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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

#861
post #838

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Graphics APIs have trended to be lower level, running basically directly on the GPU. I doubt Microsoft will be able to convince game developers to go the other way just to get their fingers inbetween you and your game. Microsoft has been absolute dogshit at releasing newer program APIs for developer to use. Wine doesn't support UWPs/appx just because there's no demand, since no-one uses the Windows Store. You expect…

Valve is the one making most of the work, devs target Windows, business as usual. WinRT now runs on Win32 side as well, that is what new APIs like Windows ML, the abstraction used for all kinds of AI infrastructure now use, just as one example. Microsoft Games Studio will do whatever they need to make shareholders happy, and if Steam gets in the way of XBox handhelds, maybe a change of heart will take place. Who know…

> and if Steam gets in the way of XBox handhelds, maybe a change of heart will take place.

Nay a single consumer will see it that way, but rather see Xbox getting in the way of Steam. An Xbox handheld which you can't run your Steam games on will probably be about as much a failure as the Series S and X, or an equivalent successor, which I can't see any way for Microsoft to turn the tide with, and can't imagine Microsoft not knowing that.

> Who knows, Valve is the one that needs to worry, not Microsoft, they control the technology.

Game devs aren't going to follow Microsoft's every whim and desire, and Microsoft can't rugpull current technologies out from under neither Valve nor game devs.

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

#862

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their absurdly high 30% cut combined with having the only otherwise decent store with real network effect driven market share is a very real criticism

To be fair 30% is the standard. As far as I know, all of the following stores take a 30% cut: * Steam * GOG * Microsoft store * Xbox store * PlayStation store * Nintendo eShop * App store * Play store * Kindle store There's also stuff like Audible where Amazon takes a 75% cut unless you agree to exclusively sell your audiobook through them. And there was a lawsuit over that because it turned out Audible was actually…

The majority (Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintento, App Store, Play Store, and Kindle Store) have a captive market of developers (with varying degrees of enforcement, from end users demanding it (Steam) to it being impossible to use anything else (App Store and the consoles)). This will absolutely put upward pressure on the cut that the market will bear.

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

#863
post #765

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Then youve immediately made the cheater worse than the best players to blend in with them. Mission accomplished, cheater nerfed significantly. You wont even know theyre doing it.

> Then youve immediately made the cheater worse than the best players to blend in with them. You've made them the same as the best players. Otherwise we're banning the best players.

Good! Thats a much better situation than the one we are in. Thrre is a limit to how much damage a good legit player can do to the average player experience. Just the psychological damage a blatant or rage hacker does is immense. Kills your motive to play, makes you question others, etc.

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

#864
post #804
post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A world where cheaters can only play 10% better than humans is a far better world than the one we are in at the moment." My world is pretty fine, as I don't play games on servers, without active admin/mods that kick and ban people who obviously cheat. ML solutions can maybe help here, but I believe they can reliable detect cheats, without banning also lucky or skilled players, once I see it.

Human administration is not scalable.

Why not? As long as there are players, some of them also want to be admins. You maybe mean commercial administration is not scalable for games with a fixed price? Sure, but give the option to the community to manage (rent) servers on their own and they will solve it themself.

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

#865
post #848

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Windows is a stable ABI to write games with, so unlikely.

What's unstable about Linux's ABI?

It is stable too but why go through all the effort to port engines and libraries when you don't have to.

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

#867

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The major reason is they are a private company with good business..." This is unquestionably, undoubtedly incorrect. It is a really low information meme that's racing around the Internet right now. If you want a contemporary counterexample take a look at NASCAR. They're also not publicly traded, they're family owned, yet they are abusive toward drivers, teams and fans, and they're gradually ruining the sport that ma…

It's not that being private guarantees that the company will behave well. But it does make it possible .

public companies are not forced to maximize shareholder value contrary to the popular meme that always gets thrown around.

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

#868
post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3?

Samsung sells phones with their Tizen operating system. Of course you could also buy one of the purism phones, jolla is apparently planning to ship phones too. If you're willing to flash the phone, you can run postmarketos on loads of devices too. I suspect the vast majority of people who are invested enough to want to avoid Android and iOS have the technical knowledge to install postmarketos.

And then your bank app, your government app don't work and you need a 2nd phone. Hence why there's only 2 choices.

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

#869
post #864
post #804

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human administration is not scalable.

Why not? As long as there are players, some of them also want to be admins. You maybe mean commercial administration is not scalable for games with a fixed price? Sure, but give the option to the community to manage (rent) servers on their own and they will solve it themself.

Its not even an option in most titles and the industry as a whole has moved away from such hosting models, partly to ensure players receive a consistent and fair experience. Community servers were rife with admin abuse.

Its okay if you havent played an online game in 20 years mate

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

#870

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My problem with this take is that it takes ARM > x86 as some kind of given, like there is an inherent flaw with the x6-64 ISA that means a chip that provides it can never be competitive with ARM on power consumption. It's a distinction without a difference. x86 is not currently competitive in anything smaller than a laptop. Even in a laptop, the only reason it hasn't eaten the market is Microsoft is uninterested an…

> ARM is making money hand over fist while x86 is getting squeezed Do you have the profit margin data to back that statement up? Everything I've seen suggests that ARM is the lower-margin, less-profitable hardware averaged across all chips produced. Moreso when you count licensing costs against the profits.

Only caring about profit margins is what got Intel to the point where failure at their next die shrink is do or die.

ARM chips are low margins indeed, but there is so much demand that fabs can make them for years and years without stopping. That is how you get massive investments. Low margin but extremely stable and predictable growth.

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