To Frame, from Deck

[u/lucky_wears_the_hat]

Can the steam deck be the computer I stream games from?

I started back into gaming at 40 when I bought a Steam Deck a couple of years ago. I commissioned a custom PC earlier this year (running a 16gb 5060ti so pretty solid) but it is in storage and I'm between primary residences for a few months.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried streaming from the Deck to frame yet? Surely right? I just haven't seen anything about it and I have been paying attention here and on YouTube. I have the 1TB deck but I'm just getting the 256gb Frame. Being able to keep my older flat games on the deck but display them on the frame would be great. A few casual VR games native on the headset to take to show it off. Then in a few months I'll see how glossy I can really get things looking with my PC. I feel like a lot of stuff I'm interested in will run well enough at pretty decent high-mid graphics settings.

[u/CmdrSoyo]

The deck has better hardware than the frame but both are still mobile devices. I assume you will be able to get a noticeable performance uplift. But i think you won't be playing alyx on ultra with 300% supersampling

[u/lucky_wears_the_hat → u/CmdrSoyo]

I do have a decent PC, in storage. I mainly want to use my Deck to run the games already on it on the massive virtual screen and take advantage of it's much larger ssd.

[u/CmdrSoyo → u/lucky_wears_the_hat]

That should work fine. If it runs on the deck you'll get decent performance.

I don't know what the usb spec on the deck is, i heard some anecdotal stuff that usb 3.2 ports perform much better than usb 3.0 ports for the streaming dongle. And the deck won't be connected to ethernet so regular wifi streaming will likely also not be the best. Will need some testing though i assume virtual flatscreen streaming doesn't need as much bandwidth as full vr streaming anyway so it might be a non issue.

[u/swagamaleous → u/lucky_wears_the_hat]

The "massive" virtual screen requires a "massive" resolution for it to look good. You won't be able to run most games in 4k on the steam deck. The hardware is too weak for that. Also, the virtual screen will almost certainly disappoint you. Playing on a $1k TV is much better already.

The streaming however, will almost certainly work fine. If you have a good wifi in your home, you don't even need the dongle. I stream games in 4k with low latency through my wifi with the steam deck all the time. In this configuration, the steam deck is the client though. 😄

[u/lucky_wears_the_hat → u/swagamaleous]

I do realize that though I loved playing Witcher 3 on the deck it probably wouldn't look great on a 42" screen much less huge on the headset. A few titles currently on deck that might work, Darkest Dungeon, Half Life 1&2, Welcome to Elderfield, Telltale Walking dead?

[u/swagamaleous → u/lucky_wears_the_hat]

You can probably play these fine, but again, you will be very much disappointing by the screen in the steam frame. It will look better and be more comfortable on your TV.

[u/originalorientation → u/swagamaleous]

I’m fairly certain the resolution on the frame isn’t high enough to display a 4k virtual display. I think it caps out at 1080p

[u/swagamaleous → u/originalorientation]

It totally can stream 4K games, and the higher resolution will still improve the image in the virtual display. Of course the headset can't actually resolve all 4K detail, but that's not the same thing as the virtual display being limited to 1080p.

What you're saying would make sense if the virtual screen mapped 1:1 to the pixels in the headset. It doesn't. The 4K image is being projected through the optics and sampled by the headset's display, so you can still get less aliasing and higher visual fidelity from a higher-resolution source even though the headset doesn't have enough pixels to reproduce the full 4K image.

[u/philbertagain]

First thing to know is Steam Machine doesn't support Frame in the current stable build (3.8) so it may or may not work... the beta does work but, of course, may have other issues.

If it did work you should get a boost with x86 games as you can skip a translation layer and you should get a boost on battery since you would be streaming.

When the time comes, I am hoping Frame + Deck 2.0 = all winning.

[u/lucky_wears_the_hat → u/philbertagain]

Oh absolutely. That is a future I too expect.

[u/philbertagain → u/lucky_wears_the_hat]

If the leak is correct it should be x86 again.