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Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

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Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam doesn't enforce DRM. You can usually go to the game files and just click the launcher from the file manager and the game will run without steam getting involved. Sure its not the most officially supported, but they hardly prevent you from doing it.

I think this is incorrect. I believe most Steam releases do require the Steam runtime to be present. Trying to open the game directly will "work", but that's because it's invoking the Steam runtime - just without showing the launcher. Examples: * Dead Cells has Steam DRM: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells * Hollow Knight does not (will run without Steam if you copy just the game files): https://www.pcgamin…

Steam dont require games to have any DRM. Developer might avoid Steamworks altogether and can also make it degrade gracefully: for instance disable online features if Steam API is not available.

This is entirely up to developer to decide how they use Steam.

PS: I am game developer.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#162
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is incorrect. I believe most Steam releases do require the Steam runtime to be present. Trying to open the game directly will "work", but that's because it's invoking the Steam runtime - just without showing the launcher. Examples: * Dead Cells has Steam DRM: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dead_Cells * Hollow Knight does not (will run without Steam if you copy just the game files): https://www.pcgamin…

Steam dont require games to have any DRM. Developer might avoid Steamworks altogether and can also make it degrade gracefully: for instance disable online features if Steam API is not available. This is entirely up to developer to decide how they use Steam. PS: I am game developer.

Right, but OP said Steam "doesn't enforce DRM". Saying they don't require developers to implement it is different than saying they don't enforce it.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it ruins their relationship with Nintendo.

Ah yes, everybody should just bow down to bullies that abuse the legal system.

No one is abusing the legal system. They're using the legal system. The way to fix it is not to try to stop people using the system 'wrong', but to update the system so it's appropriate for modern tech.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, why should Valve not have done this? I know Nintendo likes to bully smaller folks but it's not like Valve is small or that they rely on keeping good terms with Nintendo, right? Edit: I guess I didn't realize Portal was on Switch.

Because Valve wouldn't want you to emulate Steam games as well (which people do, for online stuff). Valve and Nintendo are on the same side of this.

[deleted]

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#165
post #160

Side note, is anyone using one of these as a daily driver computer for development? The specs look decent enough and the price is cheaper than a laptop.

I think it's not very well suited for that due to their root filesystem being immutable by default. You'd need to turn that off and that's not their recommended configuration. But it's not that hard to do.

Their official way to configure the system file is creating a overlay image that contains all necessary change to root file system and load that into system. This way may be more complex for a developer to do, but is much safer to end users. Because you aren't changing anything, you only add. And fxxk up only means you need to unload the newly added image.

It'd be easier to use if it can automatically do it for you though. Something like, enter a special env, install packages, leave and it automatically pop up an image for you would be nice.

I think this is quite similar to docker image layers except it is composable

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#166
post #138
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo has no relationship with Valve or really PC gaming as a whole at all. They are pretty much as hostile as it gets towards any platform that isn't their own, to the point that a planned collaboration with Fortnite fell through because they were simply not willing to allow any of their characters to be visible on other platforms. Valve isn't burning any bridges here because there were no bridges to begin with.

> Nintendo has no relationship with Valve Portal and Portal 2 recently released on the Switch

Only because Lightspeed Studios ported them to their parent company's hardware (Nvidia Shield) and the Switch happens to use almost the same SoC. Valve's relationship with Nintendo here has been incidental.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#167
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's not very well suited for that due to their root filesystem being immutable by default. You'd need to turn that off and that's not their recommended configuration. But it's not that hard to do.

Their official way to configure the system file is creating a overlay image that contains all necessary change to root file system and load that into system. This way may be more complex for a developer to do, but is much safer to end users. Because you aren't changing anything, you only add. And fxxk up only means you need to unload the newly added image. It'd be easier to use if it can automatically do it for you t…

I see. Interesting, but it's still too inflexible if you need something where you can easily install more packages.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, everybody should just bow down to bullies that abuse the legal system.

No one is abusing the legal system. They're using the legal system. The way to fix it is not to try to stop people using the system 'wrong', but to update the system so it's appropriate for modern tech.

While that's strictly true, morality is not the same as the legal system. Using the legal system in ways that other see as immoral does not and should not make friends.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#169
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their official way to configure the system file is creating a overlay image that contains all necessary change to root file system and load that into system. This way may be more complex for a developer to do, but is much safer to end users. Because you aren't changing anything, you only add. And fxxk up only means you need to unload the newly added image. It'd be easier to use if it can automatically do it for you t…

I see. Interesting, but it's still too inflexible if you need something where you can easily install more packages.

I think it's just trade off you need to make if you need to make a system that is safe for random user to use. Most linux distro (except Android) just isn't safe enough for a random user to operate at full system privilege. (And sometimes even advanced user screws up, like kernel panic during install something and unable to return to last known good status)

But this situation may change after they finished dual boot support though. At then, you could probably just boot into another linux distro for serious work instead.

Re: Valve's latest Steam Deck trailer briefly plugs a Nintendo Switch emulator

#170

Emulation aside, the Steam Deck has been compared to the Switch in some capacity or another in almost every single review I have ever seen of it. While I wouldn't think it's had any negative impact on Switch sales, it's a absolute fact that the Deck can emulate a multitude of games at performance parity or better than the Switch itself. The deck is constantly lauded as an emulation powerhouse and the Switch appears f…

ultimately the iwata strategy of 'sell hardware that is underpowered compared to the competition & and bank on 1st party titles & exclusives to stay competitive' was going to create this problem sooner or later, even 10 years ago it was relatively trivial to run games in dolphin that offered parity if not better performance than official nintendo hardware (not to mention far superior netplay with less headaches). unlike the wii or the ds, the switch's central gimmick, 2-in-1 portability is not some niche offshoot but rather the logical path of progression for pretty much the rest of the market and was already a fairly occupied space before either nintendo or valve decided to pursue that direction. if nintendo continues on this path, then nintendo devices will no longer be the best way to experience nintendo games; arguably that has already been the case for some time.
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