- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- games@lemmy.world
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I just finished reading this and wanted to say that I really appreciated the detail and effort put into this. It really reminds me of the stuff I would engross myself in as a teen. Nice work!
The Odin 3 Portal seems like a fantastic device for my needs. I’m planning on emulating locally and streaming AAA and other steam games from my desktop PC using Apollo/Artemis.
I’m wondering if you have any experience with such a setup? My major worry with a device like this is the lack of VRR. Did you experience any screen tearing when using it?
Thats really kind of you to say!
I know for a fact that Russ will cover streaming PC games in his review. He was at a wedding over the weekend and is only just filming his impressions video now, so his full review is still a little ways off. But we’ve chatted about it, he’ll be reviewing that very thing.
I’ve just published my not-quite-a-review, not-quite-an-impressions-piece, but something closer to a good old-fashioned feature article about the AYN Odin 3 Portal, which is a retro handheld designed to emulate old games (but can also emulate PC games very well). I wanted to approach this one a little differently from your typical handheld review.
I interviewed several developers behind the software people are most likely to use on hardware this powerful, including jpolo (ARMSX3), Camille LaVey (Eden), Utkarsh (GameNative) and Json (DroidDeck). Their insights into the Dragonwing Q8, the challenges of modern emulation and where things are heading form a big part of the article, alongside my own testing of everything from PS2 and GameCube to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC gaming.
It’s also a rather long read, much closer to those enormous feature articles gaming websites used to publish years ago. I’ve always loved that sort of writing, and I suspect it’ll appeal to a certain kind of retro gaming enthusiast who enjoys digging into the technology and the people behind it. Or I hope so, anyway. It is a long read.
As for the Portal itself? I think it’s about as close to the perfect larger Android gaming handheld as you can get, provided you can afford it. The OLED is gorgeous, the controls are wonderful, performance is extraordinary, and that infamous high-pitched fan whine from the Odin 3 is completely gone. Not everything runs perfectly, especially some demanding PS3 games, but gaming on this thing has been an absolute pleasure.
Hope you enjoy the read!
@PerfectDark It seems interesting, but I’ll stick to my core belief that modern phone/tablet operating systems are the literal worst possible choices for gaming. But, really, even for normal usage IMO they’re starting to really show their age. They made lots of sense back in 2010 for 1GHz processors that performed about 1/10th as well relative to modern processors of the same speed and 256MiB of RAM to pull ahead of the interfaces that preceded them, but they have not scaled well at all and have become so messy and bloated…
(Yeah, I think mobile devices should use a real OS now.)
Totally - Android is ok for emulation, but it is lacking all the PC-exclusive releases that every gamer has in his steam library. The glory the Steamdeck is that you can simply play what you already own without buying everything again.
If you read the review you’d see they mention x64 emulation through things like GameNative. You can play lots of steam games on android devices now, the major limiting factor is the power of the hardware on android devices and driver support.
@KatherinaReichelt No no, it’s not that. I’ve seen some work to port a sort of WINE or something over to Android and get some Windows titles working for example. But that doesn’t fix the fundamental problems.
Android, iOS, and even Windows Mobile now are all just… wrong for gaming. The systems they use are simply not built for it and their nature makes them not very adaptable. (Like with Linux I can swap out systemd for OpenRC for example, but there is no equivalent of this sort of thing for Android.)
There’s more input latency, more output latency, the coding languages and APIs are inefficient and ridiculously limited and use way too much battery power even for simple 2D pixel art games, etc etc.
Indeed the Steamdeck is much closer to the right balance — because of the OS.
I’m fascinated by running “not typical phone games” on android. Something about up cycling old tech really speaks to me. I’m using an older android phone in one of those gamesir controllers as a makeshift Switch and I think its fantastic. Even a mid range phone from a few years ago will have a high refresh rate OLED screen and there are plenty of frontend apps to make it feel like a real console.
I’m quite sensitive to lag so there’s no bluetooth in my set up, and I cant perceive any of the issues you speak of. In running 3D games (currently playing Chants of Senaar, Twilight Princess recomp) I don’t have any problems with the battery life, which is particularly impressive given the age of the hardware. Looking at Droid Deck videos on high end Snapdragon processors suggest that they’re quite capable.
I have a steam deck and the heft and weight of the device means whenever in pick it up, I just want to put it back down again. The cooling needed for x86 systems is awful for a portable system. I wouldn’t consider a steam deck 2 unless its ARM. I’m really hoping Valve go in that direction following the steam frame.
Lol wut, how did they pick the name AYN? Is it programmed in Objectivist-C?
I think it stands for All You Need