John Carmack shares thoughts on Steambox and AMD's Mantle

News and rumors are still buzzing around Valve's battle for your living room. Developers from all walks of life have shared their thoughts on Valve's flurry of announcements, and now Oculus Rift Chief Technology Officer and id Software co-founder John Carmack has entered the fray, discussing how SteamOS devices might benefit from AMD's new graphics technology.

Mantle is AMD's new low-level graphics API built into the new GCN-based Radeon series as opposed to Direct3D and OpenGL, which are high level, and will allegedly optimize performance in Radeon cards. Some speculate the API would facilitate the process of porting console games to the PC, though that's assuming the PS4 and Xbox One are using Mantle as well. The PS4 and Xbox One will both use AMD hardware, but Carmack doubted the powers that be at Sony or Microsoft would fully utilize the API's potential. Valve however, was a different story.

Porting games to the Steambox could be much simpler if the Mantle API were in play. Consoles live and die by their library of games, and adding an API that's attractive to developers could give the boost Valve needs to nestle in your living room. There are a lot of ifs still floating out there, but Valve's push for the living room should be interesting, if nothing else.

Thanks, Gearnuke .