Valve has long been preparing its software stack for the arrival of both the Steam Machine and the upcoming Steam Frame, and the latest update sees the gaming giant add a long list of fixes, QoL improvements, and features to SteamVR as well as changes to the developer back-end in order to prepare fo...
The Meta Quest VR headset runs Android, so Valve has worked on an emulation layer for Android games on Linux, ideally allowing developers to just release current Meta Quest games on their headset.
Its also so that some games and/or parts of games can just run entirely on the Steam Frame Headset.
Basically, ARM (mobile) physical hardware is more compact, less energy intensive, and heat causing, than traditional x86-64.
So, they built the hardware of the headset, the Steam Frame, as… essentially, an extremely overbuilt smartphone, because they wanted you to be able to go cordless, un tethered, with decent battery life, as compared to their last headset, the Index, which has to be corded in to both data and power at all times.
So, there are various rendering and other game processes that just run locally on the Steam Frame, via ARM hardware, where for a chonkier game, the core game processes are running on the Steam Machine, and the two share a highspeed, local, wireless datalink.
To get all that to work, well, linux x86-64 instructions need to be interpretable on ARM, thus, make a new translation layer, FEX.
That this means some APKs in their entirety should now just generally be able to run on a Steam Frame, solo… is essentially a side effect.
Not trying to ‘correct’ you, just trying to add more context.
Its less an emulator, and more a translation layer.
Emulation is when you essentially construct a virtual representation of the target hardware, and map the virtual hardware to real hardware, and then you can run code made for the emulated, target hardware, on the real hardware.
A translation layer does not involve emulating a specific target hardware configuration.
WINE -> Wine Is Not (an) Emulator
Proton is basically… a massive expansion pack, for WINE.
Proton translates Windows x86-64 calls into Linux x86-64 calls.
FEX translates Linux x86-64 calls into Linux ARM calls.
The point is actually to be able to run Linux x86-64 on ARM, not the other way around.
But, as a consequence of developing a comprehensive ARM <-> x86-64 translation layer, that does mean that it will be easier to port APKs, Android libraries, or in some instances just run APKs, on x86-64.
EDIT: Fucking derp.
FEX is an emulator, because it is
mapping to another hardware architecture.
I am so confused, the article acts like it’s allowing native windows games to run on Android via FEX. So this isn’t a “install FEX + steam = steam library now playable (hardware willing) on phone?”
Proton is the windows compatibility layer. Lepton is the android compatibility layer. FEX translates x86 (most desktop computers) applications to run on ARM (most mobile devices).
FEX is to allow running x86 programs on ARM, but they’re only targeting the Steam Frame (SteamOS/Arch Linux) right now.
That VR headset uses a processor similar to phones, but they have not announced anything about moving to using these tools to allow you to play Windows games on Android
There are several moving pieces, so I understand the confusion
Ah, well I feel like even though they’re focused on the frame right now, it’s still way closer than ever to having x86 games run on Android/arm which is awesome.
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No, other way around, Steam Frame runs Linux.
The Meta Quest VR headset runs Android, so Valve has worked on an emulation layer for Android games on Linux, ideally allowing developers to just release current Meta Quest games on their headset.
Its also so that some games and/or parts of games can just run entirely on the Steam Frame Headset.
Basically, ARM (mobile) physical hardware is more compact, less energy intensive, and heat causing, than traditional x86-64.
So, they built the hardware of the headset, the Steam Frame, as… essentially, an extremely overbuilt smartphone, because they wanted you to be able to go cordless, un tethered, with decent battery life, as compared to their last headset, the Index, which has to be corded in to both data and power at all times.
So, there are various rendering and other game processes that just run locally on the Steam Frame, via ARM hardware, where for a chonkier game, the core game processes are running on the Steam Machine, and the two share a highspeed, local, wireless datalink.
To get all that to work, well, linux x86-64 instructions need to be interpretable on ARM, thus, make a new translation layer, FEX.
That this means some APKs in their entirety should now just generally be able to run on a Steam Frame, solo… is essentially a side effect.
Not trying to ‘correct’ you, just trying to add more context.
Thanks, you typed more than I was going to :)
Only note is FEX and the Android compatibility layer were two separate goals Valve put a lot of work into, so I wouldn’t classify it as a side-effect.
One is to allow Windows games to work on the Frame, the other is to allow Android games to work on the Frame
Ok, so this is a Linux emulator for Android that allows games to run on Android?
I would call it Android emulator for Linux.
The point is to be able to install and run an Android APK on SteamOS (which runs Arch Linux)
Its less an emulator, and more a translation layer.Emulation is when you essentially construct a virtual representation of the target hardware, and map the virtual hardware to real hardware, and then you can run code made for the emulated, target hardware, on the real hardware.A translation layer does not involve emulating a specific target hardware configuration.WINE -> Wine Is Not (an) EmulatorProton is basically… a massive expansion pack, for WINE.Proton translates Windows x86-64 calls into Linux x86-64 calls.FEX translates Linux x86-64 calls into Linux ARM calls.The point is actually to be able to run Linux x86-64 on ARM, not the other way around.But, as a consequence of developing a comprehensive ARM <-> x86-64 translation layer, that does mean that it will be easier to port APKs, Android libraries, or in some instances just run APKs, on x86-64.EDIT: Fucking derp.
FEX is an emulator, because it is mapping to another hardware architecture.
https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX
I am so confused, the article acts like it’s allowing native windows games to run on Android via FEX. So this isn’t a “install FEX + steam = steam library now playable (hardware willing) on phone?”
This image seems to explain it.
Proton is the windows compatibility layer. Lepton is the android compatibility layer. FEX translates x86 (most desktop computers) applications to run on ARM (most mobile devices).
FEX is to allow running x86 programs on ARM, but they’re only targeting the Steam Frame (SteamOS/Arch Linux) right now.
That VR headset uses a processor similar to phones, but they have not announced anything about moving to using these tools to allow you to play Windows games on Android
There are several moving pieces, so I understand the confusion
Ah, well I feel like even though they’re focused on the frame right now, it’s still way closer than ever to having x86 games run on Android/arm which is awesome.
Thanks for the explanation
deleted by creator
Thanks for that, I was proper confused lol