I don’t get it but for some reason the 3d open world multiplayer shooter with vehicles and long view distances that runs the best on the steam deck (other than a very graphically simple game like battlebit) is DayZ. I obviously haven’t tried every game out there though…
On the V++ deathmatch server (using steamdeck screen not higher resolution monitor) I can be in the middle of a firefight with 20+ people nearby and get a stable 50fps. For DayZ that is basically the most challenging it gets for game performance, in the normal game having 20+ people nearby has to be an extremely rare situation I imagine. Yeah you have to turn the graphics down but you really don’t have to sacrifice view distance and the game looks fine on lower graphics. (Gun scopes are very important for playing on a low resolution screen like this though, dont bother playing on servers where gun scopes are extremely rare).
Unfortunately the game does crash randomly every once in awhile, I can’t figure out why yet but I am playing on heavily modded servers and honestly the performance is SO MUCH better than any other open world multiplayer shooter like this that I don’t really feel like I can even complain much.
Interestingly the engine DayZ was made off of, Arma 3, runs much worse. I guess you can get Arma 3 to play ok offline (it looks like crap after you turn everything down though) but in multiplayer forget it.
Give it a try! Yeah yeah… mouse and keyboard players are gods of aim blah blah blah, you can compete fine with joysticks + gyro if you take the time to get acclimated to it. Go play a deathmatch server an mess around until you feel comfortable.
Is there a controls preset that works or did you have to map things? Do you use the touchscreen for inventory management or what?
edit sorry to write a book, no pressure to read it lol
There are definitely community made control schemes for the deck that get you most of the way there. Controller based shooters have been around for long enough that it feels like there are established norms, it’s mainly a question of what you do with the two trackpads (I don’t use them for aiming, I don’t need them for aiming because I I use joysticks + gyro) and four back buttons.
For more tactical shooters (which DayZ certainly fits the bill in terms of mechanics even if it doesn’t sell itself as one) it often makes sense to make two of the back buttons dedicated lean buttons.
Then you have your steady aim button, which I normally map to full pull on the left trigger in a game like battlebit, but DayZ requires a button to raise your weapon, so then the obvious choice there is to bind soft pull to raise weapon and full pull to ADS. This means that one of the unused back buttons needs to be bound to steady aim. If you are planning on jumping a lot the other back button clearly should be jump, though in DayZ that jumping/mantling can just go on the A button.
One trackpad becomes your top row numbers and the other can be whatever else you need. There are different choices to be made I guess, but this general pattern pretty much follows in any shooter.
As a cherry on top, steam allows you to set a command to be sent when a joystick is pushed to its maximum extent, it takes adjustment to fit your comfort but this allows you to never have to click a thumb stick to sprint again by setting the outer command as sprint.
I don’t use touchscreen for inventory management, I just muscle through it with joysticks, you can really tweak your joysticks on steam to be very responsive but yeah it’s still annoying. If I was playing a game like apex where very fast looting/inventory management is an absolute core requirement of gameplay I would fiddle with things more.
Final note, I recommend buying a pack of rubber thumbstick caps that fit over the joysticks of the steamdeck (really I recommend them for all joysticks), you can get a pack of different height ones for like $12 and try out different heights until you find one you like. I use a tall one on my right joystick and a stubby short one on my left joystick. These massively improve fine aim adjustment control on joysticks since the sensation of needing to overcome a real or perceived dead zone before input begins to be received by the game goes away almost completely. Get rounded top ones, not concave ones. They will randomly shoot off your joysticks and attempt to hide in annoying places like under your couch or somehow all the way across the room from where you were sitting so get extras, you will lose them.