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http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/6643/tq7.gif
Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?Let the speculation commence!
If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though - we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.
Friday announcement will be the Source 2 Engine that runs without DirectX.
Plus a game running on it, the obvious guess is Half life 3.
...since the third is obviously going to be something based around input (controller?)Edit: you really think the third and biggest announcement is what input devices it will allow? :D
I'd be fine with a portal game instead too.
Don't kill me pls
though the game itself is built on somewhat old-school technology. Respawn Entertainment's Drew McCoy recently explained how Titanfall makes the most of the nine year old Source Engine, and why he prioritizes performance over cutting-edge effects.
The Source Engine may be the foundation that Titanfall is built upon, but Respawn's engineers have made some liberal changes to the way it works. According to McCoy the overhaul was essential to make the engine fit with a game like Titanfall, which is incredibly different from Valve's titles, computationally speaking. "It's actually a pretty slow engine for showing stuff on screen," he explains. "What we have in a level now would run in single digits on what it was before - if you could even get it to load at all. It's been a huge engineering task." The advantage, of course, is that Source comes with nearly a decade of refined tools and polish.
Don't let the single digits comment scare you, though - Respawn is investing the power of next-gen processing in relatively traditional graphical effects. The performance boost should be clear: no promises of 60 frames-per-second have been made just yet, but McCoy seems hopeful. "We'll see how performance goes," he says. "Framerate is king."
hm... well
I was not only wrong, I was 180° wrong. Shame on me.
Why is Half-Life such a big thing for people, anyway? My only experience of it is ten minutes of HL2 and didn't seem that revolutionary.
Or could they? (http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/28/steam-controller-dev-reactions/)
Consider that they were using primitive prototypes in still somewhat early stages of development and that they had no previous experience with such a controller, versus thousands upon thousands of hours with either mouse+keyboard or console controllers. Do the math.
So what ? I've used laptop touchpads for years and they still are crap. Even the best ones have accuracy problems (not for technical reasons but because you can only do so much with fingers) and, perhaps more importantly, lack the smoothness of a proper mouse with mousepad setting as soon as your hands get even a little bit sweaty.Okay? What do laptop touchpads got to do with this? This is something completely different. If you were to read those dev impressions, they even explicitly state that it's nothing like any touchpad they've ever used.
I've used a trackball mouse for 4 years, I even used it for playing Warband and it worked. But the main advantage of it was not accuracy, it was the ease of not having to move your arm ever plus limitless scrolling with very little downtime when you had to keep moving the pointer in one direction (the whole grabbing the mouse and putting it back somewhere else business takes more time than moving your thumb). The main problem was maintenance. Every now and then (sometimes twice a day) I had to clean the inside because the ball would stop rolling properly. And lack of accuracy second.
Not having analogsticks however....I dunt get why this?
Because analog sticks suck.
I welcome any technological advance in controllers. As long as it is objectively superior.
Then there is the fact that those born and raised with NES/PS1 controls have some difficulties to adapt, like me. I'm sure the younglings that will be born and raised with trackpads/motion control will laugh at us and headshot us with precision in the near future :lol:
Those trackpads could work better than a mo...
no.
If i had to sacrifice a little precision to gain the comforts of gaming, whilst laying in a couch or something... i'd take it :)
Steam Machines - Prototype Details
Hello from the Steam hardware bunker.
Thanks for joining the Steam Universe community group. As we get closer to shipping the prototype Steam Machines and controllers we talked about last week, we're going to be posting info here about what we're up to, and give you some insight into the work we’ve done to get to this point.
As we talked about last week, the Steam Machines available for sale next year will be made by a variety of companies. Some of those companies will be capable of meeting the demands of lots of Steam users very quickly, some will be more specialized and lower volume. The hardware specs of each of those machines will differ, in many cases substantially, from our prototype.
Valve didn't set out to create our own prototype hardware just for the sake of going it alone - we wanted to accomplish some specific design goals that in the past others weren't yet tackling. One of them was to combine high-end power with a living-room-friendly form factor. Another was to help us test living-room scenarios on a box that's as open as possible.
So for our own first prototype Steam Machine ( the one we're shipping to 300 Steam users ), we've chosen to build something special. The prototype machine is a high-end, high-performance box, built out of off-the-shelf PC parts. It is also fully upgradable, allowing any user to swap out the GPU, hard drive, CPU, even the motherboard if you really want to. Apart from the custom enclosure, anyone can go and build exactly the same machine by shopping for components and assembling it themselves. And we expect that at least a few people will do just that. (We'll also share the source CAD files for our enclosure, in case people want to replicate it as well.)
And to be clear, this design is not meant to serve the needs of all of the tens of millions of Steam users. It may, however, be the kind of machine that a significant percentage of Steam users would actually want to purchase - those who want plenty of performance in a high-end living room package. Many others would opt for machines that have been more carefully designed to cost less, or to be tiny, or super quiet, and there will be Steam Machines that fit those descriptions.
Here are the specifications for Valve's 300 prototypes.
The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high
As a hardware platform, the Steam ecosystem will change over time, so any upgrades will be at each user's discretion. In the future we'll talk about how Steam will help customers understand the differences between machines, hardware strengths and weaknesses, and upgrade decisions.
We aren't quite ready to post a picture of our prototype - just because they're not finished enough. Before they ship we'll let you know what the prototype looks like. And we expect people to redesign the machine, too. Both from a technical perspective, deciding on different components, and from an industrial design perspective, changing the enclosure in interesting ways.
So high-powered SteamOS living room machines are nice, and fun to play with, and will make many Steam customers happy. But there are a lot of other Steam customers who already have perfectly great gaming hardware at home in the form of a powerful PC. The prototype we're talking about here is not meant to replace that. Many of those users would like to have a way to bridge the gap into the living room without giving up their existing hardware and without spending lots of money. We think that's a great goal, and we're working on ways to use our in-home streaming technology to accomplish it - we'll talk more about that in the future.
Stay tuned for some closer looks at the Steam Controller.
Are those specs inferior or superior to the upcoming playstation4/xbox1 ?
If this kind of hardware becomes available at console price it will be mayhem in the streets though.
Are those specs inferior or superior to the upcoming playstation4/xbox1 ?
Yes, they will definitely sell 1000+€ hardware for 500€.
Yes, they will definitely sell 1000+€ hardware for 500€.
But if Steam markets Steam boxes at 1000 bucks, will they sell any ?
It's called subsidizing and economy of scale, something Amazon has down to an art form. Given Valve's statement however, they will likely have a range of specifications for various dollar amounts with the low end being in the current console area. An i3 processor, GTX 660, and 16GB RAM can easily come in at ~$500.
Yes, they will definitely sell 1000+€ hardware for 500€.
No, it's called fantasy. The configuration you mention can be sold for ~$500 because that's what it's worth.
You misunderstood the first post. We were talking about the high end boxes being available at console price (hence Kafein's post about "mayhem in the streets").
Also, being available for cheaper than you can buy the parts for is possible, being $600 cheaper is pure fantasy.
but for a very similar price, you will be able to get far superior specifications in your rig.
Yes, but that's not surprising or even new; PC users have had superior hardware than consoles for the same price for many years.
I don't get why the big fuss over this thing. It doesn't have the main advantage of consoles (knowing that everything works out of the box because there's just 1 hardware spec) and it has no advantages over a PC. So, why?
I'm not sure I follow. Does Steambox offer a replacement to mouse+keyboard that doesn't work on a regular PC? Is it not possible to connect a regular PC to a television?What does a console offer that a PC doesn't? A single ecosystem? A terrible control system? If you want to bottom line it like that, that's about it.
What is the difference between a Steambox and a HTPC with the same hardware in it?
What does a console offer that a PC doesn't? A single ecosystem? A terrible control system? If you want to bottom line it like that, that's about it.
What is the difference between a Steambox and a HTPC with the same hardware in it?
Uh, the certainty that games will run on it? A different game pool?
I'm fairly sure that games like HL3, TF3, L4D3 and Portal 3 will be timed SteamOS exclusives.I highly doubt that. They're not going to massively limit the amount of people who can buy those games.
I think it's impressive how Valve managed to convince people that a PC in a box and a rebranded Linux are the future of gaming and can challenge consoles. I knew they were good at marketing, but I never imagined they were this good.
They don't care how many people will buy HL3 at launch, their new platform is much more important for them. Steam was requirement for Half Life 2 and back in the days, Steam was godawful. Ugly, buggy, slow piece of shit client. But players were forced to use it to be able to play Half Life 2.Of course they care about how many people will buy HL3. It's a business. Requiring a program like Steam is also very different from requiring a new OS. More likely than it being a SteamOS exclusive is that SteamOS gets some bonuses, like the whole DX9/DX11 thing back with Vista/Windows 7.
I also believe there's at least 5 million GabeN worshipers who will buy everything Valve makes. The likes of cmp aren't their loyal customers.
"loyal customer" is a much beautiful way of saying "stupid".
They could release Half Life 3 any time they wanted during past 6 years. They haven't. Digital distribution business comes first.Except it's not made yet..?
No, the impressive thing is that it will work.
A different game pool?
Could someone list me all the technical problems that would arise if you wanted to port all Windows games to a new OS ?
Could someone list me all the technical problems that would arise if you wanted to port all Windows games to a new OS ?
That isn't a feature, that's a pox on the gaming world where a game isn't available to all and even when it is, one population of gamer has their game gimped by the horrendous control scheme of the other.
Could someone list me all the technical problems that would arise if you wanted to port all Windows games to a new OS ?
The technical problems are insignificant compared to the real problem: big expense for no gain.
Not having to rely on Microsoft for the future of gaming platforms seems like a huge plus to me. Simply having a viable competitor could result in huge steps forward for pc gaming.
Personally I will look into at least duel booting with Steam OS if its possible
Maybe Valve would profit from it (see Valve vs. Windows Store), but individual game developers wouldn't. They choose Windows because that's where the majority of the potential player base is, not because they are forced by Microsoft. It's not a inconvenient intermediary, it's just a tool to get the job done and they don't have any interest in changing it unless they find one that does it better.
Valve just said that Linux kernel is better suited for their needs, because it's open (allows them to modify it, unlike NT kernel Microsoft uses which is proprietary technology)
Optimizations will be done on API/driver level, not in kernel like many people think.
and because it offers much better gaming performance while recording a video (not sure why but it's a well known fact).
You're an indie dev, most large publishers don't think like that. They prefer Steam because its big marketplace with lots of customers.
So... make up your mind?
Anyone who puts "gaming performance while recording a video" and "kernel" in the same sentence has no idea what he's talking about. The only well known fact is that some of the most popular recording tools for Win (FRAPS above others) have a huge performance impact, but it has nothing to do with the kernel.
That doesn't really contradict what I said. The vast majority of Steam users is on Windows right now.
Read this part "...not sure why..." first. I don't understand why it works better under Linux but it does. Valve said it as well and I've read it in some articles. You can't blame apps for it because most game recording apps for Windows degrade performance in similar way (if settings are the same). On Linux, open source apps give a lot better performance. Somehow, knowing average quality of open source software, I doubt it's because of applications. It has to have something to do with kernel. Do you have better explanation why games under Linux perform better while recording a video?
New ATI/nvidia API's will likely replace direct X and we can ditch microsoft completely.
Your proof is a video of a single game using FRAPS (one of the worst and slowest recorders for Windows). :facepalm:
Also, have you even looked at the video? At the initial helicopter scene the Linux side is super choppy at 100FPS, while the Windows side is smooth at 50. :doublefacepalm:
To be honest, the steam software is still a buggy mess. The checkout process works okay, I guess, but the rest of the interface frequently produces "Cannot display page" or "Unknown error -1", etc. I always assumed it's because of the massive amount of players that are accessing those services, but who knows?
there's nothing to not like about volvo
Except being owned by a China based holding or something. I'm a full hipster an would buy a Saab instead anyway.
Except being owned by a China based holding or something. I'm a full hipster an would buy a Saab instead anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhejiang_Geely_Holding_Group
Note that it's only Volvo Cars, the rest of Volvo appears to be independent.
Valve will help Linux ecosystem a lot, and every Linux distro will improve. Especially Debian based distros like Ubuntu or Mint.
There will be no difference between good distro and SteamOS when it comes to game performance. I advise you to use Ubuntu because it's meant to be used on desktop (or tablet), while SteamOS is targeting TVs. There won't be SteamOS for desktop users, at least not for some time. You'll probably be able to use different DE but that's practically the same as using other distro.
You can use SteamOS on desktop alright but that's the same like using XBMC on your desktop. It's created with big TV in mind, not PC monitor and you'll navigate using controller, not mouse or keyboard.
Again I repeat, everything that SteamOS has (better drivers, improved OpenGL API, kernel tweaks) will be available for Ubuntu/Mint/Archlinux as well. That's how it goes in the world of open source.