Wube Software gave Factorio something players have been asking for 11 years – a full ARM64 Linux port to play anywhere, which is ready for the Steam Frame.
It is already available and shipping on Steam, you just need to currently be in the Experimental Beta updates branch. They’re also doing a standalone ARM64 Linux download direct from their website – you can even link your Steam account up to get access to it. So you can play it across any ARM64 system.
Writing in a wordy technical blog post on the official site they go over how it was fully ported, and Valve sent over two development kits to ensure they could get it done. On the CPU side they showed the Native port ran about 11% faster than running through FEX (the x86 and x86-64 emulator for Arm64 Linux funded by Valve) but they were still very impressed with what FEX could do.
As for how it plays:
“2D games running on the Frame do not have access to VR features, so Factorio largely plays the same as it does on the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch. However, even when in gamepad mode, Factorio will still respond to mouse movements and clicks, which happens to synergize well with the Frame’s laser mouse. I have found it very convenient to toggle the laser mouse when using selection tools or clicking rapidly through GUI elements. And, of course, you can connect your Steam Controller to get a very Steam Deck-esque trackpad experience, or even connect a mouse and keyboard to play traditionally!”
They did have some trouble as the “infrastructure for native ARM64 Linux games” isn’t fully sorted yet it seems, so they did a clever workaround shipping both platform binaries to all players and just using a script to launch the correct one depending on the platform you’re actually playing on.
Factorio is Steam Frame Verified for standalone play.
They also teased that now you can play natively on the Raspberry Pi too, although performance may not be great. And also on Asahi Linux too for MacBooks with the M series processors.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.