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The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

(isomorphism.xyz)
305 points todsacerdoti | 2 comments | 03 Apr 25 11:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.597s | source
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jerf ◴[03 Apr 25 13:33 UTC] No.43569376[source]▶
I have a first-gen Switch, still in active rotation. My kids are asking me why we don't hack it. My answer has been, what does a hacked Switch do that my Steam Deck doesn't already do, without hacking? I mean, if you're going to sail the seven seas and yo-ho-ho, not that I've been encouraging that, the answer isn't even "Play Switch 1 games", the Steam Deck does that better too! And at least we can't accidentally hook the Switch up to the network and get it banned if it isn't hacked.
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haunter ◴[03 Apr 25 13:55 UTC] No.43569715[source]▶
>the answer isn't even "Play Switch 1 games", the Steam Deck does that better too

What about motion control games like Switch Sports?

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1. jerf ◴[03 Apr 25 16:09 UTC] No.43571798[source]▶
I don't have any personal experience running Switch games on the Steam Deck, but I do have experience trying to use the Switch Pro controllers. I think they may work fine for some people now, but I have never been able to have them have a stable wireless connection. But when the connection was established, the accelerometers worked fine. (I gave up and just bought some XBox controllers.)

I'm sure the emulators accept the Steam Deck's own accelerometer inputs for when you're in a non-detached mode, and tilting the screen to aim.

The super-mega-motion control games might not work, but part of what I mean by "works better" is that the Steam Deck can generally emulate with more power than the Switch itself, e.g., you can get a Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom setup with a better framerate than the switch itself, so, depends on what you want more. I don't have a lot of motion control games.

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2. ferbivore ◴[03 Apr 25 16:50 UTC] No.43572379[source]▶
Is this really the case? Every video I've seen about Switch emulation on the Deck shows stutter, low framerates, audio glitches, etc. in most games.

For ToTK in particular, this video suggests it'll barely hit ~30FPS on the Deck under Yuzu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afetsBdQFyc

Whereas on a modded Switch you can run it at ~60FPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Z6W_AUNY0

There are other more recent videos backing this up and showing that the game has far more frequent stutters than on the Switch.

Anyway, the point is, I wouldn't dismiss sticking a picofly into your Switch as pointless. Even if you have no desire to inflict some Meta-style "fair use" on videogame publishers, it's still worth doing for perks like sys-clk, RetroArch, sm64nx and 2s2h.