ChimeraOS: Instantly turn any PC into a gaming console

https://chimeraos.org/

by kosasbest • 3 years ago

181 95 3 years ago

chimeraos.org

bovem2• 3 years ago

Seems like a good project but this is a deal breaker for me

Nvidia and Intel GPUs are not supported

Any specific reason why that is? Or if it’s in roadmap?

causi• 3 years ago

Title should be changed to "Instantly Turn 12% of PCs into a gaming console" because that's what fraction of the GPU market AMD has.

DoombaBot• 3 years ago

Probably supports just AMD because the focus of this is for mini pcs from companies like Beelink etc that use either mobile AMD cards or on board graphics from an AMD chip. Mini pcs are currently dominated by AMD hardware.

bovem2• 3 years ago

Thanks, that makes sense. Intel is also getting out of NUC market. But there are still lots of NUCs out there that could be used as a light gaming server.

pkulak• 3 years ago

It probably uses SteamOS, which has no need to include Intel drivers, and probably absolutely no desire to include proprietary Nvidia binary blobs.

Nullabillity2• 3 years ago

Intel's dGPUs have a ~0% market share, Nvidia's driver situation is a shitshow.

Dalewyn2• 3 years ago

Intel GPUs dominate the market by far. Every Intel CPU since 2010 has a GPU, with only very specific exceptions.

de6u99er• 3 years ago

I guess it has to do with their lack of open source drivers, and I bet you can install NVidia or Intel drivers by yourself.

RussianCow• 3 years ago

The Intel GPU drivers have been open source for years.

suprjami3• 3 years ago

I've been running ChimeraOS on a NUC and it works fine

anaisbetts• 3 years ago

It is a copy of SteamOS which uses its own Wayland compositor (Gamescope) that is not compatible with anything other than AMD (since it was originally intended to only be used with Steam Deck, there was no reason to make it work anywhere else)

gkhartman• 3 years ago

I would have thought that installation of Nvidia driver packages for Arch would do the trick. I'll admit that I'm unfamiliar with the interaction between GPU drivers and Wayland, so I'm guessing it would just result in an unstable combination?

daveidol• 3 years ago

No screenshots?

james2doyle• 3 years ago

Seems like it is just a build of SteamOS? There is a youtube linker from their Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChimeraOS_Linux): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAFyXYh22M

Edit: Found this post on their Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChimeraOS_Linux/status/15144199120805969...

goober24• 3 years ago

More like, "Is Not Supported" OS

vlark• 3 years ago

"Instantly turn our developers' PCs into gaming consoles" is more like it.

Cool logo, though.

pull_my_finger• 3 years ago

A similar project is Ludo [1] which is part of the libretro family. More for emulation but really a clean UI (it actually has screenshots)

[1] https://ludo.libretro.com/#about

ajot• 3 years ago

Oh, I installed Ludo (the program, not the LibreELEC based LudoOS) on my Debian laptop a couple days ago. I don't have the time, knowledge or patience to fiddle and try to optimize Retroarch. For Android, I use Lemuroid, which has a similar premise of simplicity.

Back on topic, there's also Lakka as a LibreELEC with full Retroarch. I think there are other similar projects around, like EmulationStation.

Pxtl2• 3 years ago

Ugh. I really tried to like Lakka but it was such a mess. I'll never install a non-raspbian OS on a rasppi again.

I like the naked Retroarch UI so much better than emulation station so I thought that part was much better than retropie, but the amount of fiddling I had to do with the OS on a system that really didn't want me to do that ruined it for me.

gochi• 3 years ago

Yet more evidence that XMB is the greatest console UI ever created, and I'm glad more projects are using it in some way.

rangledangle• 3 years ago

I just have my PC in my living room boot Straight to Steam Big Picture Mode. It's great.

Pxtl2• 3 years ago

On windows or what?

bnchrch• 3 years ago

One of the better examples of the extremely talented developer who does not understand customers/new users.

Show us a screenshot or a video before putting an install button in front of us.

crickey• 3 years ago

Why people who are into retrogames dont need to be advertised to

tastyfreeze• 3 years ago

Its not about the games. Its about how much effort it takes to play the games using ChimeraOS. Kinda nice to have an idea what you are in for before you spend some time installing and testing a new OS build.

blkhp19• 3 years ago

Was about to leave a comment saying the exact same thing. I don't understand how someone makes it this far in a project, and just completely drops the ball when showing the work off to the world. You don't even need to naturally be good at marketing - just literally copy what any somewhat-known brand / project does.

yellowapple2• 3 years ago

You don't even need to naturally be good at marketing - just literally copy what any somewhat-known brand / project does.

If I had a nickel for every "somewhat-known brand / project" that (like in this case) fails to include any sort of screenshot or demo on the homepage, I'd be rich enough to buy a social network, run it into the ground, and rename it to some letter of the alphabet.

Point being: good, informative homepages are by far the exception rather than the norm.

all2• 3 years ago

This is one of those cases where the website would benefit from a video or screenshots above the fold. I want to know what it looks like, how the UI flows from thing to thing, etc.

sammorrowdrums• 3 years ago

ChimeraOS was previously called GamerOS and when SteamOS stagnated it was basically an attempt at a new Linux big picture SteamOS with evergreen distro but with versioned upgrades (it was SteamOS but better at the time). It also uses Arch kernel but with a sort of immutable update approach that I’m certain was the inspiration for the current SteamOS.

Very cool project, could do with screenshots and things, and the rename made it more cryptic but it is genuinely excellent and earlier in the project it was a clear lifeline for abandoned (by valve not releasing new versions) SteamOS devices.

suprjami3• 3 years ago

I've run ChimeraOS for a while now. It's such an impressive experience. You really just install it and it works.

I'm using a NUC8 and PS4 controller. The amount of effort Valve have put into the Steam Deck really shows, I guess game developers are encouraged to make the Deck compatibility good, and ChimeraOS takes advantage of that.

als0• 3 years ago

What’s different about it versus ordinary Steam Big Picture?

suprjami3• 3 years ago

ChimeraOS has an immutable root filesystem which does A/B updates, so it's much closer to having the Steam Deck OS on a PC than a regular distro running Steam with Big Picture.

It's also got a web interface (called just Chimera) which lets you install stuff from Flatpak, or add ROMs which it integrates with RetroArch and nice pictures so they appear in the Steam interface as a regular game.

vladxyz2• 3 years ago

Previously known as GamerOS, it's basically arch-based clone of SteamOS 2, which came around between Steam Machines becoming irrelevant, and the Steam Deck showing up.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WkIGUuVLrn8

jccalhoun• 3 years ago

Thanks. I was wondering what it was based on and couldn't tell based on the website.

tekeous• 3 years ago

arch-based clone of SteamOS 2

So SteamOS 3?

vladxyz2• 3 years ago

It definitely made me wonder if SteamOS 3 was a clone of ChimeraOS!

pvorb• 3 years ago

This statement

Instantly turn any PC into a gaming console

doesn’t quite fit the limitations stated on the download page

* AMD Radeon RX 400 series or newer GPU required * Nvidia and Intel GPUs are not supported * hybrid graphics are not supported * virtual machines are not supported

sitzkrieg• 3 years ago

i feel like this is very intentionally buried

Modified30193• 3 years ago

I imagine that not supported doesn’t mean “won’t work”, but rather means “we won’t burn time helping you if it doesn’t work”.

Which is reasonable tbh, nvidia and it’s drivers are such a big stupid pain.

zamadatix• 3 years ago

Nvidia makes sense (still a bit wonky, even with the new open kernel driver) but Intel?

qwerty456127• 3 years ago

Ok, nVidia and it’s drivers - quite quirky, I know. I happen to have an AMD laptop nowadays but most of my life I had Intel (which felt very good although not powerful) and this sounds wild to me it wouldn't be sufficient to play a NES game.

weare1382• 3 years ago

Seems odd too. I'm not sure why it wouldn't support Nvidia cards. The open-source Nouveau drivers for Nvidia cards has been in the mainline kernel for years now. Most Nvidia cards just work out of the box now in Linux.

ZekeSulastin• 3 years ago

You’re not going to want to do much gaming with the nouveau driver vs the proprietary driver, and nouveau’s support for newer nvidia GPUs is limited.

jcastro• 3 years ago

ChimeraOS carried nvidia drivers for years. The issue is that Valve's Gamescope, which is now a requirement for Steam doesn't run well on the nvidia drivers, and old big picture mode got retired.

Apofis• 3 years ago

I think GeForce NOW is better equipped to make that statement.

_cenw2• 3 years ago

*A gaming console with the most restrictive library around because we played our cards wrong and advertised it as running these games and not just mostly any game on steam so some game publishers and developers got really upset they weren't asked.

veave2• 3 years ago

Funny because AMD probably has the lowest share of the three if we include all PCs including office ones (and we should since the website says "any PC")

marcod• 3 years ago

Actually, we have very relevant data in https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

PC VIDEO CARD USAGE BY MFG during FEBRUARY 2022 - JULY 2023
15.93% AMD
74.69% Nvidia

ElectricalUnion2• 3 years ago

Funny because AMD probably has the lowest share of the three if we include all PCs including office ones (and we should since the website says "any PC").

Steam says that users in Linux have a overwhelming majority of AMD and Intel GPUs [1]:

- number 1 GPU is AMD VANGOGH Steam Deck APU with 42.05% by itself;

- top 10 Nvidia GPUs have only 9.54%;

- top 10 "not Steam Deck APU, not Nvidia" GPUs are 26.64% of the market, so almost outnumber them 2.8-to-1;

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/?platform=linux

yakk0• 3 years ago

Tying into game streaming services would be nice. A low end PC can run Geforce Now or Gamepass more easily than some of these games.

rendaw• 3 years ago

Geforce Now arbitrarily restricts their games by platform at the request of the publisher. E.g. you can't play Genshin in a browser, only the Android and Windows native apps.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK• 3 years ago

What about computer with AMD processor and Nvidia card installed? Can it just ignore the Nvidia card?

print_goto_ten• 3 years ago

"Any PC" without Nvidia GPUS that is.

joshstrange2• 3 years ago

This project would benefit greatly from some screenshots or videos on any of the pages linked in the header. Also maybe it makes more sense on mobile but the hardware screen is painful to read on desktop.

It's not at all clear to me what this brings to the table over the default Steam Deck software (I know that's only 1 of many devices it supports). I'm pretty freaking happy with the default OS plus EmuDeck on my Steam Deck. I know there are launchers for Epic/Blizzard/GoG which I'll probably setup eventually but so far I haven't needed or cared about anything from those sources.

I assume this is really for Steam Deck clones or desktop computers.

Here is a video of the UI I found (not endorsing anything, just the first video I found that showed the UI): https://youtu.be/E2NIGPpz_vY?t=19 - It looks very similar to the Steam Deck UI which I find very nice to use.

Zambyte• 3 years ago

It looks very similar to the Steam Deck UI

It is the Steam Deck UI. See the repo description on: https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimeraos

tvb122• 3 years ago

There might be some differences outside of Steam's UI. In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2NIGPpz_vY) it looks like the desktop mode switches to Gnome, whereas I'm pretty sure the Steam Deck uses Plasma. Maybe that's configurable.

nomel• 3 years ago

over the default Steam Deck software

Alternatively, I would claim auto login/boot to Steam's Big Screen is an alternative, with much better hardware support.

tvb122• 3 years ago

I had to watch several videos on youtube to answer this question for myself. The advantages to using ChimeraOS over big picture mode seem to be tied to Valve's gamescope compositor, which gives you access to a nice UI for limiting framerates, applying mangohud, and choosing upscaling settings. ChimeraOS also has compatibility with Steam Deck plugins.

I know nothing about the plugins. You can definitely do all the other things outside of gamescope's UI, but... it actually is a pretty nice compact UI.

thiht• 3 years ago

This project would benefit greatly from some screenshots

I can’t think of any project that wouldn’t benefit from screenshots.

I keep seeing project that seem really cool, but their creators do their absolute best to NOT show what it looks like, or what it does. This is a mystery to me.

joshstrange2• 3 years ago

This is a mystery to me.

It doesn’t surprise me. The skillset to maintain/build/etc this project and the marketing skillset rarely overlap. Personally I hate working on the public-facing aspect of my side business even though I know it’s probably just as important if not more so than the technical aspect. Doesn’t matter how good something is if people don’t know about it.

Open source regularly suffers from this and I’m always very impressed when I see a project with good technical _and_ marketing chops.

rouxz• 3 years ago

Cool, the biggest issue for me when I was trying to do the same thing (turn my beefy PC to a "gaming console") was the ability to turn it on with gamepad. I've spent a lot of time researching it and have not found a reliable solution.

GlumWoodpecker• 3 years ago

As a workaround, with a USB remote controller[0] you can put a PC to sleep and wake it up by pressing the power button. That's what I did with my setup of a mac for game streaming[1]. In my experience, the sleep/wake functionality works on Windows and Linux as well, so it should work on this.

[0] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005766837072.html

[1] https://datalars.com/2023/07/29/using-a-mac-mini-as-a-bedroo...

asynchronous• 3 years ago

To save some investigation, this project might once have been better than the SteamOS natively, but as of now it is no longer the case. It doesn’t do anything particularly well and has a nightmare of a time with Bluetooth support.

rvnx• 3 years ago

Add a Parsec server by default and it'll be perfect so it can be deployed to Google Cloud or other servers :D

ThatPlayer2• 3 years ago

Parsec doesn't support Linux host. The alternative should be Sunshine (host for client Moonlight), but doesn't seem like they wanted to add it: https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimeraos/pull/587

addandsubtract• 3 years ago

Can anyone recommend a good budget mini PC (on par with maybe the Steam Deck) for some casual gaming?

ThatPlayer2• 3 years ago

Hard to beat the Steam Deck if it's available in your country I think. Valve is selling at a cost, or at least with very little margin, since they make up the difference with sales on Steam like other console manufacturers. No other PC manufacturer can really do the same.

iFire• 3 years ago

MIT License:

https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimeraos/blob/master/LICENSE

jerojero• 3 years ago

Although Valve promised to release the steamOS image publicly they still haven't done so officially.

I believe companies like Asus or Lenovo would greatly benefit from putting steamOS on their consoles instead of spending their own developer resources in trying to make windows work. It just doesn't.

I have an Aya neo 2, I put chimeraOS on it and although there's a couple details missing, it generally works very well, it makes the thing usable as opposed to having windows on it.

fbdab103• 3 years ago

What is the value add vs Ubuntu + Steam manually installed?

theodric• 3 years ago

"Includes out-of-the-box support for Epic Games Store and GOG"

Vanilla Ubuntu isn't going to offer you that level of integration.

https://github.com/ChimeraOS/chimeraos/wiki/OS-Comparison

goldtownjac• 3 years ago

I've been running Chimera for a few months now on a all-AMD PC hooked up to my living room TV, and I've been pleased. I had previously set up Windows to launch big picture mode on startup but there was always a delay where I would see the Windows desktop which shattered the whole illusion. Plus, Windows.

Chimera really boots directly into big picture and has worked flawlessly for the use case of playing Steam games. Beyond that, it falls a little flat. I thought that gamepad input for mouse control would be supported in desktop mode but as far as I can tell it's not, at least not out of the box.

There is a nifty phone client you can use to download games from the Epic Store, retro games, etc. to be added to the non-Steam games section in BPM, but I wish you could do it from the desktop. A more or less fully-featured, gamepad-controlled OS would be the holy grail.

somecommit• 3 years ago

For the old folks like me that started on linux installing Mandravia CDROMs from magazines back in 2000, this looks retrospectively so odd, unreal and fantastic

RunningDroid• 3 years ago

The name conflicts with https://chimera-linux.org/

ChimeraOS: Instantly turn any PC into a gaming console

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