In addition to Valve contributing to the open-source Radeon Vulkan driver for enhancing the Linux gaming experience and their AMD-powered Steam Deck, the upcoming Steam Frame VR headset is making use of Mesa's open-source "Turnip" Vulkan driver for Qualcomm Adreno graphics.

Linux consulting firm Igalia who has long seen funded work from Valve wrote a blog post today to outline their recent efforts given last week's Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller announcement. Igalia highlighted the work they have been doing for the Steam Frame around FEX for x86/x86_64 emulation on ARM for the Qualcomm Snapdragon powered VR device. Plus the work done to Turnip for serving as the Vulkan driver on the Steam Frame

top 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 58 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I’m really excited with all this ARM compatibility stuff. Hopefully we will be able to install steam OS on Android devices at some point.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 35 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Is this how we get Linux phones?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    No the drivers arnt available, fuck Qualcomm and ARM.

    Maybe RISC in time?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago*

    Actually, often the are available, but of such low code quality and depending on various out of tree changes in the Linux kernel that it is easier to rewrite them if you want to get them into mainline Linux.

    And RISC-V has more or less the same problem.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    I think Qualcomm drivers are the least of our problems. Getting all the other drivers for 5G, GPS, gyro, accelerometer, compass, WiFi etc is going to be an issue since they're all vendor loaded blobs now.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 26 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    ive always wanted to try VR games but the ps5 vr headset was too locked down to the ps5. Never even wanted the oculus cause of meta's bullshit. Will definitely be getting this.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    100% instant buy, as long as it's under a certain price point. Even if it isn't... I've been holding off on VR for so long, this is gonna be the thing that does it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    VR is an awesome experience if you're into it. When I first tried out my Vive it was mind blowing. Truly something that you can't really get any other way. I'm absolutely getting a Frame on release

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Honestly, I was blown away by beat saber. I almost bought a meta quest, but I hated the required Facebook integration. I won't do it. This will be a million times better

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    A Facebook account isn't needed anymore (even for developer mode) but it makes perfect sense to buy a much more open, flexible, and trustworthy device.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    I've got a Meta Quest 3. It's a great bit of hardware but the Meta ecosystem makes me actively not want to use it, eventhough a portion of my games are streamed via Steam VR.

    So if the Steam Frame is comparable spec wise, I'll happily sell my Quest 3 to fund this purchase.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    For me, it was the biggest announcement from that and probably the reason i might invest in the Steam Frame.

    That way I support Valve (or more like “i agree with that so here is my money) going the way of ARM support for Linux, the same way I bought the Steam Deck to “support” Proton translation layers.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago

    Might get one later 2026 but the Steam Machine will be on release day

  • source
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    i built a new desktop AND preordered a bigscreen beyond 2e this year. i’ve never been so simultaneously excited and upset lmao

  • source
  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Interesting, I thought Vulcan was deprecated for ROCM

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago

    It would've been an instant buy if it had nice color passthrough and oled

  • source
  • 1 comment in c/opensource@programming.dev view that post
    [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    I am also wondering if they will use Zink for desktop OpenGL titles, as otherwise there is probably only OpenGL ES support on that hardware.

  • source