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× A place for boardgame traitors.

The SteamOS/Steam Machine thread

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25 Sep 2013 19:15 #161850 by Gary Sax
Agreed, it will be much better than PC gaming.

But I still think the fact they can play some and not other games is STILL overestimating the market's tolerance for technical details. I have an almost 0 belief in the appetite of average folks to think about "can I run this?" even if it will straight out tell you if it can or not. I think that will piss people off and they'll stick with one size fits all consoles.
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25 Sep 2013 20:00 #161851 by Juniper

Michael Barnes wrote: So yeah, very interested overall...friday's announcment is going to be Half-Life 3, SteamOS exclusive. MEGATON BOMB.


I think you're close. My prediction is that they'll split the difference: Half-life 3 will be cross-platform, but the SteamOS version will feature superior performance (Left 4 Dead 2 had a higher frame-rate on Linux than Windows). And they'll have built some cool effect into the SteamOS OpenGL driver that won't be possible on Windows, because the DirectX drivers won't handle it. And there will be SteamOS-exclusive content that highlights this effect.

In other words, you will be able to buy Half-life 3 for Windows, but it will be lacking some of the awesomeness of the SteamOS version.

A later release date for the Windows version is possibly something they considered, too.

Anyway, just my wild-ass guess.

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25 Sep 2013 20:15 #161852 by Michael Barnes
Oh, Valve would still be corporate overlords...don't get me wrong, they're not off the hook. But they're definitely not Microsoft/Sony league.

Part of the key to making all of this work is making SteamOS as opaque as possible- like IOS. It seems weird that something is more accessible by it being LESS transparent, but that's kind of how it works with Apple. Living room consumers don't want to see the inner workings or get involved with them. They need to be able to plug and play- that is the one key advantage consoles have over PCs. No fuss at all (usually). If SteamOS operates like IOS or one of the front ends for the 360 or PS3, jackpot. If it operates like regular Linux or Windows, it won't make the cut.

I know the PC Gaming Master Race (ha) thinks that PC gaming is easy and painless, but it's not. It's not like it used to be when you had to fool with DMRs and IRQs and all of that, but there are still a lot of barriers- like the dual booting thing. None of that is going to fly in the living room. The Steam Machine has to have a power button, you push it, it comes on, and you download/play games right there. No complicated graphics settings or any of that.

I suspect that system specifications/standards will be built into each version of SteamOS. So a game a couple of years from now may require SteamOS 2 and a Steam Machine capable of running SteamOS 2...rather than having discrete hardware requirements. Of course, with this architecture, it would be possible to have scalable requirements so a game could run Steam OS 1 with reduced settings (all of which are automatically set by the OS- not the user).

Gary Sax is 100% correct. The average user does not want to consider if a game will run. They want to see the SteamOS logo and KNOW that it will run with no fussing around. Hopefully this is one of the goals Valve is looking at.

Maybe a timed exclusive for Half-Life 3...SteamOS for a year, then other consoles. I think it would be an extremely smart idea to have some kind of OS exclusivity tied to either HL3 or L4D3 as a built-in "killer app" to lure customers away from MS and Sony. If HL3 were packaged with SteamOS, that would be a massive sales opportunity to get people on board with it. I don't even really like Half-Life but I'd be interested in seeing it in that kind of setting.

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25 Sep 2013 20:27 #161853 by Erik Twice
As I said elsewhere, I don't view the increasing centralization of the PC market on Valve's hands as a good thing. What we need is more competition not more vertical monopolies and closed gardens.

Also, you can take my triplehead setup and gaming mouse from my cold, dead hands.

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25 Sep 2013 20:40 #161854 by jeb
There's always going to be a market for folks that know what "triplehead setup" means, but I believe most gamers just want to play games. If you make that easy, like iOS, they will give you business.

People that care about GHz, vRAM, framerates, fan speeds, &c are miniscule in comparison to the number of people that want to play games. It's like comparing people that are concerned about gear ratios, foot-pounds of torque, and intercoolers to those that want to drive.

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25 Sep 2013 20:42 #161856 by Michael Barnes
Triplehead is a kind of beer, right?

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25 Sep 2013 20:52 #161857 by jeb

Michael Barnes wrote: Triplehead is a kind of beer, right?

You know if you leave a door like this open, some SuperflyTNT's can't keep themselves from walking through it.

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26 Sep 2013 13:03 #161893 by mrmarcus
It's an interesting idea, but the devil's in the details. I'll withhold excitement until more details become available.

But it would be nice to see something serious come out of this.

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27 Sep 2013 20:48 - 27 Sep 2013 20:50 #162007 by Juniper
For those following from home:

Today's announcement from Valve was the Steam Machine controller.

Valve site

[url=http://http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2013/09/27/valves-final-announcement-is-a-controller-not-half-life-3/]Forbes article[/url]

Spoilers: no thumbsticks. Two circular track pads instead. No D-pad. Small touchscreen in center. Weird haptic feedback scheme.
Last edit: 27 Sep 2013 20:50 by Juniper.

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27 Sep 2013 20:50 #162008 by Gary Sax
Yeah, man. This one. I have NO idea. Could be wonderful? Could be boondoggle?

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