Steam Deck and Game Mode

Universe knows the Steam Deck, LCD and OLED alike. Run it in Desktop Mode as on any PC, or add it to Steam and play from Game Mode. It shows the same screens as on a TV, scaled down to the Deck’s screen.

Installing on SteamOS

In Desktop Mode, open Konsole and set a password first: the installer asks for it once, and a Deck has none until you set one.

passwd
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ilyasturki/universe/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

The Deck’s controls

The hints show the Deck’s buttons, and outside Game Mode the Steam button is HOME. The back buttons, the Quick access button and the trackpads do nothing until you give them a macro.

If the controls move the mouse instead, hold Menu for about half a second to turn them into a controller.

Performance

Settings › Performance sets the Deck’s brightness, power limit, GPU clock and, on SteamOS, its fan curve. Refresh rate joins them in the Universe session. Over a game, the dock’s System button has the same rows for that game alone.

Steam’s Game Mode

To play from Game Mode, add Universe Big Screen to Steam: in Desktop Mode, open Steam’s Games menu, choose Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library…, then tick Universe Big Screen.

Universe then leaves Steam what Steam already does:

• There’s no dock over a game. The Steam and Quick Access buttons stay Steam’s.
• Game defaults and each game’s settings drop Show MangoHud, Frame rate limit and Pause on HOME: Steam’s performance overlay and frame limit apply instead.
• Settings hides Sound, Network, Bluetooth and Performance, which Steam’s own menus have.
• The power menu (hold B) lists only Quit Universe and Stay.
• The macros for volume, mute, MangoHud and screenshots do nothing. The others still work.
• Steam’s Exit Game closes Universe, and the game it runs.