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Valve appears to be working on a set of "compatibility tools," called Steam Play, that would allow at least some Windows-based titles to run on Linux-based SteamOS systems.
Yesterday, Reddit users noticed that Steam's GUI files (as captured by SteamDB's Steam Tracker) include a hidden section with unused text related to the unannounced Steam Play system. According to that text, "Steam Play will automatically install compatibility tools that allow you to play games from your library that were built for other operating systems."
Other unused text in the that GUI file suggests Steam Play will offer official compatibility with "supported tiles" while also letting users test compatibility for "games in your library that have not been verified with a supported compatibility tool." That latter use comes with a warning that "this may not work as expected, and can cause issues with your games, including crashes and breaking save games."
Tools that let users run Windows apps in Linux are nothing new; Wine has existed for decades, after all. But an "official" Steam-based compatibility tool, with the resources and backing of Valve behind it, could have a huge impact on the Linux development space that could reach well beyond games. Assuming it worked for a wide range of titles, the Steam Play system could also help ameliorate one of SteamOS' biggest failings—namely, the relative lack of compatible games when compared to Windows.
With all that said, some caution is warranted before getting too excited about these possibilities. For one, we don't know what specific form Steam Play will take. Valve could simply be preparing a wrapper that lets users run existing emulation tools like Wine and DOSBox on top of SteamOS without actively advancing the state of that emulation directly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday August 16 2018, @07:36PM
I'm not too impressed either, however SteamOS wasn't about providing WINE/compatibility tools. It was about providing a Linux platform for gaming and improving game performance on Linux, so that developers would port games to Linux, as you say.
SteamOS gaming performs significantly worse than Windows, Ars analysis shows [arstechnica.com] (2015)
Since then, it should have gotten easier to support Linux gaming given the existence of Vulkan [wikipedia.org].
More should be done to ensure that Linux gaming is a thing and not a miserably tiny niche. The best thing about SteamOS is that Valve has not cancelled it yet. There's still hope, and the Windows platform is weaker than ever. Android is huge, ChromeOS is decent*, and Fuchsia might take ChromeOS a little further. PS4 is running a FreeBSD fork.
*Yes, I know that the Android and Chromebook platforms are typically underpowered for gaming, but the gap could narrow in some cases and you go where the money is (there are 1-2 billion Android phones). Nintendo Switch has gotten a decent amount of ports despite being less powerful than many PCs and consoles. It also supports Vulkan.
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