←back to thread

Steam Machine

(store.steampowered.com)
1399 points davikr | 2 comments | 12 Nov 25 17:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.4s | source
Show context
hebejebelus ◴[12 Nov 25 18:42 UTC] No.45904087[source]▶
Very interesting! The one killer issue that jumps to mind is anti-cheat. I switched away from gaming on Linux via Proton to gaming on Windows because Battlefield 6's anti-cheat won't work under Proton. Many games are like this, particularly some of the most popular (Rainbow 6 Siege for instance). And BF6 made this decision only recently despite the growing number of Steam Deck players (and other players on linux - in fairness I don't think there would have been that many BF6 players on a handheld).

Edit: I specifically use a gaming-only PC. The hardware is used for nothing else. Hence, discussions of rootkits don't really bother me personally much and on balance I'd really rather see fewer cheaters in my games. I think it would be the same with any of these machines - anything Steam-branded is likely to be a 99% gaming machine and their users will only care that their games work, not about the mechanisms of the anti-cheat software.

replies(8): >>45904175 #>>45904207 #>>45904682 #>>45905512 #>>45905633 #>>45906276 #>>45908020 #>>45908039 #
1. Klaus23 ◴[12 Nov 25 22:51 UTC] No.45908020[source]▶
Perhaps a trusted execution environment based anti-cheat system could be possible.

I think Valve said something about working with anti-cheat developers to find a solution for the Steam Deck, but nothing happened. Perhaps they will do something this time.

With a TEE, you could scan the system or even completely isolate your game, preventing even the OS from manipulating it. As a last resort, you could simply blacklist the machine if cheats are detected.

There would probably still be some cheaters, but the numbers would be so low as to not be a problem.

replies(1): >>45908224 #
2. SchemaLoad ◴[12 Nov 25 23:11 UTC] No.45908224[source]▶
Maybe the user friction would be too much, but I'd be happy for the system to just straight up reboot for games which require anti cheat. So while that game is running, the system is in a verified state. But once you close the game all of your mods and custom drivers can be loaded just fine.