Comment on Valve Prepares for Steam Frame Launch with Android Upload Options in Steamworks

null@lemmy.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• SupraMario@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I thought this just makes windows games run natively on Android? So basically your entire steam library will run on your phone ( if it can handle the games).

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  • ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    !null@lemmy.org

    No, other way around, Steam Frame runs Linux.

    The Meta Quest VR headset runs Android, so Valve has worked on an emulation layer for Android games on Linux, ideally allowing developers to just release current Meta Quest games on their headset.

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    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Its also so that some games and/or parts of games can just run entirely on the Steam Frame Headset.

      Basically, ARM (mobile) physical hardware is more compact, less energy intensive, and heat causing, than traditional x86-64.

      So, they built the hardware of the headset, the Steam Frame, as… essentially, an extremely overbuilt smartphone, because they wanted you to be able to go cordless, un tethered, with decent battery life, as compared to their last headset, the Index, which has to be corded in to both data and power at all times.

      So, there are various rendering and other game processes that just run locally on the Steam Frame, via ARM hardware, where for a chonkier game, the core game processes are running on the Steam Machine, and the two share a highspeed, local, wireless datalink.

      To get all that to work, well, linux x86-64 instructions need to be interpretable on ARM, thus, make a new translation layer.

      That this means some APKs in their entirety should now just generally be able to run on a Steam Frame, solo… is essentially a side effect.

      Not trying to ‘correct’ you, just trying to add more context.

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      • ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Thanks, you typed more than I was going to :)

        Only note is FEX and the Android compatibility layer were two separate goals Valve put a lot of work into, so I wouldn’t classify it as a side-effect.

        One is to allow Windows games to work on the Frame, the other is to allow Android games to work on the Frame

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    • SupraMario@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Ok, so this is a Linux emulator for Android that allows games to run on Android?

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      • ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I would call it Android emulator for Linux.

        The point is to be able to install and run an Android APK on SteamOS (which runs Arch Linux)

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    • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thanks for that, I was proper confused lol

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  • null@lemmy.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I really have no idea.

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