cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/subnautica2/p/2040327/subnautica-2-is-steam-deck-verified
Subnautica 2 Is Steam Deck Verified
Link to verification:
https://store.steampowered.com/verified/1962700/Subnautica_2The community manager has also mentioned that Subnautica 2 is Handheld Optimized on the ROG Xbox Ally.
![[Game] Subnautica 2 Is Steam Deck Verified](https://media.piefed.social/posts/HQ/oE/HQoEf0ZJ1YpIE6j.jpg){kind=link}
Proton is running Windows build. Its about running the game as if it was running it with Windows. If the game would run 25 fps on Steam Deck with Windows, that’s about what you would expect to run with Steam Deck verified as well.
??? I am talking about the bugs and performance issue of a game, specifically comparing its Windows to Proton, not native Linux builds. I am not talking about the ENTIRE Steam Deck verified badge, but about the issue you raised and said it would be worthless because of it.
What is the “ENTIRE” Steam Deck verified badge? That is indeed what I am referring to and calling worthless: the badge that you see on the Steam page for a given title. The badge that in no way compares how well the title runs relative to the same title on Windows.
I am not saying that a game is worthless if it has the verified badge. I am saying that the badge itself is worthless because it has often been placed on broken garbage before. It is not a good indicator as to how well the game operates on Steam Deck, which is the one thing that it is supposed to do. Sure, there are plenty of games with the badge that everyone agrees works great on Steam Deck! But there are also plenty of verified games that do not work well.
The entire badge is, all points that make up a verified badge. I was just talking about the point you brought up with
which was your initial argument. And that is what I was referring to with my reply, not all the other stuff that was talked after the reply (which I do not disagree at all).
Stop comparing to Windows. That is not the purpose of the badge. It is not a “How accurately does Proton translate this game?” badge, it is a “How well does this game run on Steam Deck?” badge. Plain and simple. Read the bullet points. Nothing is calling out Windows or Proton.
If a game only ships a Windows build, then great, Valve will run that through Proton and run testing to determine whether or not it deserves the badge. But they are not going to compare that performance to the native Windows performance. For the sake of the badge, that comparison doesn’t matter. All they care about is how it is running on default settings on a Steam Deck.
If a game ships a Linux build, then that will be the default experience for Steam Deck users, and that will be what Valve evaluates to determine whether or not it deserves the badge.
As said, I am not talking about every point, just about the performance and the buggy games. If the game is buggy on Windows and runs at 28 fps on a comparable system using Windows, then it can still get a verified badge on Steam Deck. I am not saying they compare it to the Windows build, but rather that performance and buggy game behavior is not the deciding factor if a game gets verified badge. If a game is badly optimized, runs like shit and has bugs, it can still get verified badge. As this is how the game is intended to be played across the board.
Also I am ONLY talking about these points, as your initial reply was only about that. Not how accurately Proton translates this game as a whole. I think I made that clear now.
And that is precisely why the badge is worthless. As a consumer, if I see that badge, I should be able to assume that the game is going to run well using default settings. But in reality, seeing that badge tells me nothing about how well the game runs.
Conversely, if I check the ProtonDB page for that same buggy verified game, users on ProtonDB will actually call out that it is a buggy mess and that it does not run well. And I will know that I should not buy it, or that I will have to put in extra effort to get it to work well.
I want you imagine it like this: A game verified for the Nintendo Switch will run the game on the console. It does not mean the game runs optimal, because of performance and bug issues. But it runs native. And Steam Deck verified is like that; the game runs as if it was running native on the system. And its job is not to ensure quality of the game, but to be compatible.
I’m not even arguing that ProtonDB wouldn’t be useful, I think its a good system. Actually its one of the reasons why I mostly use the Firefox web browser with an extension that embeds and shows ProtonDB directly on the game shop page. But on the other side on my Steam Deck I don’t have this and mainly use the Steam Deck verified and playable badges. And it works well, not perfect, but its good enough for me. Calling it useless is just not correct in my opinion. It even lists what the issues are, if its not verified and got a playable badge. Then I can look up and see why and decide if it affects me or not (such as need to change default resolution, so its basically verified in my opinion). The badge by Valve is valuable to me and by extension, for many others too. Therefore its not worthless.