# Valve announces SteamOS, Steam Machines, and Steam Controller



## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

-----

*Original OP*

Following Dream's advice decided to make a separate thread for this since those who haven't followed this might get confused by the previous thread, as it was filled with speculation, rumors and Piston was a false alarm.

So, a summary: It has been speculated for a while and early last year Valve confirmed that they're indeed making their own hardware as they weren't happy how the PC space progressed. After that there wasn't much news save for some controller patent Valve employees put up. It was only later revealed that Valve are also making a push towards Linux, since Gabe and co weren't fond of Win8 and the direction MS were taking. To them the future of gaming lies in open source environment. So, a Steam client beta for Linux went up (it has been fully released since then) and that year they also released a mode called . 

It was this January at  CES that Gabe gave  to the Verge, where he talked in detail about Valve's plans and how they see the future of gaming. In short he talked about tiered models, biometrics, streaming, multiple input devices, mobiles, basically how he wants to have a hub which connects PC to TV and other devices such as smartphones and tablets. It was first at D.I.C.E. where he publicly talked  in front of an audience about their future steps.

Now it was shortly after this that news came of massive layoffs at Valve, which mostly hit the hardware department, so people speculated that the project has been cancelled, but it was later revelaed that those group of people were working on  and the project is continuing.

At the BAFTA awards Gabe said they're going to  to the public in a 3-4 months to get feedback.

This week Gabe held a keynote at LinuxCon where he talked about why they went with Linux, why they think it's the future of gaming and at the end hinted at announcements to come next week.

So, yesterday this went up: 



> The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014
> 
> Last year, we shipped a software feature called Big Picture, a user-interface tailored for televisions and gamepads.
> This year we’ve been working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room.
> Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam.



Geoff Keighley and other news outlets confirmed that there's actually going to be 3 announcements nex tweek starting with Monday from 10 am PDT/1pm EDT/7pm CES etc . Those 3 buttons on the page are going to light up after every news.

So, who is this targeted at? Without still knowing any concrete specs and all, consensus is that the box itself is aimed at gamers who are afraid to jump into PC gaming for multiple reasons. That it should provide the strenght of PC gaming in a simple, accesible way. And  to expand their ecosystem. For those who already have a capable gaming PC, Valve's streaming solution and controllers might be of interest. Not to mention the potential SteamOS.

I think I'm going to post the 3 announcements in the first 3 separate posts, just to be safe and for convenience.

So, speculate away.

*P.S. I know that with Valve and possible announcements people like to hype themselves into oblivion, particurarly when it comes to the next installment of Half-Life. It's better to keep your expectations in check. This is going to be first and foremost about pushing Steam and Linux into the livingroom. I wouldn't really expect a game announcement.*


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

​




> *Steam is coming to a new operating system*
> 
> As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.
> 
> ...





*Update:* 

*Update2:* 

*Update3:* 

*Update4:* 

*Update5:*


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

​




> *Finally, a multiple choice answer*
> 
> Entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all world. We want you to be able to choose the hardware that makes sense for you, so we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines to market during 2014, all of them running SteamOS.
> 
> ...





*Update:* 

*Update2*: 

*Update3:* 

*Update4:* 

*Update5: *


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

​




> A new way to play your entire Steam library from the sofa.
> Join the Steam hardware beta and help us shape a new generation of gaming.
> 
> *A different kind of gamepad*
> ...





*Update:* 



> Here's a quick look at some games being played with the prototype version of the Steam Controller -- the same version that we'll be shipping to 300 Steam users later this year. We'll post more demonstrations like this soon, including footage of some other game developers using the controller to play their own games.
> 
> [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeAjkbNq4xI[/youtube]





*Update2*:


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## dream (Sep 21, 2013)

There isn't going to be a Half-Life 3 announcement, don't delude yourselves into thinking otherwise. 

We're going to see some Linux news, Steam box news, and possibly some fancy new software for Steam.


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

they'll actually be playable in the next lok test in November!



> @aaronrussell15 I thought the statements have been remarkably clear that this is about Steam.



so yeah

Makes sense. A HL3 announcement would probably overshadow any Steam news.


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## dream (Sep 21, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> Makes sense. A HL3 announcement would probably overshadow any Steam news.



Probably?  HL-3 news would dominate gaming news for several days. 

At the earliest I can see an announcement for HL-3 at next year's E3.


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## Naruto (Sep 21, 2013)

Fucking hell now all I can think of is HL3.

I mean what if it happens?

3 announcements... *puts on tin foil hat*


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## dream (Sep 21, 2013)

Naruto said:


> I mean what if it happens?



We start a church worshiping Gabe?


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

No, it's not going to happen. I refuse to get my hopes up.  lalalalala


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## The World (Sep 21, 2013)

Valve doesn't know how to count to 3


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## Hyperion1O1 (Sep 21, 2013)

3 announcements?

Half Life 3 confirmed


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## rac585 (Sep 21, 2013)

3 announcements... who's betting one of them isn't really news worthy. they just wanted an extra one to get to 3 to set off all the nerd alarms.


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

The 3 buttons should be indicators regarding the announcements:


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## First Tsurugi (Sep 21, 2013)

One of these is bound to be Left 4 Dead 3, we already know they're working on it thanks to leaks.


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## dream (Sep 21, 2013)

Valve may be working on L4D3 but that doesn't mean that Valve is ready to announce it, they may save the announcement for later.


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## Naruto (Sep 21, 2013)

Rac said:


> they just wanted an extra one to get to 3 to set off all the nerd alarms.



So true.

But seriously, if one of the announcements is HL3 the gaming world is going to fucking explode.


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## αshɘs (Sep 21, 2013)

Based on the buttons I still think it's going to be:

1. Steam/Linux
2. The box/ Steam in livingroom
3. Sharing or streaming

edit: btw, guys over at steambd put up a blog entry with some speculation:


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## Furious George (Sep 22, 2013)

So I tried to reserve my copy of HL3 for the PS4 and the Gamestop guy looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently *he* didn't hear about the upcoming announcement! 

I hate when GS hires people who don't know what's going on in gaming.


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## αshɘs (Sep 22, 2013)

A loooot of people are going to get disappointed


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## dream (Sep 22, 2013)

Deep down, everyone knows that there won't be a HL-3 announcement but they just want to believe.


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## Hyperion1O1 (Sep 22, 2013)

Valve can't count to 3. Proof?

1. TF2
2. Dota 2.
3. HL 2


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## dream (Sep 22, 2013)

Valve to make three announcements so they can clearly count to three.


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## Darth (Sep 22, 2013)

Dream said:


> Valve to make three announcements so they can clearly count to three.



inb4 their 3rd announcement gets postponed indefinitely.


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## Hyperion1O1 (Sep 22, 2013)

Dream said:


> Valve to make three announcements so they can clearly count to three.



They can't count to three so they'll go "1, 2 plus 1"


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## Kathutet (Sep 22, 2013)

Dream said:


> Deep down, everyone knows that there won't be a HL-3 announcement but they just want to believe.


I JUST WANT TO OKAY
I JUST

IQOHFIGL%QJSPKN


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Sep 22, 2013)

Show me Steambox.


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## αshɘs (Sep 22, 2013)

24hrs to go till 1st announcement


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## Inuhanyou (Sep 22, 2013)

2 things are important.

1. Affordability

2. Accessibility


If you focus on those 2 things Valve, i may look into what your selling


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## Deathbringerpt (Sep 22, 2013)

They started a 3 day counter for 3 announcements each separate by 3 days. The cat has 3 whiskers on one side and there's 3 buttons on the controller. 

IT'S FUCKING HABBENING. GONNA BE THE LAST ANNOUNCEMENT. WHY? EXCLUSIVE TO STEAM AND GABECUBE, OF COURSE. IT'S ALL ABOUT SELLING YOUR PRODUCT.


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## Overwatch (Sep 23, 2013)

[sp][/sp]


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

30 minutes to go.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

Here's to hoping that Valve delivers an interesting announcement.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

it's up: 

SteamOS

next announcement in 48 hours.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

> *In-home Streaming*
> 
> You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. 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!



I'm a bit iffy on streaming and probably will be for the foreseeable but SteamOS sounds pretty good.  Given how they hate Windows 8, Valve making their own OS based on Linux is a solid choice.  Valve just has to push this pretty hard and get developers to start porting more games over to Linux.  

Next up is likely the Steam Box announcement.


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## Death-kun (Sep 23, 2013)

Steambox announcement is inevitable, it will be Valve's "livingroom machine". 

I'll wait to use SteamOS until Valve gets more devs to port over their stuff to Linux. But I'll definitely switch to it. I have nothing to lose, considering I only paid $15 for Windows 8.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

So the streaming was confirmed with this and sharing was mentioned again too. So my prediction for the 3rd button was off. Hmm, might be the peripherals then.

Also, I see people are disappointed this doesn't support Win games out of the box, but through streaming, but this seemed to be the sensual way to go imo. And apparently AAA games will get announced with native Linux ports, so we'll see.


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## Death-kun (Sep 23, 2013)

We can also probably count on Valve selling their own controllers, to help rope in gamers from the console crowd.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

> Through the power of #SteamOS you'll soon be able to buy a bad computer to stream games from your good computer





I couldn't help but giggle.


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## Malvingt2 (Sep 23, 2013)

I am not a steam guy [I do have an account] a little bit confused with this new. Someone can please explain it to me better?


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## Deathbringerpt (Sep 23, 2013)

Well, Gabecube will be the logical consequence of this new service. Since O is SteamOS which is software, [O] should be software in hardware and O+O should be software + sofware which should be source 2, paving the way to Half Life 3.  

HL3 is going to be the cherry on this steam cake, I still believe.


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## Death-kun (Sep 23, 2013)

From what we know, it seems to be a specialized OS based on Linux that will help PC games run better and it can also stream to other devices like your television. 

It's basically a specialized gaming OS, meant to help bring PC gaming into the livingroom.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

Malvingt2 said:


> I am not a steam guy [I do have an account] a little bit confused with this new. Someone can please explain it to me better?



It's basically a Linux distro tailored around Steam. It will act as a streaming center for your other PC, or can stream itself to TV. It got some new features like multimedia, sharing, parental controls. The thing is, right now not many games support Linux, so the streaming solution is temporary to get around it. But Valve mentioned in the upcoming weeks there's going to be some AAA games announced for it. Next announcements should be the hardware and controllers.

I wonder if Ubisoft and EA are going to join.


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Sep 23, 2013)

Just officially call it the Gabecube. It will rotflstomp MS and Sony.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

lol, that's stretching it


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

I'm interested in the performance results of games.  I know that Valve was seeing impressive results when they were testing L4D2 on Ubuntu, on their own OS the results should be even better for their own games.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

Was expecting a vid btw like they did for BPM, maybe they're saving it for later.


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## Saufsoldat (Sep 23, 2013)

*Valve announces SteamOS as it renews living room push*



> Video games developer and publisher Valve has announced SteamOS, a free operating system it hopes will help bring PC gaming into the living room.
> 
> The code will be made freely available for manufacturers who want to launch their own gaming hardware.
> 
> ...



Sauce

Very interesting, looks like Valve is pretty serious about competing with consoles. Hope this will bring some developers back to the PC. 

Okay, honestly I just want fucking GTA 5


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## Hand Banana (Sep 23, 2013)

This belongs more so in the gaming department.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

Saufsoldat said:


> Very interesting, looks like Valve is pretty serious about competing with consoles. Hope this will bring some developers back to the PC.



I don't believe that Valve's intention is to compete with consoles or at least it isn't yet.  Do note that Valve makes quite a bit of profit off of consoles, L4D2 sales were better on consoles then they were on the PC, and they probably want to keep that revenue intact for now.  SteamOS probably came about because Valve doesn't want to be dependent on Windows when it comes to PC gaming.  Gabe sure as hell dislikes what Windows 8 is doing and wants to get off the train.  SteamOS is a step in that direction.


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

What Valve are planning is to "free themselves" from Windows and to get on more platforms. This isn't really a plan to rival consoles and what they're doing now is just a short,small step in a long term plan.


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## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Sep 23, 2013)

>a free operating system

Welp, I am getting a steambox


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## αshɘs (Sep 23, 2013)

Just to clarify, right now it only supports up to couple of hundred games natively. For the rest of the library you need Windows. And depending on the setup you might need two PCs. One for streaming (SteamOS) the other for the rest of the library(Windows). Then again Gabe said you can install Windows on SB, so you can dual-boot. But this is not the elegant way. Just a stopgap till devs start to adopt it. They do mention:



> *Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS. Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014.* Access the full Steam catalog of nearly 3000 games and desktop software titles via in-home streaming.



So, it's clear they reached out to devs.

Indies are usually releasing Linux versions, that's not really the problem, rather AAA games and older games (not sure devs are going to revisit them). And of course what about games that aren't on Steam? We'll see. 

Anyway, the OS will be available this year and multiple hardware vendors like Dell might start using it for their pre-built PCs, but Valve's own SB won't be launching till next year. There's time and Valve won't be rushing this out.


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## Inuhanyou (Sep 23, 2013)

It was bound to happen.....Microsoft pushed them to this. Their complete lockdown of Windows did this. And now everyone else pays the price. Hopefully Sony and Nintendo can stay competitive


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## Death-kun (Sep 23, 2013)

Inuhanyou said:


> Hopefully Sony and Nintendo can stay competitive



What does this mean?


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

I hope that Inu means that Sony and Nintendo can remain competitive with Microsoft and/or each other.  It wouldn't be good if they failed in the gaming market and let Microsoft have a monopoly which would be horrendous for us. 

I hope that Inu isn't implying that Sony and Nintendo should be worried about SteamOS anytime soon.


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## Death-kun (Sep 23, 2013)

Dream said:


> I hope that Inu isn't implying that Sony and Nintendo should be worried about SteamOS anytime soon.



This is what I thought he was hinting at, which is why I asked him to clarify lol.

Sony and Nintendo have no reason to be afraid.


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## ExoSkel (Sep 23, 2013)

LOL @ people keep mentioning sony or nintendo when PC master race platform has almost no direct competitiveness with console market.


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## Canute87 (Sep 23, 2013)

Death-kun said:


> This is what I thought he was hinting at, which is why I asked him to clarify lol.
> 
> Sony and Nintendo have no reason to be afraid.



Yeah Nintendo has their hands full with Sony and the third party army to worry about anything else



ExoSkel said:


> LOL @ people keep mentioning sony or nintendo when PC master race platform has almost no direct competitiveness with console market.



Well the cost of building or purchasing such a means machine comes at a cost that makes it impossible to stay competitive .  Hell the graphics card alone costs as much if not more than the entire console.


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## Ben Tennyson (Sep 23, 2013)

lol Steam OS just what the world needed another shitty OS.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

I doubt that  it will be shitty.  It'll likely be based off of Ubuntu and that isn't too bad of a Linux distro.  At the very least it'll be better than Windows 8 assuming that the openness and customization of Linux is kept intact.


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## Inuhanyou (Sep 23, 2013)

Death-kun said:


> What does this mean?



You guys know what it means. Valve's master plan is to kill the current console manufacturers, to kill off closed ecosystems that consoles by the big 3 are by default. Microsoft pissed them off by closing off Windows and trying to be greedy fucks about how games are distributed, and now they are coming for dat marketshare.

What i'm saying is, there are plenty of PC gamers out there who would attest to the superiority of Steam over what the console manufacturers currently have. I'm just saying if Valve were to actually make a Steambox, who knows how it could turn out. And i really don't want to see Nintendo or Sony forced out of the market because Microsoft decided to piss off the entity that almost singlehandedly saved PC gaming in the early 2000s and has it almost flourishing right now.

I'm not a PC gamer, but i've heard a lot of things that have me worried about what Gaben could do.


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## dream (Sep 23, 2013)

Right now Valve's master plan is likely closer to nurture a PC gaming environment that exists independently of Windows than it is to take down console manufacturers.  It'll be years before we get to the point where Valve seriously pushes to take down console manufacturers assuming that it ever does.  They may plan to test the waters by providing Steamboxes to lure in those that want to try PC gaming but are wary of it but let's talk about Valve challenging console manufacturers six or seven years down the line.  There are a heck of a lot of obstacles for Valve to overcome at this point.


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## Inuhanyou (Sep 23, 2013)

I hope your correct  of course nobody can predict what things will look like seven or eight years down the line.


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## dream (Sep 24, 2013)

Here's to hoping that the next announcement is a Steambox announcement, that will give us a good idea as to their current future plans.  And hopefully the last announcement is a Source 2 + some game (Half-Life 3) announcement even though that seems farfetched.


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## steveht93 (Sep 24, 2013)

I'm liking this steamOS. I might get into it if the steambox itself is not a closed system and I can upgrade it(hardware wise). Otherwise it's of no use to me.


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## αshɘs (Sep 24, 2013)

Dream said:


> Right now Valve's master plan is likely closer to nurture a PC gaming environment that exists independently of Windows than it is to take down console manufacturers.  It'll be years before we get to the point where Valve seriously pushes to take down console manufacturers assuming that it ever does.  They may plan to test the waters by providing Steamboxes to lure in those that want to try PC gaming but are wary of it but let's talk about Valve challenging console manufacturers six or seven years down the line.  There are a heck of a lot of obstacles for Valve to overcome at this point.



Yeah, they don't want to depend on Windows, in case god knows where MS decide to go, plus who knows what PC gaming will look like in a decade or more. Mobile is expanding. They mentioned one of the reasons they went with Linux is because it's a stepping stone for mobile. This SteamOS might be their Android once they reach ARM compatibility. They can expand to any device, custom PCs, OEMs, phones, tablets etc without needing Windows, depending on MS. Obviously this is a long term plan and knowing Valve they're going to take their time with this. People expecting this to be a huge hit from the getgo are jumping the gun. The same way people who say this is bound to fail immediately are.



steveht93 said:


> I'm liking this steamOS. I might get into it if the steambox itself is not a closed system and I can upgrade it(hardware wise). Otherwise it's of no use to me.



it's nothing concrete yet, but they imply it here:



> Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.


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## Patchouli (Sep 24, 2013)

So, they're gonna make a Linux distro in the same vein as Chrome OS, where the distro is built around one core application? Excellent. 



> In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level.



Hopefully that means they've got Nvidia and AMD to give Linux better driver support. Speaking of which, that's something this SteamOS really needs to nail down from the start. Nothing more irritating than installing Linux, only to install your Nvidia driver and have xorg freak the hell out of on you.

As for audio stuff, that's relatively easy for them to tweak without support from another company.



> Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.



I'd imagine this means the devs that have Linux games already on Steam. But I'd still like names. 



> Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS. Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014. Access the full Steam catalog of nearly 3000 games and desktop software titles via in-home streaming.



Now THAT is interesting. Native AAA titles is something I never thought I'd hear are coming to Linux.

As for the streaming stuff, that's good too. Sounds like Steambox is more or less confirmed at this point. Considering Valve's relationship with Nvidia, they're probably using the same streaming tech that the Nvidia Shield uses. Hell, I'd be surprised if Valve and Nvidia didn't cut a deal over Steam integration in the device. 



> We’re working with many of the media services you know and love. Soon we will begin bringing them online, allowing you to access your favorite music and video with Steam and SteamOS.



Huh.


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## Naruto (Sep 24, 2013)

Streaming, really?


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## dream (Sep 24, 2013)

Naruto said:


> Streaming, really?



It's pretty much the best way for SteamOS to let people play games that are only available on Windows despite all the faults that streaming has at the moment.


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## Patchouli (Sep 24, 2013)

Dream said:


> It's pretty much the best way for SteamOS to let people play games that are only available on Windows despite all the faults that streaming has at the moment.



This.

It'd let Windows users stream to their Steambox (which is probably gonna be announced tomorrow at this rate), so all those Windows-only games would be available on the Linux platform. I mean, they could use Wine, but streaming would be the easier option. One less evolving program to support/rely on, and they could build off the fact that most Steam users have Windows PC's anyways.


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## Patchouli (Sep 24, 2013)

Steambox and Windows stuff aside. This SteamOS thing is still a good announcement for Linux users. I mean, a big name in PC gaming making their own gaming-based distro? That's big news.


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## Naruto (Sep 24, 2013)

I'm happy about pushing Linux, this is great news moving forward.

My problem is that right now, if I want to play a lot of my games, apparently I'm expected to run two computers at once and that is fucking retarded.


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## αshɘs (Sep 24, 2013)

Maybe they're working on emulation, but it isn't there yet. Then again, if hypothetically they achieved perfect emulation what would be the incentive to devs the develop natively on Linux? Valve would want to speed up its adoptation rate. Though older and legacy games will be problematic this way. Who's going to port them?

also, aren't there any cheap low power consumption mini devices out there which you can use for SteamOs streaming?


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## Patchouli (Sep 24, 2013)

Naruto said:


> I'm happy about pushing Linux, this is great news moving forward.
> 
> My problem is that right now, if I want to play a lot of my games, apparently I'm expected to run two computers at once and that is fucking retarded.



In the current state of things, it is a bit annoying. But so is configuring Wine for each and every Windows game. Valve wouldn't want to risk backlash there, so streaming would be the best option for them. That said, SteamOS is a Linux distro. I'd assume they'd give you the option to download wine and go that route if you wanted.



αshɘs said:


> Maybe they're working on emulation, but it isn't there yet. Then again, if hypothetically they achieved perfect emulation what would be the incentive to devs the develop natively on Linux? Valve would want to speed up its adoptation rate. Though older and legacy games will be problematic this way. Who's going to port them?
> 
> also, aren't there any cheap low power consumption mini devices out there which you can use for SteamOs streaming?



Linux already has an "emulator" for Windows called Wine. Technically not an emulator, but it achieves the same thing. Anyways, perfect emulation of Windows just isn't possible. Some games just flat-out don't work with it. Others are very picky about what version of Wine they'll run on. Then the ones that do run see a performance loss compared to Windows.

Native games on Linux run fast. OpenGL is capable of better performance than Directx is. At least according to what Valve has put out on the subject. Downside is, OpenGL is harder to work with (from what I hear, I've no experience with it.)


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## αshɘs (Sep 24, 2013)

yeah, it's in the desciption that you can do whatever you want with the software and hardware. Haven't heard that many good things about Wine btw.

also, I remembered, good tier SB is supposed to be a streaming device which can cost up to $100. Or could someone just install SteamOS on Roku? Not familiar with that.


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## Patchouli (Sep 24, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> yeah, it's in the desciption that you can do whatever you want with the software and hardware. Haven't heard that many good things about Wine btw.
> 
> also, I remembered, good tier SB is supposed to be a streaming device which can cost up to $100. Or could someone just install SteamOS on Roku? Not familiar with that.



Good to hear. :33

Depends on the game. A huge game like WoW won't see any performance difference. Some source games run better in Wine than they do in Windows. But there's just far too many that don't run, and even more that just require too much tweaking and hassle to get running decently. 

Streaming eliminates all those problems for the general population of Steam users. While hardcore linux fans that don't use Windows can continue using Wine like they currently do.


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## dream (Sep 24, 2013)

Naruto said:


> I'm happy about pushing Linux, this is great news moving forward.
> 
> My problem is that right now, if I want to play a lot of my games, apparently I'm expected to run two computers at once and that is fucking retarded.



This is definitely one of the biggest problems facing SteamOS.  Valve needs something that will convince gamers that it would be worth using SteamOS.  Perhaps they could have Half-Life 3 be exclusively on SteamOS for one month.  A decent number of people would instantly jump to SteamOS just to play Half-Life 3 earlier than they could on Windows.  If they can arrange for other triple A titles to have a similar exclusivity on SteamOS then I believe it'll help the adoption of SteamOS.


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## αshɘs (Sep 24, 2013)

I'm not sure Valve would want to piss off the majority of their fans who still use Windows with that. I mean yeah, SteamOS is free, but looking at lots of reactions, people think of dual-booting as an annoyance and are happy with Win. Besides, SteamOS isn't the platform, Steam is.

But I'm pretty sure Valve thought about this and are not just secretly hoping this will work out magically. I think if they provide proper tools, that might already incite devs.

Something that could potentially speed up Linux ports is Valve's wrapper called togl if they release for other devs that is. A gaffer made some research regarding this:



various files collections


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## Naruto (Sep 24, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> also, aren't there any cheap low power consumption mini devices out there which you can use for SteamOs streaming?



I'm not interested in streaming. My PC is already hooked to my TV.

What I *am *interested in, is Linux as a mainstream gaming OS. But without any legacy support, I'm afraid I won't be adopting this anytime soon.

I will install SteamOS on my laptop to try it out, though.


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## dream (Sep 24, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> I'm not sure Valve would want to piss off the majority of their fans who still use Windows with that. I mean yeah, SteamOS is free, but looking at lots of reactions, people think of dual-booting as an annoyance and are happy with Win. Besides, SteamOS isn't the platform, Steam is.
> 
> But I'm pretty sure Valve thought about this and are not just secretly hoping this will work out magically. I think if they provide proper tools, that might already incite devs.
> 
> ...



I doubt that Valve would do it either but it's a possibility however remote it may be.  Fact is, if Valve wants Linux to be a viable platform for gaming they need to entice people to give the various distros a shot.  Creating tools to speed up ports is good but it's certainly going to take a hell of a long time for it to bear fruit not that I particularly mind that.  The only games I play these days are Valve games and as long as Valve releases Linux ports of games I have no reason to complain.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

so, we know that today 2 hours after 2nd announcement AMD will reveal their next gen GPU and seems other stuff:

held a keynote



> Among subjects that he discussed at the briefing is about one of the new products that the company will unveil at tomorrow’s event. However, it is not about the new AMD Hawaii GPU itself. While we are not able to call the new product by its name just yet but Raja has stated that it will bring product development for consoles and PC closer together.
> 
> Additionally, it will also enable developers to unlock PC’s performance and exploit the full power of AMD’s Graphics Core Next architecture that is used for selected Radeon HD 7000 and 8000 series GPUs. Last but not least, Raja also said that the product is “co-developed by game developer, for game developer”.





Might be connected Steam and Steambox, who knows.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

Valve is definitely behind this. 

That said, I believe that it focuses more on drivers and/or making it easier to port games to Linux than it does with Steambox.


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 25, 2013)

Half-Life 3 will be announced, and then Half-Life 4.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

Half-Life 4 will be released a quarter of a century from now.


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 25, 2013)

Dream said:


> Half-Life 4 will be released a quarter of a century from now.



I applaud your optimism. I'm sure KH3 will be out by 2014 as well.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

1 hour and 30 minutes until a wave of erections wash over the internet.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

I don't think so. I'm expecting skepticism like on Monday for the most part. 



Dream said:


> Valve is definitely behind this.
> 
> That said, I believe that it focuses more on drivers and/or making it easier to port games to Linux than it does with Steambox.



Yeah, might be. I hear AMD drivers on Linux are terrible.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

Depends on the card. For the longest time now, AMD was the way to go with Linux, because Nvidia drivers were absolute shit. But ever since Linus Torvalds literally gave Nvidia the middle finger in a public conference, they've been stepping up their game. Then Steam got ported to Linux, and Nvidia drivers improved performance by twice as much. Hell, just the other day, Nvidia said they'll help out with the open-source Nvidia drivers while still working on their own.

So it's not so much that AMD is bad on Linux. They just haven't done much with their drivers while their competition has been making big strides. So they're not so great by comparison anymore.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

1 minute

get hype


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

2nd is up: 

Steam Machines with hardware beta


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

STEAMBOX       .


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkEYnXd5VkY[/YOUTUBE]


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

Thought so, hardware beta.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

> THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:
> Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility
> 1. Join the Steam Universe community group
> 2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions
> ...



Fuck you Valve, I don't want to play using a gamepad.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

But...gamepad master race.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

>Gamepad
>Master Race

You can only pick one. 

Anyways, this comes as no real surprise.  Next up should be the Source 2 announcement and hopefully a game announcement as well.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

I'm expecting controllers for Friday.



> Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?
> 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.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

It doesn't fit well with the "importance/scale" of the other announcements unless Valve has some crazy awesome input device.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

Oculus Rift.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

To be frank, as much as I expected beta testing this announcment could have been more concrete. I mean they didn't say anything new


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 25, 2013)

Steamboxes.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> Oculus Rift.



Bundled with every Steambox?


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Sep 25, 2013)

Everything's going as planned. Open hardware specifically tailored for SteamOS. The Gabecube.

Now there's only Source 2 to be announced, with HL3 presented to our feeble mortal eyes through a shining beam of FPS excellence as the prime example of what this new engine can accomplish. 

In Gaben, I trust.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

I can't beleive they couldn't be arsed to reveal even a prototype. Specs and form, even if it isn't final. Just something! This is rather lame 

edit: looks like Family Sharing beta has begun


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Sep 25, 2013)

We got confirmation that it's open hardware and fully upgradable, that's the most important piece of information really.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> I can't beleive they couldn't be arsed to reveal even a prototype. Specs and form, even if it isn't final. Just something! This is rather lame



Valve has been silent on Half-Life 3 for god knows how long, them choosing to not reveal a prototype at this point should come as no surprise.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

They definitely mention a controller at the beta signup:



> 1. Valve Corporation ("Valve", "We", "Us" or "Our") has developed and produced prototypes of entertainment system hardware and software, including a set-top box running custom software and a game controller (collectively: "Beta Products").


----------



## Velocity (Sep 25, 2013)

Damnit! I have nine friends on Steam, not ten!


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

lol, just add me then?


----------



## Velocity (Sep 25, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> lol, just add me then?



...That does make life simpler.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

I really think they could have at least provided some minimum spec targets.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> I really think they could have at least provided some minimum spec targets.



We'll probably learn the minimum specs soon, perhaps in the next two or three weeks.  That said, I'm sure that the minimum specs will be fairly fairly good.


----------



## Velocity (Sep 25, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> I really think they could have at least provided some minimum spec targets.



I'm pretty sure there'll be a Steambox with minimal specs. The sort of thing that can play the majority of 2D indie games, y'know? Maybe they'd charge $100 for it, too, just to rub the Ouya's nose in it.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

$300 seems more reasonable as the price of a minimum spec SteamBox.


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 25, 2013)

I have no doubt Valve is making their own controllers, considering how they're pushing gamepad usage in order to even participate in the beta.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 25, 2013)

Just tried out BPM for the badge  (I game on my notebook only, and the one time I tried to launch it didn't start, so didn't bother afterwards), and think it's pretty cool actually 



Velocity said:


> I'm pretty sure there'll be a Steambox with minimal specs. The sort of thing that can play the majority of 2D indie games, y'know? Maybe they'd charge $100 for it, too, just to rub the Ouya's nose in it.



When Gabe was talking about the tier model back at CES, he said "Good" tier would be streaming boxes that could cost up to $100. Not sure they'll make one though. He said the one they'll make would be the "Better" tier.



Death-kun said:


> I have no doubt Valve is making their own controllers, considering how they're pushing gamepad usage in order to even participate in the beta.



They definitely do. One of the things I'm interested the most.


----------



## Dragash1 (Sep 25, 2013)

when will this steam box come out cant even play most games i bought on steam because lag.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 25, 2013)

Mother of god.

I posted on the community group saying "add me if you want"

Suddenly, invites everywhere.


----------



## dream (Sep 25, 2013)

People seriously need to find friends on Steam?  I'm an anti-social loner and even I've managed to make well over ten friends years ago.


----------



## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Sep 25, 2013)

I've 

LOL^


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 26, 2013)

Dream said:


> People seriously need to find friends on Steam?  I'm an anti-social loner and even I've managed to make well over ten friends years ago.



Pretty much all the Steam games I've got are singleplayer. Or if they've got multiplayer, I just haven't used it. 



St NightRazr said:


> I've
> 
> LOL^



p4rgaming. 

They're The Onion of gaming news.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 26, 2013)

Sorry about this double post. But this is big, and pretty related.



> Well, that didn't take long. Less than a day after Valve announced SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system based around the incredibly popular Steam PC gaming service, both AMD and Nvidia stepped up their driver support for the open-source OS.
> 
> Driver support for graphics cards can be a major stumbling block for would-be Linux gamers. Since fewer people use Linux (and most games are created with Windows in mind), driver support for the operating system can be a bit, well, hit-or-miss.
> 
> ...





AMD and Nvidia are going to better support their Linux drivers. Gabe Newell is a golden god. 



> We've been told at the GPU14 Tech Day event that the Mantle API is open, so theoretically Nvidia could purpose the technology in their GPUs. It should also make cross-development between PC and console games a lot easier, and also more incredible for those with a high-performance AMD GPU.
> 
> More information on Mantle will be available at the AMD Developer Summit in November.





> > So... they created another open API. Is OpenGL too much of a clusterfuck for them to commit to the established open standard?
> 
> 
> 
> Using OpenGL would have been a downgrade from using DX11 and we wouldn't solve any of the problems that I mentioned on my slide about what challenges we have on PC. Hence Mantle is needed.





AMD has unveiled Mantle, which is an API that will allow for low-level programming similar to what we see on consoles. (The reason aging hardware like the 360 is able to play big games like GTA 5 is in part due to being able to work more closely to the hardware.) This has the potential to replace Directx. Now they just have to do is make it easier to program for than OpenGL, and we're looking at a new API that both AMD and Nvidia can use. The bigger thing here is the it can be used across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Consoles.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 26, 2013)

Remember that the whole Mantle thing, as good as it sounds for owners of such cards playing games optimized for it, reeks of 3dfx and Glide. That didn't survive long.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 26, 2013)

I know nothing of Glide.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 26, 2013)

Basically, 3dfx was bringing out these crazy strong 3D accelerator cards in the second half of the 90s, which had a proprietary programming interface (Glide) but made games optimized for it run really fast. I had such a card back then and it was, for a short time, glorious... but then 3dfx pretty much died and Nvidia and ATI started dishing out decent cards at the turn of the millenium.



> The company also provided a dedicated API called Glide, that developers could use to interact with the card and exploit its capabilities. Glide was originally created as a subset of the industry-standard 3D graphics library OpenGL, specifically focused on the functionality required for game development. Another key difference between Glide and other 3D graphics APIs was that the functions exposed in Glide were implemented directly with native processor instructions for the GPU on the Voodoo Graphics.
> In other words, while OpenGL, and later on Microsoft’s Direct3D, provided an abstraction layer that exposed a common set of APIs independent of the specific graphics hardware that would actually process the instructions, Glide exposed only the functionality supported by the GPU.
> 
> This approach gave all 3Dfx cards superior performance in graphics processing, a key advantage that lasted many years, even when competing cards entered the market, such as the Matrox G200, ATI Rage Pro and Nvidia RIVA 128.



Sounds awfully similar to Mantle, doesn't it? The difference is of course that "3d graphics" is a much larger, developed and experienced market now than it was 15 years ago.


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Sep 27, 2013)

Valve employee. He's talking about today, of course. Is your faith in Gaben strong enough?


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 27, 2013)

Praise be to Gaben and his Gabecube, may it light our way through the darkness.


----------



## dream (Sep 27, 2013)

Deathbringerpt said:


> Valve employee. He's talking about today, of course. Is your faith in Gaben strong enough?



Fucking tease.


----------



## Furious George (Sep 27, 2013)

Why isn't it fucking time yet, Dream?! You're a mod, do something about the time already!


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 27, 2013)

Our bodies are not ready.


----------



## dream (Sep 27, 2013)

Furious George said:


> Why isn't it fucking time yet, Dream?! You're a mod, do something about the time already!



My powers only extend to this forum.


----------



## Furious George (Sep 27, 2013)

SO THEN WHY DO YOU HAVE A PICTURE OF THE GOD OF CHINA FOR AN AVATAR IF YOU CAN'T DO NOTHING!?

ITS FALSE ADVERTISING! 

*reports*


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

54 minutes to go until the final announcement.

I just want to point out that this is the third announcement. Do you know what this means? 

Gaben can finally count to three.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 27, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> Gaben can finally count to three.





The timer for the third announcement should say "Valve:time"


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Don't fuck us over Gabe, give us what we want


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

13 more minutes

is the announcement going to be broadcast?


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

In 4 minutes, refresh the page. The third link there will be clickable. :33


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Don't fuck us over Valve


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

Controller stuff


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Steam controller


----------



## Furious George (Sep 27, 2013)

^ That don't look like no crowbar to me...


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Furious George said:


> ^ That don't look like no crowbar to me...



              .


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

It looks hideous. 

At the very least, 



> The Steam Controller was designed from the ground up to be hackable. Just as the Steam Community and Workshop contributors currently deliver tremendous value via additions to software products on Steam, we believe that they will meaningfully contribute to the design of the Steam Controller. We plan to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.



fills me with some hope.


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Sep 27, 2013)




----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Gabe must be loving this right now


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

GABEN


----------



## Malvingt2 (Sep 27, 2013)

Zidane said:


> Steam controller




looks stupid lol


----------



## strongarm85 (Sep 27, 2013)

I want to get my hands on that controller.

People usually bitch when a new control scheme is introduced, but sometimes it just takes actually getting your hands on the device and using it to make a quality decision about whether or not it's any good.

As much as people bitched about the Wii Controller, it was accessible and well designed. The Steam Controller is a risk, but it's not like Valve has to bet the farm on it either because there are other more traditional gamepads on the market that will work just fine.


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Gaben must be getting some sick pleasure out of this


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

strongarm85 said:


> I want to get my hands on that controller.
> 
> People usually bitch when a new control scheme is introduced, but sometimes it just takes actually getting your hands on the device and using it to make a quality decision about whether or not it's any good.
> 
> As much as people bitched about the Wii Controller, it was accessible and well designed. The Steam Controller is a risk, but it's not like Valve has to bet the farm on it either because there are other more traditional gamepads on the market that will work just fine.



I've no doubt the trackpads will be great for a lot of games. I do hope they come up with a solution that lets you swap the pads out for sticks.

But that design. My hands aren't even big enough to hold it judging by the picture. 



Zidane said:


> Gaben must be getting some sick pleasure out of this



Gaben is an inter-dimensional being that feeds on misery.


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)

Gaben feeds of the rustling of his fans


----------



## deathgod (Sep 27, 2013)

I like the idea of those trackpads. They should be awesome for FPS but I'm guessing there's no fighting games on Steam? Controller looks weird but if it's performance is on point maybe we'll see more of this thinking outside the box trickling down to consoles and other PC gamepads.


----------



## Reyes (Sep 27, 2013)




----------



## Charlotte D. Kurisu (Sep 27, 2013)

Zidane said:


> Steam controller



I'll hold judgement until I actually use. Strictly speaking about looks though, it looks horrible.


----------



## dream (Sep 27, 2013)

I actually like how the controller looks and the button layout.  I'll need to test it to see if it is actually good but it seems like Valve picked a solid design choice.

Anyways, still no Half-Life 3 announcement.  I knew that it was unlikely but I hope you get raped by alligators, Gabe.


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 27, 2013)

Chances are it'll feel pretty good to hold.


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Sep 27, 2013)

The lack of joysticks make it look unorthodox but then again, that's sorta the point. The real question is how good it actually is when playing games unfit for controllers like RTSes, FPSes and shit.

Kinda want to to try it.


----------



## steveht93 (Sep 27, 2013)

Ugly controller,daed machine,daed company. Volvo disband plox.


----------



## dream (Sep 27, 2013)

Valve a dead company? 

They won't be dead as long as Steam is raking in millions for them.


----------



## Death-kun (Sep 27, 2013)

I think Valve knows what they're doing with that new controller. They wouldn't be raking in so much money if they were completely clueless. This is just another, and optimized, alternative to the myriad of gamepads already out there. 

They've obviously tried to make it as "mapping friendly" as possible.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 27, 2013)

It is an interesting idea, and the gamepad itself will probably be really helpful for a lot of games. But _goddamn_ it's ugly. 

i also hope they come in different sizes. It looks big. Even the 360 controller is too big for me. I desperately hope one version comes in ps2 controller size.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 28, 2013)

Intrigued by it. Valve have balls. 

And if Tommy Refenes of all people and other devs think it's good then I have confidence.


----------



## Shirker (Sep 28, 2013)

Deathbringerpt said:


> The lack of joysticks make it look unorthodox but then again, that's sorta the point. The real question is how good it actually is when playing games unfit for controllers like RTSes, FPSes and shit.
> 
> Kinda want to to try it.



Due to the trackpads, I have a hunch this'll actually be perfect for them, granted the pads are responsive enough.

I'm more worried about fighting games. It looks like they'll nigh-unplayable without some mod or something.


----------



## Jake CENA (Sep 29, 2013)

Two shitty consoles are more tham enough. No need to add another valve.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

Since it's completely open and basically a PC, you can probably run every emulator known to man on it  It's basically a PC, PSX/2, Wii, SNES, DS and god knows what else in one


----------



## Naruto (Sep 29, 2013)

Zaru said:


> It's basically a PC, PSX/2, Wii, SNES, DS and god knows what else in one



So a PC then 

I'll be honest, all I'm interested in is the SteamOS.

The controller mildly intrigues me, but I still doubt it will offer the same kind of precision that a mouse does. The trackpads are not big enough for it. Every enthusiast knows you need low sensitivity and a wide surface to work with, and an entire hand is always better than a thumb. Any fighting game player worth his salt will tell you sticks are superior - and the same logic applies to mouse motion, if only to a slightly lesser extent.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

Naruto said:


> So a PC then



... with built-in streaming capability for Steam games and optimized for use in living rooms.
Of course, you could probably modify any PC for that manually (and people will, since it's seemingly all open for the users), but they'll try to provide the rules/guidelines for having it properly supported and not just glued together with a plethora of issues.



Naruto said:


> Any fighting game player worth his salt will tell you sticks are superior - and the same logic applies to mouse motion, if only to a slightly lesser extent.


It won't BEAT mouse control, but it intends to be a much better replacement than sticks. Maybe it will give console makers some ideas to not have first person games feel like soggy shit while aiming in future controllers, if nothing else.

And hey, if even a controller nazi like the Super Meat Boy developer likes it (he got to test it already for some reason), it shouldn't be all that bad.


----------



## Naruto (Sep 29, 2013)

Zaru said:


> you can probably run every emulator known to man on it



Well, it's Linux so some of them won't work unless they're open source and/or the authors decide to port it. More importantly, a lot of them rely on DirectX libraries and report far better performance than OpenGL.



Zaru said:


> ... with built-in streaming capability for Steam games and optimized for use in living rooms.



Prepackaging a PC so it's more appealing to the average consumer - I'm all for it. The streaming I frankly don't see the point.



Zaru said:


> And hey, if even a controller nazi like the Super Meat Boy developer likes it (he got to test it already for some reason), it shouldn't be all that bad.



I meant arcade sticks, not analog sticks 

And if SMB's devs like the gamepad, I'd say that is definitely reason to pay attention to this.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

Naruto said:


> Well, it's Linux so some of them won't work unless they're open source and/or the authors decide to port it. More importantly, a lot of them rely on DirectX libraries and report far better performance than OpenGL.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



OpenGL is its own kind of worms and AMD isn't helping with Mantle, but Valve is trying to push Linux as a gaming platform. Considering their huge influence on PC gaming, that's hard to ignore. We'll see how much that works out. In any case, you can just install Windows as a second OS and run Steam in Big Picture mode there if you fancy that, I guess. Personally I stick to Windows if I can.

The streaming is mostly meant as a bridge for non-Linux games for people who already have a "Steamed" PC in their home. It allows for tons of older / non-Linux games to be played, although with input lag of course (that's always the issue with any streaming)

People who are hardcore enough to play fighting games with special arcade sticks will never be satisfied with normal controllers anyway so who cares about them


Personally I have no big purchasing interest or usage scenario for the things Valve announced here, but I love that they are trying something new. Someone has to, and it can only be someone who has a fat war chest and a risk-taking willingness.


----------



## Naruto (Sep 29, 2013)

Zaru said:


> People who are hardcore enough to play fighting games with special arcade sticks will never be satisfied with normal controllers anyway so who cares about them



I was just trying to make a point.

I'm sure the trackpads will be better than the gamepad analog sticks we've had for years when it comes to like, shooting games and whatnot, but I will be very surprised if they're a truly viable option for RTS's.

I mentioned arcade sticks because it's widely accepted that you get more precision with your hand than with your thumb, and I personally believe it's the same with a mouse or a would-be replacement for a mouse, like these trackpads.

Not trying to dismiss the gamepad, it's just not going to improve things for me much since I already have a gamepad for the games that truly need them.



> Valve is trying to push Linux as a gaming platform. Considering their huge influence on PC gaming, that's hard to ignore.



Which is why I said the SteamOS is what I'm truly interested in. I've wanted to switch to Linux as my primary OS for years.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 29, 2013)

Beta model:


*Spoiler*: __ 








developer impressions


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

Naruto said:


> I was just trying to make a point.
> 
> I'm sure the trackpads will be better than the gamepad analog sticks we've had for years when it comes to like, shooting games and whatnot, but I will be very surprised if they're a truly viable option for RTS's.
> 
> ...



It will be a viable option for RTS in singleplayer and such, I guess. Thumbs are less precise than index/middle fingers which are less precise than general arm/wrist movement, so that's an inherent downside no controller can overcome, but it will be better than anything current consoles have to offer.
Nobody's expecting to play master league Starcraft 2 on it, I hope.

I will have no use for it either but someday I'll live in a place with a living room and then things could be very different.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 29, 2013)

I really hope Valve and devs thought about making big screen menus and UIs for their games when launching in BPM. Playing Dota2 for ex on the couch sounds intriguing, but not with the standard UI. That would be a pain in the ass to navigate


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

I'll put it this way: If mouse control matters so much in a game that people at a high level buy specific gaming mice, a non-mouse controller will never replace it at a high level.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 29, 2013)

Which I doubt is Valve's intention anyway. This isn't a rule-them-all controller, but something to bridge the gap. Something universal for the entirety of the steam catalogue and an alternative for people who don't like kb&m.


----------



## Patchouli (Sep 29, 2013)

I heard the words Linux and Emulation, so I came running here. My Linux desktop has PCSX2 (PS2), Dolphin (Gamecube, Wii), Snes9x (SNES), epsxe (PS1), Mupen64Plus (N64), VBA-M (GBC/GBA), and Demume (DS). They all run well. :33


----------



## Naruto (Sep 29, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> Playing Dota2 with this pad



Oh sweet baby jesus


----------



## Zaru (Sep 29, 2013)

Patchouli said:


> I heard the words Linux and Emulation, so I came running here. My Linux desktop has PCSX2 (PS2), Dolphin (Gamecube, Wii), Snes9x (SNES), epsxe (PS1), Mupen64Plus (N64), VBA-M (GBC/GBA), and Demume (DS). They all run well. :33


Too bad mature 360/PS3 emulation isn't coming anytime soon (if ever). That would complete the god machine.


----------



## αshɘs (Sep 29, 2013)

Naruto said:


> Oh sweet baby jesus



The International 4: Steam Controller Edition


----------



## Unlosing Ranger (Sep 29, 2013)

Zaru said:


> Too bad mature 360/PS3 emulation isn't coming anytime soon (if ever). That would complete the god machine.



HD consoles sure are hard to emulate


----------



## Zaru (Sep 30, 2013)

I'm starting to think Valve is keeping HL3 as a hostage for some future project, much like HL2 forced people to get into Steam


----------



## dream (Sep 30, 2013)

Zaru said:


> I'm starting to think Valve is keeping HL3 as a hostage for some future project, much like HL2 forced people to get into Steam



It's more likely that the technology wasn't or isn't at the point where Valve wants it to be for them to make Half-Life 3.  Perhaps they were waiting for next-gen consoles to be out before really starting to work on the game.


----------



## Zaru (Sep 30, 2013)

Dream said:


> It's more likely that the technology wasn't or isn't at the point where Valve wants it to be for them to make Half-Life 3.  Perhaps they were waiting for next-gen consoles to be out before really starting to work on the game.



The expectations and hype for the game will be enormous though
At least they're not turning it into vaporware like DNF


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 1, 2013)

Technology aside Valve are probably struggling to come up with ideas for a genre that has been oversaturated to hell. Right now every sign points to L4D3 being in more advanced states and they might make it a selling point for biometrics. HL? No idea, but they won't make it a SteamOS, Steam Machine exclusive. Timed Steam exclusive? Maybe.


----------



## dream (Oct 1, 2013)

> Valve has announced SteamOS, Steam Machines and a new Steam Controller. It's making a play for the living room, which PlayStation inhabits. Is it a threat to PlayStation?
> 
> Fergal Gara: In this market you've always got to expect some broadside disruptive technologies to come along, and it seems like a potentially good example of that. I haven't had a chance to study it in much detail. What I would say is, I don't think anything about it is significantly rattling our confidence at this point in time and what we're doing as PlayStation. We have to keep an eye on Valve and many other competitors.
> 
> We can't afford to ignore it. Steam is arguably the pre-eminent digital download service for gaming. So we'll watch it.





Well, at least Sony is  wary of Valve though it'll be years before they should really start worrying.


----------



## Naruto (Oct 1, 2013)

Dream said:


> Well, at least Sony is  wary of Valve though it'll be years before they should really start worrying.



The way I see it, if Valve is capable of fulfilling hardware demands and ships their first batch at a reasonable price, every other console that isn't Nintendo is in severe trouble.

In terms of available titles, the steam machine is going to blow everyone else out of the water - so hard it's not even close to being a competition. Think of the massive list of games available on steam, and then consider the fact that Valve has already promised all of them will be supported.

_"But Nardo"_ - I hear you ask - _"what matters is new games!"_. Well, you're not wrong. But as it turns out, nearly every single game released in the last generation has been multiplatform, with the xbox and playstation consoles only getting a handful of exclusives each year. Meanwhile the PC, and by extension the steam machine, has been getting those same multiplatform games plus far more exclusives than all other consoles combined. Not too shabby, right?

This is the best part, though: steam's digital store service is BY FAR the best there is. Triple A titles down to 5 bucks during the many sales throughout the year. Look at the competition here, there's no question.

Fellas, we're at a turning point. Either Valve will steamroll (HAH) or (far more likely) Microsoft and Sony are going to step up their game and provide better services for less money.


----------



## Kathutet (Oct 1, 2013)

I'm throwing money at my screen but nothing happens!


----------



## Reyes (Oct 1, 2013)

Kenneth said:


> I'm throwing money at my screen but nothing happens!



Keep trying Kenneth.


----------



## Zaru (Oct 1, 2013)

Valve will have a hard time crossing the border between "PC gaming" and "living room gaming" though. The distinction is still there, it is historically ingrained in people's minds. The reason why they're taking such a huge risk with all this is the massive amount of money that is in living room gaming.

I'm going to theorize here that Valve thinks PC gaming sales in its current state must be close to peaking out. They're not gonna lose their position in that field by going through this route so it's a risky potential market increase but not a risk for their existing market.


----------



## Patchouli (Oct 1, 2013)

Zaru said:


> Valve will have a hard time crossing the border between "PC gaming" and "living room gaming" though. The distinction is still there, it is historically ingrained in people's minds. The reason why they're taking such a huge risk with all this is the massive amount of money that is in living room gaming.
> 
> I'm going to theorize here that Valve thinks PC gaming sales in its current state must be close to peaking out. They're not gonna lose their position in that field by going through this route so it's a risky potential market increase but not a risk for their existing market.



Sounds about right. PC gamers could choose to ignore the Steam machines/OS entirely and continue on using Steam like they tend to. But there's a big potential gain in branching out to living rooms.

They probably looked at the number of Big Picture mode users and figured it was worth the investment.


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 3, 2013)

Uber, the guys who are making Planetary Annihilation tried out the controller: 

Waiting for impressions with shooters and (real-time) strategy games


----------



## Violent by Design (Oct 4, 2013)

Zaru said:


> I'm starting to think Valve is keeping HL3 as a hostage for some future project, much like HL2 forced people to get into Steam




Half Life 2 didn't force people to get steam, I'd say Counter-Strike was probably more responsible. I mean every online mod for Half Life (and there were a lot) required Steam.


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 4, 2013)

more impressions: 

edit: and more:


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 4, 2013)

> 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 DDR5 (GPU)
> ...


----------



## Zaru (Oct 4, 2013)

But what's the price


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 4, 2013)

Price doesn't matter at this point. What matters is some people are going to get Titan rigs for free (if you don't count potential taxes)


----------



## Zaru (Oct 4, 2013)

300 lucky people, it's like playing the lottery


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 4, 2013)

And here I was thinking Valve would go with an i3+GTX670 at most  Fucking i7s, Titans and 780s


----------



## dream (Oct 4, 2013)

That's a pretty nice set of configurations.


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 11, 2013)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeAjkbNq4xI[/youtube]


----------



## dream (Oct 11, 2013)

Need to see how it performs in a situation where speed in important such as a round of Counter-Strike.  Other than that, the controller seems pretty accurate.


----------



## Shirker (Oct 11, 2013)

I believe that problem could be fixed with a little in-game sensitivity tweaking.


----------



## αshɘs (Oct 15, 2013)

In-home streaming has popped up in the beta client, it's not fully finctional right now, will be proly activated for the 300 beta testers



also talks about Remote management and SteamOS stuff

and here'd another entry about Music changes and Remote control:


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 4, 2013)

On the phone atm, here some stuff



Edit:More, worth reading





And one more


Plus ign has multiple articles up but cba to link anymore lol

edit: got back

ign links:


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 5, 2013)

Oh, I see Valve put up a post about these coverages:


----------



## dream (Nov 5, 2013)

Not sure how I fell about that reference box.  Seems a bit too bland.


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Nov 5, 2013)

Dream said:


> Not sure how I fell about that reference box.  Seems a bit too bland.



Funny, I was thinking it looks too much like both Xbox One and the PS4. Fucking black boxes everywhere.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 5, 2013)

But is it functional though. Remember it can pack up to an i7+Titan.


----------



## dream (Nov 5, 2013)

Deathbringerpt said:


> Funny, I was thinking it looks too much like both Xbox One and the PS4. Fucking black boxes everywhere.



People need better designers. 



αshɘs said:


> But is it functional though. Remember it can pack up to an i7+Titan.



True enough.  

I am a bit surprised that there isn't an optical drive but I should have expected it given the Steam platform.  Heck, I don't even use my optical drive anymore.


----------



## Zaru (Nov 5, 2013)

Dream said:


> Heck, I don't even use my optical drive anymore.



It's funny how fast that changed, I remember not having enough comfort with TWO optical drives because I constantly had to change disks for different games, software etc.

However, a proper living room system needs a bluray/dvd player, so there should be Steamboxes that offer it. (or you can just build your own anyway)


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 6, 2013)

I'm pretty sure some OEMs will offer models with optical drives.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 6, 2013)

hmm, this is nice





> Those of us working on the Steam Machines project are excited about this launch: Deep Silver and 4A Games yesterday released the Linux version of Metro: Last Light on Steam, and confirmed support for SteamOS and the Steam Controller.
> 
> Metro already supports Steam Play, meaning that owners of any Steam version will automatically find the game added to their Windows PC, Mac and Linux Steam libraries.
> 
> *Metro: Last Light will also ship for free to the 300 recipients of Valve’s prototype Steam Machine. We will be announcing a few more games that will be part of the beta in the coming days. *We will also be selecting final beta participants soon from the pool of eligible applicants, so stay tuned for that, along with more info about how the new in-home streaming feature of Steam.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 8, 2013)

Total War getting a Linux port. After Project Cars and Last Light this is the third bigger game with announced SteamOS support. I take it these announcements will come more frequently now until the bigger blowout at CES.





> Those of us working on Steam hardware and SteamOS are pleased to announce another game coming soon to the platform. Here's the message straight from Rob Bartholomew at Creative Assembly:
> 
> At Creative Assembly we want our customers to be able to play on as many platforms and in as many locations as possible, so today we are announcing future support for both SteamOS and the Steam Controller.
> 
> ...



I wonder if the controller will really fit this, not to mention the UI will need some rework too probably.

Also, Steam In-home Streaming group went live, there's going to be a beta later this year.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 20, 2013)

Valve went a bit into detail about In-Home streaming today:


----------



## Ino Yamanaka (Nov 21, 2013)

Seems random and very risky/


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 26, 2013)

iBuyPower showing their prototype


----------



## Xiammes (Nov 26, 2013)

$500?

The Steam Box is killing it.


----------



## Seraphiel (Nov 26, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> iBuyPower showing their prototype



There is literally zero reason to ever buy anything from ibuypower, origin and similar sites. They overprice shit to insane prices and put in components that make no sense or are flat out bad.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 26, 2013)

Never heard of them, really. Without knowing the exact specs from a price point of view an R9 270 alone cost up to $180, so that $500 seems reasonable. 

I take it Asus, MSI models are going to be the ones to look forward to?


----------



## Seraphiel (Nov 26, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> Never heard of them, really. Without knowing the exact specs from a price point of view an R9 270 alone cost up to $180, so that $500 seems reasonable.
> 
> I take it Asus, MSI models are going to be the ones to look forward to?





About ibuypower and sites like that.

I didn't look much into steam machines because I usually just build my own PC's and hell my current graphics card costs more than 700$.

I really don't see a 500$ pc preforming well at 1080p.


----------



## Patchouli (Nov 26, 2013)

Seraphiel said:


> About ibuypower and sites like that.
> 
> I didn't look much into steam machines because I usually just build my own PC's and hell my current graphics card costs more than 700$.
> 
> I really don't see a 500$ pc preforming well at 1080p.



A $500 pc can definitely perform well at 1080p. Probably not so much at 2k/4k which are right around the corner.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 26, 2013)

Seraphiel said:


> About ibuypower and sites like that.



thanks, gonna check it out. People always complain about Alienware. I don't follow the pre-built scene much. 



> I didn't look much into steam machines because I usually just build my own PC's and hell my current graphics card costs more than 700$.



yeah, building your own always seems to be the best solution. Interested in Valve's prototype case though.

also what GPU do you hav if you don't mind me asking? 



> I really don't see a 500$ pc preforming well at 1080p.



depends on the settings  They never actually said it runs them at ultra, lol


----------



## Death-kun (Nov 26, 2013)

I would never invest more than $500 in a GPU, that's just ridiculous. You can buy an R9 290x for around half the price of a Titan, and it works nearly just as good. If I was going to upgrade from my GTX 570 Superclocked, that's what I would upgrade to.


----------



## αshɘs (Nov 26, 2013)

The R9 290 vanilla supposedly offers Titan performance for $400 which is $150 less than the X version. But reference models seem to be loud and hot.

Anyway the Titan isn't the true gaming enthusiast model from Nvidia anymore. 780 or 780ti are. Of course the latter is at $700...


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 5, 2013)

Not sure if official Steam Machine, but here's another living room PC


look what i made!

pretty neat concept, but not sure how the cooling will play out for both the rig and the tv. Also, that prize is steep, but specs aren't finalized yet


----------



## Axl Low (Dec 5, 2013)

nintendo and steam for next gen heroes? :33


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 11, 2013)

Beta units are shipping on the 13th. Changed it to US only 





> The time has come! We are ready to begin shipping Steam Machines and Steam Controllers to the 300 selected beta participants. The machines are due to leave the factory on Friday!
> 
> Here are some photos from the production line.
> 
> ...


----------



## Zaru (Dec 11, 2013)

Well, not like the odds were big to get one to begin with


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 11, 2013)

yeah 

It was nice to dream though!


I think they should have announced this detail earlier.


----------



## dream (Dec 11, 2013)

I'm going to feel some envy towards everyone that gets a unit with a Titan.


----------



## Zaru (Dec 11, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> I think they should have announced this detail earlier.



It's not like they knew that from the beginning. Regulation / import issues, I bet.



Dream said:


> I'm going to feel some envy towards everyone that gets a unit with a Titan.


In the worst case you can sell that shit for $$$. FREE MONEY


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 11, 2013)

Sure, but only 2 days before shipping?


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 11, 2013)

here's another Steam Machine:


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 12, 2013)

so, anyone here got in?


----------



## Naruto (Dec 12, 2013)

αshɘs said:


> Changed it to US only



...

Fuck you, Valve.


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 12, 2013)

people really freaked out in the steam group. First Diretide now this. tsk tsk Valve


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 13, 2013)

Steamdb put up a blog post, 

SteamOS will be available today probably when/after the store update goes live.


----------



## Death-kun (Dec 13, 2013)

I was so close to being in the beta, but the last thing I had to do was use a gamepad in Big Picture mode. I didn't have a controller set up to my PC at the time, so fuck me.


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 13, 2013)

looks like SteamOS is up, you'll find more infos on this continuously updating blog post: . It's based on Debian 7.1 Wheezy.

servers getting hammered. Official announcement and beta group still not up.

The group for parental controls is also up: . Beta is live.


----------



## dream (Dec 13, 2013)

Any pictures of the Linux Desktop with SteamOS?


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 13, 2013)

FAQ is up:


----------



## Naruto (Dec 13, 2013)

SteamOS is up but they're not affiliated with Valve? I'm confused.


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 13, 2013)

SteamDB isn't. A lot of people always think they're some official Steam database maintainers since they're running that site and are reporting about Steam updates, lol.



> This tool was made to give better insight into the applications and packages that Steam has in its database.
> 
> We go by Steam Database, or simply SteamDB, if you'd like. We are not affiliated with Valve in any way.



anyways, here's the official announcement:





> The prototype Steam Machines and Steam Controllers have officially left the factory and are on their way to beta testers.
> 
> *Also, SteamOS is available for intrepid Linux hackers to try out. At this point the OS itself is not yet a finished product for a non-technical user, but if you’re interested you can read more about it at steampowered.com/steamos.
> *
> Thanks in advance to the three hundred Steam users who are going to spend their time helping us shape the future of Steam in the living room. We will be posting updates here about the experiences that users are having once the Steam hardware devices arrive at homes. Here we go!



SteamOS page:


----------



## Galo de Lion (Dec 13, 2013)

Sounds interesting. What does bring to the future of gaming I wonder?


----------



## dream (Dec 13, 2013)

At the very least it means improved drivers from AMD/Nvidia for their products on Linux systems which is sorely needed.  Beyond that...more support for Linux gaming from bigger publishers.  Anything beyond that will be hard to tell at this point.


----------



## Naruto (Dec 14, 2013)

I think I'll hold off on SteamOS until it has been tested for a couple months. The fact that you can't even install it in dualboot mode right now kind of sucks.


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 14, 2013)

Yeah, I'll probably do the same.

Larabel put some infos up, benchmarks to come

Link removed
Link removed
Link removed
Link removed


----------



## dream (Dec 14, 2013)

Not a big fan of Gnome3 but at least it is better than what Ubuntu has.  I'll wait until it is out of beta to try it.


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 14, 2013)

That's going to be a long time, lol

anyways, if anyone missed it, parental controls are live in the client beta. And streaming beta should start soon. Join the group, if you're interested.

edit: Some people already got theirs:



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXCbdn00pKY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khC927-1fRY[/youtube]

more to come from now on

can't wait for controller impressions


----------



## Disaresta (Dec 15, 2013)

i cant wait to see how well games run on them. do we know the price point for the models the beta testers got?


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 15, 2013)

Someone could probably list the prices based on the specs, but Valve won't sell these models, these are only for testing. They will however release the source CAD files for the cases for people who want to build their own.

The most expensive model which has an i7-Titan combo would cost over $1k. The least expensive would be the i3-GTX660 one, but I don't know the prices.

some more vids:


*Spoiler*: _Portal, Metro: Last Light, TF2_ 



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2go6LiDco[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_k9EklXqqU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftNIgjK9tO8[/youtube]




they should fiddle around with the sensitivity

edit1: 
*Spoiler*: _Tear down, L4D2, Windows_ 





[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVkas2E3NAg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0WuFcUPCg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8tRU6bQb6Q[/youtube]




edit2:
*Spoiler*: _Last Light comparisons, CS: S, HL2: DM_ 





[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfThaG975uQ[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1i-i1nGvno[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIAAzlKWWCA[/youtube]


----------



## Zaru (Dec 17, 2013)

I love how the cat just gets in front of the screen all like "Yes, this is exactly where I need to stand"


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 19, 2013)

*Spoiler*: _Controller settings and VVVVVVV_ 



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieUGm2AmrEE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXqjTCDjUJU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-mu3HnxmBo[/youtube]




edit1: 
*Spoiler*: _Rogue Legacy, Frozen Synapse, Super Meat Boy_ 




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuAOUQi-jCM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89UgY3w_hqM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJAEUEVESgA[/youtube]




these will just keep on coming; probably have to edit a couple of posts together not to make this a spamfest 


edit2:
*Spoiler*: _CS: S, FTL, Dota2, Surgeon Sim_ 




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij5QM5F3x4I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWqHK8mIxI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20dM75bYnQo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuR-0gNZLMw[/youtube]




edit3:

*Spoiler*: _TF2 controller sensitivity and input settings_ 



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZh-qvUcIxE[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg1yhGmKJhQ[/YOUTUBE]





*Spoiler*: _Hearthstone, SSF4, Bastion, Pinball FX2, SteamOS overview_ 



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBjxPIuFK0o[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXIhXSBA41Q[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPTaOEdXmsA[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ug8Uq9sPvQ[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwvJ7hN4Ncs[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoimbOUe1rA[/YOUTUBE]





*Spoiler*: _Super Meat Boy_ 



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZvD2AqVnn8[/YOUTUBE]


----------



## Muk (Dec 19, 2013)

so any reviews, yet?


----------



## Zaru (Dec 19, 2013)

Why would you "review" an unfinished beta product


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 19, 2013)

Tommy Refenes received a package too

58.
Times.

maybe other devs will receive it too?

Levine got one too, yep



Platinum too


----------



## Deathbringerpt (Dec 19, 2013)

So what's the consensus on the controller so far, if any?


----------



## αshɘs (Dec 19, 2013)

Negative to neutral seemed to be most people's reaction. As a couple of people get more used to it, the more it grows on them though. This has a learning curve, it requires some time to get used to it, naturally. Majority seem to agree that the pads are very sensitive and they can't rest their thumbs on them because of that. 


*Spoiler*: _Here are some impressions I gathered_ 
























Also keep in mind right now this controller only runs in legacy mode, meaning it emulates keyboard and mouse. There's no game that supports it out-of-the-box (as a controller, no special features, no prompts etc), but Valve recently added the controller API to Steamworks, so some specialized stuff should come soon for games. But if you watch a couple of vids I posted even in this mode it seems to work fine for a couple of games.

anyway

A more professional teardown here


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 2, 2014)

ugh, forgot to update this with vids. Not gonna bother sorting through all the vids, so just post the channels. Browse them:










...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 6, 2014)

5pm Las Vegas time (2 am for central Europe) Valve will hold their press even at CES

12 partners revelad so far: 
Cyberpower's SM:   looks like something from the 90s
Digital Storm's SM:  that price 



no streams as of yet, liveblogs: 




hopefully there will be some software announcements too, like list of devs supporting Linux, news about streaming etc


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 7, 2014)

*Spoiler*: _large pics_ 

















lol at those prices. Lame. And still no sight of software support or streaming.


----------



## Disaresta (Jan 7, 2014)

some of these dumb asses are just slapping the name steam machine on these things for shits and giggles.


----------



## Overwatch (Jan 7, 2014)

Them prices, mang...


I'm better off building my own gaming rig.


----------



## Linkdarkside (Jan 8, 2014)

αshɘs said:


> *Spoiler*: _large pics_
> 
> 
> 
> ...





whit those prizes people can just build their own gaming pc's.


----------



## Gino (Jan 8, 2014)

I know I fucking said there was no point in this shit it's redundant.


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 10, 2014)

Valve really half-assed this CES. Overall press reactions are pretty negative (mostly regarding the controller), which just adds to the skepticism which already predated this event. They just made it unnecessarily harder for themselves. It's one thing these machines have lame price/perf, but we have yet to hear about major SteamOS support from devs and the controller hasn't set the world on fire (includes both the press and the testers).


----------



## Zaru (Jan 10, 2014)

They should have used all their hat money to fund more Linux ports before even thinking about focussing on it as an OS.


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 10, 2014)

That's not their style, they could however offer to take a lesser sales cut of a game if there's a linux version for it.


----------



## Kaitou (Jan 10, 2014)

So how is this an incentive for already PC gamers or Consoles gamers?

Oh wait....


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 15, 2014)

so, Steam Dev Days is under way and here are some infos so far:



edit:

new controller design


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 23, 2014)

First big batch of invites for the in-home streaming beta are being sent out today. Check your emails. I got in, but since I'm not at home for some time, can't test it :/


----------



## Naruto (Jan 23, 2014)

I'm sorely disappointed with SteamOS so far, but I guess I shouldn't have expected some kind of Valve voodoo magic that would allow them to port the entire steam library over to linux.

I hope OpenGL eventually becomes the most prominent API but even if it does it's a long ways off and I'm not about to give up hundreds of games for little benefit.


----------



## Canute87 (Jan 23, 2014)

Why the fuck would someone waste 6000 on a PC?


----------



## Zaru (Jan 23, 2014)

At the end of the day, it's still only Linux. It's more useful for people who do security, development and administration, but games? That's still a long way off.


----------



## Naruto (Jan 23, 2014)

Zaru said:


> At the end of the day, it's still only Linux. It's more useful for people who do security, development and administration, but games? That's still a long way off.



But it's so silly that we're far away from it. It would benefit everyone but microsoft, really.

In this day and age, paying for an operating system, especially when it's inferior, is kind of stupid. With every passing year that we don't take the plunge to linux, we're only digging ourselves deeper into this ditch that is windows.


----------



## αshɘs (Jan 23, 2014)

Naruto said:


> I'm sorely disappointed with SteamOS so far, but I guess I shouldn't have expected some kind of Valve voodoo magic that would allow them to port the entire steam library over to linux.
> 
> I hope OpenGL eventually becomes the most prominent API but even if it does it's a long ways off and I'm not about to give up hundreds of games for little benefit.



If Valve came up with an universal emulation why would anyone bother with OGL? If they want to push native linux ports they should provide better tools. They said the #1 request from devs was a better debugger so they made VOGL. They also worked with Krhonos to establish an open source reference GLSL compiler. They've been working with Nvidia, Intel and AMD to improve the drivers. The general buzz from SDD has been pretty positive and Valve said there will be AAA support for SteamOS, we can take their word for it (or not). Nothing else they can do.

Since this is Valve everyone knew this is going to have a slow start and build, iterate from there.


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## Naruto (Jan 23, 2014)

αshɘs said:


> If Valve came up with an universal emulation why would anyone bother with OGL? If they want to push native linux ports they should provide better tools. They said the #1 request from devs was a better debugger so they made VOGL. They also worked with Krhonos to establish an open source reference GLSL compiler. They've been working with Nvidia, Intel and AMD to improve the drivers. The general buzz from SDD has been pretty positive and Valve said there will be AAA support for SteamOS, we can take their word for it (or not). Nothing else they can do.
> 
> Since this is Valve everyone knew this is going to have a slow start and build, iterate from there.



And I commend Valve for their efforts and sincerely hope five years from now Linux can be looked at as a serious choice of operating system for gamers, but backwards compatibility is too big of an issue for me. I own too many games on steam.


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## αshɘs (Jan 23, 2014)

That's a valid concern, but I don't think Valve is in a huge rush here. As long as you and other people keep using Steam they won't care. Same goes for this livingroom initiative. Valve won't care if people don't buy Steam Machines and all that jazz, if they use Steam.

I mean this is how they view it:



> As for Valve’s ambitions for the future of hardware, Coomer explained that the team isn’t necessarily looking to win over casual gamers who don’t own a PC, but instead is catering to Steam users first.
> 
> “The focus of most of this work has really been on bringing value to Steam customers,” he said. “Even if we’re only serving a fraction of them, we feel like we’ll be very successful if that fraction is having a great experience in the living room. That number will probably grow over time. We’re not even trying to push our existing users toward the living room or the TV if they don’t want to have that experience. All those customers are currently pretty happy doing what they’re doing in the den with their PCs or laptops. This is just an extra avenue for them, if they want to sit on the sofa like a lot of them do, I think. Then it’s great to have this other option through which you can access Steam. It’s not an attempt to go very far, or really at all at first, beyond our initiated customer base. We’re going to learn a bunch from the people who already value Steam really highly. We don’t feel like we have to jump exponentially outside that group just to be successful in that realm.”
> 
> “Usually, when a platform like this gets brought out, it’s a very different working method and proposition to customers,” he continued. “It looks more like a team that’s much larger than us has worked at perfecting something and finishing it, and then reducing risk as much possible and locking down that design, making it ready for a massive initial manufacturing push, spending billions of dollars on marketing. Very different from what we’re trying to do. We don’t have to be so risk-averse. We intentionally are operating this way because we think it will result in a much better product, in the short term and the long term, to be public about this, and to have it iterated with us and with partners and with users. But it lets us start small and grow over time.”





> We left Valve's headquarters with the biggest, most important questions unanswered — questions that will determine whether the Steam Machine could legitimately challenge game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Valve wouldn't tell me who the company's hardware and software partners are, what Steam Machines or the Steam Controller will cost, or which killer games might make the Linux-based SteamOS an attractive Windows alternative.
> 
> But over the course of my visit, Valve made it clear that's not the point quite yet. The team is focused on serving its existing PC customers above all else, and doing it in a relaxed fashion. "We've been speaking as if it's a foregone conclusion that everyone wants to be in the living room. That's not true, and it's great that that's not true," says Coomer. "There's a little bit of consternation around our most dedicated customers that we might try to shuttle them into a different room in the house. That's not what we're trying to do at all."


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## Naruto (Jan 23, 2014)

I'm sure they care if people buy steam machines, given that it's a slice of the market they currently don't have a foothold in.

But that's an entirely different discussion.


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## αshɘs (Jan 23, 2014)

Here's an if though, a big if. Let's say Valve succeeds in bringing the big players on linux. SteamOS starts off better than expected, we get the newest and recent (couple of years old) games on it. At that point maybe Valve will view these companies being invested in OGL enough to find a solution for the older games without compromising the initiative. Because I sure as hell can't imagine anyone going back to all those older and legacy games to do any job on them :/

Again, looking at the reception to SDD indies are enthusiastic and even people from major pubs were impressed, even though they weren't higher ups. One Ubi dev even tweeted how it's time to go all out on Steam  The AAA scene remains to be scene. Valve keeps saying they have support ever since the SteamOS announcement, but save for Last Light, Rome 2 and pCARS we haven't go anything else.


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## luminaeus (Jan 23, 2014)

Steam controller doesn't support dota 2


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## Naruto (Jan 24, 2014)

Phanalax said:


> Steam controller doesn't support dota 2



You would have to be fucking insane to play Dota with a gamepad anyway


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## dream (Jan 24, 2014)

Naruto said:


> You would have to be fucking insane to play Dota with a gamepad anyway



The very thought of someone doing this makes me giggle.


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## αshɘs (Jan 24, 2014)

It does support it (as it supports anything with kb&m), but it's not for competitive play: This one, in fact, is the type of things I'm looking for a mage.


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## luminaeus (Jan 24, 2014)

Naruto said:


> You would have to be fucking insane to play Dota with a gamepad anyway



Lol I could just imagine


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## αshɘs (Jan 31, 2014)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIL71Q6eJ2Y[/youtube]


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## αshɘs (Feb 4, 2014)

Steam Music beta has started:


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## creative (Feb 4, 2014)

I hope this takes off really well with Valve.what with games for windows getting fucking axed and all. and not for a sorta shit post like yours truly 

what if you're a crazy man/woman/childcalledit (like myself) and play PC games from his/her/it's? laptop or with just the computer tower hooked up to you're HD television. how do you talk a crazy fuck like myself out of my backwards PC set up and into buying steam boxes?


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## αshɘs (Feb 11, 2014)

> Videos of our recent developer conference, Steam Dev Days, are now available online. Of particular interest to this group are the Steam Machines and Steam Controller talks, where we discuss our goals, rationale and plans for the universe of Steam in the living room. Have a look at steamdevdays.com, and let us know what you think in the discussions.


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## Agmaster (Feb 11, 2014)

I am still not following how this helps me if I don't already have a good PC in my bedroom.  ELI5.  The stteambox is a medium, not a sourcepoint of content.


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## αshɘs (Mar 14, 2014)




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## Deathbringerpt (Mar 14, 2014)

Looks much more legitimate now. Ironic that Amazon showed its abhorrent controller while Valve updated their own to look better.


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## αshɘs (May 21, 2014)

In-home streaming is officially out: Your welcome.

Right now it only supports streaming from Win to Linux or OSX. Also they note support for other system is coming too, which I guess means Android and iOS.


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## Naruto (May 21, 2014)

αshɘs said:


> In-home streaming is officially out: Your welcome.
> 
> Right now it only supports streaming from Win to Linux or OSX. Also they note support for other system is coming too, which I guess means Android and iOS.



Dude, if streaming for android is solid I might actually care about this.


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## αshɘs (May 28, 2014)

Oh Valve. Oh Valve


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## Jake CENA (May 28, 2014)

The controller looks atrocious to me.


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## αshɘs (Feb 24, 2015)

well, there's going to be some stuff at GDC



> February 23, 2015 - Valve will show a family of new Steam devices at next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, CA. Products being demonstrated at GDC include Steam Machines with the final Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system.
> 
> Developers and publishers interested in experiencing the new SteamVR hardware may request to schedule a GDC demo at .
> 
> ...



don't expect Source 2 and new game btw


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## blacklusterseph004 (Feb 24, 2015)

Why can't we expect Source 2? Isn't  it done already?


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## αshɘs (Feb 24, 2015)

Nothing in their GDC sessions and press release is even remotely hinting at it, and no, it's not finished.

This GDC is going to be about Steam Machines and VR. Doubt there is room for their engine. Too much info, too much noise for one event already.

If they do talk about, then cool, but I'm not getting my hopes up and advise others to do the same.


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## dream (Feb 24, 2015)

Source 2 & HL-3 will be at E3. ...


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## αshɘs (Feb 25, 2015)

As if, Dream. As if


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## αshɘs (Mar 3, 2015)

> March 3, 2015 -- Valve announces a number of product and technologies at this week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.
> 
> "We continue to see very strong growth in PC Gaming, with Steam growing 50% in the last 12 months," said Gabe Newell, Valve's president. "With these announcements we hope that we are helping build on that momentum."
> 
> ...


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## αshɘs (Mar 5, 2015)

the impressions on the Vive and SteamVR have been really great btw

only going to post the Tested vid

[youtube]leg2gS6ShZw[/youtube]


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## James (Mar 9, 2015)

I'm starting to get pretty hype about this (as a relatively new convert to Steam gaming).

I really want to try the new rendition of the controller. I want to feel if the trackpads really do work decently or if it feels like shit.

Hope they have a decent number of demo units around.


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## αshɘs (Jun 4, 2015)

[youtube]8fs2Yh1PFwM[/youtube]


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## dream (Jun 6, 2015)

Am I the only one here that has lost most if not all interest in SteamOS/steam hardware?


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## Naruto (Jun 6, 2015)

Dream said:


> Am I the only one here that has lost most if not all interest in SteamOS/steam hardware?



I'm with you.

SteamOS turns out to bring no real benefit so far, I guess the sudden spike in Linux ports was nice but otherwise it's not substantial enough to consider ditching Windows, and the price of their hardware is too high compared to other consoles to be competitive. And of course, while they're better than consoles, they're still only semi-decent computers.


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## dream (Jun 6, 2015)

I wasn't expecting much from the actual SteamOS but the promise it offered was the main appeal.  That didn't really pan out especially with Valve not really supporting/promoting it effectively.  

Given that Windows 10 looks to be fairly alright/decent I can't imagine many gamers wanting to ditch it in favor of SteamOS/Linux when the state of gaming on Linux.


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## TypicalKiller (Jun 7, 2015)

I have high hopes for steam controller actually.


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## Zaru (Jun 7, 2015)

The controller is something I definitely need to try out in the future. Of course people will bitch at it because they expect it to work perfectly the instant they try it, without any learning curve, but that's the market.


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## PowerStone (Jul 1, 2015)

All 3 items are useless.
Steam machine - a pc without windows and worse parts then my actual pc at home.
Steam controller - Get a xbox one controller with play and charge kit... their was no need for this.
Idk, people could make good use out of these i guess.. im not buying them though...


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## dream (Jul 1, 2015)

Valve's venture into hardware seems to be a disaster.  They need to focus on making games.


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## Jυstin (Jul 1, 2015)

If it's not an announcement for HL3, it doesn't have my amazement.


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## dream (Jul 2, 2015)

Sucks that we'll likely have to wait until next year for such an announcement.


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## Patchouli (Jul 2, 2015)

I like that steam os became a thing, if only because linux's gaming library is now in the 1,000+ range.

Just a few years back, native ports were a very rare sight. Could only rely on wine or dual-booting Windows to get games that weren't Tux Racer running. Granted, Windows' steam library is ~5,000, so there's still a ways to go, and dual-booting's still the best option.

It's an improvement though. With any luck, Vulkan will become more popular than Directx 12, and linux ports will be trivially easy to make. (And because it should bring the same sort of performance improvements you'd see in Directx 12. But unlike DX12, Vulkan works fine on previous versions of Windows.)

ty gaben


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## αshɘs (Jul 8, 2015)

Dream said:


> Sucks that we'll likely have to wait until next year for such an announcement.



Considering L4D3 has yet to be announced and by all accounts it's their next game, HL3 will be 2017 at the earliest aka defo no announcement next year.


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## αshɘs (Sep 22, 2015)

Devs and testers have been receiving theirs. These two users have been posting vids:




The latter's second Project Cars vid shows off the gyro in a tilt-to-steer functionality and his FPS vid shows that with the dual-stage triggers you can bypass the analog pull by squeezing the trigger fast. So you can map ADS (analog pull) and fire (click) to one trigger and if you want to fire from the hip just pull it fast enough. And that will free up the second trigger do to others stuff, so you can map the controller in a way you don't need to lift your thumbs to access the face buttons.


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## Naruto (Oct 31, 2015)

Unfortunately a steam machine just doesn't offer much. It's more expensive than a console, less powerful than a custom built PC, and presents no exclusives.

It's a tough sell.


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## αshɘs (Nov 3, 2015)

Yep, Valve's foray into HW is a joke. Also not expecting much from the Vive btw. Might be critically good, but the Rift and PSVR should beat it fairly easy. Especially since Valve and HTC aren't doing any exclusives while the other two are out there making deals left and right.

There are some pretty good videos and impressions about the controller btw, it's just that the learning curve is so high and Valve haven't explained much about its features and the software buggy, so a lot of people including the press and youtubers have written it off already. For example people didn't know it has a configurable gyro, which you can use to help with aiming in shooters.


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