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Gabe Newell - PC/Linux gaming and Steambox

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    #62
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Cuddlesworth wrote: »
    If its a streamed solution from a desktop pc(which is really interesting), then a device on par with Googles Chromecast would not be far off doing 1080p gaming on the TV. At around 100 quid, who here wouldn't be interested? Sony are not going to care, since it isn't in direct competition with the ps3.

    But it isn't a streamed solution, it's a rather loose interpretation of the phrase, Sony aren't going to care because it's a nothing more than a remote client. They could have done this much easier within their current software package, releasing that as an "OS" is farcical.


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    #63
    Dyr
    Registered Users Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭Dyr


    ShadowHearth wrote: »

    Well, all in all, its good news and I am happy Valve is doing something. It might suck at start, but lets not forget, Steam when came out was a huge pet hate of 99% of PC gamers world wide. Look at it now.

    Steam was in virgin territory when it started, no competition. They're coming at the king now, albeit a doddery out of touch king.

    I've being playing about with the big picture web browser on my PC, I had'nt looked at big picture since it was a beta. It sucks balls. Just zooms straight into the middle of every webpage and then ignores the mouse input. I reckon its actually picking up one of my joysticks as the input device and randomly taking input from it. Classy :o


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    #64
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users Posts: 13,983 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    Dravokivich wrote: »
    But it isn't a streamed solution, it's a rather loose interpretation of the phrase

    I'm not sure how you can see a 6mb 1080p feed as not streaming. Its not like it hasn't already been done, if they can mask the control latency then most people with gaming pcs are going to be picking one of these up. Which is exactly what they want.

    Combine a streamed solution with a "Steambox" and you have a packaged product that lets you game on any TV in your house by moving around something the size of a usb key.


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    #65
    C14N
    Registered Users Posts: 2,656 ✭✭✭C14N


    /\/ollog wrote: »
    My main excitement about SteamOS is the TV& Movies thing, I'll actually legitimately buy movies and tv shows if it's similar to how steam manage games.

    I didn't get the impression that they were going to start selling TV and movies. It sounds like the Steam OS will just stream these from your PC like the PS3 does now or you can load them up and play them locally. This would be very interesting for me if I can play FLAC audio and MKV video files, which are very hard to get support for generally.
    Bambi wrote: »
    the reason my PC isn't in the living room is because I don't like using game controllers when I have decent PC peripherals, unless they come up with the mother and father of all wireless controllers it's not going be much use to me and many other pc users.

    plus 500 lids is too expensive for what is essentially an add on to a PC

    I have many games on my PC that I think work better with a controller. Generally anything that involves a lot of shooting or strategising, I like to play with mouse and keyboard but anything else I like the controller. I find racing games and indie platformers to be particularly cumbersome with a keyboard and I would definitely like to get them onto the big screen.

    I say €500 but it could be cheaper than that. If Valve release a device for €100 that just does the streaming then I can't imagine passing it up.

    AlmightyCushion wrote: »
    The big problem I have with a Steam OS is that the Steam client isn't exactly great. It can be pretty laggy, slow and unresponsive. For example, activating a steam code causes the whole client to lock up as it phones home to verify the code.

    That is actually true. I think people tend to give Steam a little too much credit. The software is far from perfect in my experience. It frequently kicks non-Steam games out of my library, removes custom images and it's a sticky mess with multiple downloads. If you have 5 games queued up, you have to hit "Pause All" five times to get them to stop and even then, it doesn't immediately respond a lot of the time. The fact that you can't start a game that has an update available is irksome too.

    Mind you, I'd still take it over Uplay and definitely over Origin any day.
    Dravokivich wrote: »
    Fair enough, but for a playerbase that generally looks to get the most they can from hardware, it doesn't make sense to me for steam to say, double up on hardware.

    But you don't have to double up on hardware. A lot of PC gamers (like me) spend a good bit of money to wring great performance out of their PCs. Once you have that though you can now stream it to a much cheaper PC. They put the streaming option there because they don't expect many people to go and splash €800+ on a fancy new PC for the living room.
    Dravokivich wrote: »
    Id rather just bring my pc to the sitting room if I was going to have such a use for it. I dont see the point in Installing software on one pc, to basically remote into and play games from another.

    I wouldn't. My PC is a massive yoke and weighs about 20kg. It's a pain in the ass to move. Even if it was half the size and weight, the complete hassle of unplugging all the USBs, ethernet, monitors and power and then plugging them all back in again in the living room for the sake of playing for 2 hours is not very appealing.


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    #66
    Robert ninja
    Registered Users Posts: 3,878 ✭✭✭Robert ninja


    C14N wrote: »
    I say €500 but it could be cheaper than that. If Valve release a device for €100 that just does the streaming then I can't imagine passing it up.

    The steamOS is posturing to be free and the the whole "Steam Box" thing is only really there for people who don't already own a platform. The point so far from what I'm understanding from steamOS is to eliminate the need for consoles by turning your PC into a machine that can shoot out a powerful and optimised 'console' to any screen in your proximity or on your network.

    It's likely that these announcements are going to hugely benefit PC gamers with absolutely not hit to their wallet. The profit in it for Valve is that they monopolise the PC gaming market even more and probably get a lot of new customers while simultaneously solidifying their current ones too.


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    #67
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Cuddlesworth wrote: »
    I'm not sure how you can see a 6mb 1080p feed as not streaming. Its not like it hasn't already been done, if they can mask the control latency then most people with gaming pcs are going to be picking one of these up. Which is exactly what they want.

    Combine a streamed solution with a "Steambox" and you have a packaged product that lets you game on any TV in your house by moving around something the size of a usb key.

    From the Steam OS page:
    . Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!

    A streaming service, would be the likes of Netflix, or Gaikai. This is just a remote client from one computer to another.


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    #68
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 7,030 ✭✭✭witnessmenow


    Playing media over a network from an external source in real time is "streaming", the fact that the external source is not on the internet is irrelevant.

    The streaming part is all I have ever wanted from a steambox. The fact that it is an OS is even better as I already have some low powered pcs that are probably up to the job (hopefully)


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    #69
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Launching applications through a such remote instance is not streaming.


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    #70
    TheDoc
    Registered Users Posts: 23,137 ✭✭✭✭TheDoc


    Underwhelmed to be honest.

    So what, I can play my Steam games on my TV? With what? A controller, a keyboard and mouse on my lap?

    Sorry but this isn't anything new, I could run PC games on my T.V for a long time now. I make a conscious choice not to, because its a pretty poor setup. For the same reason we watch professional gaming tournaments on our PC's, when we could just as easy watch them on our TV.s, when we game, we don't specifically just game.

    We Alt-Tab and do 101 other things during a game session.

    Best of luck to them, but I'm not convinced. You could buy a cheap PC to run a steamcatalogue on your TV for ages now, it's not popular for a reason....


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    #71
    Wossack
    Registered Users Posts: 7,005 ✭✭✭Wossack


    Dravokivich wrote: »
    Launching applications through a such remote instance is not streaming.

    falls between both stools imo


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    #72
    Akrasia
    Registered Users Posts: 22,335 ✭✭✭✭Akrasia


    Announcement number 3 will be that Half Life 3 will be exclusive to this new platform (at least for the first few months)

    Given that the platform is free to download, this will be a pain in the ass but not a deterrent to millions of gamers installing the platform on their gaming PC.

    Once the platform is on their PC, other games developers will be able to develop compatable versions of their new releases safe in the knowledge that there are millions of gamers with high end PCs as an installed userbase

    After this, it gets really exciting!

    We will see a huge number of 'steam box' compatable pcs on the market, all stripped down PCs that only have the essential components for PC gaming in a range of specs and prices. We will see price wars similar to those in the Tablet and phone market and very quickly, we will have machines on the market for less than the price of a PS4/XBOX 1 that will be capable of playing all games at higher resolution and higher frame rates than the next gen consoles

    Because it's open source, gamers will have fantastic choice in peripherals and apps and there will be mods that will allow the steam OS to do anything that Linux can do


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    #73
    Dyr
    Registered Users Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭Dyr


    TheDoc wrote: »
    Underwhelmed to be honest.

    So what, I can play my Steam games on my TV? With what? A controller, a keyboard and mouse on my lap?

    Sorry but this isn't anything new, I could run PC games on my T.V for a long time now. I make a conscious choice not to, because its a pretty poor setup. For the same reason we watch professional gaming tournaments on our PC's, when we could just as easy watch them on our TV.s, when we game, we don't specifically just game.

    We Alt-Tab and do 101 other things during a game session.

    Best of luck to them, but I'm not convinced. You could buy a cheap PC to run a steamcatalogue on your TV for ages now, it's not popular for a reason....

    I have a PC set up beside my telly. Would have been a decent spec 5-6 years ago so it will still play some games but I never use it because ..meh, controller.

    I have a razer naga/logitech G510 as a keyboard/mouse and then two HOTAS joysticks, a flight yoke and rudder pedals and a web cam for head tracking. The whole living room sales pitch aside. I don't see steamOS supporting that many peripherals anytime soon. I don't see them even supporting the keyboard/mouse at first.

    Actually i suspect the whole living room sales pitch is just a trojan horse to get their foot in the door. Valve need to a solution that replaces the PC as a primary gaming device, they ain't there yet it seems. I hope they get there but this announcement would suggest they're a good ways off.


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    #74
    Dyr
    Registered Users Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭Dyr


    Akrasia wrote: »
    t will be capable of playing all games at higher resolution and higher frame rates than the next gen consoles


    Right now its capable of playing 300 games, I wouldnt get too previous:)
    Akrasia wrote: »
    gamers will have fantastic choice in peripherals

    Same again, the brave new world is a good bit off


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    #75
    Jonny7
    Registered Users Posts: 6,696 ✭✭✭Jonny7


    It's not anything ground-breaking, but I am wondering what people were realistically expecting? holographs? flying cars?

    I mean, if I put in the effort I could set it up myself, but that's the thing.. there's effort required

    Steam is just finding a small niche and moving into the living room.. once it gets into the living room it can become the one stop shop for everything, games, movies, tv shows - everything.. on a refined platform

    Again, there are already platforms for this - but look at Steam vs Origin.. the difference is like night and day.

    Whatever they do, they do it well, I'm not expecting a reinvention of the wheel, but a refinement of current tech in a neat package is welcome.

    I also remember when Steam came out - the cynicism and the annoyance with it - now we can't game without the thing ;)


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    #76
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    Dravokivich wrote: »
    Launching applications through a such remote instance is not streaming.

    But streaming the video and audio is.


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    #77
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Genghiz Cohen wrote: »
    But streaming the video and audio is.

    It's just clutching at straws for a buzzword.


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    #78
    ShadowHearth
    Registered Users Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    I think people are missing the point. This streaming over home network is just one of the options steamOs will offer. They are working with all developers to make games running natively on steamOS. I am 100% sure this streaming thing is there only because support for young is not huge I'm the first few years. With time all games will be windows/steamOS and you will need less and less of streaming option.


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    #79
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    ShadowHearth wrote: »
    I think people are missing the point. This streaming over home network is just one of the options steamOs will offer. They are working with all developers to make games running natively on steamOS. I am 100% sure this streaming thing is there only because support for young is not huge I'm the first few years. With time all games will be windows/steamOS and you will need less and less of streaming option.

    I'm not missing it, I just think they are miss representing the idea behind "Streaming," and looking to catch some hype from a buzzword. It's basically a remote application solution they are bring into SteamOS initially going by the notice linked to earlier here. If they want to sell that to get people using a range of thin clients first, I think it would have been of more benefit to update their client software to support such a feature between client installations.


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    #80
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    Dravokivich wrote: »
    It's just clutching at straws for a buzzword.

    I just don't get the difference between a video stream coming from the Netflix, Twitch or OnLive servers to a box connected to my TV and on coming from a computer on the same local network.


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    #81
    jester77
    Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Akrasia wrote: »
    Announcement number 3 will be that Half Life 3 will be exclusive to this new platform (at least for the first few months)

    Given that the platform is free to download, this will be a pain in the ass but not a deterrent to millions of gamers installing the platform on their gaming PC.

    Once the platform is on their PC, other games developers will be able to develop compatable versions of their new releases safe in the knowledge that there are millions of gamers with high end PCs as an installed userbase

    After this, it gets really exciting!

    Either that, or release it as a free exclusive for Linux users. That way they don't piss off any customers and lots of people will jump to Linux to get it at no cost. It would be a win/win for Valve. Those that switch to Linux would probably stick with Linux for new releases as the Linux OS will be a better performer if what Valve are saying is to be believed.


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    #82
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Dravokivich wrote: »
    I'm not missing it, I just think they are miss representing the idea behind "Streaming," and looking to catch some hype from a buzzword. It's basically a remote application solution they are bring into SteamOS initially going by the notice linked to earlier here. If they want to sell that to get people using a range of thin clients first, I think it would have been of more benefit to update their client software to support such a feature between client installations.

    I wouldn't mind being able to stream games from my desktop to my laptop given that I'm unlikely to ever spend enough on a laptop to have equivalent power between them.


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    #83
    McSasquatch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭McSasquatch


    Found this floating about the net. Good for a laugh if nothing else.


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    #84
    Magill
    Registered Users Posts: 5,732 ✭✭✭Magill


    McSasquatch wrote: »
    Found this floating about the net. Good for a laugh if nothing else.

    Valve gonna take over the world.


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    #85
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,090 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    It's only suggesting the most popular guesses at what will be released really, and some other random stuff.


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    #86
    Danger781
    Registered Users Posts: 5,686 ✭✭✭Danger781


    Am I getting the wrong impression of SteamOS or is it essentially just like XBMC for games?


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    #87
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    McSasquatch wrote: »
    Found this floating about the net. Good for a laugh if nothing else.
    Get hype.
    As you command!


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    #88
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Danger781 wrote: »
    Am I getting the wrong impression of SteamOS or is it essentially just like XBMC for games?

    No, Steam Big Picture is already like XBMC for games.

    SteamOS is more like OpenElec.

    Its just a Linux OS specifically intended for running Steam like an appliance. You turn it on and you're straight into Steam in big picture mode.

    They have been bashing Windows and wanting to move PC gamers to Linux for a while. So it makes sense for them to do their own distro.


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    #89
    Danger781
    Registered Users Posts: 5,686 ✭✭✭Danger781


    Deleted User wrote: »
    No, Steam Big Picture is already like XBMC for games.

    SteamOS is more like OpenElec.

    Its just a Linux OS specifically intended for running Steam like an appliance. You turn it on and you're straight into Steam in big picture mode.

    They have been bashing Windows and wanting to move PC gamers to Linux for a while. So it makes sense for them to do their own distro.

    So it is actually going to be a fully functional distro of Linux?


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    #90
    Dyr
    Registered Users Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭Dyr


    Danger781 wrote: »
    So it is actually going to be a fully functional distro of Linux?

    hopefully not, might keep the spotty linux fundamentalists away


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    #91
    calex71
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    just saw this http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS

    Not really a lot of detail though


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