CodeWeavers CrossOver Can Now Run Steam On Android Remix (wine-reviews.net)

twickline writes: James Ramey, the President of CodeWeavers, has posted a short video showing CrossOver running Steam on Android Remix at this years GDC 2016 (Game Developers Conference), which was recently held in San Francisco. James also posted on his Facebook account, "Our company, CodeWeavers, with the help of Jide Technology was able to demonstrate Steam running on Android. Gamers will be able to play their PC based games on Android devices. It's cutting edge if nothing else."

Comments

"play their PC based games on Android devices"

[Anonymous Coward]

X86 android devices.

If it's stable, MS needs to watch out.

[ITRambo]

If this can be made to be stable and run properly, Microsoft should be looking over their shoulders as Android evolves into a desktop OS and CrossOver allows Steam to play on. With more programs available online Windows won't be needed to the extent that it was in the past, or is in the present.

Re:If it's stable, MS needs to watch out.

[Anonymous Coward]

I disagree. Codeweavers are the main developers behind open source wine and I used their commercial products on my workstation daily. Crossover office has excellent compatibility these days and good launcher integration.

Re:If it's stable, MS needs to watch out.

[ArhcAngel]

Wine Is Not an Emulator!

Re:If it's stable, MS needs to watch out.

[fgouget]

Android devices don't have hard disks, don't have virtual memory, don't have much RAM, don't have have very powerful CPU or GPUs, don't have sophisticated support for input devices or controllers.

Did you miss the part where the article said CodeWeavers got Steam running on Remix OS, a version of Android that can run on regular PCs, which, if you so desire can be cnfigured with hard disks, gigabytes of RAM, top-of-the-line i7 CPUs, GPUs, real keyboards, mice, etc?

Windows applications & games also have dependencies on runtimes like DirectX, .NET, COM / ActiveX controls, proprietary fonts (even Arial is proprietary) etc. so it's not enough to fool the game but also satisfy these dependencies. And many games would use copy protection libraries that require drivers or background processes to function.

Wine provides DirectX, .NET, COM, ActiveX and event lets you install the freely downloadable Arial fonts. In fact CrossOver, which is based on Wine, already runs many of the games you say it cannot run.

But then again, what's to stop Valve just throwing streaming onto their existing Steam app for Android?

The goal of Remix OS is to replace Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on regular PCs by providing users with the Android GUI they are already used to on their smartphone. They cannot do that if buying a second PC with Windows and streaming is their only answer to providing compatibility with legacy applications.

Re:If it's stable, MS needs to watch out.

[DrXym]

Did you miss the part where the article said CodeWeavers got Steam running on Remix OS [jide.com], a version of Android that can run on regular PCs, which, if you so desire can be cnfigured with hard disks, gigabytes of RAM, top-of-the-line i7 CPUs, GPUs, real keyboards, mice, etc?

Great, so if I buy a top of the range computer, I can make it work just like a poor relation of Windows. Awesome. And no VM support. And I expect sound, graphics and input support suck compared to Windows. Remix is better suited as a replacement for ChromeOS, firmware resident OS or a bootable USB key. Indeed, this appears to be exactly their focus at present.

Wine provides DirectX, .NET, COM, ActiveX and event lets you install the freely downloadable Arial fonts. In fact CrossOver, which is based on Wine, already runs many of the games [codeweavers.com] you say it cannot run.

Getting games to run on Wine is completely hit and miss. If you're lucky they work. If you're not (most of the time) they fall over in a heap or suffer serious performance / graphical problems that render them unplayable. And even when software runs on Wine it is usually necessary to install chunks of Microsoft and other's binaries of one sort or another. Front ends like PlaysForSure have to grab pieces from all over the place.

This may explain why Valve conspicuously didn't bother with Wine when implementing Steam for Linux. Instead they support native applications and leave porting up to developers. Undoubtedly many recompile against winelib or are using portable libraries in the first place. But they're native.

The goal of Remix OS is to replace Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on regular PCs by providing users with the Android GUI they are already used to on their smartphone. They cannot do that if buying a second PC with Windows and streaming is their only answer to providing compatibility with legacy applications.

Remix is about bringing Android to the desktop and not about piss poor Windows emulation.

Re:Sooooo?

[xlsior]

"Steam" is just the game manager GUI / DRM protection layer that manages, validates and launches 3rd party games -- It's the games themselves that (may) require DirectX, but that has nothing to do with the Steam portion of the equation.

Re:i.e. 15% of the market

[shutdown -p now]

In case you haven't noticed, actual Office runs on iOS and Android already.

Re:What happened to Steam Machines?

[Stormwatch]

"Steam machines" are just fancy PCs with a customized Debian.

Intel is betting their tablet future on Android

[twickline]

I believe supporting Android is a long term investment strategy, If Intel has their way Android will be the future mobile operating system for Phones, Tablets and Laptops. Their is a interesting read about Intel's future plans and Microsoft isn't in the picture here : http://www.qslearn.com/posts/v... The 15% market share goal was for 2014, just wait a couple years and see what their market share settles out at, I would surmise like the desktop market now in the 90% range. :)