Valve has been secretly funding Fex, an open-source project to bring Windows games to ARM, for almost a decade
In this age of leaks and industry insider speculation I’m very impressed they’ve kept this under wraps for so long
Steam Deck lead reveals Valve is funding ARM compatibility of Windows games “to expand PC gaming” and release “ultraportables” in the future
Submitted 14 hours ago by Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz to steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
Comments
smeg@feddit.uk 13 hours ago
julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 13 hours ago
They have not. I can‘t provide you the link, but it was long speculated that they are working on an ARM device. Also you cannot really hide activity in an open source project. It was just not officially communicated that these changes have been funded by Valve.
artyom@piefed.social 12 hours ago
You cant hide the activity but you can hide the contributors and/or the funding.
smeg@feddit.uk 13 hours ago
Sure it’s been speculated, but if there were obvious signs like commits in the fex repos by valve employees then wouldn’t there have been more than speculation?
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 hours ago
Also you cannot really hide activity in an open source project.
You could, if the person was not known to work for the company.
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
I knew they were finding FEX… But for a decade!? Holy
poVoq@slrpnk.net 12 hours ago
2015 is now a decade ago 🤷
CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 12 hours ago
Stuff like this is the main reason why I only buy from Steam if I can help it. GOG has a noble anti-DRM goal, but Valve is doing a lot more stuff that matters. Besides, I count Steam’s apathy towards their own easily-bypassed DRM as effectively DRM-free at this point, and as far as I understand Steam’s DRM is also voluntary for game devs to use.
abfarid@startrek.website 12 hours ago
GOG does game preservation, which is nice.
CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 11 hours ago
I wish they’d align more at least on the Linux issue. What’s the use of preserving games for an OS that’s not going to last? It seems antithetical to their goals. Meanwhile, Wine and the rest of the Linux emulation components are also doing real work for preserving games by just making their original releases continue to work on modern operating systems through translation layers. My guess is GOG is waiting for gaming on Linux to be “worth it” before devoting their time and effort into it, which is basically just being a fair-weather friend and not actually helping.
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 6 hours ago
Me too. If GOG would support Linux, I would have chosen to buy there too. Valve is actively developing on Linux related stuff and their client and software is supporting Linux. Steams DRM is not anti consumer in a way usually DRM is. It allows us to play offline in example and does not get in our way. Off course DRM free is the best case, but without official Linux support I don’t want to buy from GOG.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
So, when Proton came out, and Windows games Just Worked on Linux, a lot of developers gave up making or maintaining native Linux versions of games, and the way you make games for Linux is make them for Windows and run them in Proton.
Are we now going to make games for Windows x86 and run them in Proton, on ARM? And are we going to get to a point where we start actually making games for the hardware and OS we play them on, or are we just stuck with compatibility lasagna?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
garfield i told you to get off git
poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 hours ago
When devs switch their development PCs to ARM, you will also start seeing ARM native versions. It is the same with Linux and Proton.
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I think there point is that Linux support hasn’t really increased Linux native games. It’s possible it’s even hurt it as they can just develop for one platform - windows.
TeddE@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
The same roadblock has existed for ARM PCs as Linux PC - the mountain of legacy stuff that only runs on x86 Windows. Which is something Steam’s Proton has directly addressed.
Now that they’ve wrapped legacy software in an OS compatibility layer (Wine/Proton) and that is being wrapped in an instruction set compatibility layer (FEX) that mountain of software is ready to roll!
Best part is, valve’s contributions are virtually all being pushed upstream, meaning unrelated projects will all benefit from the work.
2026 - Year of the
LinuxReactOS desktop!spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
I love ReactOS I just want something as stable as XP
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 6 hours ago
A smaller handheld like the DS would be neat. Also can you imagine a Steam Phone? While it would make sense to do so, its a total another beast to develop and maintain a phone based operating system.
Rooster326@programming.dev 2 hours ago
Why?
What is the difference between a phone based operating system, and a Steam deck you jam a Cellular antenna into?
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 2 hours ago
The entire operating system is? I mean its like asking what the difference between Ubuntu and SteamOS is. One is optimized for a specific use case. You do a lot of other stuff with a phone. Even the controls are different from a gaming device or PC. The display is much smaller. Why don’t you think we have more phone based operating systems like Ubuntu for phones?
paraphrand@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
ARM is so hot right now.
Seriously, consumer devices are all slowly moving in that direction. Valve sees where things are going.
TeddE@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Have you considered adding a heatsink? Maybe a fan??
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 hour ago
I saw some dude review a liquid cooled phone the other day. Used a piezo membrane as the pump.
Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I’ve seen ARM64 in action firsthand in the new Macbooks. The energy efficiency especially is off the charts. Since battery life was the Steam Deck’s greatest flaw, chances are an ARM architecture version can squeeze a lot more juice out of the same battery size in the future.
hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
Was is biggest flaw? Have you SEEN the other options out there for handhelds? Everyone craps on SD because it feels underpowered, and it kind of is, but watt for watt you get more performance than machines costing several times its price.
The SD is an absolute beast in its class, battery life being best in class, compared to what everyone else is doing.
Though I agree, for heavy loads, it’s not quite enough for proper mobile use. Even better battery life would be preferred, and ARM can hopefully bring that.
Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Oh I agree completely. There are many “more powerful” devices out there, but very few people actually prefer them if they’ve used a Steam Deck before. And its battery life is fine for what it is, but it would be awesome if it was twice as much.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Valve phone?
fonix232@fedia.io 13 hours ago
You do realise that the same runtime that makes x86 games work on ARM, will also work for... drumroll please... regular software too?
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Uh no.
Not the kinds of things I need to be able to do. There simply isn’t the support.
artyom@piefed.social 12 hours ago
The whole point of FEX is running x86 applications on ARM. Much like WINE, it won’t be limited to games.
Valve phone? Nah. I’ll be surprised if you’re not able to run x86 Windows games using the Steam Android app though. You already can with GameNative and GameHub anyway.
tea@lemmy.today 3 hours ago
I’m completely a novice at understanding this, but is ARM battery efficient because of how it’s executables are compiled or is it battery efficient because of ARM chip architecture? I guess my question is if you run a comparability layer like this will the ARM chips still be as efficient running x86 programs and games?
galaxy_nova@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Arm Steamdeck? Sign me up! Arm on Linux ftw. I also have high hopes for the snapdragon x elite 2 to finally push me off macOS. Tangent on that I saw some reddit thread (yeah yeah reddit) and it mentioned that x elite 2 might support dgpus everyone said “but why though”? Well the answer is so that you can disable it and have killer battery life and then just enable it later for performance. Why wouldn’t everyone want that?
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I’m guessing something about PSP sized because they have their Android Linux emulator project ongoing too
Mwa@thelemmy.club 9 hours ago
I hope they make arm Steam available for all devices and oses.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I’m confused - isn’t the Steam Frame ARM based, and using FEX? The article talks about future devices but doesn’t mention the big new device that will be using FEX in 2026?
Mwa@thelemmy.club 9 hours ago
I wonder why isn’t box86 and box64 used instead
nialv7@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
box86 is younger than FEX i think? maybe it’s just that when they decided to fund FEX box86 didn’t exist yet?
janNatan@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
I think the article is working off the assumptions readers already know that the Steam Frame uses ARM. Basically, it’s gonna be a testing platform for things to come.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
ARMs Race