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Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

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221–230 of 327 posts

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AYN Thor looks quite promising in that category https://www.ayntec.com/products/ayn-thor It’s an ARM machine running SteamOS.

Your link says it runs Android?

You're right, I was mistaken, I've seen some Youtubers playing games on it, but they use GameHub to run Steam games, somehow I thought it was running Steam OS.

Sorry for the confusion.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#222
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that valve loot crates/hats have also always been tradeable, and Ive never had to buy them or suffer a disasvantage.

TF2 hats used to bring an advantage until about a decade ago.

That is simply not true. Hats have always been cosmetics only.

Some unusual hats even give you a disadvantage as they broadcast your position through sounds.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many chipmakers and development board manufacturers see software/driver support as some kind of necessary evil--a chore that they grudgingly do because they have to, and they will do the absolute minimum amount of work, with barely enough quality to sell their hardware.

It bewilders me. Software's gotta be easier than hardware right? Not that either is easy but as a software engineer, the engineering that goes into modern hardware mystifies me.

In my experience, hardware companies all believe that software is trivial nonsense they don't need to spend any effort on. Consequently, the software that drives their hardware really sucks.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#224
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no ARM chips with enough power. They have said many times that they are not interested in minor performance improvements but rather want a leap. The Snapdragon X2 Elite chip is the leader (I cannot count Apple; they won't share their chips, obviously), but it doesn't even match AMD with their RDNA 3.5, and who knows when they will (or even if).

> There are no ARM chips with enough power. Disagree. Both Qualcomm and Mediatek have mobile SoC which are more performant than the M2 and the X2 Elite is in the ballpark of Apple top SoC. Considering how I currently use my Steam Deck, there is nothing my current phone couldn’t do. Sure, you won’t get PS5 performance but I’m personally completely happy with Switch 2 level performance.

> Both Qualcomm and Mediatek have mobile SoC which are more performant than the M2 and the X2 Elite is in the ballpark of Apple top SoC.

At what power consumption? And is that both CPU and GPU, or just GPU?

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#225
post #75
post #2

> This is a very difficult combination to achieve, and yet that’s exactly what we’ve done for Valve with Mesa3D Turnip, a FOSS Vulkan driver for Qualcomm Adreno GPUs. Look at that. Something Qualcomm should have been doing. Much credit to Valve for pushing that out as FOSS.

> Much credit to Valve for pushing that out as FOSS. Cynical: Valve doesn't sell hardware or operating systems, they sell games. These devices are merely another storefront. Optimistic: Valve has also figured out how to turn good will into a commodity. Blowing cash on Steam sales is a bit of a cultural centerpiece of the PC gaming community. Gabe has proven that you can make stupid amounts of money by [mostly] doing…

I dont really know what has happened, but many forces have had to improve Linux kernel incrementally. 15 years ago, linux was terrible at suspend-to-ram, wifi drivers a nightmare. Power efficiency was lagging far behind on most architectures. Everyone from intel, to amd, router vendors, server datacenters and android manufacturers have gradually improved these parts over years and years and now, there seems to be enough vested interest that linux compatibility is not a third afterthought, but having good linux support early means you can launch on a android phone, in the datacenter, or build for a custom SoC.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#227

the Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU is a Snapdragon Gen 3 device. This is basically an android device. I wonder why Valve is maintaining a separate linux and driver fork for this. Snapdragon Gen 3 android game SDK works very well...including Windows emulation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hsQ_-8HV6g not saying what Valve is doing is not spectacular. But i cant help but wonder if it isnt a more productive use of their res…

If you want to "accelerate the Desktop Android merge" you need devices to be properly supported in the mainline kernel and Mesa stack, which is what everyone uses on desktop. This is what Valve is doing. Google may be merging Android and ChromeOS, but even ChromeOS is far from a true "desktop"-class OS.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#228
post #217
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with loot crates, and the reason why they're being slowly regulated against in several places, is that "sensible people don't buy them" has never stopped people to lose their life to gambling.

I hope everyone who is so outspoken about loot crates are also fighting for TCG packs to be banned/regulated because they are literally the same level of "gambling".

Let's not forget mystery boxes for real toys and things like mini brands.

Though I am not outspoken about it, I think individuals need to come to terms with telling themselves no.

Otherwise we need to outlaw everything bad and open to abuse to specific individuals. Things such as cake, donuts, coffee, etc.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#229

the Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU is a Snapdragon Gen 3 device. This is basically an android device. I wonder why Valve is maintaining a separate linux and driver fork for this. Snapdragon Gen 3 android game SDK works very well...including Windows emulation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hsQ_-8HV6g not saying what Valve is doing is not spectacular. But i cant help but wonder if it isnt a more productive use of their res…

If you want to "accelerate the Desktop Android merge" you need devices to be properly supported in the mainline kernel and Mesa stack, which is what everyone uses on desktop. This is what Valve is doing. Google may be merging Android and ChromeOS, but even ChromeOS is far from a true "desktop"-class OS.

I'm pretty sure "Desktop Android" is a version of Android that runs on laptops, not a version of normal desktop Linux that can run Android.

Re: Helping Valve to power up Steam devices

#230
post #75
post #2

> This is a very difficult combination to achieve, and yet that’s exactly what we’ve done for Valve with Mesa3D Turnip, a FOSS Vulkan driver for Qualcomm Adreno GPUs. Look at that. Something Qualcomm should have been doing. Much credit to Valve for pushing that out as FOSS.

> Much credit to Valve for pushing that out as FOSS. Cynical: Valve doesn't sell hardware or operating systems, they sell games. These devices are merely another storefront. Optimistic: Valve has also figured out how to turn good will into a commodity. Blowing cash on Steam sales is a bit of a cultural centerpiece of the PC gaming community. Gabe has proven that you can make stupid amounts of money by [mostly] doing…

To modulate your cynical take somewhat, it's remarkable to me that all the devices are completely open. You can install anything you want on them, which makes them more than a storefront. It makes them a device that works for the user, which, to your final point, does create loyalty in people like me.
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