Microsoft dives into the handheld gaming PC wars with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally
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DAS
https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/sm/2023/12/02/what-is-das/
The Ukranian battlefield is a massive high resolution DAS survey waiting? to happen, the drones laying down the fiber optic cable in my opinion are the nice "two birds with one stone" benefit.
Those fields crisscrossed with fiber optic cables, well they are from a signal analysis standpoint a spiders web in that any disturbance in the microtremor wavefield is highly resolvable in terms of location and nature. Footsteps, a drone clandestinely dropping an an antitank mine, large weapon fire etc...
If you could access fiber optic cables in the vicinity of an artillery target you could determine fairly easily where exactly it fell algorithmically to a high degree of confidence. Fiber optic cables laid down for unrelated infrastructure purposes even.
I am sure I am not the first idiot to realize this shrugs the idea aggressively jumps out at you if you understand the science.
This is ambient seismology not necessarily active though a howitizer would make a mighty fine source impulse.
Damn.
I'd never heard of any of that.
Thanks for letting me know!
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I didn’t think I would use the trackpads much, but now that I have them, I can’t move to a handheld that doesn’t have them. They are just too convenient.
Can't look back since I got my first Steam Controller. Once you get used to them trackpads are way more comfortable (and durable) than joysticks. I'd be happy with a controller with no joysticks too. Much easier to throw in a bag and take for a trip.
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This will probably be the biggest competition the Steam Deck has within the handheld PC space.
Most noteworthy is that windows is finally focusing on providing a decent handheld experience, including booting straight to a controller friendly interface, and reducing background processes for better fps and battery.
Edit: The handheld Xbox UI will.come to all windows PCs, but it's not clear if the reduced performance bloat version will be available. It sounds like only Xbox branded devices may get the full benefit of optimized windows.
It's also the ugliest handheld PC yet (imo), but I can appreciate that they're pushing for comfort over looks.
Embrace, extend, and extinguish
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I don't think there's going to be a bunch of difference with the Z2 over the Z1, and you've gotta remember that they're just 8000/9000 CPUs with Radeon graphics. AMD open sources their drivers too.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]AMD open sources their drivers too.
Ah, right, duh.
Ok so yeah, uh... the Z2 Extreme supposedly is going to have some kind of 'AI' functionality or additional component... god knows what that means...
Theoretically it could be more difficult for open source devs to fully leverage that, even if the drivers are open source...
But yeah, for the rest of it, it probably would not take much time at all given that Bazzite and SteamOS already run on the last generation of the same chips.
EDIT: On second thought: I wouldn't put it past MSFT to go out of their way to invent an entirely new input controller interface for the buttons and thumbsticks and such, that would require open source devs to reverse engineer it a bit to properly interface with it.
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AMD open sources their drivers too.
Ah, right, duh.
Ok so yeah, uh... the Z2 Extreme supposedly is going to have some kind of 'AI' functionality or additional component... god knows what that means...
Theoretically it could be more difficult for open source devs to fully leverage that, even if the drivers are open source...
But yeah, for the rest of it, it probably would not take much time at all given that Bazzite and SteamOS already run on the last generation of the same chips.
EDIT: On second thought: I wouldn't put it past MSFT to go out of their way to invent an entirely new input controller interface for the buttons and thumbsticks and such, that would require open source devs to reverse engineer it a bit to properly interface with it.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]There's two versions of the Z2E, the one that is labelled "AI" has an NPU. More than any LLM crap, those NPUs can be really good for local ML features that increase accessibility for people. As for how well that'll be supported on Linux, I'm not sure.
On the point of* your edit, MSFT have said that it's going to support third-party stores directly in their game interface. I think it's fairly unlikely that they're going to break from their already exisiting Xbox controller input scheme. They already have a monopoly there, even third-party devices like the Legion Go use the Xbox layout and input scheme.
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...and this risk is exactly the reason we got SteamOS, Deck and Proton.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]It is hilarious to see Microsoft put so much effort into proving to bystanders that what Valve did was necessary for the industry.
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This will probably be the biggest competition the Steam Deck has within the handheld PC space.
Most noteworthy is that windows is finally focusing on providing a decent handheld experience, including booting straight to a controller friendly interface, and reducing background processes for better fps and battery.
Edit: The handheld Xbox UI will.come to all windows PCs, but it's not clear if the reduced performance bloat version will be available. It sounds like only Xbox branded devices may get the full benefit of optimized windows.
It's also the ugliest handheld PC yet (imo), but I can appreciate that they're pushing for comfort over looks.
Not sure about diving in... More like dipping their toes.
I think it's great that they're making windows more usable on different types of devices. To be honest though, all of this sounds like Windows 8, especially the bit about limiting background processes. People were pissed about it then, but I guess maybe now they'll like it if it makes gaming better (and really, it probably makes everything better. There are so many background processes on my PC, it's ridiculous).I'd like to see a Microsoft branded handheld. I'm curious if it would be Xbox or Surface branded....
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Not sure about diving in... More like dipping their toes.
I think it's great that they're making windows more usable on different types of devices. To be honest though, all of this sounds like Windows 8, especially the bit about limiting background processes. People were pissed about it then, but I guess maybe now they'll like it if it makes gaming better (and really, it probably makes everything better. There are so many background processes on my PC, it's ridiculous).I'd like to see a Microsoft branded handheld. I'm curious if it would be Xbox or Surface branded....
Supposedly they were working on an inhouse one, and then changed directions to just do software tweaks for other companies hardware instead.
It definitely needs some background process limiting, comparing official windows vs official steamOS on that Lenovo legion Go showed pretty terrible performance impact from running windows.
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Fizz was comparing SteamOS vs Windows market share, which SteamOS/Linux is just 2.69% compared to windows, now with new windows for handhelds there’s a risk that Microsoft could further solidify its monopoly in the PC ecosystem. This development could pose a significant challenge to Valve’s efforts to compete with SteamOS/Linux, potentially stifling its growth in the handheld gaming space.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Before steam deck released linux market share was 0.6% on steam hardware surveys and linux was a toy os for programmer nerds who want a shit os to play with.
Now the narrative has changed and people talk more and more how its a solid daily driver for gamers. Something that was impossible before valve.
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This will probably be the biggest competition the Steam Deck has within the handheld PC space.
Most noteworthy is that windows is finally focusing on providing a decent handheld experience, including booting straight to a controller friendly interface, and reducing background processes for better fps and battery.
Edit: The handheld Xbox UI will.come to all windows PCs, but it's not clear if the reduced performance bloat version will be available. It sounds like only Xbox branded devices may get the full benefit of optimized windows.
It's also the ugliest handheld PC yet (imo), but I can appreciate that they're pushing for comfort over looks.
No touch pad. I guess your limited to controller only game. No rimworld, harder time modding etc.
Not really a competition for me
