In theory yes. The Mac version is just a remote desktop solution, no VR so a game like Civ where you can do everything with the mouse should be doable. Not sure if using a gamepad connected to the headset would work as that’s a few extra layers of complexity… but not a real concern for Civ, am I right? XD

Yes! ALVR works, but the entirety of the settings in Virtual Desktop is reachable from the device itself, no need to remove it to change the those that don’t require a restart.

Have you considered Snowrunner, Farming Simulator and American/Euro truck simulator? All games capable of unplugging your brain for a while. Just remember to manually set Proton if you play either truck sim, they have a terribly unoptimized Linux native version that runs poorly on the Deck.

The weirdest thing so far has been setting up Steam VR with ALVR because I could. And it technically works XD

Some games don’t really use it in a meaningful way, others make it a key component of gameplay. Sometimes gimmicky, obviously. For example I tried Mario Galaxy on the Deck, there’s a puzzle that requires finding the right spot with the HD rumble. The Deck has the same kind of haptics, but it didn’t translate at all into something meaningful, so that one puzzle cannot be solved. Old school rumble is ok and nice, but modern devices (Steam Deck, Switch, PS5, something like last 10 years of iPhones, obviously the Steam Controller) have proper haptics and can really do weird things. Click on the trackpad of your Deck when it’s off. The click is faked with haptics, so there’s none when it’s off! Main problem is that both Microsoft and Nintendo are strikingly dumb, so Microsoft is still clinging to 30 year old tech with the classic rumble, and Nintendo has HD Rumble only on the real Switch… so developers can’t expect everything to have proper haptics, and fall back to rumble.

I enjoy this 1.5 Lora https://civitai.com/models/165876/2d-pixel-toolkit-2d it’s pretty neat!