Godot now supports Vulkan foveated rendering on Android, Application SpaceWarp, DirectX 12, and OpenXR render models, and can build a universal OpenXR APK.
If you’re unaware, Godot is a free and open-source alternative to Unity and Unreal Engine. It’s technically controlled by the non-profit Godot Foundation, but all development takes place in the open.
Since last year, Meta has been funding a group of Godot veterans to improve the engine’s support for OpenXR and Quest feature extensions, as well as to build high-quality samples and documentation.
I wonder if Valve is going to fund Godot as well at some point.
Seems like a win for Godot developers if you can easily deploy to the Steam Frame/Steam Machine.
yup. running linux natively will also help getting godot up and running quickly on it. I’m excited!
@domi @cm0002 I would imagine with the frame basically just being ARM linux as long as godot can do an arm+gles or arm+vulkan build it should already be capable. (I know there’s a x86_64 translation layer but ideally you’d just directly compile for ARM)
Steam machine is just a normal linux PC with their specialized UI as a launcher so there should be absolutely no difference from a desktop linux build you can do now.
Yes, I was thinking more of deploying directly to them with a single click like you can do on consoles.
Also, the Frame needs support for the controller inputs, foveated rendering, etc…
These are currently implemented through Meta protocols and I assume Valve will want to add support for them or add their own extensions.
@domi that’s the beauty of it though, it’s NOT a console, it’s a PC (both the frame and steam machine), they interact with the same APIs already in use and you can freely build directly on them, deploy to them over the network, etc, no special protocols needed.(these are not going to be walled garden devices you need to specifically target). So for the frame godot already has OpenXR, which is what SteamVR uses.
That said valve DOES have a helper app to make it easier. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/steamdeck/loadgames
Why not both?
Nothing stops somebody from manually uploading builds just because an automatic deployment tool is available.
Godot can do arm yeah but there will be a slight hiccup in that godot xr opengl requires the multiview extensions that mesa (amdgpu, freedreno) does not currently support. So only vulkan projects will work as of right now. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/10712
Getting a godot steam frame export working should be reasonably straightforward otherwise as it is all just openxr. As it stands though with waydroid you can literally take any android openxr apk that doesn’t use meta specific extensions and it will just run out of the box on frame.
Zink merged support for it a couple months ago:
MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=zink. But yea godot’smobileVulkan renderer will likely be a better choice.Valve have their own in-house engine and in the past they have used unity to make XR stuff like “The Lab”. They’ve never officially done anything at all with godot though.