Playtron GameOS Alpha 3 brings the 'GameLAB' tool for game configuration and remote management

Playtron, the company attempting to build a Linux gaming distribution to take on Valve, Microsoft and others have released GameOS Alpha 3 with a bunch of new features. This includes a new fancy open source tool named GameLAB. It was originally called PlaytronOS but they've now settled on calling it GameOS.

As a reminder: the idea of PlayTron's GameOS is to bring a Linux-powered system that runs games from Epic Games Store, GOG.com, Steam and more directly out of the box.

The major changes in Alpha 3 include:

New & Updated Features

• GameLAB
  • A new program for Linux, macOS, and Windows
  • Remotely manage a Playtron device for power users
  • Configure and submit custom launch configurations
  • Configure and submit custom controller input configurations
  • Requires Playtron GameOS Alpha 3 or newer on the remote Playtron device
• Improved Steam support
  • Full Cloud Saves support
  • More reliable game downloads
  • Faster and more reliable steam game launching
  • More reliable offline support for Steam
  • QR code login using the Steam app on Android or iOS
• Touchscreen support

Bug fixes

• Non-Steam Deck touchscreen controls are not completely supported
• Progress bar does not work when updating
• ASUS ROG Ally is not receiving inputs from the touchscreen
• Some Steam games fail to download at 100% progress with error code 57
• Sometimes Playtron GameOS will boot into a black screen when using slow storage media
• Steam Cloud Saves can get corrupted
• Steam Cloud Saves have no conflict resolution

Speaking over email, Luke Short, Director of Linux Engineering at Playtron gave a little more detail about this new GameLAB tool and their plans for it. Luke Short said it "revolves around community submissions" and that it's "similar to Lutris in how you can create custom installation scripts". In the short-term they want to get their fixes put back into protonfixes, so GE-Proton and the like can benefit from it directly. Long-term they want to "make all of our fixes easily accessible to everyone. Possibly with a conversion tool between different providers (protonfixes, Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, Phoenicis, etc.)".

The only device currently planned to ship with it is the weird crypto device SuiPlay0x1, but there's hints that something else may be on the table soon. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

You can learn more and download from their website.