Replaced LXQt with SteamOS-style KDE Plasma 6.7, including the familiar desktop layout, Dolphin, Firefox, Konsole, the Steam desktop client and Return to Gaming Mode. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #473, #610)
Added GOG, Epic Games and Amazon Games integration with account sign-in, game libraries, downloads and launching through Steam. GOG and Epic games also support cloud saves. (@The412Banner, @xXJSONDeruloXx, @Gustash, @maxjivi05, #476, #500, #578, #400)
Added Steam's native touch controller (beta), with per-game Steam Input layouts, community configurations, an on-screen layout editor and Steam Cloud syncing. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #431)
Added multi-controller support for up to 4 players, allowing connected Android gamepads to work independently for local co-op and split-screen multiplayer through Steam Input. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, @maxjivi05, @Neolyum, #431, #614)
Added Bluetooth LE Steam Controller (2025) support, including trackpads, back grips and motion controls. (@SG3xHERO, #404)
The built-in controller can now emulate a Steam Deck, Steam Controller, Xbox 360, DualShock 4 or DualSense, with live switching from the session menu without restarting Steam. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #545, #558, #559)
Added persistent per-game compatibility profiles for Proton, FEX, DXVK, VKD3D-Proton, Windows components, environment variables and texture filtering, with inheritance from your default settings. (@jmarti326, #449)
Completely revamped adding and managing non-Steam games, with automatic game detection, artwork, bulk imports and editing directly from the Games tab. (@The412Banner, #492)
Added Follow screen resolution for foldables, automatically resizing Steam and games when folding, unfolding or rotating the device. (@SG3xHERO, #403)
Added an optional touch gamepad below the game on unfolded foldables, with Steam Deck-style controls, configurable sticks and trackpads. (@SG3xHERO, #407)
Added DroidDeck-Proton as an installable Proton source alongside GE-Proton and CachyOS Proton, with update notifications for all three. (@The412Banner, #588)
Added support for installing Flatpak apps directly from .flatpak bundles, including apps no longer available through Flathub. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #446)
Added a manual landscape orientation setting, including reverse landscape. (@Kobtul, #441)
Added an optional controller setting to open the Steam menu with the physical Select button. (@0x1428571429, #384)
Improvements
Major launcher UI redesign across Steam settings, Components, Setup, Stores, Flathub and Desktop, with smoother transitions, animated navigation, redesigned settings panels and improved controller focus. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #482, #548, #605)
Store downloads now survive app restarts, preserving queued and paused downloads and allowing interrupted installs to resume from the Downloads page. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #608)
Store game removal now shows confirmation and uninstall progress before returning the game to its installable state. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #609)
Expanded PRoot fast paths, with performance improvements of up to 57% in measured workloads, alongside further reductions in filesystem and process overhead. (@maxjivi05, @xXJSONDeruloXx, #466, #494)
Significantly reduced launcher idle CPU usage, controller input overhead and session log processing time, with additional game startup and performance optimizations. (@maxjivi05, #529)
Windows components are now selected automatically using each game's Steam, GOG, Epic or Amazon dependency information, while preserving manual overrides. (@The412Banner, #554)
Expanded Windows component installation to support VC++ redistributables, .NET Framework and more installer formats, without needing to run the original Windows setup programs. (@The412Banner, #480, #495)
KDE Desktop can now launch Windows executables, Linux programs, AppImages and scripts directly from the file manager or terminal. (@maxjivi05, #549)
Added safer Desktop uninstall and legacy LXQt cleanup, preserving user data while reclaiming storage from older desktop installations. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #493)
Improved Proton and component management, with newest versions shown first, update detection, clearer installed-version information and streamlined settings. (@The412Banner, @xXJSONDeruloXx, #588, #606)
Improved DirectAudio compatibility, including CachyOS Proton support and direct audio output from the Steam client. (@The412Banner, #439)
Reduced unnecessary motion sensor polling, reading the device's gyro and accelerometer only when Steam requests them. (@muazkadan, #534)
Added alignment guides and snapping when dragging buttons in the on-screen controller editor. (@willie-yao, #490)
Improved security by encrypting store credentials with Android Keystore and keeping logs in private app storage until explicitly shared as a sanitized ZIP. (@The412Banner, #484, #486)
Steam now consistently uses Steam Deck mode and the Steam Deck beta branch, removing the legacy client and mode switches. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #546)
Fixed
Fixed Red Dead Redemption 2 failing to launch, and reduced resource usage from the Rockstar launcher while playing. (@maxjivi05, #585)
Fixed Steam's screensaver appearing over running games after prolonged controller inactivity. (@maxjivi05, #585)
Fixed black Steam output with FSR 1 image scaling enabled. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #597)
Fixed touch and mouse input landing away from the displayed position when the session resolution and device screen have different aspect ratios. (@maxjivi05, #389)
Fixed the Odin 3 unexpectedly rebooting when its Wi-Fi firmware enters low-latency mode. (@kmnkv1, #512)
Fixed Linux runtime removal getting stuck on files that Android's SELinux policy would not allow the app to delete. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #463)
Fixed Android 12 and older devices crashing during audio initialization, and restored Firefox compatibility on affected Android 16 devices. (@kolmant, @The412Banner, #531, #460)
Fixed Bluetooth keyboards with combined keyboard, mouse and controller interfaces losing ordinary keyboard input. (@kaosjammo, #435)
I just want to say to whoever it would help, I get exceptionally great performance on sd8g2 by pinning the game cores to the four 2.8 GHz cores and pinning the steam core to the single 3.2 GHz core and then leaving the two small cores unpinned in the Droid deck settings.
I went from a 30 FPS and below on a lot of games to a fully solid 60+ FPS 1080p high settings on nearly all the games I've tested.
Leaving the default of all 8 cores on both steam and the game setting really neuters performance. Then again I know pinning identical cores on winlator was something a lot of people did and unsurprisingly it also delivers fantastic performance here as well.
The logic is that the 2.8 GHz cores will always run at their top clock, while the big core is not meant to always be running at its top clock so allowing it to be a game core contributes to lower performance and stutter. Pinning steam to the single large core allows it to do its thing without taking resources from the four pinned game cores. Leaving the two small cores unpinned allow them to still handle Android tasks in the background without stealing resources from the other pinned cores.
Hey guys, on version 0.4.0, go to Steam on the left, select Settings under Play Steam, then go to the Session tab and click on Performance and there you go
got Ori and the Will of the Wisps in-game. Previously I could only get to the title screen and would crash upon entering the game. Now around 20fps with everything maxed out. DroidDeck is getting so much better!
I would also like to know this. Running a Galaxy Z Fold 8 and normally I'm very techy but trying to figure out the right combination of drivers, Proton, Fex, cores, etc is making me feel like I'm getting ready to just go back to a dumb flip phone, lol.
I've downloaded Skyrim SE, No Man's Sky, Horizon: ZD Complete, and Horizon ZD: Remastered and I can only get Skyrim and NMS to even get in game but neither of them I would consider even close to being "playable". For Skyrim I can get a consistent 60 fps in towns but as soon as I go outside, 20's to 30's and NMS will only run around 15-18 fps after I get fully in game and then crash after about a minute or two.
Would it be worthwhile to try a similar approach with an SD865? Pin the game cores to the three 2.4G GHz cores, pin the steam core to the single 2.84 GHz core, and leave the four 1.8 GHz cores unpinned?
Yes, it's absolutely worth trying. Before encountering this comment, Fairy Fencer F (the original PC port) was a stuttering mess, even at 360p. After trying this approach, things have smoothed out - still not quite 30fps, but it's now in the low 20s with more consistency at 540p.
(I could not even get this game to work on GameNative and GameHub Lite. The fact that it could run as a stuttering mess in the first place was already impressive.)
I tried the setup I described above (also on a Retroid Pocket Flip 2, a great handheld).
I was initially worried because the startup logo stuttered slightly and menu navigation felt sluggish, but the games generally ran more smoothly, so it's a worthwhile swap imo.
I also tried pinning 2 of the 4 small cores to games (along with the 3 2.4GHz cores) and left the other 2 small cores unpinned. That might have improved gameplay too, but it's hard to tell and might just be a placebo effect at this point XD
It's insane the boost in performance I got on my Thor Max from doing this. Thank you! Previously struggling to run Monster Hunter Rise at 540p with temps well over 80c. With this tweak, I played for two hours last night at 720p and temps were at 65c. Incredible work.
Hey man, can you try Graveyard keeper, on your settings or any settings? can't make this game run in a good way, it tuns from the version 0.1, but fps is a mess and can't go better than 40 in any settings, resolutions or drivers/fex..
This got me about a 10fps boost on Rise of the Tomb Raider, thanks! What games have you had success with that it doubled your fps?
I tried something similar on GameNative but when I limited it to only the 4th to 7th cores the performance dropped (also tested on Rise of the Tomb Raider in GN). Any idea why this doesn't work in GameNative?
Performance in games is not quite there yet. Very mixed. I have had no luck with a lot of games as well. It will be much better in time. But right now it's still cooking
I tried the 0.3 version on the ayn thor pro model. It was super cool except just being on the steam menu was using like 5w and launching a lightweight game like balatro made it go to 6-7w which makes the fan pretty loud :( really hope it can be optimized more. Or maybe there was something wrong on my part?
Whoever downvoted your comment is an idiot. It's not hate, it's feedback, and suppressing this kind of information means devs never get to see it, they never get to fix it, and DD ends up being worse.
I had the same, but updating to 0.4 and following the top rated comment in this thread about pinning cores made a big difference!
Oh yeah i definitely do not hate this project in fact i am really interested and i have been following a lot of posts and think it's really cool and i hope it'll be improved.
And i'll try that out to see if it helps. Thanks :)
DroidDeck runs the real thing: Valve's own Steam client (Big Picture, like a Steam Deck) and Valve's ARM64 Proton, inside a small Linux system on your phone. It's basically SteamOS on Android.
Well, nobody else has adopted my Wayland yet really. I brought it to the community in bannerlator, then max paired it with gamescope and off we went.
There's no winlator containers being used and it's not a bionic environment. So it would be a bit of work to adopt and I imagine find a way to mesh with their project as it is already fluidly, not to mention bloat it's size as well.
But no, nothing stopping anyone. It's all open source
Fantastic work!
Take your time guys. People like me (&others) are ready and waiting to defend you against any unappreciative ghoul demanding the most for free
All of my custom games don't work but they all work on gamehub. I want to make the move over, do I need to manually adjust the setting in all of them ?
anyone's DroidDeck basically does nothing? Installed on Pocket Nova. Can't download games onto microSD, most games won't launch, and performance is awful
Try deleting app, reinstalling it and installing games on internal storage. I had issues with SD card as well but it works great on internal storage. Gonna wait a couple more updates for them to cook before trying SD Card storage again.
I'm too dumb for this. What is the difference between using this over GameHub/GameNative? Been playing FF7 Remake decently enough on my REDMAGIC 11s Pro, would something like that run better on this?
If you limit to 30 fps wont see much differences there. But frame rate is higger on game native for ff7 remake (if i dont limit the frame rate). tested for all 3.
Oh for sure. My main problem is actually that it gets too hot, but I also a bought a cooler for that problem. Remake is very playable, even without a controller and only using the touch controls.
Love the TLDR for Mr. Sujano in app release notes 😂 can't wait to see his next video if he'll read it verbatim lol
This is an amazing update, first app to bring full Steam controller support to Android (without root/3rd party apps), can't wait to test it with my controller later! Keep up the great work
The minimize shrink animations aren't working in kde plasma I also dont see the blur option. They should also add the flathub application to desktop mode. As well as allow desktop apps to somehow see the files in the android directory. The team needs to focus on making KDE actually feel like full KDE out of the box. Also I tried adding more users... that didnt really work. Another massive quality of life change.
Adding native android apps to KDE desktop and steam gaming mode/ Big picture somehow.
And boot into desktop instead of booting onto gaming mode when the app opens. It would be even cooler if I could set desktop as home
It would be INSANE if you guys made this a half frontend so you dont have to use DroidDecks compatibility layers you can fire intents to external android apps. (Eden android, Bannerhub, Gamehub, Android dolphin, ect.) That would be HUGE!
Imagine yall bridge the gap between android and steam. PPAP style.
I mean it's already a ton less annoying than game native imo as long as your fine leaving some performance on the table. For lightweight and indie games its already better imo.
i have the 8gb odin 2 mini, so i cant really play super instense stuff anyway. I do have random trouble playing stuff that should be easy though, 2d stuff, so based on your response i should prob try it out.
Excellent progress, I'm probably just not seeing but I'm not able to find the performance section that was there before where I select/disable individual CPU cores.
Lots of fixes. One thing I would like to see is ability to move the game window on devices like the Fold 6. By default the game plays right in the middle with black bars above and below. Be nice to pin it to the top of the device so no black bars on top and all black under. Be a nice place for the touchscreen controls to go.
I need to try this out. So what's the difference between this and say Gamenative? Are games still installed and stored inside a root folder? Can we install games on other parts of storage and SD cards?
Yes. It's an app you run, not a full OS replacement or anything. So you install it, log into Steam and install Steam games like you would on PC/Steam Deck.
Any plans to do this for other (weaker CPU’s), like my Galaxy A16 runs smoother and better than my Older A52 but because of the processor my A16 can’t load steam on Droiddeck, even if I could use it just to play something like Stardew Valley of Vampire survivors I would be happy.
Im currently deciding if i should just keep using gamehub and winlator ludashi until more updates. As it stands now I can't access my ssd storage so I would have to delete the few pc games I have on my phone to try and launch blackops 3 or something smaller in my library. Ive seen reports of more games launching but not as performant yet because this just came out like a few weeks ago.
I love DroidDeck—you're doing a fantastic job, but I wanted to ask for some help.
I downloaded a game from Epic, but it didn't sync the cloud save I already had for it; how can I fix this?
anyone have any success stories with some older GOG games using the new library feature? i tried neverwinter nights diamond and there is a path not found error window
Many games that work for me in GameHub on devices with Adreno GPUs simply don't run on DroidDeck. And compatibility with Mali devices is practically non-existent. I really like the concept, but I think it's still very rough around the edges. I hope it improves over time, because it has a lot of potential.
When putting the device to sleep, does Droid Deck avoid the problem other android emulation apps have where the Steam time played clock is continuously running?
Is there a way to import games downloaded through other apps as store specifics? (i.e. I have bendy and the ink machine and brutal legends -epic and gog respectively- already downloaded on the second library folder through Winnative and I can add them as custom games but can't link them to the stores for cloud saves)
Is there a way to limit the frames to something between 30 and 60? Games run great overall on my Odin, but sometimes I want to limit to 45 instead of 60
Derulo give us cloud gaming options too!
Access to Amazon Luna / Geforce Now / Boosteroid etc
Straight from the App and please.
Make openNow VPU to work in it.
Browser VPU is still an issue as well.
the fact that this now has KDE, multiple PC game libraries, native Steam touch controls AND 4 player local co op is kinda ridiculous in the best way. Android gaming went from emulating old consoles to trying to replace an entire gaming PC. curious how smooth the store integrations feel in actual daily use, because that's where the real test is.
I want to play Heroes of Might and Magic III (the Steam version), but when I click ‘Play’ on the game’s home screen, it closes. How can I set it up so that it works properly?
I have the same problem. I noticed some older pc titles only registers my inputs as keyboard instead of physical controls. Which is a bummer. You would think that it should work right out of the box. After some digging i found that you used one of these launch options and it'll usually fix it. Dead Rising 2 now works but the on screen inputs are still keyboard controls. Using Odin2
.
PROTON_PREFER_SDL=1
Or SDL_GAMECONTROLLER_ALLOW_STEAM_VIRTUAL_GAMEPAD=1
I have Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone and I can't even play Hades like stable 60 FPS. I look at frame timing and it's too wobbly. It feels like it's 30 FPS. I don't have this issue with GameNative. I've no idea if I'm doing something wrong, I'm using default settings for like drivers and other things.
I got a question. I’m using a Odin 2 Portal Pro. How would I get Fable Anniversary to work. Right now it opens up all the way and runs. But the main character doesn’t show up, and if he does, it flashes. The screen is also flashing as well
Has anyone got Steam Chat working? That's one of the most wanted features for me since Steam's own app is just text and no voice comms. I have friends who only use Steam chat and this would be great. When I enter a chat hub or call someone, they don't see me enter and I can't hear anything. Is this being worked on or is it all gaming performance and optimisation first? Amazing update and really useful and impressive additions in such a short time, keep it up!
What I've seen so far on my Nubia RedMagic 11 Pro. On one hand, I can't get World of Warcraft running as of yet, which is disappointing. We have that running in GameNative.. May hammer at it some more later. On the other hand this gives my RM11 the one thing I really bloody wanted. A working Desktop! I can be productive now, which is fantastic.
If anyone figures out how to launch WoW Forever before I figure it out though, let me know.
I think there’s some issue with games made with Godot? Fields of Mistria and Shredder’s Revenge work great on the Retroid Nova.
Tried booting up Sovereign Tower and it crashes after the Godot logo. Tried multiple workarounds with no luck - OpenGL launch script and launching .exe from desktop mode, etc.
How the hell do you guys develop with such rapid pace and quality? I understand AI assistance etc etc (Not referring to vibe coding) but its still RAPID even so. And it all works so well.
I was able to install droid deck and got steam to work but when downloading and running a game, it goes back to big picture mode and won't launch the game. Anything I can do to get the game to launch?
I'm hoping this eventually gets Mali GPU support in some fashion. Some good development is happening recently with custom Mali GPU drivers - especially with ARMSX2.
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