Valve released the Steam Frame wireless VR headset last week, and now it’s launching a tool to expand its game library.
Image source: Steam
We’re talking about the Lepton software, which allows you to run games from the Android mobile operating system via the Steam client on a device running Linux – for example, Linux-based Steam Frame with SteamOS 3.
In particular, this tool is designed to help port VR games from Android to the Steam platform. Valve notes that other use cases are possible, but they are not a priority during development.
Image source: SteamDB
To play Android games, Lepton creates an isolated container using the Android system image. Each application runs in a separate Android container.
Unlike other similar utilities, Lepton does not require root privileges, executes all processes under one user, disables Android services that are not necessary for running the game, caches system state data to speed up loading, and more.
Image source: Steam
Lepton is developed based on open projects such as Waydroid, Anbox, Halium and Hybris. Materials used to build images from Android are distributed under the GPLv3 license, and the launch tools themselves are licensed under the MIT license.
After months of development, Valve has made Lepton’s source code available to everyone – see: Repository on GitLab. For most Steam users, the company recommends Lepton, which is provided by the Steam client itself.
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