Valve Is All Over Arm: Steamos Launching For Arm Alongside The...

With the launch of the Steam Frame, Valve's new VR headset, SteamOS will be made available for Arm-based systems. This is required to support the new headset, which is using a Snapdragon processor to run games without requiring a tether to a gaming PC. However, it's also a sign that times are changing, as systems running on Arm are receiving much greater support from Valve.

Valve has been largely focused on x86 processors over the years. These chips from AMD and Intel are the dominant player in PC gaming, so it only makes sense as to why. But in recent months, Arm support is seeping into Steam in a variety of ways.

SteamOS will receive Arm support with the launch of the Steam Frame sometime next year. I don't suspect you'll be able to take that ISO file and load it onto any old Arm-based device right away, like a modern mobile phone, and have it just work. It's still not possible to stick SteamOS on any gaming PC and have it just work, but it is improving in that regard. The chip powering the Steam Frame isn't unique to the headset, however. It's the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SM8650), which is found within various flagship phones, such as the Asus ROG Phone 8.

"This is already fully open source, so you could download it and run SteamOS, now that we will be releasing SteamOS for Arm, you could have gaming on any Arm device," Jeremy Selan, an engineer at Valve, says.

"This is the first one. We're very excited about it."

Valve has been working on SteamOS for Arm for a while, as experimental support was spotted for Arm in the SteamOS runtime earlier this year.

That's not the only way that Arm is headed to Steam, however. Many of today's VR games are not developed for SteamVR first off, they're developed for something like Meta's Horizon OS, or to a lesser degree, Android XR. Both use the Arm-native Android operating system. The Steam Frame looks to capitalise on this widespread support with its own Arm chip, by running Android program files called APKs.

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"So we're able to run arm APKs on this device as well," Valve engineer Jeff Leinbaugh says.

"So for partners and developers who have developed applications for other mobile VR, they'll just work on this headset," Selan follows up.

Source: PC Gamer