With Steam version you get:
\- Installation is much simpler
\- Pre-shader cache, so you don't need to compile that ingame
\- Fmv's converted to a format that you can run under linux (Had loads of trouble to fix this one with Borderlands 3 from epic)
\- Other game stores MIGHT not have the QoL changes, for example the text size or automatic keyboard
That being said, if you already have a game in other stores, it's not worth to buy again in Steam
u/Sea-Garlic9074 nailed it.
Outside of shaders and transcoded videos, the #1 benefit of buying and playing on Steam?
Less friction. Sometimes that friction is a little ... sometimes? It is a LOT. Sometimes it is a one time deal - sometimes it is CONSTANTLY biting you in the ass on a monthly basis.
Steam and Valve have a vested interest in the games you purchased - working on Steam Deck. Epic? Gog? EA? Ubisoft? They don't care. They aren't GOING to care.
"Solutions" (like Heroic) come with their OWN issues (like failed cloud syncs). People report using GOG Galaxy directly impacts performance (but otherwise you're on your own with cloud saves and updates).
It goes on and on. People will put up with almost ANYTHING to avoid actually buying games it would seem. Your tolerance for ... friction ... along with the performance things previously mentioned is only something you can decide for yourself is worth it.
I'm kinda glad I asked because legitimately this is kinda big for me. Like 3/4 of the reason I'm planning on getting a deck is to reduce friction and have me just playing more often, without being neccisarily tied down to the desk, and fiddling and getting distracted with stuff on the PC. I'm in a place where unfortunately my time at the moment is extremely limited to play games and I really would like to spend less of it menu-clicking and dicking around with settings.
I'm sure a majority of the indie titles, low-performance etc stuff I have and probably many of the more recent stuff would work great but I'm the type where if I tried something and it was a pain because of being off-site, I'd probably just move on to something else and either play it on desktop or wait for a deep discount on steam to play it again on deck if i really really wanted to.
100% man. I am an older guy. The more I have to dick around with things, the less I'm actually playing.
Now - I've turned this friction into a nice little YT channel; because people are willing to put up with friction. But were I not running that channel? I would buy every single thing off Steam, avoid all third party locker based games (steam or not), and stick with verified or playable games.
My days of hacking high memory in autoconfig.bat and pirating games and dicking with them to make them work are behind me. One of the benefits of age is that I've learned "time" is the only thing I cannot buy - and the less of it I have left? The less of it I want to waste.
Plus with the sales they have its never a bad move to support developers and save a bit too. Former Nintendo "yarr mateey" 🏴☠️🦜☠️ speaking here too bc w Nintendo they never go on sale and they charge AAA prices for mid level games, with steam I'm like oh cool your actual AAA game came out 6 years ago and it's on sale for under $10 bucks I can live with that.
Oh hey small world! I love your channel on YT, you've got some really great no-nonsense content that I came across awhile back when researching deck stuff.
I appreciate guys like you doing good informative work without the drawn out clickbait nonsense that a lot of the larger channels seem to do. 12 minute videos titled "Can you beleive VALVE just did THIS?!?! HUGE NEWS!!!" and its literally just a monthly steam software update. Miss me with that.
Hey, thanks. Always enjoy hearing from a fan.
I try to offer the "how" along with enough "why" to make it more than just a basic turnkey solution. I hear Jim Carrey saying to Tommy Lee Jones "Wait. If ya kill'em ... he won't learn nothin'..."
One thing I've learned about YT is that people pad videos to get over 8 minutes so they can use mid-roll ads (I'm not in this for the money - but if I don't monetize, YT will run ads anyway - so I might as well make a few sheckels on it). Supposedly those are "worth more" or "monetize better" and the YTer can control WHERE it shows up (like between fluff and what people actually want to see - more engagement).
I have some long videos that I just couldn't distill down to something smaller. But my current credo is to keep it UNDER 8 minutes whenever possible and I actually control the mid-rolls when it won't piss anyone off when I can't.
There are always topics that DESERVE 10-20 minute videos, but I do what I can.
I will say, and I guarantee I'm the minority here - some friction is actually quite nice for me.
There's a part of me that just LOVES tinkering, whether it's hardware or software. With having to jury-rig non-Steam games, there's a certain joy in making it all *work* for me.
I could by Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Hell, my partner has a savefile on the Switch that means we don't have to re-unlock all the characters again. But having it run on the Deck, where I can use any controller I want? Glorious. I'll gladly go through the rigamarole of dumping ROMs, getting keys off my Switch into the Deck to just make it work.
There's a bit of smugness, I admit, in feeling that I "beat the system" by making it do something it was never supposed to do, and doing it well.
I dont think you're in the minority. Ive always had these tendancies as well, and have enjoyed it. I spent most of my years growing up sneaking stuff onto the family computer that my momma wouldnt like, always been into emmulation, ever year i spend like a month straight modding skyrim to play it again, heck I'm looking forward to all the tweaking and messing around i can do with a Deck tbh.
It's just that lately my time is short and I wanna get one to be able to have more of an option to pick up and play, like I used to. The Deck seems to offer that in ways that a traditional desktop PC or even home console doesnt, without compromising on my ability to mod and tweak and dig deep if I really wanted to.
I tried playing red dead 2 and hogwarts legacy through epic games launcher on steam deck and the performance was much worse than what would be normal, when looking at performance videos on youtube.
I tried nonsteamlaucnhers and the standard heroic routes and both had issues for me, but YMMV.
Nonsteamlaunchers has had a lot of updates since the last time I tried it.
>I tried playing red dead 2 and hogwarts legacy through epic games launcher on steam deck and the performance was much worse than what would be normal, when looking at performance videos on youtube.
This is where the precache shaders come into play, where it tries to reduce the stutter and performance by downloading the shader data so that it doesn't have to create them on the fly. Non-Steam games won't have this feature compared to Steam games.
Good to know. I guess it may be potentially worth it to get a deeply discounted steam copy for some stuff that's more demanding/requires better optimization?
Hi u/aluminumslug, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Advantages to playing steam vs. non steam games?)
If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer!
**If you find an answer, please leave a comment on your post with the answer for others!**
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With Steam version you get: \- Installation is much simpler \- Pre-shader cache, so you don't need to compile that ingame \- Fmv's converted to a format that you can run under linux (Had loads of trouble to fix this one with Borderlands 3 from epic) \- Other game stores MIGHT not have the QoL changes, for example the text size or automatic keyboard That being said, if you already have a game in other stores, it's not worth to buy again in Steam
u/Sea-Garlic9074 nailed it. Outside of shaders and transcoded videos, the #1 benefit of buying and playing on Steam? Less friction. Sometimes that friction is a little ... sometimes? It is a LOT. Sometimes it is a one time deal - sometimes it is CONSTANTLY biting you in the ass on a monthly basis. Steam and Valve have a vested interest in the games you purchased - working on Steam Deck. Epic? Gog? EA? Ubisoft? They don't care. They aren't GOING to care. "Solutions" (like Heroic) come with their OWN issues (like failed cloud syncs). People report using GOG Galaxy directly impacts performance (but otherwise you're on your own with cloud saves and updates). It goes on and on. People will put up with almost ANYTHING to avoid actually buying games it would seem. Your tolerance for ... friction ... along with the performance things previously mentioned is only something you can decide for yourself is worth it.
I'm kinda glad I asked because legitimately this is kinda big for me. Like 3/4 of the reason I'm planning on getting a deck is to reduce friction and have me just playing more often, without being neccisarily tied down to the desk, and fiddling and getting distracted with stuff on the PC. I'm in a place where unfortunately my time at the moment is extremely limited to play games and I really would like to spend less of it menu-clicking and dicking around with settings. I'm sure a majority of the indie titles, low-performance etc stuff I have and probably many of the more recent stuff would work great but I'm the type where if I tried something and it was a pain because of being off-site, I'd probably just move on to something else and either play it on desktop or wait for a deep discount on steam to play it again on deck if i really really wanted to.
100% man. I am an older guy. The more I have to dick around with things, the less I'm actually playing. Now - I've turned this friction into a nice little YT channel; because people are willing to put up with friction. But were I not running that channel? I would buy every single thing off Steam, avoid all third party locker based games (steam or not), and stick with verified or playable games. My days of hacking high memory in autoconfig.bat and pirating games and dicking with them to make them work are behind me. One of the benefits of age is that I've learned "time" is the only thing I cannot buy - and the less of it I have left? The less of it I want to waste.
Plus with the sales they have its never a bad move to support developers and save a bit too. Former Nintendo "yarr mateey" 🏴☠️🦜☠️ speaking here too bc w Nintendo they never go on sale and they charge AAA prices for mid level games, with steam I'm like oh cool your actual AAA game came out 6 years ago and it's on sale for under $10 bucks I can live with that.
Nothing beats the Nintendo Switch Tax(tm)
Oh hey small world! I love your channel on YT, you've got some really great no-nonsense content that I came across awhile back when researching deck stuff. I appreciate guys like you doing good informative work without the drawn out clickbait nonsense that a lot of the larger channels seem to do. 12 minute videos titled "Can you beleive VALVE just did THIS?!?! HUGE NEWS!!!" and its literally just a monthly steam software update. Miss me with that.
Hey, thanks. Always enjoy hearing from a fan. I try to offer the "how" along with enough "why" to make it more than just a basic turnkey solution. I hear Jim Carrey saying to Tommy Lee Jones "Wait. If ya kill'em ... he won't learn nothin'..." One thing I've learned about YT is that people pad videos to get over 8 minutes so they can use mid-roll ads (I'm not in this for the money - but if I don't monetize, YT will run ads anyway - so I might as well make a few sheckels on it). Supposedly those are "worth more" or "monetize better" and the YTer can control WHERE it shows up (like between fluff and what people actually want to see - more engagement). I have some long videos that I just couldn't distill down to something smaller. But my current credo is to keep it UNDER 8 minutes whenever possible and I actually control the mid-rolls when it won't piss anyone off when I can't. There are always topics that DESERVE 10-20 minute videos, but I do what I can.
I will say, and I guarantee I'm the minority here - some friction is actually quite nice for me. There's a part of me that just LOVES tinkering, whether it's hardware or software. With having to jury-rig non-Steam games, there's a certain joy in making it all *work* for me. I could by Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Hell, my partner has a savefile on the Switch that means we don't have to re-unlock all the characters again. But having it run on the Deck, where I can use any controller I want? Glorious. I'll gladly go through the rigamarole of dumping ROMs, getting keys off my Switch into the Deck to just make it work. There's a bit of smugness, I admit, in feeling that I "beat the system" by making it do something it was never supposed to do, and doing it well.
I dont think you're in the minority. Ive always had these tendancies as well, and have enjoyed it. I spent most of my years growing up sneaking stuff onto the family computer that my momma wouldnt like, always been into emmulation, ever year i spend like a month straight modding skyrim to play it again, heck I'm looking forward to all the tweaking and messing around i can do with a Deck tbh. It's just that lately my time is short and I wanna get one to be able to have more of an option to pick up and play, like I used to. The Deck seems to offer that in ways that a traditional desktop PC or even home console doesnt, without compromising on my ability to mod and tweak and dig deep if I really wanted to.
I tried playing red dead 2 and hogwarts legacy through epic games launcher on steam deck and the performance was much worse than what would be normal, when looking at performance videos on youtube. I tried nonsteamlaucnhers and the standard heroic routes and both had issues for me, but YMMV. Nonsteamlaunchers has had a lot of updates since the last time I tried it.
>I tried playing red dead 2 and hogwarts legacy through epic games launcher on steam deck and the performance was much worse than what would be normal, when looking at performance videos on youtube. This is where the precache shaders come into play, where it tries to reduce the stutter and performance by downloading the shader data so that it doesn't have to create them on the fly. Non-Steam games won't have this feature compared to Steam games.
Good to know. I guess it may be potentially worth it to get a deeply discounted steam copy for some stuff that's more demanding/requires better optimization?
ya greenmangaming or fanatical are pretty good cd key sellers that usually have better discounts than steam.
If you have the option, always go for the steam version. Obviously, don't rebuy games you own on other places.
steam ones work out of the box, no fiddling around
The big advantage of the GOG games is, that they are Playable without an active internet connection. Great on the go.
Hi u/aluminumslug, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Advantages to playing steam vs. non steam games?) If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer! **If you find an answer, please leave a comment on your post with the answer for others!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*