Comment on Steam Deck gets a new low-power screen-off downloads mode
Scio@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Hopefully this leads to being able to queue game installs remotely without the Deck having to be on. And if it can wake up when charging to do the same, even better!
Yeah, like how a docked Switch can have downloads sent to it from the web browser eShop, and it’ll periodically wake up from sleep and check for downloads by default.
Honestly, I was hoping this was what Valve was working on in the first place… but what they’re giving us is nice to have as well.
And thanks to the Next Fests, I crave this remote install queueing feature more and more lately!
What’s the point of this? Genuine question.
It probably supports WoL already?
It does supports WoL. Well, the OLED one supports WoL over WiFi, the LCD doesn’t. But it doesn’t support queuing an install on a currently offline device.
Even disregarding the tens of minutes it takes for the app to realize that my Deck has come online after I wake it up for me to be able to install a game on it from my phone, i can’t really WoL it when I’m not home.
How great life would be if consumer routers came with vpn servers by default.
Seems like a very niche case to me unfortunately and I would be very surprised if they implemented something like this in later models
ech@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Screen off ≠ off. The deck will always have to be on and out of sleep mode to do anything like that.
Scio@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Well obviously.
Even still, it is perfectly feasible for Valve to implement an install queue that we can add to from a phone that starts downloading only when a given Deck turns on. Maybe even put a device’s required or scheduled game updates on that interface too for us to manage and for the Deck to pull on wake.
Secondly, the Deck’s might not actually have any hardware to turn itself on on a schedule like phones do, but at least if it had a remote download queue, we could automate sending our own Decks WoL packets every now and then and have them automatically install new games.
Plus, the Decks can turn themselves on from S4 when plugging in at least, so maybe even with the current hardware there are things Valve can do here that I can’t imagine.
Having a power-saving download mode is only the first step. There’s still a lot of useful features we’ve long been requesting left to do that can be achieved, and I’m hopeful more of them will!
ech@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
You may be surprised how not obvious this is to some people, hah. But your suggestions are interesting. I feel like Valve is just constantly adding surprising features with the on-board tech. Would be cool if that stuff got added.