Steam Deck

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Valve is working on a version of proton for ARM devices (x.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This would presumably let x86 windows games run on ARM hardware.

This is almost certainly meant for the next Valve VR headset, but ARM has so much better power efficiency than x86 that a future ARM based Deck would be a huge improvement to battery life.

Also see this tweet:

VR games that have already secretly pushed Android ARM builds onto the Steam Store are ran via Waydroid (androidARM to LinuxARM)

VR games that do not have an ARM build on Steam (windows x86) are being translated/emulated via ProtonARM and FEX

Edit: here's gamingonlinux coverage of this info, includes some more information

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[–] Vincente 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

And the second example is Rosetta 2 for gaming on ARM-based Macs. You mentioned that some emulators running x86 games (on ARM) are inefficient.

That's the point: emulation is not the same as translation.

Translation is generally more efficient than emulation and can sometimes even match or exceed the performance of native execution.

[–] Lemzlez 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Apple’s M-chips have dedicated hardware to accelerate rosetta 2 (support for x86 memory ordering), please stop using rosetta2 as a show of what x86 on ARM can do, as it is a vertically integrated piece of software that is not indicative of the current market for anyone outside of apple.

Just take a look at windows on those new qualcomn chips - when they do the translation, the performance is underwhelming to say the least.

Yes, it will improve, but it currently does not exist outside of Apple.

[–] Vincente 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The translation on ARM macs is actually strongly related to Valve because Rosetta 2 and the Game Porting Toolkit are based on the open-source Proton, which was developed by Valve. So, it’s not an Apple-exclusive technology; it’s closely tied to Valve. Valve could also collaborate with AMD or others to develop custom SoCs, similar to what Apple has done. I believe Valve has the ability and ambition to do the same thing, but even better than Apple. Because they have done it once with the Steam Deck.

[–] Lemzlez 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Rosetta and proton are two completely different layers.

Game porting toolkit is indeed also based on wine, but that’s only the conversion of directX to ogpl or vulkan (using metalVK in Apple’s case)

Rosetta is a completely separate harware accelerated (as in, the chips have dedicated hardware for this) translation layer for x86 to ARM

Given the lengths they had to go through to get even this custom APU, I can only imaging the difficulty in procuring a first-gen ARM offering from AMD.

I swear, this is just the “VR is really here, and it’ll replace conventional gaming!” Debate all over again. I’d be surprised if it happens in the next two years. After that? Maybe, if x86 doesn’t catch up more than it already has (which I fully expect it to do).

[–] Vincente 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I never said it would happen in the next two years. I just said that it's a possible path, and apparently, it has no chance of happening in two years. Valve's next step in two years is apparently to update the Steam Deck 2 with AMD x86 chips. A 5- to 10-year period is what I expect.

I won’t talk about this anymore with you. Bye.

And hardware acceleration is not as important as you emphasize. A traditional ARM chip running native ARM and cross-platform games, and some x86/Windows/DirectX games that don’t need hardware acceleration to translate on Linux on ARM is competitive enough in the gaming market. At least it's more ecologically rich than Android games (if you have any doubt, just look at the Nintendo Switch!), and it would function as a PC too.

Some games don’t need hardware acceleration to be translated. Others that do need it can’t be translated, just like some games don’t support SteamOS. Overall, it doesn’t affect the Steam Deck’s success!