Comment on Why a new Steam Machine when the first ones flopped? Because this time, Valve say, it'll actually have games

circuitfarmer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  how they’re now also running x86 code on ARM at a playable level

  The answer is that they arent…
  At least not most games. It doesnt even have active cooling. The most you will be able to play on device will be phone games basically. But that is not the point, the thing comes with a custom wireless adapter to stream video from your computer to the headset, so primarily the processing will happen on the computer / steam machine.

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  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The answer is that they arent…

    But they are: tomshardware.com/…/hands-on-with-valves-new-steam…

    You have the choice of streaming to Frame or running games directly on the device. If the latter, they’re utilizing FEX as the ARM translation layer.

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    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The most you will be able to play on device will be stuff that would run on a phone.

      Which is why i wrote this. The translation layer and additional requirements for VR will further reduce the selection of playable games. But yes technically you can run x86 programs on it, just not at a “playable level” for 99% of games.

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      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Got it, yeah I misunderstood your comment as meaning there was no translation layer at all.

        For me it’s just something to keep an eye on. I think ARM holds a lot of promise as x86 has started to feel a bit stagnant. Things like FEX could minimally be a good way to ensure backwards compatibility if devs start embracing ARM in any major way, but I suspect it is years out, if it happens at all.

        But if I get a Frame, it would 100% be for the streaming.

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