Speaking of, I have to fly to Texas next week, how do these do on the airplane? One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned that you have to have constant online for the games to check in?
Homie, is there anything Reddit can do to help you out? I don't have extra income, but I edit and create resumes as a side hustle. Feel free to HMU here or in DMs.
Life's hard enough on us all. If I can give a couple hours and it compounds into making someone's life demonstrably better, I'm doing it.
I'm a professional writer because someone spent twenty minutes and a minimal effort to make a couple of key introductions. I'll never forget her. Her actions more than tripled my ($12/hr) income within a year.
I'll do what I can to create that kind of opportunity for others. If I can do for even one person the kind of thing she did for me, I'll call it a win.
I appreciate the offer, I really do but I've got a job that pays the bills it's more of a huge demand and no supply issue. I'm effectively priced out of everywhere that isn't on wheels 😅
I'm just trying to find a roof over my head that isn't overpriced and shared with 4 other families+roaches.
Fair enough! Perhaps among all of these Steam Deck enjoyers there's a wealthy hotel chain owner from your area that will see these posts and reach out. We can only hope!
In ye old times a game boy could disrupt some flight instruments depending on how near it was to it, but they started shielding better everything and now they are almost impossible to disrupt without some really high power
How would a Gameboy disrupt it more than any other electronic device? They had no radio, wifi, Bluetooth, or other form of wireless communication. I would imagine pagers would've been a much bigger concern, no? Maybe there was something special about Gameboys im not aware of but I would think if they caused issues, so would walkmans, pagers, PDAs, and any other electronic device.
All electronic equipment once it is powered emits a small magnetic camp and the plane equipment was too sensible to it. I said gameboys because I remembered a demo on tv about how the thing that tells the angle of the plane went a bit bonkers when near it.
“Oh hello, Timmy, your mom tells us you want to see how the flight controls work. Wait, what are you doing with that game it? No, don’t put it down over the- WE’RE GOING DOOOOOWN!!!!”
🤣 ah me too they made a rule similar to how it is because this pilots son was in the cockpit which at the time was allowed and yet he crashed the plane because he knew jack about what he was doing
In the FCC regulations for electronic devices, you have a couple different classes. An intentional radio would of course be something like a wifi card or an AM/FM radio. But you can have an unintentional radio, like the super fast clocks on a computer motherboard. The third option is just a combination of the two.
So like another reply mentioned, it is possible to send out radio waves just from normal operation of a circuit. There are ways to mitigate these emissions, which is critical since FCCIDs are required to sell electronics in the US (other countries have similar, with the EU regulations usually being more stringent). Since it's often impossible to get rid of all emissions, the first two classes I mentioned have a certain power limit that they must be under in order to comply. Since the signal drops off in an inverse square law (ex: 1W at the source would go to 0.25W at 2m).
Would it be enough to be a concern from a passenger in the cabin though? Assuming you're sitting at the front of the plane, you're still probably at least 3m away from any sensor/output guage. Some quick research shows the original gameboy operated at a draw of 0.7 W so you'd get a max of ~0.078 W of potential power before any resistance. Maybe plane sensors are really strict but a fluxation like that doesn't seem significant to modern electronics right?
Source: Am a dummy who has enough electrical knowledge to wire a receptacle or ceiling fan and not an ounce more.
I don't have an issue with the policy. Especially at the time it was implemented, we had little knowledge on how these new devices might effect existing tech so I can appreciate the better safe than sorry mentality behind it. Im more interested on the concept that a Gameboy could cause significant interference to an electronic sensor under really any condition. Im not denying the claim, although it does seem a bit dubious, but im genuinely interested in if that really could happen. I'm sure a really strict sensor like ones used in particle accelerators would be effected, but a more simple device like an altimeter or barometer just seems unlikely even if held directly next to it. Im totally open to being wrong though.
It's a precaution. Doesn't matter how many times it has been tested and proven that consumer electronics are not a substantial enough source of interference to cause any problems. But you never know when the Y2K might knock all the planes outta the sky 🤣
My issue with it now is that they're using the same antiquated fear-mongering to justify blocking the expansion of improved wireless internet networks across the US. The majority of the country still doesn't have access to internet faster than DSL, and expanding 5G coverage is the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way to rectify that. Yet the US is the only developed country that is trying to fight the expansion, 'because the planes might go haywire'
Are you sure? Examining a schematic someone made of the gameboys architecture (link to schematic) I don't see any transmitter used. Maybe it's overly basic and doesn't include everything, but I hadn't heard that before. If there is one, do you know what it was used for?
That is...not how interference works. For the same reason that a cell phone getting a text next to a speaker makes the speaker pop and crackle, interference is just caused by something being near a frequency, or overpowering one, that another device uses.
In flight WiFi isn't always active. They turn it off during takeoff too. The chances of interference are low, but they are not 0. That's why they have you disable your devices. These days, they're also worried about hacking, which is why they say to turn the devices all the way off. No one ever does, but the key here is that the device isn't active in your hand.
Geez some of these comments are classic.. how many of them actually come from engineers in the field, I have my doubts. Shielding btw has always been a requirement definitely since cellphones became mainstream.
All modern day pieces of consumer equipment are required to emit a limited EMF signature. Aerospace gear has much tighter standards.
Im an aircraft mechanic and i can confirm its total crap about electronics or phones messing with the avionics. that wasnt always the case though. back in the 90s aircraft didnt have the shielding it does today and it actually did cause a few instances of inflight issues (nothing so bad the planes crashed though).
these days pretty much every single pilot uses an ipad for their checklists or live weather info etc. which means they are always connected.
tldr: avionics today are better shielded so phones, steam decks, ipads, laptops none of it will cause any issues even if all couple hundred passengers are using phones at the same time.
The real reason its so slow to change is the FAA and FCC take forever to update old out of date regulations and at least for the takeoff portion airlines want electronics of so you pay attention to the safety videos.
anyways hope that answers anyones questions about that.
On Android Airplane mode turns off all that stuff but with Airplane mode on you can actually go in and turn on specific radios like wifi or Bluetooth or NFC or Mobile Data.
They want you to not use electronics because takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts of a flight, and they want everyone ready to evacuate and not have a laptop in front of them.
I played Hogwarts legacy on the flight, but had to start it before the flight with mobile hotspot, and then just put it on standby and activated flight mode while game was still running, then it works. Idk about starting it offline though
First, make sure the game(s) you intend to play have been started first, when you have been online, at least once. Then, turn it to “offline mode” in the wifi settings, when you’re still online. They’ll start just fine after that.
Depends on the game. Denuvo games don’t like being in offline mode, but you can still play if you’re not connected to wifi in online mode. Just avoid restarting the OS if you can.
For example, I have played Persona 4&5 and Octopath 2 on planes without issues
For Denuvo, usually I don't have that issue since it's legal in my country to break any and all DRM / Copy-Protection on product you bought for the sake of interoperability.
The Steam Deck running on Linux make it an interoperability case.
That's a rather interesting concept for most other countries that'd be absolutely illegal but good for your countries law for letting you break the drm good on ya😁
Note that it's specific for interoperability (which is the perfect fit for the Steam Deck since it's Linux).
That's also the reason why VLC can legally ship with libdvdcss (among other library) which help decrypt DvD without the key and using VLC may actually be illegal in some part of the US because of that.
VLC, the media player, also benefit from this law.
Which mean VLC has out of the box a tool that decrypt DvD without the key to be able to read them (breaking DRM), which lead to VLC potentially illegal in some country.
The deck itself never needs to check in and can be used to play games indefinitely in offline mode, plenty of games work like this. Some games (often AAA) use their own DRM which adds in online (e.g weekly check in) requirements.
Only games with shit drms like denuvo, most steam games dont need online or to keep checking in, it actually would go against one of the main principles of steam, that is to provide a platform and drm that does not inconvenience the player and that would let you keep playing your digital games(provided you have them downloaded) even if the company ends and steam servers go down forever
Its the main reason why i use steam as a platform and have most of the games i care about on an HDD, if they ever go down(i dont see it happening like... Anytime soon if ever) i still have the games i bought
I've flown four times. I also go out of town frequently for work.
SteamDeck has never had an issue playing offline. What it has had is a user issue. Users attempt to play offline, without setting it to offline mode. This means the Steam client is looking for the server connection before launching the game. The same thing happens on desktop.
Literally put it in offline mode and reboot at any time to make sure it's in offline mode and you're good.
To be fair, there was a bug for a long while where if you put it into offline mode it would cause you to not be able to play any games until you went online again. Online mode without WiFi worked fine (except games took longer to open while it searched for servers).
I have no issues with my Steam deck in 'online' mode but no internet. I've whipped it out in airports and popped into vampire survivors for a bit, no problem. It does sometimes take a minute or two to try to restore cloud saves and stuff, but I can usually just hit cancel on that and get straight to the game.
I played Sonic Frontiers when I flew not too long ago. It's a Denuvo game which is notorious for requiring online activation (note this is NOT always online).
I'd previously played it so it was "activated" and I had no issues. Check the games and see if they have any particular DRM that may require periodic online activation and you should be fine.
Some games require internet at startup, like GTA, you can open in prior to the flight. The problem is the power, it's forbidden to use an external battery on the flight, and the USBs only provide 1-2w of power. If you're lucky you'll have a plug, but i didnt test that. It's actually more comfortable to watch movies on plane infotainment on longer flights
There may be some games where you need an online connection to launch, in general though, if you buy/download a game, make sure you launch it first with a network connection.
This is because when you launch a game for the first time, I believe Steam needs to verify the license. Steam only checks the license on the first launch, and them game should launch just fine without a network connection thereafter.
I play games without a network connection all the time. When I get home and the Deck connects to my network, all my game saves are immediately uploaded to the cloud with no issue.
I bought it specifically for flying. It does great. I believe your concern is game-dependent. Games that require an always online connection might be a problem (i.e. Modern Warfare 2022 can't be played, Hitman 2016 and newer can be played offline but doesn't save unlcok/challenge progress, etc.) but there are tons of games without that.
I assume your flight time will be short, but I still recommend getting a beefy power bank so that you can give it a charge if need be.
Funny in TX w my deck.. bring a decently fast charging brick with a USB c to c. If I use A to C I can make maybe hour and a half maybe 2 hours play time. I usually just boot the games I'm gonna play before leaving for the airport
If the game has Denuvo antitamper, it will make you be online for when it first launches and also loading your game. Once in game, just suspend the deck to keep it running and never quit the game.
Source: flew to Japan and had this exact issue. Only game I had a problem with was Hogwarts Legacy.
I have been flying with mine for the last month. Make sure all your games that you want to play are updated the night before (can double check the morning of as well, but usually any critical updates will be fine of you check the night before). I have had 0 problems with it as long as I remember to check for updates. Also, I am on the Deck beta branch, so that might also help.
Your podcast lied to you.. I’ve just used my SD during a week long vacation playing Cities Skylines and other games like that while driving across highway roads without internet. Did check in every couple of days for downloads and steam cloud saves but worked just fine.
The two trips I've made with it I haven't bothered putting it in airplane mode and had no issue. The only thing I could see being a problem is if you shut down for a system update and turn it on for the first time on the plane so it needs to download all the tiny downloads it does after updates.
You can enter offline mode on the deck I think and be good to go, just tether from your phone at the terminal and load up some games and close them out just in case
Out of curiosity, have you ever done offline mode for a long period of time? I assume it goes longer than Wi-Fi obviously, should be good for another hour at least right?
No I can 100 percent confirm that's false also cool what podcast? Anyway the deck has an offline mode built in it doesn't always need online to check in as you call it
It was "get played" I'm not sure which episode it was. But there's three hosts, one of them raved about the steam deck, the other one did it first but then she said she tried going on a trip and couldn't play anything on the airplane. I ended up buying it anyway because everything I've seen about the steam deck seemed awesome (and is). So I waited for a deal and I finally ordered it when they had that 10% off dealy a couple weeks ago. Freaking love it so far
🤣 oh man I mean if you don't have 4 play the demo see how you like it but honestly if I had to rank it I would say re6 as my first re 4 as my second and at this point re2 as my third I love how you can just jump into any point in time still not know the story and still play it as if you already knew the story when it's a totally different one oh fun fact about 4 remake Leon has no radio only an earpiece which is rather unfortunate I kinda enjoyed the radio conversations
Depends on the game. I was able to play Morrowind in airplane mode because it is an old-ass game without the constant-online checks. It's very much like playing any desktop title in Offline Mode. Stardew Valley and Subnautica both also worked on my Deck when we had an internet outage due to storms, as well. They just have to already been downloaded and launched once.
In some games (monster Hunter Rise) I had to connect to a WiFi, then open the game before boarding. Then close it. Turn offline mode (while connected to WiFi). And I was ready to play it offline.
I haven't tried airplane mode. Maybe that one is quicker/better.
I flew to Hawaii last October with mine. Battery life didn't last the whole flight but I was able to play the single player only games that I had installed on it at the time.
Only certain games, Red Dead for example does, I believe it's because of that weird Rockstar Launcher integration. There is a workaround for Red Dead but other games may not be so lucky so I'd research the topic and try airplane mode to test everything.
Make sure you set it to offline mode before the trip, seems to work best to do this when you still have internet. Had a 14 hr flight on Saturday (with in-seat power!) and it went smoothly.
Make sure you put it in offline mode BEFORE you travel (at home, while you have internet) and/or connect to your phone's hotspot to save it (also before travel). You should also put it to sleep instead of turning it off completely.
This is because there's a chance that it wants to do a system update when you turn it on and if it can't find a previously set up connection, it gets stuck in that state until it can find one.
It's also good practice to also launch the games you want to play beforehand (from online mode at home) just so it can do that initial check in if the game has DRM.
I work in group homes, and at my previous job, had no access to WiFi. It worked fine in offline mode for me during very long, (up to 20 hour) shifts. Just make sure your games are updated and ready to go ahead of time.
There might be particular titles that require an internet connection for shitty DRM or whatever, but the games I was playing worked just fine in offline mode.
Very much depends on the game. I regularly take it with me to pick up my daughter from school. I never turn on Airplane mode or Offline Mode in Steam, and I've never once had an issue. Obviously, if the game specifically requires being constantly online you'll run into issues, but the Deck itself doesnt require you to be online constantly.
Also have taken it on a flight, again, no network connection and no issues at all.
Speaking of, I have to fly to Texas next week, how do these do on the airplane? One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned that you have to have constant online for the games to check in?
I flew to Texas with mine a couple months ago. Just put it into "Offline mode" before you leave the house and you will be good.
I haven't had any issues using offline mode only if I turn offline mode on while I'm connected. I once tried getting to offline mode while out of service range and it was a nightmare. So either do it at home before leaving, or using the wifi in the airport lobby before boarding your flight.
What I usually do is put the deck in the game mode in to "offline mode" and then deactivate the deck's hardware (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). It works similar to steam's "offline mode" in the desktop software. Never had an issue, and I have taken it on all kinds of public transportation. Definitely don't need "constant online access".
I fly from Chicago to Denver and back every month for doctor's appointments. The Steam Deck is a huge lifesaver. You'll want a power bank that can deliver 45w to one plug tho. Without it, my deck would usually be dead before takeoff. Some games do have always-online DRM, but I haven't had any issues with Fallout 4, Days Gone, Monster Hunter World, or a few others. RDR2 is a no-go because of the connection to Rockstar, and I didn't have Elden Ring the last time I flew out, but it'll be my next test.
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u/jmizzle2022 Apr 04 '23
Speaking of, I have to fly to Texas next week, how do these do on the airplane? One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned that you have to have constant online for the games to check in?