One STEAM to rule them all - Steam Machine and Frame thread

[Barney]

Although I do like my Nintendo games. Kind of irks me a bit that I have no choice with the Switch and have to have a screen that I rarely use (having it docked most of the time). Anyway another story.

SteamOS uses Arch Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop, as in the video. For legal purposes, this is merely coincidental and does not represent any endorsement of anything.

First thing I did was install EmuDeck, which adds emulation of... well all sorts, y'know? All I had to do was supply games. It will be just as simple on the GabeCube, and I'll have pretty much every game from every console up to the xbox like I do on the Deck.

[MattyP]

OK just pondering over bridging the gap between now and when the SteamMachine becomes freely available. I know I could just build something but just want something that just works to go under the TV that provides access to my Steam library via a console like experience.

Have a M4 Mac Mini. Installed Steam and some of my library is compatible however most of it is windows native.

Is there anyway of getting Windows games working well (as in playable at a reasonable frame rate) on the Mac? Ideally don't want to use a VM or things like bootcamp. I was looking at Crossover (cost) and Whisky. However just asking out there if anyone has had any experience with any of these?

TDLR; Is it worth trying to get Windows Steam games running on a Apple silicon based Mac or just waiting for a SteamMachine.

[Deckard]

I was looking at Crossover to get a new twin stick shooter from Steam to work on my M2 Mini Pro -



There is a free trial of Crossover and lots of good tutorials on YT so might have a go later and report back.

[MattyP]

Indeed Sektori was one of the influencers TBH! Along with other things trapped in my Steam library at the moment.

I do have a PS5 though so probably pick Sektori up on that. Really wanted to make any digital purchases going forward through Steam though as I expect the SteamMachine and the Steam ecosystem is where I want to be in future.

[Misfit]

Andrew Tsai does a lot of getting stuff working on Mac videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@Andytizer

Quite a lot will just work if you install Steam through Crossover as Deckard suggests.

I mainly have Crossover for GridRunner++ - It was like it was made for the MacBook trackpad.

[MattyP]

OK think I'm going to have a play with Crossover - free trial right so nothing to lose.

[MattyP]

So downloaded the trial of Crossover. Very impressive!

Still fiddling around with the settings etc but booted up my Steam version of R-Type and all good. Tried Tempest 4K and its not so good. Graphics are glitched and music. However expect it might be doing odd things with Direct 3D perhaps.

Just downloading a few other bits and bobs.

Noticed it £60 for the full version which buys you effectively support for a year. Is this something you need to continuously buy to use the app? Or is it purely for support. So if I don't buy in a years time will it just stop?

The idea is I want to access my PC games on my Mac until I get a SteamMachine. Once I'm on this I will probably just stick with playing games on that.

So on the verge of picking up Sektori for Steam but not sure just yet as effectively it will cost me £60 (crossover) + £12 (for the game). However could get it on PS5 and then wait for Steam sale when I eventually get a SteamMachine if I like it.

Anyhow great product. Very impressed so far! Even picked up my controlled connected to Bluetooth on the Mac with no issues. Although the guide button on the Xbox controller seams to bring up Apple Arcade and not the menu on WIndows Steam big picture mode. Probably a config setting somewhere but wow great bit of work here. Kudos to the Crossover team.

EDIT: Its a support fee. You just stop getting any updates after 12m so it continues to work however it won't get updated. Which is fair enough.

[Misfit]

There are usually codes around for Crossover.

I’m sure Tsai has a cheaper link.

Give it a few days. There will be a Black Friday deal.

Renewals are usually very reduced. Think my last one was £25.

[Misfit]

[MattyP]

So being trying other things in my Windows Steam library all good so far!

I was playing Tempest 2000 earlier via the Atari 50 celebration package. Music and everything spot on solid 60fps. So all good.

This really opens up the Mac as a great little gaming device and not even explored any emulators yet!

Just installing Half Life 2 at the moment... this used to run natively on my old Intel Mac years ago. See how well it runs on this expect it will be 60fps too as its not a very taxing game these days.

[Deckard]

I feel like the runt of the mac litter with my M2 Mini Pro but she is still way fast enough for me !

[MattyP]

I feel like the runt of the mac litter with my M2 Mini Pro but she is still way fast enough for me !

All that counts! Just went a bit over the top earlier in the year in retrospect with the M4 Pro. However it's my go-to computer and will stay there for 4-5 years. Also because it's not a games machine probably longer and I expect Apple will support things for a long while too. So worth digging a bit deeper at the time.

I've been impressed so far great bit of kit. Keep looking at it at times wonder how a thing so small has so much computer power in it.

Better start saving for the SteamMachine now with the world going seemingly AI mad at the moment all component prices seem to be skyrocketing which means it may impact the price of the SM somewhat!

[Misfit]

I feel like the runt of the mac litter with my M2 Mini Pro but she is still way fast enough for me !

Nope, we've got an M1 Air, two M2 Airs, and an M1 Pro MBP. As I don't game on the Mac and I'm not a sensationalist YouTuber running a 100 Chrome tabs, whilst exporting 1000 48 megapixel images, processing a couple of 8K video streams whilst playing Fortnite and watching a 4k movie on Netflix, it copes with everything I need and I can't justify a change.

I did get a 15" M4 Air for a week, but it was just too big.

Maybe when they redesign the MBP I'll take a look.

[MattyP]

There are usually codes around for Crossover.

I’m sure Tsai has a cheaper link.

Give it a few days. There will be a Black Friday deal.

Renewals are usually very reduced. Think my last one was £25.

OK decided to go with Crossover I think. Use the Mac Mini to access my Steam library and Windows games. Go with native Apple Silicon games in Steam where possible. Use the PS5 for any higher end games. Tend to pick up smaller fun games on Steam anyway in the sales etc.

Love the idea of the Steam Machine but I think on par it will perform worse than the PS5 at the moment. So just trying to utilise what I have and from a cost point of view makes more sense. However when it comes to replacing the PS5 at some point the Steam Machine will be back on the cards I think. Probably a Steam Machine Pro or whatever at that point! Also the Frame might be a possibility too to replace PSVR2.

There is the problem of pricing too at the moment with the ongoing AI craze memory prices have skyrocketed. I think this will have a massive impact on the launch price of the Steam Machine.

Exciting times good to see the gaming hardware market get shaken up a bit.

[KlaxonCow]

Probably a Steam Machine Pro or whatever at that point!

Hopefully, with the release of the Steam Machine, we also get the full generic release of SteamOS 3.0, where you can install it on any PC hardware you like.

This is what Valve ultimately intend, as they have talked about PC builders and third parties using SteamOS.

And, via the community, it already exists in the Bazzite distro, hooking up the SteamOS recovery image to a generic Linux kernel that has all the hardware support, so PC builders can already do it.

But the mention of third parties - and they have already done this with SteamOS on that Lenovo handheld, to work with them to deliver a seamless SteamOS experience (which, on the same hardware, is kicking Windows' arse into next week, actually running Windows games better than Windows itself can run them!) - means that it's quite possible that the "Steam Machine Pro" is never a Valve hardware release.

Rather the Steam Machine is the "base model" and the testing ground - where they, as with the Steam Deck, keep rolling out updates and new features all the time to keep perfecting the product - but other manufacturers will start releasing their Steam Machines, with all different specs and prices, onto which SteamOS is tried-and-tested, and sold with the option of SteamOS pre-installed out-of-the-box.