New Steam Hardware for running TRS19 and Tane

New gaming hardware coming from Steam. The Deck is an handheld device that plays games available from Steam. You can also get the Dock add-on that allows it to connect to a monitor, keyboard, mouse and ethernet.

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/?snr=1_4_4__118

Looks interesting.

William

Except it don't run Windows, the essential requirement for Trainz.

Phil

But some Linux users have reported that using Proton they are able to run Trainz on SteamOS. Look, I don't understand how it works myself but from reviews on YouTube it seems to support a lot of windows games.

William

Further details are being released by Valve about this device. They say that at the moment you can play about 75% of all the games available through Steam. Their goal is to have that number up to 100% by release in December. It is running a new version of SteamOS 3 along with a new version of Proton. It seems the biggest issue for developers is not their code working but whether their interface works well with the controls available on the device. Of course, you can plug in both a keyboard and a mouse to the dock but that defeats the portability purpose of the design. Anyone that has ever use the app version of Trainz knows how klunky the virtual joysticks and overall interface is to use. And by the way, Valve says you are able to install any operating system you wish to the device as it is a real PC. I look forwards seeing how this evolves as techies get hold of it.

William

I have TRS19 running well on Linux-Lutris and not so well on Steam-Proton as has others, 'BUT' there are issues with Content Manager on both and until they are resolved, and in time they probably will be, it's still Windows first and Linux as an interesting challenge for anyone who fancies tinkering with gaming on Linux. Peter

Hopefully all the changes they are making to SteamOS 3 and the new version of Proton will be available for the Steam Client too. One of the reasons I started using Steam long ago was that they had DOS games that they would install VirtualBox to make work. It was just nice and clean.