Best way to play test a game ON THE STEAM DECK while developing on the PC?

alfredbaudisch

I currently follow Valve's official guide How to load and run games on Steam Deck https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/loadgames

First Run

Install SteamOS Devkit Client in my dev machine (in my case Windows) and run it
Connect the SteamDeck via USB to the PC
In the Steam Deck -> Settings -> Developer -> Pair with the PC
In Godot 4, export the game to Linux
In the SteamOS Devkit Client in the PC, configure the paths and upload the Exported Godot game
In the Steam Deck, run the game from the library

Additional Runs

In Godot 4.0, export the game to Linux
In the SteamOS Devkit Client in the PC, upload the Exported Godot game
In the Steam Deck, run the game from the library

A better way?

Is there a better way than having to BUILD/EXPORT the game everytime, upload and open manually on the Steam Deck?
I.e. has anyone figured out how to in Godot have a "Run on Steam Deck" button?

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine 5.1 has a "Run on Steam Deck" integration to quick play test on the device: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/steam-deck-quick-start-in-unreal-engine/

What would be the steps to accomplish the same in Godot? Any pointers?

alfredbaudisch

How can I edit the post's title?
It's What's the best way to play test a game ON THE STEAM DECK while developing on the PC?
Done, thanks @TwistedTwigleg

TwistedTwigleg

alfredbaudisch How can I edit the post's title?
It's What's the best way to play test a game ON THE STEAM DECK while developing on the PC?

I modified it for you. I couldn’t use the full title you posted because it was over 80 characters, which is over the limit, so I slightly modified it but did my best to keep it as close as possible.

alfredbaudisch

Ok it's possible to have a kind of "Run on Steam Deck" solution if I figured out how to connect with this:

I need to figure out how to notify that a build is successful, in order to auto upload to be triggered.

Megalomaniak

alfredbaudisch Ok it's possible to have a kind of "Run on Steam Deck" solution if I figured out how to connect with this:

I need to figure out how to notify that a build is successful, in order to auto upload to be triggered.

You might have to make an addon/plugin for this perhaps. Also, this might be best asked on issue tracker or the feature proposals tracker perhaps, especially if it turns out this can only be supported in core.

alfredbaudisch

Megalomaniak yes, I could definitely make an addon or even contribute to implement this in the editor, but the thing is that I still haven't figure out what triggers a "build success notification" for the steam DevClient 😛

If someone knows what is behind that, it would be great. I'll also update here when I find out.

croxis

Godot 4 now has remote deploy and launching feature as well, but I havent been able to get it to work on the deck.

cybereality

You might be able to do something with continuous integration. You'd have to run the steam deck in desktop mode and that have it on an internal network (you can use you development machine as the server). I've run Godot 4.0 editor on the steam deck and played games in desktop mode so it works fine, but it's too slow so you'll have to have it push to a shared drive. A simple shell script can probably launch remotely.