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Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

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Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#111

Post by anthk »

navjack27 wrote: post #106
flohofwoe wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck running a >20 year old native Linux game on a modern Linux distro without recompiling. A Proton like layer would also totally make sense on Windows, assuming that support for older Windows APIs is better in Proton than on Windows itself (which isn't a far fetched assumption).

All of this already exists on Windows. They're already drop in DLL replacements that smooth out compatibility with older versions of graphics APIs among other APIs. And old support for old games actually isn't that bad on Windows 11. No one has heard of this game, but I could just boot up the old Japanese PC game Abyss Boat and it kind of just works. If I use a DLL replacement or something like dxwnd or dgvoodoo2 it'…

With a Direct Draw replacement like the one from WineD3D your game/software is not better; the game literally stop beings a Power Point presentation and gets fully playable.

But, by default, you'll get a slideshow in a game that would run screamly fast under a Pentium 3 and a Windows release from its era.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#113

Post by guruprasadah »

> There are also some other tags such as "proton_experimental" and "proton-arm64ec-vanguard"

Could this potentially, have any chance, of being a method/branch of proton able to run the Vanguard anti-cheat, i.e being capable of running Valorant?

It's just a wish, but would be really nice if true.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#114

Post by madeofpalk »

modeless wrote: post #22

It seems pretty clear to me that this is for Valve's long-awaited standalone VR headset, Deckard. What other reason would they have to support Gorilla Tag on ARM? https://x.com/SadlyItsBradley/status/1837210246076588500 Compatibility with your existing Steam library out of the box will be a huge competitive advantage for Deckard over Meta Quest.

This does not seem clear to me. My initial guess would be ARM based Steam Deck (or similar handhelds).

But generally, what is clear to me is that ARM is slowly becoming a lot more viable for general purpose computing. Apple's completely made the shift, and Microsoft seems to be persuing it for laptops at least finally. ARM seems like a great match for handhelds, if it wasn't for the compat issues.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#115

Post by chithanh »

michaelt wrote: post #109
chithanh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After buying Intel, Qualcomm could sink x86 by simply not renewing the cross-licensing agreement with AMD. With Intel's patents on emulating x86 on other CPU architectures, Qualcomm could then ensure that going forward, the only economically viable way of running x86 code is on Snapdragon CPUs. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/intel...

In the early days of 64-bit, Intel put all of their resources into 'itanium' and it was AMD that created 'x86-64' I doubt Intel would back out of the cross-licensing agreement that lets them implement x86-64.

Intel certainly would not.

Qualcomm as the new owner of Intel, trying to extract maximum profit out of their IP, possibly. Think of when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#116

Post by chithanh »

hsjdhdvsk wrote: post #85
chithanh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems pretty clear to me that the main target of this is ARM Chromebooks, at least for now. As these are the only products currently shipping in any relevant numbers where this makes sense.

Arm windows laptops?

You don't need Proton for that, and the article talks about Valve testing proton-arm64.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#117

Post by chithanh »

gpderetta wrote: post #86
chithanh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems pretty clear to me that the main target of this is ARM Chromebooks, at least for now. As these are the only products currently shipping in any relevant numbers where this makes sense.

An ARM based steam deck seems more likely.

But unlike ARM Chromebooks, an ARM Steam Deck does not exist today, and will not exist until at least November 2025 per Valve statements.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-09/new-steam... (archived link w/o paywall: https://archive.md/VWvsW )

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#118

Post by happymellon »

sangnoir wrote: post #77
jillesvangurp wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is about the hardware necessarily. They probably make more money from the Steam store and there are some notable ARM based platforms where you currently can't use Steam and where they are not able to sell games. Macs would be a big juicy target, for example. If they can get emulation working well enough with proton on that, that's a huge market. Lots of people with disposable income on there that c…

iPhones and iPads too. Valve opening a Steam store on iOS devices is the stuff of Apple's nightmares.

Only in Europe.

Please give us 30% of Steam. Tnx.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#119

Post by sph »

pjmlp wrote: post #41
missblit wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam has supported native Linux games for a decade.

It has, yet the focus is all about Proton.

Not Valve's fault that user-space Linux is run by a bunch of unpaid headless chicken with no overarching vision, sense of momentum and direction, while Win32 is a rock-stable API that games are already using.

Until there is a Linus figure that coordinates the userspace and organises a common platform API with long term support for closed-source software, Proton is the only pragmatic choice.

Valve want to get off Windows ASAP, not necessarily waste money chasing windmills driven by silly ideology that native is better.

I love Linux, I have used it for 25 years, and even I accept that native games run WORSE than their Proton counterpart.

Re: Valve is testing ARM64 support for popular games

#120

Post by rxyz »

caseyy wrote: post #10
shmerl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple cared about gamers, they wouldn't have blocked proper Vulkan support. They simply don't care. A major reason to stay away from Apple if you are a gamer.

It’s not the end of the world to develop for macOS and iOS. These platforms are just idiosyncratic and don’t have many serious gamers. Neither smartphones nor Macs have been powerful or ergonomic enough to play current-generation games for decades. So the user base is almost entirely people who don’t play games. For a developer, the juice is not worth the squeeze (and by far!). The platforms are challenging to port f…

> Neither smartphones nor Macs have been powerful or ergonomic enough to play current-generation games for decades. So the user base is almost entirely people who don’t play games.

Current Macs and iOS devices are powerful enough. There's a handful of developers shipping full current-gen games to both platforms.

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