Steam OS
Nordic
Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
in Off-Topic
Basically valve is making a stripped down debian based Linux OS with a focus on gaming and entertainment. There is some sort of really cool game streaming thingy too. Anyways take a look for yourself, in link below.
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/
I personally will be watching for more updates.
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/
I personally will be watching for more updates.
Comments
Opinions?
*Merged*
Dat burn maus, dat burn.
To quote myself from the ausns2 forumz..
As some one who has been trying to get my wife to move her desktop to linux for a few months now, this is the sort of thing that I could get behind nicely. It should reduce the number of fiddly bits between I want to ditch windows and I want to play games by a good number.
I guess that puts me in the cautiously optimistic camp.
Also, we should really start up a company and roll out steam boxes in nice pretty little living room friendly cases once we know a bit more about it.
I do agree that ns2 wouldn't work on a TV though. It's just not that kind of game. That said, I will be installing SteamOS on my PC for sure. I've almost completely replaced windows on my comp now, every game I play is now either on Linux or runs better under wine. I just keep it now for lan parties for when people want to play older games. I could probably run any old game in wine but it's better to just play then waste time setting it up, at least in a lan setting where people are waiting on you.
I wonder what kind of latency we'll see on this streaming feature? Can anyone else see themselves doing this if the latency is decent?
I for one am certain the family sharing thing will get used very heavily in our house, especially as my son gets older.
On non multiplayer games yes. On singly player games it will be hardly noticeable if at all.
Yep, hardware.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI2ODE
I'm guessing its the "Hearthstone" thing, which seems to support many platforms.
Last FAQ on the recent page:
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.
Patent Valve has applied for a while ago (controller with interchangeable parts). It also alludes to the steam streaming already talked about on the first day.
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20110105231
So, a controller is my guess. (all info stolen from other places on the intertubes)
But yeah, I can't wait to see what they unveil in that last announcement. Valve could completely blow everything out of the water and announce games/input/new engine etc.
We shall see
And taking it -out of the living room and just using the OS for your regular computer.. can't see that working out, windows will be the all in all for gaming for a very long time
The climate has been changing lately, the indie game scene has been expanding very quickly these last few years, especially with the advent of crowd funding. Many of these have Linux support and many more on the way do as well. While you may or may not care about indie games, they are rapidly pulling themselves into the mainstream with games like Godus, torment, Shroud of the Avatar and of course Star Citizen. The publisher model may not go away but it's going to have to change to survive because if they don't adapt then... well... Natural Selection 3 confirmed.
Valve recognizes that they can compete in both the console and PC game space at the same time with one product. A product that they themselves don't even have to build. They're enabling OEMs to compete directly with MSsony over the hardware, something that neither company can do effectively because the OEMs will make better margins at the same price points. In return Valve maintains the OS for the OEMs and gets first dibs on distribution, which is what they're good at and where most of their filthy lucre comes from in the first place. Manufacturers manufacturing, distributors distributing and developers developing. It's a sound system, letting people do what they're best at on an open system. Certainly much better then having one big company trying to control everything and take what they want off the top.
Basically Valve is doing exactly what Google did with the chromebook and that's going pretty well so far. Pretty soon all MS will have left is office, but google will probably pull something even better out of their ass soon anyway.
Now, I'm not saying it will work. They're going to need some killer games and they're going to need games that run natively on high powered steam boxes, not just small games and streaming from windows boxes. I bet they know that though.
The good news for gamers though is that if they succeed there will no longer be consoles and PCs. There will simply be gaming PCs. No more us and them bullshit, just us.
So again, I could be wrong, but I don't agree that windows will control all gaming for a very long time.
--Scythe--
I understand what you're saying but it won't happen like this, windows cannot fall.. no matter how many flop releases MS tries to do; the platform is so deeply established, the operating system itself is useful for business, personal use, and gaming; while no other OS does all three in that department. And don't forget, people who enjoy playing via a television or don't have room for a computer will have a more enjoyable time on a console; there is very few pc games enjoyable with a controller besides platformers/fighting and some other SP games, take any online game with a controller and you'll be so brutally handicapped that it will be a miserable experience; plus the next-gen consoles are already pre-ordered by the masses, this announcement came too late
Nothing will ever be superior in my lifetime/opinion to a mouse and keyboard in terms of input control/response, quote me on this
If anything gets faster, it's simply the technology in the rear panel ports of the MB/the mouse itself
Much like a bicycle, you cannot move as fast as yourself riding a bike; it's a tool, a extension to which your body adapts
Heck I'd be curious if anyone could make it so ps/2 ports superior to usb for mice as well (currently ps/2 is superior for keyboards) which allows the 'infinite' key press w345gnmhjyu8i0po and no delay yatta yatta; but afaik ps/2 ports can't do the higher hz rates upon other things :{
If Valve were going to make a controller, I'd expect them to probably put a trackball in instead of a second joystick. That way you get mouse level precision with the comfort and ease of acess afforded by an ergonomic controller.
2. Steambox(es) (please apply for a free steambox by playing with a controller)
3. Gabenpad available now for purchase !
Sneaky tricky Valve.
As for the controller thing. Many games work great with a controller, especially console posts which we have no shortage of. There's an icon when you're using big picture mode showing whether it's a keys/mouse game or if a game has full or partial/optional controller support. Besides, they've already said you can use any input method you want, which really means anything that any given game supports.
While I may not be certain that mouse will ALWAYS be best, I do agree that it is right now but, like @Geminosity pointed out, keyboard not so much. I use a nostromo for my left hand and it's waaaay better then a keyboard because my thumb does the d-pad for movement and all my other fingers are free to tap buttons.
Also, n key rollover is the feature you described for keyboard presses. It's actually quite easy to get that feature over usb but it costs a bit extra money to manufacture so nobody ever makes the feature properly. If you're really interested, you can build your own for a semi reasonable cost.
There will most certainly be some bumps and hickups along the way but I think Valve is aiming for the slow win anyway. They're going to slowly expand their library and modular hardware means there won't ever be a bad time to switch to Valve.
We do know:
Valve dislikes the direction windows is going.
Valve makes tones of money off windows gaming.
Valve can make more, even if only marginal, from Linux gaming but will not ever abandon windows.
Windows still holds 78% of the worlds OS's. Source.
SteamOs will be a platform maintained by Valve, but open to everyone to use. All we really know.
One of the big features, if not the only big feature of SteamOS is game streaming.
SteamOS will have lots of entertainment, or htpc features, along with steams big picture mode. SteamOS is meant for the living room not the gamers desk.
There will be some sort of controller.
What I would like to see:
A foundation for Linux gaming.
Over the next few years this foundation being built on.
Valve having all there games available for Linux.
More and more indie devs like UWE producing simply epic games and having them available on Linux.
More indie devs and less publishers in general.
I would like to see more big publishers dip their toes into Linux.
Linux gaming to grow.
Linux to be as easy enough to use for an apple lover and configurable enough for the hardcore Linux enthusiast.
Anyone remember how horrible virtual d-pads are on phones? Welcome to the PC virtual d-pad
The Gabenpad is a bit silly, but it does represent a decent college try to get the same functionality of a keyboard and mouse in a controller.