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“I genuinely feel GameNative could replace handheld PCs like the Steam Deck” — Inside Android’s Fastest-Moving Gaming Project, GameNative (my article!) (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by PerfectDark@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
77 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Having spent the bulk of my handheld gaming time with the Steam Deck, it was a bit of a shock last year to discover that PC gaming isn’t just possible on Android phones and retro handhelds, it’s powering on in leaps and bounds.

I’ve seen so many different games running beautifully, from older AAA titles like Tomb Raider and Prey (2017), all the way to more demanding ones like RDR2 and even Cyberpunk 2077 (no surprise that the last one is still an imperfect experience, as things stand...but it is possible!).

GameNative lets you play all manner of PC games on Android from GOG, Epic, and Steam.

I reached out to my friend Utkarsh, who is the lead developer of GameNative to ask if he wanted to share his story and let me interview him.

His background in development and gaming through to how GameNative started and is built, all the way to what the future might bring for his program. This is an interview on what I think might be at least part of the future of handheld gaming, and I hope you find this interesting:

https://gardinerbryant.com/i-genuinely-feel-gamenative-could-replace-handheld-pcs/

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[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 52 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

It probably will, for some people, at least until Valve releases an ARM-powered Deck running full SteamOS.

I think Android is the weak link here. Who wants to use an increasingly locked down operating system?

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 24 points 3 weeks ago

100%. An android device will recieve updates for 7 years in the best case scenario (on average more like 4 years), while a steamdeck is fully supported with mainline Linux, so it'll continue to recieve support for 20 years at a minimum (support for 486 CPU's from the early 90's are only just now being dropped).

[–] absquatulate@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not about who wants it. People are already in posesssion of this device. And a lot more are buying them - the number of windows pc users has been plummeting lately, and it's not in favour of linux but mobile os'es. So if you already posses the device ( walled garden or not ) why not use it as a handheld.

Problem is this whole article reads like an ad:

In a surprisingly short amount of time, this project has gone from a curiosity commented on in social media to the bleeding edge of the entire conversation. They move fast. They don't workshop; they ship. The attitude is less "what if" and more "here."

Gimme a break with all this glazing.

[–] doublah@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago

the number of windows pc users has been plummeting lately, and it's not in favour of linux but mobile os'es

Non-gaming PC/Windows users are going down, but PC gamers are at all time highs and still growing.

[–] detren@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago

Considering that this is partially thanks to Valve’s support of the FEX translation layer (x86 to ARM) I think it’s inevitably the next step after testing the waters with the Steam Frame.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah imagine spending all this time getting it all set up to one day have an update that breaks literally everything. That would suck...

And android seems to not get any better, just more locked down.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The Steam Frame is ARM powered. They already released a beta of Proton 11 which can run on ARM. People already have tested it on ARM handhelds like the Odin2 with Rocknix and can launch the Steam store.

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[–] vogi@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

I feel the same. Seems like you can easily install something like RockNIX on one of those handhelds running Android, but having a big name like Valve releasing an ARM-powered Switch Lite looking handheld would really push things.

Cannot remember when the last time was that I was that excited for the future of gaming :)

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[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Bit of a conflict of interest from the quote, considering the quote in the title is from one of GameNative's developers.

"North Korea will definitely be the most powerful nation in the world, that could replace every other country and government, says Kim Jong-un."

[–] PerfectDark@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I'm just wondering where the 'conflict of interest' is here?

It is a clear, attributable quote and perspective from the interviewee. What conflict?! Who else would the quote be from, when I am interviewing one person?

Edit. Yeah, doesn't seem like you understand what a 'conflict of interest' actually is.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Not so much a conflict, but "my friend says his software is amazing" comes off as something of a fluff piece.

I imagine he would, yep.

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[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Good job on the headline, made me click. I found the full quote interesting:

Do you think GameNative might in some way redefine the way people think about PC gaming on portable devices?

Utkarsh: Yes, I do, and that’s the reason I’m choosing to work on it! I genuinely feel that in the next year or two, GameNative is going to become a complete replacement for handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, and in the medium-long term make expensive, bulky gaming PCs an anachronism.

This seems overly optimistic and there's no mention about Valve actively working on fex as a possible precursor to the Deck2 or Deck3 being an arm powered device. Then there's the problem of heat dissipation in devices that haven't been designed with that type of sustained usage in mind. Will people buy bulkier phones without water and dust resistance in large enough quantities to be sustainable?

I've been excited about PC emulation on my phone and it has been a surprisingly good experience for most non-AAA games (except for the hit on battery life), but it'll never be able to duplicate the immersion that only becomes possible on a large display with the necessary horsepower to bring the game to life. PC gaming isn't going anywhere and neither are dedicated handhelds.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

and in the medium-long term make expensive, bulky gaming PCs an anachronism.

This claim is a ridiculous overreach. There's only so much computing power you can fit in a small space due to heat dissipation. You can't beat thermodynamics. You can get a lot of games to run on lower end systems, but only if you're willing to make a ton of compromises.

In no way are you going to be running something like Cyberpunk at 4k 60fps on a phone within the next 10 years. Thats what the "expensive, bulky gaming PCs" are for.

And I don't get why they're painting a target on the back of high end gaming hardware or even the Steam Deck. There's another target that would be more beneficial to society to take out: consoles, particularly their locked-in ecosystems. Democratize gaming.

[–] ericwdhs@discuss.online 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

I don't think the greater power of larger devices is being questioned. There just happens to be a threshold where a technically inferior but more accessible solution becomes "good enough" for most people that they never consider moving up.

Just look at mobile devices. Of everyone who accesses the internet, 75% do so via smartphone only. As someone who doesn't even like desktops losing ground to laptops, that statistic scares me.

[–] darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

We know there's a growing number of people who use their phone as their primary and only computing device. And the success of the steam deck is proof that a "good enough" experience can attract an audience. It is also likely that Valve is planning for a future where the Steam android app will be capable of installing and playing games locally without the 30% Google tax.

None of that will change the fact that gaming will always push technology forward with the need for faster CPUs and GPUs and that will never be the domain of phones where efficiency is king. There is no reason to worry.

[–] ericwdhs@discuss.online 3 points 3 weeks ago

I'm not worried about the tech going away so much as the market percentage dropping to make enthusiast hardware more niche. Among other things, it makes enshittification in the space harder to fight.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

We know there's a growing number of people who use their phone as their primary and only computing device

There's also some people moving in the other direction, and I wouldn't be surprised if that grows. My parents only had their smartphones for years, but recently had me pick out a laptop for them because trying to use their phones for everything was a headache.

I think one thing to consider is that cost of living has been going up in the US with wages not keeping up. So budgets are getting tighter, and if you can only afford a single device to buy, you're going to buy the phone, even if a PC makes a lot of things significantly easier.

None of that will change the fact that gaming will always push technology forward with the need for faster CPUs and GPUs

Tbh, I think we've reached a point of diminishing returns on video game graphics. Do we really need games to be any more photorealistic and power hungry than they are now?

That being said, I don't think android phones are going to usurp this domain any time soon. Power requirements for 4k 60fps are way too high, and mobile devices simply can't distribute enough heat to handle it unless there's enormous bumps in efficiency. And advancements in chip design have seriously slowed down the past few years

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[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You don't need 4k on a phone though, might make it more doable.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Way to entirely miss my point

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'd prefer Linux over Android in this context 100% of the time

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The Proton 11 beta already supports ARM and people are already playing games via Steam on ARM handhelds with Rocknix. GameNative is going to face an uphill battle. People are going to pick Proton over GameNative if it doesn’t have the same support and development as Valve dedicates to Proton.

[–] Stupendous@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It'll continue being relevant for EGS, GOG, and Amazon games. I'm betting Valve is working on an Android app that makes the experience way smoother out of the box. Keep in mind that there's plenty of games that aren't looking like Ghost of Tsushima. There's been a bunch of CRPG releases in the last decade. ARPG games too that aren't hard to run. Victor Vran. Grim Dawn has an upcoming update

But there's still enough hard to run games that games run through an x86 emulator will not be a real.replacement for the hard to run games. Going to at least need the day to come when devs commonly ship ARM binaries too

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

Gamenative is absolutely sick but Android is also a PITA for handhelds these days. The kernels are always dated, the task management sucks, the UX sucks, and everything has to be ported into an APK with cruddy Android API mappings.

I have Rocknix dual boot on my AYN Thor, and it is so much easier to run native emulators on linux then to run the Android counterparts, which are guaranteed to be missing features or are out of date with upstream releases.

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't see this replacing my Steam Deck, but it might open up some impromptu gaming here and there.

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[–] baines@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

clickbait

[–] PerfectDark@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It is literally a quote from the interviewee

I don't understand how a quote from the article can be click-bait? Because it is a sensational statement? Sure, but he said that. He made that statement. He believes it. FFS.

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[–] vortexal@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I don't know about that. I've tried multiple games with it and none of them are working. I can get them working in Winlator, which GameNative is based on, but not GameNative itself. It's possible that I could be using it wrong even though I'm using the same settings in both apps but I wouldn't know because there's no documentation for either of them.

The best I was able to achieve in GameNative was with a game made in a very old version of Ren'Py. I was able to get in game but I wasn't able to actually play it because mouse inputs aren't working and the controller inputs only work on the main menu. I know that the GameNative's virtual mouse should be working because it works perfectly fine for closing error messages, it's just not working in game for some reason.

It's actually quite a shame that I can't get GameNative working because it does have more options available than Winlator. This means that if I could get it working, then there might be some games that would better in GameNative than Winlator.

[–] PerfectDark@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Have a look at my friend's site:

https://www.emuready.com/

It is a space where community members upload their experiences and ideal settings for the devices and games. I might be biased because he is a friend, but I can also say that objectively it is a wonderful space to double-check how you're approaching things.

Filter your search by your device, and then on the far-right, click on each result's 'eye' to see what the person's recommendations are in there (I do hope this helps!)

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[–] xela@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

I agree with this take, was playing Gravity Circuit via GameNative on my Pixel 9 and my GameSir G8 Galileo. I am portably gaming with OLED and Hall Effect and it felt fantastic. If you primarily play lower spec indie games, its a no-brainer as far as i am concerned.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

Last game I tried to install through GameNative on Retroid Pocket 5 was Granblue Fantasy Versus. It kept crashing on startup. Guess I'll let it cook for a while longer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Is there like a general guideline as to what games would be compatible with which device? For example, I have a pixel 8 pro, but I can't seem to get anything to boot up. How can I tell, by the release year, that a game should be light enough for me to run on my device?

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