This YouTuber prematurely hacked SteamOS onto a ROG Ally handheld

SteamOS, the super-smooth built-in system that runs on the Steam Deck, is coming to third-party handheld gaming PCs. It’s a dream a number of years within the making, quickly to be fulfilled within the upcoming SteamOS variant of the Legion Go S. However one YouTuber didn’t wish to wait that lengthy… so he shoved the most recent model of SteamOS onto an Asus ROG Ally.

If you happen to haven’t heard, Valve has been working to get SteamOS on the Ally for the higher a part of a 12 months, at the very least in accordance with a consultant, and the most recent 3.7 beta replace explicitly contains at the very least some behind-the-scenes work to organize for different handhelds.

YouTuber The Phawx took that to coronary heart and coaxed a model of the Linux-based working system onto the normally-powered-by-Home windows ROG Ally. And I’m not speaking about Bazzite, by the best way, a preferred SteamOS spinoff that may do that to some extent already. That is unmodified SteamOS code, scorching out of Valve’s open-source oven.

That being the case, there are nonetheless numerous points. It’s technically up and working on the Ally—which makes use of an AMD chip that’s different-but-similar to the Steam Deck’s Ryzen APU—however runs into issues and anomalies arising from its sooner, higher-res display, lack of touchpads, barely completely different management structure, and so on.

The Phawx says that SteamOS acknowledges the Ally’s enter as an “Atari Xbox 360” controller, presumably utilizing some generic driver. The again keys aren’t working fairly proper, ditto for a number of the further management buttons. SteamOS acknowledges the 120Hz refresh price on the display in addition to its VRR functionality, however the TDP setting (which can be pretty much like the Steam Deck) is locked at 15 watts, which suggests it’ll burn by way more battery than it ought to on low-power 2D video games.

However regardless of these issues, the efficiency for many video games is about the place you’d anticipate. Older and lower-power video games work nice, simply hitting 120Hz, although some newer video games like Cyberpunk 2077 are clearly fighting an absence of optimization. The Ally with its extra highly effective Ryzen Z1 Excessive APU appears to have measurably extra energy than the equal Steam Deck, although maybe not with a efficiency delta that you simply may hope for on the identical OS.

Total, it’s a promising preview of how SteamOS goes to carry out on non-Steam Deck units, particularly contemplating that the discharge model for the Legion Go S ought to find yourself being much more polished. Since Valve is working straight with Lenovo right here, I’d anticipate to see even higher outcomes, particularly with the dearer Z1 Excessive model of that handheld. It’s scheduled to go on sale in Could, although we nonetheless don’t have affirmation of when (or if) a SteamOS construct can be obtainable for Asus’ gaming handhelds.