47 votes

Valve is working on Proton for ARM processors

8 comments

  1. [5]
    delphi
    Link
    If this means Proton for Apple Silicon... well, I don't know what then, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

    If this means Proton for Apple Silicon... well, I don't know what then, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

    19 votes
    1. [3]
      LewsTherinTelescope
      Link Parent
      I don't think they support Intel Macs at the moment, so there'd probably have to be other work on top of the ARM port to support Apple Silicon. Don't know the specifics of what they use besides...

      I don't think they support Intel Macs at the moment, so there'd probably have to be other work on top of the ARM port to support Apple Silicon. Don't know the specifics of what they use besides Wine though so not sure what the roadblocks are.

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        ButteredToast
        Link Parent
        I might be underestimating because I haven't dug into the internals of Proton, but installing WINE from Homebrew and making a few tweaks already gets one pretty close to the Linux/Proton...

        I might be underestimating because I haven't dug into the internals of Proton, but installing WINE from Homebrew and making a few tweaks already gets one pretty close to the Linux/Proton experience. The x86 translation stuff is all neatly handled by Rosetta.

        While Apple has stated that Rosetta will be removed in the next major macOS release, they caveated that with a carveout explicitly for games, which is interesting. It seems like Rosetta will cease to function for general x86 Mac apps but continue to be supported for WINE and similar.

        1 vote
        1. Akir
          Link Parent
          That would be problematic since I use Rosetta 2 for some VMs I use sparingly. Going back to simple emulation would be painful.

          That would be problematic since I use Rosetta 2 for some VMs I use sparingly. Going back to simple emulation would be painful.

          1 vote
    2. Narry
      Link Parent
      I think this might be them aiming for General ARM support, which at this point would include Apple silicon, Nintendo Switches 1&2, Android tablets and phones, as well as several newer Windows...

      I think this might be them aiming for General ARM support, which at this point would include Apple silicon, Nintendo Switches 1&2, Android tablets and phones, as well as several newer Windows devices. ARM has historically been the option that you went for when you need to be sipping power rather than chugging it. Apple has been pushing ARM to the frontier limits for a couple of decades at this point. Since at least 2007 with the iPhone, but I believe that the ARM architecture has been one they’ve had other dealings with over the years (don’t quote me on that, though.)

      2 votes
  2. [3]
    JCAPER
    Link
    There were rumors for a good long while, but it's (basically) confirmed now

    There were rumors for a good long while, but it's (basically) confirmed now

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      Nemoder
      Link Parent
      They announced it back in December and posted a video on how it's being done: https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-breaking-architecture-barriers-running-x86-games-and-apps-on-arm Crazy amount of work from...

      They announced it back in December and posted a video on how it's being done:
      https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-breaking-architecture-barriers-running-x86-games-and-apps-on-arm

      Crazy amount of work from a bunch of different projects glued together to get real performance out of it!

      22 votes
      1. JCAPER
        Link Parent
        Nice, I didn't know about this Will have a watch later today!

        Nice, I didn't know about this

        Will have a watch later today!

        3 votes