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Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

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Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#641

Post by bayindirh »

aperture147 wrote: post #630

I think Valve is not some kind of God who free the human from the hand of Microsoft, they are a private company, they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits. The movement towards Linux benefits Valve the most since they have invested on Linux Gaming for 10 years now and that movement "conveniently" benefits the gamers too. That's a win-w…

I believe the same but,

> they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits.

part is wrong. From my observation, they are protecting their business through protecting their customers' benefits.

Plus, they're building a moat collectively and from an open source stack. So, given the stack gets enough momentum, having Valve or not as a company won't matter anymore.

It's trying to get the elephant out of the bag, and once it's out, then there's really no way to put it back, because it's being out is better for everybody. Game companies and gamers alike.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#642

Post by atoav »

aperture147 wrote: post #630

I think Valve is not some kind of God who free the human from the hand of Microsoft, they are a private company, they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits. The movement towards Linux benefits Valve the most since they have invested on Linux Gaming for 10 years now and that movement "conveniently" benefits the gamers too. That's a win-w…

The trick is to get your egoistic interests to align with what is good for the world.

Environmentalists also only do what they perceive as doing good (and may as well be objectively good) because not doing so won't jive with their self-image. But that in itself doesn't devalue the thing they did.

If Valve shows anything it is that not being a pushover and trying to align your business interest with your values (and not vice-versa!) can also pay of economically.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#643

Post by breve »

cedws wrote: post #354

The best thing Valve could do is nuke Wayland/X11/Xwayland from orbit. Wayland is a mess that apps still don't support and doesn't work with NVIDIA GPUs. X11 is ancient and screen tears. Xwayland is the worst of both worlds.

> Wayland is a mess that apps still don't support and doesn't work with NVIDIA GPUs

KDE supports Wayland: https://blogs.kde.org/2025/11/26/going-all-in-on-a-wayland-f...

Nvidia has had Wayland support for a while. Here are their latest beta drivers. The first item of the release notes is about Wayland: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/258750/

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#644

Post by debugnik »

zallarak wrote: post #427

This may be a naive question: why ARM and not RISC-V?

RISC-V SoCs are still underpowered for the job, and the software ecosystem hasn't matured compared to ARM, specially for Windows/x86-64 emulation. The focus on RISC-V chips is simply too recent and has lacked enough demand for it. Your question is at least a decade too early.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#645

Post by sushibowl »

aperture147 wrote: post #630

I think Valve is not some kind of God who free the human from the hand of Microsoft, they are a private company, they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits. The movement towards Linux benefits Valve the most since they have invested on Linux Gaming for 10 years now and that movement "conveniently" benefits the gamers too. That's a win-w…

You are absolutely correct. Valve's linux push was driven by developments in the windows platform, specifically around the release of windows 8. Microsoft was pushing a windows store similar to Apple's app store, and Valve was unequivocally stating that they were worried Microsoft would basically lock down the platform and only allow software sales through their own store, destroying their steam business. Gabe said it plainly himself (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377):

> Mr Newell, who worked for Microsoft for 13 years on Windows, said his company had embraced the open-source software Linux as a "hedging strategy" designed to offset some of the damage Windows 8 was likely to do.

> "There's a strong temptation to close the platform," he said, "because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors' access to the platform, and they say, 'That's really exciting.'"

> This is seen by commentators, external to be a reference to the inclusion of a Windows Store in the Microsoft operating system.

Having an open platform is good for consumers, but Valve is primarily looking out for themselves here. Gabe realized that windows could take Apple's IOS route (i.e. https://blog.codinghorror.com/serving-at-the-pleasure-of-the...) and lock down their OS, and everything he's done since has been an effort to protect his company against that existential threat.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#646

Post by stavros »

andoando wrote: post #463
stavros wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the Proton team needs to do work for basically each game to iron out the quirks, no?

https://www.protondb.com/dashboard Of the top 1000 games it seems 77% are playable. 40% of it needing "some tinkering" but I dont know what that means

Hmm, that hasn't been my experience, basically 100% of the games I've tried have worked. Maybe it's because I don't play AAA titles.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#647

Post by Lutger »

energy123 wrote: post #447
TulliusCicero wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're doing things that are simultaneously good for business and good for consumers. That contrasts against the companies doing things that are good for business (at least short term) and bad for consumers.

Sure but it's just being morally lucky. They found themself in a situation where there was temporary and situational alignment, why give them any credit for that? They didn't create that situation. It's like AMD open sourcing FSR or Meta open sourcing Llama. The outcome itself is good, but if they ever become leaders in these verticals, they will pivot to closed source quicker than you can blink, because the reason t…

Why not give them credit for that? There is no moral rule that to be virtuous, it has to be self-sacrificial. If you narrow a commendable course of action to some sort of ascetic vision of martyrdom and self-punishment, then yes everybody and everything is evil.

So they may pivot to closed source when the circumstances will benefit it, or they may actually not do that. They have no shareholders that force them to squeeze the bottom line. The perceived benefits may just be slight and their culture will push them to stay the course on the long term, where other companies will do the reverse. Maybe if their survival is at stake, but wouldn't anyone faced with existential danger do anything to stay alive, including the worst imaginable?

Within certain commercial boundaries that keeps the business profitable, companies can and do make all sorts of decisions based on values and visions that are more than just economical, especially companies not beholden to shareholders that only care about short-term profits. Even the economical decisions aren't purely rational and often done from some kind of cultural bias.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#648

Post by Xss3 »

lukan wrote: post #616
weberer wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Can you define what "reacting" means exactly in a shooter A human can't really, which is why you need to bring in ML. Feed it enough game states of legit players vs known cheaters, and it will be able to find patterns.

And what happens to that pattern, when the cheat engine adjusts? What happens to the enraged players that got wrongly banned for cheating?

If anyone is wrongly banned the system is too sensitive. Let it capture data for a month before banning someone. Ensure the confidence is crazy high.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#649

Post by MobiusHorizons »

Qwertious wrote: post #566
MobiusHorizons wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not one, in the entire global public space? It is genuinely hard to think of one. I treat all companies as adversarial relationships, where I fully expect them to treat me as disposable at least over any time horizon greater than 1-2y. There are certainly some companies that are more likely to find a mutually beneficial equilibrium. I think of Target, IKEA, sometimes Apple. But I don’t trust any of those companies…

Costco is public, according to wikipedia.

That is a good point. I wonder how they have managed not to succumb to the pressure to squeeze their users more.

Re: Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm

#650

Post by aperture147 »

bayindirh wrote: post #641
aperture147 wrote: post #630

I think Valve is not some kind of God who free the human from the hand of Microsoft, they are a private company, they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits. The movement towards Linux benefits Valve the most since they have invested on Linux Gaming for 10 years now and that movement "conveniently" benefits the gamers too. That's a win-w…

I believe the same but, > they are just protecting their business and protecting their business "accidentally" also protecting the customer's benefits. part is wrong. From my observation, they are protecting their business through protecting their customers' benefits. Plus, they're building a moat collectively and from an open source stack. So, given the stack gets enough momentum, having Valve or not as a company wo…

> From my observation, they are protecting their business through protecting their customers' benefits.

Yeah that's what I mean too, that's why I put the "accidentally" in a double-quote.

This sounds like what Red Hat is doing, they created an open-source software, prove the importance of it in the community then sells the support package to enterprise who interested in using it.

Hope that they will not close the door when Microsoft, AWS or Oracle making their own GabeCube and call it SatyaCube, BozosCube or LarryCube

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