Developer Loads Steam On a $100 ARM Single Board Computer

“There isn’t any scarcity of movies exhibiting Steam operating on costly ARM single-board computer systems with discrete GPUs,” writes Slashdot reader VennStone. “So I assumed it might be worthwhile to make a information for doing it on (comparatively) cheap RK3588-powered single-board computer systems, utilizing Box86/64 and Armbian.”

The guides I got here throughout had been outdated, had a bunch of additional steps thrown in, or had been outright incorrect… Up first, we have to add the Box86 and Box64 ARM repositories [along with dependencies, ARMHF architecture, and the Mesa graphics driver]…
The information closes with a multi-line script and recommendation to “Simply shut your eyes and run this. It isn’t fairly, however it can obtain the Steam Debian bundle, extract the wanted bits, and arrange a launch script.” (After which the ultimate step is sudo reboot now.)

“At this level, all it’s important to do is open a terminal, kind ‘steam’, and faucet Enter. You will have about 5 minutes to attend… Take a look at the video to see how among the examined video games carry out.”

At 720p, efficiency is all over, however the video games I examined sometimes managed to remain above 30 FPS. That is higher than I used to be anticipating from a four-year-old SOC emulating x86 titles below ARM.

Is that this a sensible method to play your Steam video games? Nope, not even slightly bit. For now, that is merely an train in ludicrous neatness. Issues would possibly get a wee bit higher, contemplating Collabora is engaged on upstream assist for RK3588 and Valve is as much as one thing ARM-related, however ya know, “Valve Time”…
“You is perhaps tempted to allow Steam Play to your Home windows video games, however do not waste your time. I imply, you may attempt, nevertheless it ain’t gonna work.”