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Steam to Chrome OS

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Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#91

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

Regardless, last time I was in Walmart Chromebooks where the only laptop available. For better or worse (mostly worse IMO) as far as a large portion of the population is concerned "regular laptops" are specialized equipment that they won't have.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#92

Wait - does this mean that if Steam ships on Chromebook, and Steam can be made to run arbitrary software via proton, that Chromebooks have become regular laptops?

It is worth noting that ChromeOS runs Linux software in a neat way to isolate it from the host OS. It runs it in Debian-based KVM VMs, and it uses virtio-wayland[1] to pass the applications through to the host compositor, making them feel as if they are not running in a VM. This architecture means that ChromeOS can preserve its readonly system partition, delta updates, and fast boot times while being able to run any…

Does virtio-wayland support accelerated graphics? It's not clear to me how that would work, since accelerated graphics drivers typically include hardware-specific userland code that has to run in the application.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#93
post #90
post #82

I think some folks are missing the really neat thing about this: remote play. Steam supports playing games remotely on another computer. So your desktop is doing the heavy lifting, but you can view the game on your TV in the livingroom. Now you can be playing the game on your Chromebook as well. Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Stea…

> Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Steam on Windows x86 and has an instant VPN to your Chromebook. I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. I do see how this could be more appealing for consumers, but aside from competing with themselves, I also would be curious about the economics. Cons…

> I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia.

Isn't Stadia moving to a PaaS for purposes just like this?

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#94
post #90
post #82

I think some folks are missing the really neat thing about this: remote play. Steam supports playing games remotely on another computer. So your desktop is doing the heavy lifting, but you can view the game on your TV in the livingroom. Now you can be playing the game on your Chromebook as well. Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Stea…

> Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Steam on Windows x86 and has an instant VPN to your Chromebook. I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. I do see how this could be more appealing for consumers, but aside from competing with themselves, I also would be curious about the economics. Cons…

It feels to me like the only logical economic future for game streaming is as a value add for a game subscription service (so like, xgp and xcloud as a logical pairing).

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#95
post #90
post #82

I think some folks are missing the really neat thing about this: remote play. Steam supports playing games remotely on another computer. So your desktop is doing the heavy lifting, but you can view the game on your TV in the livingroom. Now you can be playing the game on your Chromebook as well. Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Stea…

> Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Steam on Windows x86 and has an instant VPN to your Chromebook. I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. I do see how this could be more appealing for consumers, but aside from competing with themselves, I also would be curious about the economics. Cons…

Google never really tried with stadia. It's just another dead Google product, now changing into some sort of B2B thing. Shrug.

Meanwhile Nvidia kept improving geforce now and it's actually really good now, running on everything from operating systems to browsers with no noticeable lag. Cheap too, like $15 a mo or so, and works with most of your Steam library. Where it doesn't, usually means that the publisher wanted to get off for some reason.

Xbox Game Pass is another great steaming option (via xcloud), Netflix like subscription service that lets you stream games.

There's also Shadow and Luna and such. Many companies are doing this well, just not Google.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#96
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Steam on Windows x86 and has an instant VPN to your Chromebook. I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. I do see how this could be more appealing for consumers, but aside from competing with themselves, I also would be curious about the economics. Cons…

It feels to me like the only logical economic future for game streaming is as a value add for a game subscription service (so like, xgp and xcloud as a logical pairing).

$100 or so a year for a game steaming service is a heck lot cheaper than a gaming PC and a graphics card update every few years. And you can play anywhere, on any device, where you have a fast connection. It was a godsend for me before I could afford a gaming PC (or find one, during the pandemic)

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#97
post #82

I think some folks are missing the really neat thing about this: remote play. Steam supports playing games remotely on another computer. So your desktop is doing the heavy lifting, but you can view the game on your TV in the livingroom. Now you can be playing the game on your Chromebook as well. Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Stea…

Every time I've tried Steam Play, even over hardwired gigabit, it's been laggy, buggy, and crash prone. There was always display switching problems, controllers and keyboards not being detected correctly, graphical issues, etc. Just a PITA.

GeForce Now works much better and doesn't require you to have your own GPU. Do need fast internet though.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#98
post #93
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Steam on Windows x86 and has an instant VPN to your Chromebook. I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. I do see how this could be more appealing for consumers, but aside from competing with themselves, I also would be curious about the economics. Cons…

> I find it difficult to believe they'd offer this, given that they already have Stadia. Isn't Stadia moving to a PaaS for purposes just like this?

I don't think Google really has a game plan (no pun intended). They never gave Stadia the dev and marketing resources it needed so it just died on the vine. Their "pivot" is more like a surrender, I think, an act of desperation where they hope other companies will pay them for their tech that never really took off with consumers.

Thing is, porting to Stadia is so much work vs flicking a switch in Steam to publish to GeForce Now. And Stadia can't cross play or cross save with anything else by default, making it a very lonely ecosystem.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#99
post #82

I think some folks are missing the really neat thing about this: remote play. Steam supports playing games remotely on another computer. So your desktop is doing the heavy lifting, but you can view the game on your TV in the livingroom. Now you can be playing the game on your Chromebook as well. Then the next step is that Google Cloud offers you an on demand high end gaming machine, pay by the minute, which runs Stea…

Every time I've tried Steam Play, even over hardwired gigabit, it's been laggy, buggy, and crash prone. There was always display switching problems, controllers and keyboards not being detected correctly, graphical issues, etc. Just a PITA. GeForce Now works much better and doesn't require you to have your own GPU. Do need fast internet though.

I use Remote Play regularly (bed-bound lots due to medical issues) and never had a problem, but have found it’s finicky on your setup. Eg it never really worked on my ISP-provided modem/router but once I got a UDM (for unrelated reasons) it worked flawlessly and has ever since.

The fact I can lie in bed with laptop plugged into bedroom TV and use a PS4 controller to play games running on my gaming PC in another room is truly awesome.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#100
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I've tried Steam Play, even over hardwired gigabit, it's been laggy, buggy, and crash prone. There was always display switching problems, controllers and keyboards not being detected correctly, graphical issues, etc. Just a PITA. GeForce Now works much better and doesn't require you to have your own GPU. Do need fast internet though.

I use Remote Play regularly (bed-bound lots due to medical issues) and never had a problem, but have found it’s finicky on your setup. Eg it never really worked on my ISP-provided modem/router but once I got a UDM (for unrelated reasons) it worked flawlessly and has ever since. The fact I can lie in bed with laptop plugged into bedroom TV and use a PS4 controller to play games running on my gaming PC in another room…

What is a UDM?

And I believe you. I wish I knew what the variables were. I really wanted to like Remote Play and even got special hardware for it (Steam Link, Shield TV, etc.) and still couldn't get it to be reliable.

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