Counter Strike 2 is surprisingly awful on Steam Deck right now

You’d have to be a masochist to actually play this on steam deck or with any controller.

Unless they have some sort of “steam deck only” matchmaking, but even then it’s just not made for controller.

You can use a keyboard and mouse with the steam deck. Probably not super common but definitely doable.
- It’s plenty common. I have a dock all set up as do many others!
It's not a standard xbox controller. There's a gyro with several ways to handle it, including flick, which does take a little time to get used to, but works really well as a mouse substitution for such an environment. Some people are just that good with a thumbstick as well and can easily enjoy casual gamemodes.
Steam Deck is a capable beast, even for a game like Counter-Strike.
- The same was said about the steam controller, but in the end it was still shit compared to a mouse. It's just not feasible in a game as competitive as csgo.
- asdfasdf
- At its core, CS is a competitive shooter. Having casual maps and modes is fun but the game should not cater to this play mode. If valve tries to make it casual friendly they will disappoint the competitive players and will not be able to compete with other casual shooters.
  Basically I don't want then to cater too much to the casual scene
Some games have controller-based matchmaking, where you hop in a lobby and only people with similar controllers to your get matched against you. So if you play with keyboard and mouse, you play against keyboard and mouse players. If you play with a controller, you play against other people with controllers. With crossplay getting more and more popular, I think every game should have this option.
Gyro aim is very good and can easily compete with a mouse
- Gyro is a nice improvement on joystick gaming, but it sure as hell isn't even remotely close to mouse aim
- Not in a game like counter strike with flicking and very precise spray patterns.

Are competitive FPSs intended for handhelds?

Maybe, maybe not. But I think people expect a game made by Valve to run on gaming hardware made by Valve, even if it's only for casual playing.
- Well it runs - just not as fast as you want. I personally would never want to play those competitive shooters that need pixel perfect aim on a handheld console… but that’s just me.
- I think people expect a game made by Valve to run on gaming hardware made by Valve, even if it’s only for casual playing.
  Yes. Why else did CSGO get controller and gyro support? While Valve did not promise anything in that regard, there was the expectation that CS2 would basically be fully optimized for Deck. Maybe it will still happen. The "final" release is nothing but an open beta.
- Sure but they haven't cared about the state of their games in ages. Iike I'm all for pushing to get them to fix it and all, but think it's weird that people are surprised. Especially when the vast majority of their focus has been on steam for the last forever
- Yeah we should be able to play half life Alyx on the steam deck too!!
- Ah yes, I totally expect Nintendo games to play on all their hardware like a 3ds…
Well, I have seen some very crazy shit with Metroid Prime Hunters for DS.
EDIT: Like tthis
I play Destiny 2 on my Asus ROG Ally almost daily, and have played lots of PVE and Gambit, but hate Crucible. It's really powerful, so I think it's possible to play competitive games on a handheld if you're comfortable with using a controller. Of course, you can plug it into a monitor and use the XG Mobile to get a decent graphics card. So yeah, I think a handheld can hold up to a gaming PC if you temper your expectations. You're not going to be playing at 4k, 120 fps, but instead 720p 50-60 fps. Good enough for casual play all the time.

The shaders should be compiled in advance, did the author skip the shader compilation when launching?

I'm not sure if it's every game but I don't recall ever seeing my deck compile shaders, I thought it just downloaded them
- I believe you're correct, because they know the exact hardware they don't need to be compiled for each device unlike how PCs come on every version imaginable.
- You can disable that feature, and some people do because they get tired of the constant downloads and shaders taking up space for games they haven't even played yet.
- I have definitely seen my deck compile shaders, however I assume it downloads them if they are available. If you launch a game that uses proton for the first time while offline, you should see it compile.
CS2 just doesn't precompile shaders. The game just shits itself running on AMD because of that.
The shader cache itself is also broken and gets reset by the game on every restart.
- I'm running a 6700XT and weirdly enough it pre-compiled in Linux but not in Windows.
  It's really stuttery for a while in Windows, with low GPU usage and erratic frequency, until it normalizes.
  I'm getting none of that in Linux, smooth from the start in-game. Only getting some weird fps fluctuation in the start menu.
- CS2 compiles shaders on my desktop. It does so every time it updates. Also, why would this make the game worse on AMD? Afaik RADV supports VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library, just like Nvidia. Shader compilation performance should be similar between them.

Well there's a reason it's not a verified game. Valve is rightfully not targeting the steam deck for it because the gameplay experience wouldn't be good. If you want to still play it that's on you but I don't blame them for not supporting it. It shows that they are serious about cs this time, imo

I like to play all my games on the deck and just dock it for shooters. If they were serious about cs this time they'd optimize it. A lot of people including me still have PC's less powerful than the deck. Plus a competitive game needs to be optimized well enough to run smoothly.
- That's not the target usecase for the deck or for cs2. It's cool that it's possible and really showcases how flexible and capable the deck is, but valve has no obligation to support or optimize for it.
  Cs2 is quite optimized for a typical Windows gaming PC, aka the target platform. I get well over 300fps on my midrange build. Valve is putting a lot of extra work into proton configurations to get Windows games working well out of the box on the deck, it's perfectly fine that they haven't done that specific work for the deck yet, if at all.
  I'm sorry to say but you're an outlier. Most people with decks aren't typically docking them, and even less are docking them as a desktop replacement. For me it's a portable with the flexibility of easy couch coop but I never want to have to use a mouse and keyboard on it.
  Controlling scope of supported systems to ones that are most commonly used is the smartest thing they could do. There's a reason cs2 isn't supporting consoles this time around and it's telegraphing great things for the game this time. They aren't making the same mistakes they had to correct with cs:go on launch.

Fucking embarrassing for Valve, what the fuck is going on over there? This is like Nintendo launching a Mario game that doesn't boot.

Pretty sure they haven't been prioritizing their own games for a decade now
...it's a competitive shooter it's not targeting handhelds.
- On a dockable PC, with full peripheral support. I travel for work, and could get set up where I go to play decent comp games. Now I can't. It's not common for me to have the time, but I know it's not that unique of a situation.
  I peaked LE and stayed around MGE for reference.
- Literally irrelevant

I tried CS2 on my Deck after the update. I only tried against bots on Italy but found that given the hardware, it ran surprisingly OK. 40 FPS with default settings. Obviously the controls are not so great. I've read somewhere later that resetting Steam Input for this game to defaults is required but didn't know that at the time.

Btw I played with the Deck on a stand and my left hand on the controller part while my right hand held a Bluetooth mouse.

Is that... comfortable? That sounds like a really awkward way to play. Any reason you didn't do all in on the controller or keyboard+mouse?
- Is that… comfortable? That sounds like a really awkward way to play.
  It was kinda OK. It actually had the benefit of analog movement as compared to WASD. Biggest downside was the small screen.
  Any reason you didn’t do all in on the controller or keyboard+mouse?
  The game did not seem to work with controller only and forced me to use the trackpads and I cannot play FPS games with just a controller anyway. As for why no keyboard, the answer is simple: I was too lazy to get up and get my BT keyboard and my USB C dock (all my Deck accessories are stored in a dedicated bag).

I would totally expect that because controller, but I hadn't considered the specs.

I try finding out what the 2 is even about, and im seeing stuff like...improved smoke grenades, and ability to refund weapons?

What happened to the number 2 man, that used to be a big deal.

It's a new engine, which is more than enough to warrant a new title imo. CS has been practically the same game many years and has been incredibly successful all that time. The community does not want major gameplay changes, just minor improvements. CS as a series is not like COD or Battlefield.
CS2 has much more advanced and consistent smokes, vastly improved graphics, more advanced netcode, competitive improvments alongside a new competitive mode similar to FaceIT, and loads of quality of life improvements. I think this is more than enough to be considered a sequel.
- I’m pretty happy personally that the community server browser no longer looks like it was made in 1996. The new one actually works on my ultrawide monitor, so I can find servers on my own now. In CSGO, I had to have a friend find a server for us and then I’d just join him.
CS2 is on Source engine 2. Hence the major version bump.
The difference between csgo and cs2 is similar to cs 1.6 to cs source. Its a major change of engine with brings in other changes with it.
- Why is it called CS2, though, instead of CS4? I mean, it's the fourth game in the series, isn't it?
  CS
  CS:Source
  CS:GO
  CS2???

Can agree to this, I've tried to play but it plays at like 30fps and the controls are all messed up all the menu based stuff is gone it's actually awful.

Is anyone else having issues with the game not allowing you to use any input except the left stick

It's the new PRO Gamer mode.
I can't imagine trying to play CS on the sticks, and apparently Valve's QA team couldn't either.

It runs surprisingly well hooked up to a monitor using keyboard and mouse. It's not beautiful or high FPS z but it's playable. Only issue I am facing is that I don't see fog or fire unless I am standing inside. I can just see through it.

You can just see through the smoke grenades? That's wild.

Can you not connect a mouse and keyboard to the deck?
Steam Deck is not limited to handheld, you can hook it up to a desk setup with USB -C. Also, I used to play CSGO handheld. I'm in the low silvers even on PC and it doesn't make a big difference to me skill wise. You can be really precise with trackpad + gyroscope.
- You might have enough time to aim with a trackpad in silver, thats definetly not the case in higher ranks.
it literally is a computer smart guy
- "Comp" as in competitive.
If you bought a compatible game that suddenly updates to be unusable on your platform, I think that's a big issue...
- Csgo was free
What if they wanna play custom hide and seek maps? Doesn't have to be just competitive matches.
Per your edit:
Anyone else remember when "competitive shooter" also implied it could be run on a fucking potato with decent speeds? Or that competitive games aren't still meant to be played for fun by the vast majority of people who are gonna be playing?
It's not targeted exclusively towards professionals, is it?