Quoting: NoStThe problem is that the whitelist is currently very short (less than 100 titles, I think). That's why it needs to be expanded.

The thing with the whitelist was that Valve themselves took on the official support of running it in Proton; the devs were off the hook entirely, and if they released an update (Steam is primarily a tool to get everyone's game updated, after all) that broke the game in Proton, Valve were left holding the bag. They can't keep doing that indefinitely.

Instead, the Proton github contains compatibility reports for thousands of games. They know, for each game, which versions of Proton work (and they're very bothered by any regressions), and they know which settings are necessary. They'll also know all the specifics of the device: hardware, driver version, kernel version, specific runtime. I think they'll use that to initially populate their list of compatible games. But if a game is going to keep its "compatible" tag then the game devs themselves are going to have to test each update in the specific environment for the handheld before it goes live, and remedy it if it doesn't work. I think Valve are happy to collaborate on that process, and make it as easy as possible for the game devs, but they won't want to do all the work, nor have all the liability.

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Quoting: MohandevirTime wil tell... But this time, I'm getting ready to be in the starting blocks, if Valve hit the "sweet spot".

So this is the sort of target for a "handheld gaming PC." I think that something from Valve could solve a lot of its shortcomings.

I'm sure this device's 2560x1600 display is lovely, but it isn't able to hit that as a render target, pretty much ever. Dropping that to 1080p or 1920×1200 in the same sort of size will help it run at native res more of the time. Gamescope should be able to do a better job of upscaling than a third party using Windows when the device can't render at native res, too, as well as having the ability to run at 30 fps capped, say, without needing to change the game itself.

Xe is better than older AMD integrated graphics, but RDNA 2 is rumoured to be better still. We haven't had a shootout at the very low TDPs yet, though.

LP-DDR5 should have much better bandwidth at lower power draw than the DDR4 used in that device. I suspect that it will still need 16 GB, though, even at 1080p - less seems like too much corner cutting, which would hamper its longevity.

I think that Valve, as a long-term partner of AMD and (hopefully) getting economies of scale, would be able to get a much better price for the components than a crowdfunded company getting them retail from Intel. Valve also don't need to necessarily make a profit on the hardware. They won't want to make a loss, but they aren't relying on profits from the hardware to stay in business. That means that the price to customers of a Valve device should be quite a lot lower.

As I understand it, Windows is free if the screen is small, so the licence price isn't an issue for a handheld. They won't want to use Windows, anyway, though. It caused limitations for that other device. Valve can control the entire running environment of the games as well as the drivers and user interface, which a third party relying on Windows simply can't.

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Quoting: dpanterhowever, since many are shorter than 80, you'll see the last line from the previous update as well sometimes.

The -n 1 that I snuck into the rsstail should just pull the latest entry I think. My little one is poorly and needed a cuddle, so I stopped testing it after that.

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Quoting: dpanterAs you can see, the text probably doesn't fit in a default sized window.

You could pipe the feed through something like fold or par before you put it in the text file (or after you've pulled out just the last line), and then display the multiple lines in conkyMangoHUD.

So something like
rsstail -N -n 1 -i 300 -u https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php > /path/to/file/golrss.txt
and
exec=par 35 < /path/to/file/golrss.txt

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Quoteexec

MangoHud is now the conky of gaming.

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Warning! Rampant speculation ahead!

Nvidia are out of the running for a Steam handheld: they don't have an x86 licence, ARM wouldn't be suitable for what Valve needs, and while Optimus-on-Linux isn't "go stick your head in a pig" like it was for a decade it's still pretty poor.

But they could be getting their ducks in a row for being the cloud side of a Steam Cloud service. Their dGPU performance on Linux is perfectly fine, they already have experience of filling datacentres with gaming machines from Geforce Now and their machine learning rigs, and nvenc is pretty darn good (and already supported by Steam streaming).

Valve-run Nvidia machines streaming games over the Internet could definitely be a thing, provided Nvidia had got their Linux gaming house in order.

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Quoting: BeamboomYeah that is as far as I can tell the one single argument for it. But the question remains: What PC game would someone with a full gaming rig at home (who I would presume is the case for any gamer with a solid Steam library) rather play on the portable? Because that's the real scenario here. What would we prefer to play on the small screen?

My 30-inch monitor is awesome. It's big, clear, and has brilliant colour reproduction. What it isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, is comfortable to curl up with on the sofa, or in bed.

I love my mechanical keyboard and high-precision high-speed mouse. I've been using KB/M for gaming for some 30 years; I am comfortable and familiar with them. They are entirely terrible for racing games, fighting games, or any kind of platformer.

My high precision speakers and 10-inch subwoofer are amazing. For the spectacle and bombast of big explosions and dramatic cutscenes, or loud reggae, they can't be beaten. For the background music in Stardew Valley they are complete overkill.

My computer chair provides perfect support for sitting upright with arms extended in the correct position for hours on end, day after day, without any discomfort or injury. It actively resists any other configuration. Having your feet higher than your head with a controller? Forget about it.

QuoteWould the average gamer invest in another gaming device when they already got a modern smart phone sitting right there?

I'm probably not the average gamer; however, my smartphone has a 4.6“ diagonal and zero buttons. That's exactly what I want from Internet-in-my-pocket, but would be entirely unsuitable for any PC game I might want to play.

The speculated Steam handheld would likely be able to play some 80% of my Steam library without troubling my gaming rig, and would be the superior platform for a solid chunk of that independently of the convenience factor. I'm unlikely to try Stellaris on it, but I'd be willing to give Two Point Hospital a go if the touchscreen implementation is decent.

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Quoting: HoolyWith Thunderbolt coming to AMD boards, I could even imagine them selling a docking station with an AMD GPU in it.
From what I've heard, GPU hot-plugging might work better with Wayland compared to X11.

That's a good solution, actually.

If people are going to be able to plug it into a telly, they're going to want to be able to plug it into a 4K telly. Either they're limited to 1080p gaming with upscaling, or the SoC is a unicorn that can scale performance up to 4K if given sufficient power. Even if the SoC were capable, you'd need to cool those 100-200 W in a chassis that was designed for 15 W.

Having the rendering power coming from the dock itself, with its own entirely separate cooling, sidesteps the problem.

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Oh! One more thing that hasn't been discussed here yet.

If they can square away a Steam Cloud service - like In-Home Streaming, but from Valve's machines - that would strengthen the proposition for a portable machine. Light gaming locally, as a complement to a beefy machine if you already have one, and using Steam's service if you don't, or if you have good bandwidth where the handheld is but not where the beefy machine is.

It's not something I'd use, probably, but I expect it would be very useful to some.

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Quoting: ObsidianBlkhobbiest

A mild nitpick, because this really annoys me whenever I see it. That word would mean that you were "the most hobby." The word you're looking for is "hobbyist" - someone who participates in a hobby.

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