Steam Audio SDK and all included plugins now available under Apache-2.0 license

I am impressed at just how amazingly great Valve is at being a responsible tech company.<p>They eschew DRM for most or all of their games. They have gone out of their way to support Linux gamers with Proton. They used Linux as the base of SteamOS for their Steam Machines and then again with the Steam Deck. Now they&#x27;re open-sourcing their audio SDK. They&#x27;ve even publicly stated that they if they ever go out of business, they will make sure you get to keep all your Steam games[0].<p>I feel a lot better about Steam as a dominant player than I would if pretty much any other company were the dominant player (Tim Sweeney, I&#x27;m looking at your and your anti-Linux diatribes).<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;4sa1Ln6.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;4sa1Ln6.jpg</a> (sourced from <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Games&#x2F;comments&#x2F;18mzcn&#x2F;i_asked_steam_support_what_happens_to_my_games_if&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Games&#x2F;comments&#x2F;18mzcn&#x2F;i_asked_steam...</a>)

Audio is an often overlooked part of game dev. Other than sound effects and music, <i>how</i> that audio plays is important. Spatial audio is a <i>must</i> for FPS games. Less so for The Sims. Most engine devs (myself included) just stuck with 2-chan spatial (as in, the pan L&#x2F;R is the angle to you from your facing direction) with just simpleton software estimation of 3d space. No doppler effect, no reverb, just barely EQ. Kudos to Valve for giving us something other than XAudio and FMOD!

I applaud decisions like this that give developers and tinkerers an easier path to innovate and integrate.<p>I seem to remember they promised the arch build of SteamOS would be made available after the launch of the Steam Deck, but maybe my shoddy memory just made that up. I hope we eventually get an official build that reinvigorates the concept of a desktop Steam Machine, giving us a console-like experience on more powerful hardware than the Steam Deck offers.

Very cool! I hope they add support for Godot Engine soon.