TECH NEWS – An ingenious Steam Deck user is making a complete set of custom light-up buttons for the device, highlighting one of the problems with the current model.

One of the latest customisations for Steam Deck is a complete set of custom glow-in-the-dark buttons. Although Valve’s handheld gaming PC is not yet available worldwide, it has already conquered the world. Many owners have decided to customise their devices to fill specific niches. Sometimes this involves simple upgrades to existing standard equipment.

In fact, Steam Deck does not have a backlight feature by default for any of the controls.

This may not seem like a significant issue to some. But the unique control scheme means that newcomers may have difficulty getting to grips with some of the keys. One Deck owner decided to take it upon himself to solve this potential problem.

After a minor panic broke out on the largest subreddit dedicated to Valve’s handheld console, in which many Steam Deck owners warned against a certain kind of vinyl skin, a different kind of customisation was spotlighted instead. Specifically, Sloiter’s resin-printed keyboard replacements have been doing the rounds lately. These replace both the D-Pad and face keys with glow-in-the-dark alternatives. Sloiter noted that the printing process used strontium aluminate mixed with resin, the same kind of powder used to illuminate the hands and hour markers on some watches.

The end result is a pretty, temporarily luminous effect that can undoubtedly be useful in extremely dark conditions. However, Sloiter said that the current iteration of the unique illuminated buttons is far from perfect. In the process of installing them, they ended up damaging the Deck’s casing. With the speed at which the Deck is now being shipped, getting a new unit is not as much of a problem as it used to be. But hardly anyone wants to break their shiny new handheld needlessly.

Sloiter’s glowing buttons are not yet ready for mass production. But they do give us a glimpse of what the community might be able to achieve in the long term. The maker has already mentioned that they may eventually sell the glow-in-the-dark buttons once they’re finished.

The good news for those who simply can’t wait for more customisation options is that a transparent clamshell replacement is now available for Steam Deck, for example.

With all this talk of customisation and community-led development, it’s perhaps worth pointing out that Valve has warned against unofficial Steam Deck purchases. Some retailers are allegedly selling knock-offs. The best-case scenario seems to be that the customer ends up getting ripped off. In reality, the only official way to get a Steam Deck is for US and EU customers to order one directly from Valve. Asian customers can get it through Komodo.

Source: Reddit