Comment on Beyond Steam Machine: Why Valve's New ARM Support Shouldn't Be Overlooked
cron@feddit.org 17 hours ago
I’d imagine that once the mobile walled garden ecosystems are fully opened up, we should look for the debut of Android and iOS Steam clients. Let’s see how that pans out in 2026…
That seems a bit too optimistic IMO. While it is possible to run PC games on a phone, a fully functional Steam client would still be quite a surprise.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
What’s running stand-alone games on Frame then if not a fully functional Steam client?
cron@feddit.org 8 hours ago
It is, but my assumption is that ARM-based linux and ARM-based android require a different codebase.
I’m not a dev though, maybe I’m wrong and it’s easier than I thought.
MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
The main difference between arm Linux and arm android is how applications are packaged, (and android really wants you to build Java interfaces) but that’s easy enough to guy around. It takes some development, but doesn’t need to be a “new codebase”. The harder problems are making the ux work with different from factors.
Actually, Linux is a good example of how this works, since you can build Linux for dozens of different CPU architectures (x86, x86_64, arm, risc-v, powerpc, and the list goes on)
There are places in the code where there are bespoke instructions to optimize for a given architecture, but overall, it’s still one massive “codebase”
bless@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
The arm instruction set should be the same. Different processors might have different extensions. The main problem is the drivers. That’s why you can’t just flash any arm image on an arm phone, it has to have the drivers for the components that come with the phone
woelkchen@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-an…
cron@feddit.org 5 hours ago
That approach uses virtual machines. While that is possible (otherwise we wouldn’t see it), it is probably not really optimized for gaming.
Wine / Proton / Box64 (already used for gaming on android) is using translation layers, not a full virtual machine.
notfromhere@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
The difference there is it likely builds on the work they did for the Steam Deck and SteamOS. Writing a full Steam client for iOS or Android would be a huge amount of work independently from that.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-an…