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Valve has been quietly working on integrating the FEX x86 emulator into Proton for a while, and it's official now. https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/gam

Valve has been quietly working on integrating the FEX x86 emulator into Proton for a while, and it's official now. https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/gaming-headsets/hands-on-with-valves-new-steam-frame-headset-arm-powered-mixed-mode-device-uses-new-fex-translation-layer-for-traditional-x86-games https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/gaming-headsets/han...

teroshan 1y ago
Valve deciding to support Arm-based gaming is HUGE news
Yokolos 1y ago
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1493 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1493 This is fun, just found this issue from 2018 which was closed with this comment: > Hello @setsunati, this is not a realistic objective for Proton. As @rkfg, mentions wine for ARM does not magically make x86 based games work on ARM cpus. > Even if Steam were brought to ARM, and an x86 emulation layer was run underneath wine, the amount of games that could run fast and without hitting video driver quirks is small enough not to entertain this idea any time in the near future. It's mentioned in this issue https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8136 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8136 which was closed Oct 2024 with this comment by kisak-valve: > Hello @Theleafir1, similar to #1493, this is not a realistic objective for Proton any time in the near future.
- baq 1y ago
  Finally some clarification on what valve time actually is.
  - mosselman 1y ago
    What do you mean? Could you share your insight?
    - wetpaws 1y ago
      [dead]
    - yvdriess 1y ago
      https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
    - dmonitor 1y ago
      it's running joke that Valve will announce something as "coming soon" only to release months or years later https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
      - AlienRobot 1y ago
        This kind of thing is what makes me trust Valve.
      - firen777 1y ago
        >"Coming Soon" (January 10, 2017) | December 20, 2024 | 7th Issue of Team Fortress Comics: The Days Have Worn Away Out of all the IPs Valve owns, somehow it's TF2 that got a story conclusion and it couldn't have been more perfect.
      - amarant 1y ago
        Did someone say half life 3?
        Andrex 1y ago
        Every time someone says "Half-Life 3" it's delayed another day from announcement. That's why everyone right now is talking about this "HLX" thing...
radialstub 1y ago
I believe this work is a continuation of the work the asahi linux people did to get games working on M-series macs. It seems Alyssa Rosenzweig works at valve as a contractor. Super cool work. Some seriously talented folks.
- LeonM 1y ago
  Alyssa works for Intel now, so I doubt she'll be doing much contract work for Valve anymore...
  - embedding-shape 1y ago
    What a jump, I'd be curious to hear first why anyone would prefer Intel above pretty much anything else, but also secondly how the actual experience difference between the two after working at both, must be a very strong contrast between them.
    - KerrAvon 1y ago
      usually a combination of money/benefits/locale is the answer to this question
    - bigyabai 1y ago
      Would it shock you to hear that many/most engineers don't pick an employer based on brand reputation?
      - collingreen 1y ago
        Would it shock you to hear that famous engineers with their own personal brand power have different opportunities and motivations than many/most engineers?
        vasco 1y ago
        Their point is even made stronger by your comment. Engineers of this type don't experience megacorps like regular engineers. They usually have a non-standard setup and more leeway and less bureaucracy overhead. Which means brand isn't the biggest thing, the specific projects and end user impact are.
pdpi 1y ago
Have to wonder if there is a world where Proton comes to macOS.
- jsheard 1y ago
  Pretty unlikely as long as Apple refuses to support Vulkan. Even if they did, the whole Proton project is about Valve controlling their own destiny rather than being chained to someone else's platform, and Apple is just another Microsoft in that regard.
  - pdpi 1y ago
    True, forgot about that. That said, Apple does have D3DMetal. A man can dream that they eventually opensource that.
  - GeekyBear 1y ago
    > Pretty unlikely as long as Apple refuses to support Vulkan. You would only translate into Vulcan when running on an OS that uses Vulcan as the native graphics API. On a Mac, Wine translates directly into Metal.
    - jsheard 1y ago
      Valve could implement a separate Metal backend for Proton, what I'm saying is they probably wouldn't want to spend their resources on that.
      - samtheprogram 1y ago
        That's because D3DMetal already exists. Games run like they did on Proton ~4-5 years ago, some games better. I mostly no longer boot my Linux machine anymore to play games. The anticheat story is probably not as good but I don't play any AAA games, so I wouldn't know.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
derefr 1y ago
There was also a parallel effort to this end, targeting Android rather than plain Linux, resulting in an app called https://winlator.org/ https://winlator.org/ — which also works quite well at this point. (See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP0yUqcyY18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP0yUqcyY18)
- pippy360 1y ago
  That was a very higher quality YT video. It's clearly written by someone who knows when they're talking about even though it's mostly non-technical
- throawayonthe 1y ago
  nowadays FEX works better than box86 in my experience, on 'desktop' linux at least
Bombthecat 1y ago
Damn valve is cooking.

teroshan 1y ago

Valve deciding to support Arm-based gaming is HUGE news

Yokolos 1y ago

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1493 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1493 This is fun, just found this issue from 2018 which was closed with this comment: > Hello @setsunati, this is not a realistic objective for Proton. As @rkfg, mentions wine for ARM does not magically make x86 based games work on ARM cpus. > Even if Steam were brought to ARM, and an x86 emulation layer was run underneath wine, the amount of games that could run fast and without hitting video driver quirks is small enough not to entertain this idea any time in the near future. It's mentioned in this issue https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8136 https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/8136 which was closed Oct 2024 with this comment by kisak-valve: > Hello @Theleafir1, similar to #1493, this is not a realistic objective for Proton any time in the near future.

baq 1y ago
Finally some clarification on what valve time actually is.
- mosselman 1y ago
  What do you mean? Could you share your insight?
  - wetpaws 1y ago
    [dead]
  - yvdriess 1y ago
    https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
  - dmonitor 1y ago
    it's running joke that Valve will announce something as "coming soon" only to release months or years later https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
    - AlienRobot 1y ago
      This kind of thing is what makes me trust Valve.
    - firen777 1y ago
      >"Coming Soon" (January 10, 2017) | December 20, 2024 | 7th Issue of Team Fortress Comics: The Days Have Worn Away Out of all the IPs Valve owns, somehow it's TF2 that got a story conclusion and it couldn't have been more perfect.
    - amarant 1y ago
      Did someone say half life 3?
      - Andrex 1y ago
        Every time someone says "Half-Life 3" it's delayed another day from announcement. That's why everyone right now is talking about this "HLX" thing...

radialstub 1y ago

I believe this work is a continuation of the work the asahi linux people did to get games working on M-series macs. It seems Alyssa Rosenzweig works at valve as a contractor. Super cool work. Some seriously talented folks.

LeonM 1y ago
Alyssa works for Intel now, so I doubt she'll be doing much contract work for Valve anymore...
- embedding-shape 1y ago
  What a jump, I'd be curious to hear first why anyone would prefer Intel above pretty much anything else, but also secondly how the actual experience difference between the two after working at both, must be a very strong contrast between them.
  - KerrAvon 1y ago
    usually a combination of money/benefits/locale is the answer to this question
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    Would it shock you to hear that many/most engineers don't pick an employer based on brand reputation?
    - collingreen 1y ago
      Would it shock you to hear that famous engineers with their own personal brand power have different opportunities and motivations than many/most engineers?
      - vasco 1y ago
        Their point is even made stronger by your comment. Engineers of this type don't experience megacorps like regular engineers. They usually have a non-standard setup and more leeway and less bureaucracy overhead. Which means brand isn't the biggest thing, the specific projects and end user impact are.

pdpi 1y ago

Have to wonder if there is a world where Proton comes to macOS.

jsheard 1y ago
Pretty unlikely as long as Apple refuses to support Vulkan. Even if they did, the whole Proton project is about Valve controlling their own destiny rather than being chained to someone else's platform, and Apple is just another Microsoft in that regard.
- pdpi 1y ago
  True, forgot about that. That said, Apple does have D3DMetal. A man can dream that they eventually opensource that.
- GeekyBear 1y ago
  > Pretty unlikely as long as Apple refuses to support Vulkan. You would only translate into Vulcan when running on an OS that uses Vulcan as the native graphics API. On a Mac, Wine translates directly into Metal.
  - jsheard 1y ago
    Valve could implement a separate Metal backend for Proton, what I'm saying is they probably wouldn't want to spend their resources on that.
    - samtheprogram 1y ago
      That's because D3DMetal already exists. Games run like they did on Proton ~4-5 years ago, some games better. I mostly no longer boot my Linux machine anymore to play games. The anticheat story is probably not as good but I don't play any AAA games, so I wouldn't know.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]

derefr 1y ago

There was also a parallel effort to this end, targeting Android rather than plain Linux, resulting in an app called https://winlator.org/ https://winlator.org/ — which also works quite well at this point. (See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP0yUqcyY18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP0yUqcyY18)

pippy360 1y ago
That was a very higher quality YT video. It's clearly written by someone who knows when they're talking about even though it's mostly non-technical
throawayonthe 1y ago
nowadays FEX works better than box86 in my experience, on 'desktop' linux at least

Bombthecat 1y ago

Damn valve is cooking.