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Steam to Chrome OS

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Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#101

Post by pjmlp »

technobabbler wrote: post #98
crummy wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

That is why they are now writing a Windows emulation layer for Stadia, which I think won't convince anyone that isn't yet bought into their Stadia sales pitch. See last week Stadia sessions for developers.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#103

Post by pjmlp »

shmerl wrote: post #5

I'd just stick to gaming on regular Linux. But I suppose it can be useful for arguing that Linux gaming market is expanding, so developers who like to excuse lack of Linux releases with market size will have less excuses now.

They won't care, because all of these solutions are just emulating Windows in some fashion, so why bother with Linux.

Just keep using DirectX and Win32, and let Steam handle shipping an Windows layer on top fo Linux while calling it "Linux gamming".

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#104

Post by pjmlp »

qudat wrote: post #41
JamesMcMinn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this stage, native Linux releases are becoming less and less likely because of Value's efforts to improve gaming on Linux, as paradoxical as that seems. Proton is getting better and better with each release, and in many cases, is providing better performance than running native code on Windows. Why bother with official Linux support when you can just check that your game runs via Proton and push the burden of supp…

I’ve seen game devs advertise that their game works natively on Linux and is seen as a positive. My guess is if steam deck takes off there will be more games trying to build natively on Linux.

Not surprising, steam deck also supports Windows now. So lets see which OS gets mostly using on it.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#105

Post by pjmlp »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #64
shmerl wrote: post #5

I'd just stick to gaming on regular Linux. But I suppose it can be useful for arguing that Linux gaming market is expanding, so developers who like to excuse lack of Linux releases with market size will have less excuses now.

You and the dozens of people like you, but the Chromebook consumer market is huge. Right now Steam is only targeting higher end Chromebooks that make up a small fraction of its market share, but I’m sure they’ll improve that over time.

Huge only when we reduce it to the US school market, pretty tiny otherwise.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#106

Post by conradev »

mwcampbell wrote: post #92
conradev wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Since it is running in a VM and the host needs the GPU as well, it likely uses virtio-gpu to do paravirtualization. The latest iteration involves emulating a Vulkan device, serializing the commands, and passing them through to the host:

https://docs.mesa3d.org/drivers/venus.html

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#107

Post by dmitriid »

pjmlp wrote: post #101
technobabbler wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That is why they are now writing a Windows emulation layer for Stadia, which I think won't convince anyone that isn't yet bought into their Stadia sales pitch. See last week Stadia sessions for developers.

> they are now writing a Windows emulation layer for Stadia

So they are going in the same direction as LiquidSky.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#108

Post by rapind »

jchw wrote: post #90
mabbo wrote: 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…

Stadia was dead on arrival. Working with Valve has the potential of being really really smart, but I’m not sure this develops into anything significant.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#109

Post by alphager »

technobabbler wrote: post #100
sen wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unifi Dream Machine, a prosumer router/wifi AP combo.

Re: Steam to Chrome OS

#110

Post by pjmlp »

dmitriid wrote: post #107
pjmlp wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why they are now writing a Windows emulation layer for Stadia, which I think won't convince anyone that isn't yet bought into their Stadia sales pitch. See last week Stadia sessions for developers.

> they are now writing a Windows emulation layer for Stadia So they are going in the same direction as LiquidSky.

> LiquidSky shut down their service on December 17th, 2018 while they focus their efforts on building a new streaming platform.

> As of 2018, LiquidSky was acquired by Walmart and now focusing on other projects.

I guess that is where Stadia will land as well.

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