the file path.
———-
If needed, also search the name of the controller layout you want to copy into the game (name that layout something you can search for easily too).
————-
Navigate to the file path for your controller layout you want to copy, click split view in dolphin and then open up the controller layout for the game you want to copy the controller layout into (that contains your “Target_game” file) and… drag and drop copy!
————
Done! Now when you go to browse layouts for your new game, the layout from your old game will show up and be loadable.
Note… you can also look up your steam deck’s file path to controller layouts in a guide or documentation but the filepath is really annoying and one of the folder steps is your steam user-id… so I actually think this explanation is much more concise and easy to do. Just let Corehunt find the folder location for you and then pin it to Dolphin’s sidebar so you can quickly jump to it again.
Steam games should name themselves according to the name you have in Steam, but sometimes the folder name is a number (the steam game’s id number or something).
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descriptions of Demons and the arcane rituals required to banish them feverishly relayed by occultists in ghost/horror stories are a direct homomorphism to computers and actually how awful they are
Unironically.
Next time you hear a ridiculous description of the steps required for a ghost summoning or exorcism, just think about all the emails you have gotten from HR that detail the pointlessly overcomplicated process for clocking in and out of work.
Or when you hear Sony just lost all their emails and you are like… what does that even mean?
It’s all just spirit forces blasting back and forth on a cosmic scale of bullshit and silicon.
Motor Town - sticking a v12 in the Buick GNX (Steam Deck gameplay)
With graphics turned to low (which just looks retro to me and fits the vibe of the game like I am playing midtown madness-ultra) Motor Town is a blast on the Steam Deck!
What really makes it fit well with the deck is the autopilot feature where you can hit a button and your car will automatically navigate to the next step of whatever job you are doing. That makes it perfect for picking up and putting down while you do other stuff.
Cataclysm DDA, Vim & WASD - Implications For Generalist Translations Of Qwerty Layouts To The Steam Deck
cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/12374907
I recently came up with a Steam Deck keybindings layout for Cataclysm DDA after someone asked me about it and it gave me the push I needed to actually sit down and do it the way I wanted to. I think there are some really cool implications for accessibility here as well as this is a pretty damn fast way of inputting keys once you get used to it, and investing the time is worth it since the control scheme laid out here immediately has plug-and-play compatibility with not only a ton of games but also a ton of powerful software tools.
post text contained below
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> Cataclysm DDA, Vim & WASD > --------------- > > ! > > edit: I recommend increasing the transparency of the popup steam menus by a large amount in practice, I kept them fairly opaque to make the video demonstration easier to follow > > >
> > Vim Ring > ------------- > > ! > > From this perspective, the Vim hjkl keys (along with the diagonals y,u,n and b because this is CDDA and we need those diagonals) provide us with a clear idea we can ground our Steam Deck mapping in, and unlike a Vimmer with a qwerty keyboard, we can unfold the keys into the navigational ring (up down left right) Vimmer's imagine in their head to understand Vim qwerty controls. > > Not only does this provide an easy way to remember our first choice in dividing the qwerty keyboard into Steam Deck mappings, because this first mapping is based on a conceptual perspective projected onto the qwerty keyboard made literal in the form of a navigational ring, it means that the control scheme has plugin and play compatibility with a dizzying array of software and games that all are part of Vim's ~40 year? tradition and evolution of keyboard controls. Once you memorize the Vim Ring on your Steam Deck you will be able to use it for the rest of your life on joysticks and touchpads, and you can rest assured that other people will be developing vim hjkl based controls for software and games for the rest of your life. > > WASD Ring > -------- > > ! > > WASD is probably one of the most well known "conceptual projections" onto the qwerty keyboard right? > > It might seem a bittt confusing at first that z and x are the diagonals, but if you remember that this navigational ring is based on WASD, than s has to be down, and thus it becomes intuitive that z and x would be the downward diagonals. The letters q and e are almost without fail where left-lean, right-lean controls are for tactical shooters (for leaning out of cover to shoot) but even to someone unfamiliar with these control schemes, q and e are pretty intuitive. > > Center Column > --------- > > ! > > Notice here, that between the Vim and WASD rings is 2x6 column of unbound letters on the keyboard, those being c v, f g, and r t. The natural place for these letters which are frequently used by games and software is the four Steam Deck back buttons L5, R5, L4, R4 and the bumpers R1 and L1. True, vim prioritizes the horizontal home row, but given the accessibility of the other homerow keys in the VIM and WASD rings I don't think this is a serious flaw especially because it is easy to visualize how this column maps to your Steam Deck. > > Number Ring > ------------- > > ! > > Now for our last navigational ring. This ring was inspired by reading about players admitting to making the extremely chaotic-neutral choice of using the number row rather than the numberpad for navigation lol. Importantly, the number row keys not the numberpad keys are used here so that in conjunction with shift this ring can be used to activate the alt number row commands !@#$%^&*(). > > Caboose Board > ------------- > > ! > > > The Caboose Board is where the rest of the letters and punctuation keys go. I call this a "board" not a "ring" because more keys can be fit onto steam's menu system by making two rows then making a ring, which provides a natural place for extensibility for additional critical keys needed only for a specific game or program. > > *** Controller Face Buttons, and Left & Right Triggers. > At this point all the letters from the qwerty keyboard are mapped onto the onboard Steam Deck controls. We just need to tidy up and map a few remaining keys outside of the main 3 rows of the keyboard and make some quality of life mappings for important controls in Cataclysm DDA. > > Notice that up until this step, other than starting from the assumption that mouse control is unneeded for this mapping, I haven't made any keyboard mappings that are only memorable or salient in the context of Cataclysm DDA. Only after this point am I actually assigning keys to the facebuttons of the Steam Deck based on the specific requirements of Cataclysm DDA. Think about how much easier this makes it to create and memorize the muscle memory of mappings for the next complicated game you want to tackle creating Steam Deck bindings for, if it is a roguelike or other game/software that can be played without a mouse than at least 85% of these mappings don't need to be changed. If mouse control is needed, it is easy to imagine slotting the number ring into a toggleable alternate menu that shares the same control binding. Or the caboose. > > These final mappings are pretty intuitive to anybody who has used a gamepad a lot (especially xbox controller). Escape is mapped to the menu face button, tab to the view face button, backspace maps to the x facebutton of course and thus its counterpart, spacebar, naturally slots into the b facebutton, enter should go nowhere else than right trigger and shift on the left trigger allows the shift key to easily be held like it is intended to be on a qwerty keyboard. > > Some final quality of life tweaks for CDDA, a single press of the y facebutton activates the / key to bring up the advanced inventory management screen (absolutely amazingly powerful utility in CDDA) and a double press of the y facebutton activates they ? key to bring up list of commands with plain english search. A single press of the a facebutton is mapped to " which brings up the movement toggle (run, walk, crouch, prone). A double press brings up the mutations menu with [ (a somewhat tenous mapping to remember I concede, this is a draft tho). For now I have the thumbstick buttons mapped to + and -. > > > A Final Note On Menus > -------- > > It is important to adjust the in menu sensitivity especially for navigational rings like the Vim Ring, WASD Ring and Number Ring. Typically for a ring assigned to a joystick one might want to set menu button activation to continous (with these repeat turbo settings) and tweak sensitivity so it is easy to reach the menu buttons on the far edges of the menu without it being uncomfortable or resulting in accidental activations of other keys.
Cataclysm DDA, Vim & WASD - Implications For Generalist Translations Of Qwerty Layouts To The Steam Deck
Cataclysm DDA, Vim & WASD - Implications For Generalist Translations Of Qwerty Layouts To The Steam Deck ---------------
link to video demonstration on Peertube instance
Steam Deck controller config available by renaming Cataclysm DDA in your steam library (added as a non-steam game) to Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead and then searching under community layouts for "Cataclysm DDA full keyboard mapping".
edit: I recommend increasing the transparency of the popup steam menus by a large amount in practice, I kept them fairly opaque to make the video demonstration easier to follow
Here is my setup!
Vim Ring - my preference -> left joystick (no reason these can't be shuffled around tho) -------------
The Vim hjkl keys (along with the diagonals y u n b because this is CDDA and we need those diagonals) provide us with a clear idea we can ground the Steam Deck mapping in, and unlike a Vimmer with a qwerty keyboard, we can unfold the keys into the navigational ring (up down left right) Vimmer's imagine in their head to understand Vim qwerty controls.
Not only does this provide an easy way to remember our first choice in dividing the qwerty keyboard into Steam Deck mappings, it also means that the control scheme has plug and play compatibility with a dizzying array of software and games that all are part of Vim's ~40 year tradition and evolution of keyboard controls. Once you memorize the Vim Ring on your Steam Deck you will be able to use it for the rest of your life on joysticks and touchpads, and you can rest assured that other people will be developing vim hjkl based controls for software and games for the rest of your life.
WASD Ring - my preference -> left trackpad --------
WASD is probably one of the most well known "conceptual projections" onto the qwerty keyboard right?
It might seem a bittt confusing at first that z and x are the diagonals, but if you remember that this navigational ring is based on WASD, than s has to be down, and thus it becomes intuitive that z and x would be the downward diagonals. The letters q and e are almost without fail where left-lean, right-lean controls are for tactical shooters (for leaning out of cover to shoot) but even to someone unfamiliar with these control schemes, q and e are pretty intuitive.
Center Column ---------
Notice here, that between the Vim and WASD rings is 2x3 column of unbound letters on the keyboard, those being c v, f g, and r t. The natural place for these letters which are frequently used by games and software is the four Steam Deck back buttons L5, R5, L4, R4 and the bumpers R1 and L1. True, vim prioritizes the horizontal home row, but given the accessibility of the other homerow keys in the VIM and WASD rings I don't think this is a serious flaw especially because it is easy to visualize how this column maps to your Steam Deck.
Number Ring - my preference -> right trackpad -------------
Now for our last navigational ring. This ring was inspired by reading about players admitting to making the extremely chaotic-neutral choice of using the number row rather than the numberpad for navigation lol. We could just recreate the numberpad in a menu, but we already have two rings, and if anything nudging the numberpad into a ring shape makes activation from a touchpad or a joystick much more intuitive, it also expresses directly the meaning of the numberpad in terms of navigation while allowing quick access to each number for rapid input. Importantly, the number row keys not the numberpad keys are used here so that in conjunction with shift this ring can be used to activate the alt number row commands !@#$%^&*().
Caboose Board - my preference -> right joystick -------------
The Caboose Board is where the rest of the letters and punctuation keys go. I call this a "board" not a "ring" because more keys can be fit onto steam's menu system by making two rows then making a ring, which provides a natural place for extensibility for additional critical keys needed only for a specific game or program that won't mess up carefully arranged rings.
Controller Face Buttons, and Left & Right Triggers. ------------
At this point all the letters from the qwerty keyboard are mapped onto the onboard Steam Deck controls. We just need to tidy up and map a few remaining keys outside of the main 3 rows of the keyboard and make some quality of life mappings for important controls in Cataclysm DDA.
Up until this step, other than starting from the assumption that mouse control is unneeded for this mapping, I haven't made any keyboard mappings that are only memorable or salient in the context of Cataclysm DDA. Only after this point am I actually assigning keys to the facebuttons of the Steam Deck based on the specific requirements of Cataclysm DDA. Think about how much easier this makes it to create and memorize the muscle memory of mappings for the next complicated game you want to tackle creating Steam Deck bindings for, if it is a roguelike or other game/software that can be played without a mouse than at least 85% of these mappings don't need to be changed. If mouse control is needed, it is easy to imagine slotting the number ring into a toggleable alternate menu that shares the same control binding. Or the caboose.
These final mappings are intended to be intuitive to someone who has used a gamepad a lot (especially xbox controller). Escape is mapped to the menu face button, tab to the view face button, backspace maps to the x facebutton, spacebar to the b facebutton, enter to the right trigger and shift to the left trigger allowing the shift key to easily be held like it is intended to be on a qwerty keyboard.
Some final quality of life tweaks for CDDA, a single press of the y facebutton activates the / key to bring up the advanced inventory management screen (absolutely amazingly powerful utility in CDDA) and a double press of the y facebutton activates they ? key to bring up list of commands with plain english search. A single press of the a facebutton is mapped to " which brings up the movement toggle (run, walk, crouch, prone). A double press brings up the mutations menu with [ (a somewhat tenous mapping to remember I concede, this is a draft tho). For now I have the thumbstick buttons mapped to + and -.
A Final Note On Menus --------
It is important to adjust the in menu sensitivity especially for navigational rings like the Vim Ring, WASD Ring and Number Ring. Typically for a ring assigned to a joystick one might want to set menu button activation to continous (with these repeat turbo settings) and tweak sensitivity so it is easy to reach the menu buttons on the far edges of the menu without it being uncomfortable or resulting in accidental activations of other keys.
A use of Vim keybindings you might not have expected!
I was looking for a good generalist set of keybindings for my Steam Deck's onboard controls that bound all the letter keys and also the necessary commands to navigate web pages and manipulate files. There isn't any obvious layout to bind all the gamepad buttons, joysticks and touchpads to letter keys and keyboard commands/command chords, and further it feels like whatever solution you came up with would be impossible to memorize anyways.
Kind of a silly endeavor perhaps, but... touchscreen keyboards take up wayyyyy too much screen real estate on the Steam Deck, and further the pop up software keyboard sometimes doesn't behave right with software that isn't expecting a pop up touchscreen keyboard (i.e., not like a mobile app designed to handle one).
Then I randomly thought about Qutebrowser and vim keybindings... and I had an evil idea.....
I want to try using this with neovim as well, and I thought y'all might get a kick out of it lol!
edit errr, oooff I don't know how to get lemmy not to dump the text from my linked post completely unformated into this post
A Solution To Web Browsing (in Qutebrowser) And Text Input Without Touchscreen Keyboard Or Mouse (piggybacking on Vim keybindings)
I am still in the process of ironing out how I want my control scheme, but when looking for a web browser to run in Gaming Mode on my Steam Deck that worked well (Firefox was being funky when run in Gaming Mode/Big Picture) I experimented a little bit with Qutebrowser.
https://qutebrowser.org/doc/quickstart.html Edit figured out how to share steam controller profiles, it is under the gear icon -> layout details, here is my draft vim/qutebrowser profile, try it out and let me know what you think!
steam://controllerconfig/2919876185/3227309282
Qutebrowser is downloadable from the Discover package manager in Desktop Mode on the Steam Deck (then find Qutebrowser in start menu ->right click add to steam). Qutebrowser is designed for a linux window manager like I3 where you don't really use a mouse much, everything in Qutebrowser is meant to be navigated with keyboard commands, no mouse required in the style of Vim keyboard commands. lt also prioritizes using screen real estate efficiently which is a boon for the Steam Deck. Like Vim, Qutebrowser has modes, an input mode (entered by pressing the i key) where you can enter text normally and a navigation mode (entered by pressing escape) that you use the keyboard letters to navigate and input web browser commands. In my control scheme you simply press the menu button to toggle between input and navigation modes.
While this might initially seem like the last software on the planet you would want to try to adapt to using with the Steam Deck's onboard controls, the wisdom of Vim-style keybindings mean that almost every important function in the software is kept to the letters on the main keyboard, i.e. a-z. We can build a nice control scheme with the idea of mapping all the web browser controls to the steam deck while simultaneously mapping letters a-z to the steam deck....
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The hjkl keys as up/down left/right navigation in vim naturally map to the left joystick, holding shift (long press R1 bumper) and hitting these keys navigates to previous page/next page/tab to the left/tab to the right
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the entire top row of letters on the keyboard can be assigned to a touch menu on the left trackpad and the entire third row of letters can be assigned to a touch menu on the right trackpad.
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The shift key can be mapped to long pressing the R1 bumper.
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That leaves 5 letters remaining, put f aside and map a s d g to the back buttons of the steam deck. Backspace maps naturally to the x facebutton on the steam deck, the a facebutton to Enter and the b facebutton to Spacebar.
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Finally, the last letter f can be mapped to the y facebutton on the Steam Deck. In qutebrowser f is an important key as it prompts what are called hints. When you press f you see something like this....
If you input a sequence of keys shown, Qutebrowser will navigate the cursor to that spot and left click. The really nice accident of this Steam Deck control scheme is that Qutebrowser by default only uses letters that are mapped to physical buttons on the Steam Deck (hjkl asdf and g) in this Steam Controller configuration.
With f bound to the y facebutton on the Steam Deck, it is natural to bind a similar command / that allows to search on the page (bound to long pressing the y facebutton).
Clicking the leftstick inputs o which opens up the prompt to navigate to a url, clicking the right stick inputs : which is used to access Qutebrowsers advanced commands and settings.
The thing about running Qutebrowser in Gaming Mode is that you can use a separate control scheme in Steam designed exclusively for using Qutebrowser. Obviously, inputting bulk text with the touchscreen keyboard is going to be faster, but I think this control configuration is worth exploring since the modal nature of Vim style keyboard commands reduces the amount of necessary keybindings to fully utilize and navigate a web browser by a huge amount. The left joystick being a good fit for hjkl is the icing on the cake!
Any program can be added to steam by putting the Steam Deck into Desktop Mode (hold power button and select Desktop Mode) and finding the app in the start menu. Right click and select \
Any program can be added to steam by putting the Steam Deck into Desktop Mode (hold power button and select Desktop Mode), finding the app in the start menu Right clicking and selecting "add to steam" from the menu. Remember the "game" added to steam will have its own separate controller profile, choose keyboard and mouse template for desktop programs and adjust as needed.
Kdenlive is a video editor that can be downloaded by opening the Discover package manager in desktop mode and selecting to install the program.
Why do this? Well, with Decky Loader plugin Decky Recorder you can record clips of gameplay in Gaming Mode with the Steam Deck. The default file location is /home/deck/Videos/. There isn't necessarily an easy way to view videos in Gaming Mode on the Steam Deck however, which means the next step of reviewing the footage you took while playing the game requires you to exit into Desktop Mode and open a video player like VNC.
Fine, but.. I actually think I like this workflow better, add Kdenlive to steam so you can launch it in Gaming Mode and then create a layout inside Kdenlive (I called it "browse" in demo video) that just has the "media browser", "clip monitor" and "transport" selected. This is your video player to review the clips you record, now you can switch to the "editing" layout (layouts are in top right of screen in Kdenlive) and directly transition to video editing without ever leaving Gaming Mode.
This video is a (clumsy) demonstration of using Kdenlive in Gaming Mode to make a video.
Operation Harsh Doorstop has been in development for a bit by now, it is a free large map first person shooter with vehicles that is being developed on the Unreal Engine with a modding SDK built in...
This is some gameplay from Operation Harsh Doorstop which is a free multiplayer tactical shooter with large open maps and vehicles, and more importantly from the beginning integrating a modding SDK was central to the objectives of the devs which is a really REALLY nice breath of fresh air (looking at you battlefield series... and call of duty series).
Operation Harsh Doorstop was pretty barebones until fairly recently, but the game now has most of the elements it needs to provide a fun large scale multiplayer shooter game complete with vehicles and I think in it's current state it is quite fun to play! It didn't used to run well on the Steam Deck at all, but with recent updates performance has improved to the point that I can play multiplayer fine (I actually had the graphics set lower than I really needed to in the video). It bodes well for how well future multiplayer games based on the Unreal engine will run on the Steam Deck.
Since OHD is free, it is a no brainer to check out, just pick servers where you can get guns with scopes on them as iron sights are only fun when you have a huge monitor and a high resolution. Development is ongoing so keep your eye on it!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/736590/Operation_Harsh_Doorstop/
Collaborative Sky Islands Game Via Syncthing Or Dropbox?
Something that might be fun to do on this sublemmy is do a collaborative Sky Islands run where a save file was shared and people took turns doing runs. I suppose it could all go on one post or posts could be made for each individual run or day. People could roleplay it in describing what happened on their run or just relay the details and facts like a matter of fact survivor.
Or another option, one person could mainly play but in big moments of a run like deciding which direction to take in order to reach the portal, post a poll with options for which direction to head in.
I think a shared Sky Islands playthrough might be more fun to play than a normal shared CDDA playthrough since one particular player goofing and dying doesn't end the experience for everybody and multiple players could discuss how best to manage the resources on the island and when next to begin a run vs stay on the island.
I don't know, I haven't thought through all the details yet but I think it might be a fun thing to do on this sublemmy that both encourages people to interact and share stories but also provides an approachable way for newer players to learn from other CDDA player's playstyles and experiences.
What free multiplayer competitive games do you like on the deck?
(no pay to win!)
Mine are:
- Omega Strikers
- Xonotic
- Halo Infinite
- Minion Masters
- Splitgate
- Super Animal Royale
- Farlight 84 (love it on mobile haven’t gotten to it on steam deck yet)
Xonotic on Steam Deck with Gyro + Joysticks Control!
This is a short clip of me playing Xonotic on a Steam Deck using joysticks + gyroscope to control my character. Xonotic is a FOSS game (it runs on an engine that is actually a direct descendant of the quake engine interestingly) in the genre of arena shooters which are typically considered impossibl...
Edit Sorry about the ugly word vomit from lemmy ripping out the video description on peertube, I didn't know it was going to do that
I decided to try Xonotic on my steam deck using joysticks + gyro to see if I could play somewhat competitively. Turns out, it is a blast!
Not claiming I am amazing at Xonotic (the bots are HARD btw) but wow there is a huge potential here for strafe jumping mechanics with games designed to be controlled by joysticks + gyro. It is a blast!