Gaming Consoles & Gear

So yesterday was the four-year anniversary of my channel, and it put me in a reflective mood.

I started the channel in the middle of the pandemic; I had picked up an RG350 (and later the RG350M) and found the setup process to be really haphazard, with instructions littered all around the Internet on various subreddits, message boards, and GitHub repositories. So I started up Retro Game Corps exclusively as a website to compile information about the devices and to write setup guides. I spent a lot of time on this subreddit, and the subreddit, sharing my progress and answering as many questions as I could. I knew nothing about these things, or really emulation at all, up until that time.

At some point, I started making videos to accompany my written guides, and over time I started focusing on making more videos because those seemed to help people the most. By that time (September/October) the Anbernic RG351P launched, so I did a mixture of written and video guides as I started to learn more about that handheld and EmulationStation/RetroArch, and then also started dipping my toes into reviews as well. The rest is history!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to this community and all the other subreddits for being such a helpful place to hang out. I try to stop by every day and chip in where I can, but it's also awesome to see an entire group (nay, corps) of people who are willing to jump in and answer questions, share their experiences, and so on. It's no wonder that this subreddit now has over 100,000 members!

Before I begin; my tip involves paid software (Lossless Scaling, $6.99 on Steam) and Riva Statistics Server (free). I'm sure there are those who have figured this out on their own and you can skip this LPT.

For those of you who haven't tried it, please do if you can afford the $6.99 for LS. You can always refund on Steam if you aren't thrilled with the results.

Basically what we want to do is use Riva Statistics Server to cap the frame rate at 40fps and *triple* the frames output using Lossless Scaling. I've found the results are remarkable. The resulting gameplay is incredibly smooth owing to the fact that the 120hz display is equally divisible by the 40fps we're targeting. Now, it isn't magic though. There are graphical artifacts that are noticeable but imo tolerable so long as you aren't whipping the game camera around really fast. An added benefit is that since you are now targeting 40fps, you can usually stand to increase the quality levels in the games' settings.

It's relatively easy to set up.

1. Purchase and install Lossless Scaling.

a. I like to open the program directly from the install folder than pin it to my taskbar for ease of use and so that Steam doesn't list it as 'running'.

b. For this tutorial I'll just include my settings but feel free to experiment with others as you see fit. In the settings menu enable "Start minimized at Windows startup". In the main window set "Scaling Type: LS1", "Frame Generation: LSFG 2.2", and "Mode: X3". If you want to see fps performance like I do, have "Draw FPS: On". Everything else can be left on default.

c. Whenever you want to run a game, make sure Lossless Scaling is open and running.

2. Install Riva Statistics Server, or RTSS.

a. Note that RTSS typically opens in the System Tray in the bottom right of Windows and you'll have to click on it's icon, a small blue monitor, to open it to change the settings.

b. The software needs to be running in order to do what we want and by default it will not run on Windows Startup. You can turn on the "Start with Windows" on the application window to change it so it does.

c. Find the box that says Framerate limit and enter 40 into the box to it's right. Just know that every game you attempt to run will be capped at 40fps so long as this software is running. You can set individual frame caps for each game but that's beyond the scope of this simple tutorial. If you want to run a game beyond 40fps, you'll have to either change this number or close the software from the System Tray. Application detection level should be set to at least low. Some games may require a higher setting but low has been working for me.

3. Start the game you want to play.

a. Lossless Scaling will only work outside of Fullscreen. Running the game in a window or in Windowed Fullscreen is fine. Make sure to change the settings to something other than Fullscreen in the game options.

b. Once the game is loaded and either in a window or in Borderless Fullscreen mode, open the Lossless Scaling application. *If you're in borderless fullscreen, you can just slide a finger up from the very bottom of the display twice to bring up the Windows Taskbar to click or touch on its icon.

c. In the top right corner of the LS application window, hit the Scale button. A 5 second timer will appear inside the button. This gives you time to select the game window or the games taskbar icon to re-focus on the game.

d. Once that timer reaches 0, profit. If you have the fps display toggled on in LS, you'll see the frame counter in the top left of the game. It should show 40/120 which means the game is running at 40fps and the app is generating frames at 120fps. In more demanding games, the numbers could be lower and you might have to lower details or reduce resolution. I've just gotten in the habit of running at 720p on my Ally since I think it looks plenty good enough and want to squeeze out the most performance I can.

Some quick notes: I had problems with Darksiders 2, both the original and Deathinitive Edition. Some games I guess just don't play nice. Also, any overlays often have conflicts with LS including the ROG Ally left settings menu. You can open it but sometimes it is a little unresponsive or doesn't disappear when closing it. I've found I can just change the focus to another program or the desktop and come back and it will be fine. That said, I don't mind dealing with these minor annoyances because the performance gains in everything else is transformative imo.

Anyways, I'm really sorry for the wall of text. Hope this helps someone.

My thumbs don't reach the analog sticks unless I loosen my grip and turn my hands inward. I'm basically just supporting the system with my middle fingers under the triggers, if I try to grip the Deck's handles then I can only reach the outermost edge of the sticks, it's gotten so tiresome I've had to relegate it to being a Desktop replacement, which kinda defeats the whole point of the system.

Looking for games that run well on the steam deck that I can log hundreds or thousands of hours in!