Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC • Hacker News Board

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#101

Post by bob1029 » Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

rriepe wrote: post #89

bob1029 wrote: post #70

Why did Valve get out of the AAA game development business? It seems like hardware has largely been a mistake for them. Sure, I can have 20 different variants of an x86 computer and various HMD interfaces, but if all the games suck ass what's the point? Valve is still surfing on the inertia of their initial software-based innovations, and is only continuing to cruise along by siphoning off others in their (lightly) c…

Valve have too much employee direction to participate in the race to the bottom that is modern video games. But, to your point-- everyone got out of the AAA game development business. We've had one Elder Scrolls and one GTA for ten years now. All of those insane articles dramatizing Bioshock: Infinite as the last AAA title were true. It's like the Waterworld of games, the last big effects movie before everything beca…

> Making TF3 would be especially weird because Valve basically popularized all of those trends.

> That's just the format now.

It simply doesn't need to be this way. It would take 1 executive decision to change all of this.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#102

Post by kroltan » Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #80

schmorptron wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Artifact was a good card game only killed by really dumb marketing and monetization decisions. Half-Life Alyx is almost universally hailed as the best VR game and as good if not better than the previous Half-Life games. That being said, you're right about them neglecting a lot of their IP. Specifically a TF3 might be really cool to see, along with more love for Counter-Strike.

> Half-Life Alyx is almost universally hailed as the best VR game MS Flight Simulator 2020 and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might be other "best VR game" contenders.

> Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

How so? I wasn't able to play past the intro when they literally letterboxed me in a cutscene.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#103

Post by biryani_chicken » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

libertine wrote: post #15

txdv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slap steam on it and take the Steam cut?

That's the tricky part, if these devices aren't locked to a proprietary OS/marketplace, users can shop around and you're basically helping your competitors while taking all the losses.

What percentage of the PC gaming market does steam have? Even if competitors like Gog and Epic get in the console, it won't change the percentages that much.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#104

Post by DeliriumTrigger » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:18 PM UTC

alias_neo wrote: post #87

chimpansteve wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a hardware Link - it's still being supported now. It had an update a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, but I've had 4K monitors and 4K TV for almost as long as the Link has existed. It very quickly became useless to me the moment I upgraded to a 4K TV. The Steam controller is also an utterly horrible UX so the pair were just a waste of money that sat in a drawer until I stuck them on eBay. A 4K Steam Link should have been an obvious iteration, and a controller with actual buttons and sticks (I half-joke about the…

Psst... PS4 and Xbox One rendered 90% of the games at 900p. It's just your pretentious self who thinks it needs 4k.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#105

Post by bitL » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #90

bitL wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Half-Life Alyx is almost universally hailed as the best VR game MS Flight Simulator 2020 and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might be other "best VR game" contenders.

I haven't played Hellblade but FS 2020 can't be even really be called a VR ready game. Even with a 3080 you struggle to reach 90 fps. It's a vomit machine.

Try to increase cache from default 8GB to 64GB, that helped a lot. I play it on a 10980XE/128GB RAM/RTX3090 and HP Reverb G2 at high details and flying over Paris with the latest update is now very smooth.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#106

Post by bitL » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

kroltan wrote: post #102

bitL wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Half-Life Alyx is almost universally hailed as the best VR game MS Flight Simulator 2020 and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might be other "best VR game" contenders.

> Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice How so? I wasn't able to play past the intro when they literally letterboxed me in a cutscene.

You probably hit some bug, I was able to finish it completely without any major issues (I think it crashed like twice). Alyx, while cool, is too static, Hellblade features some fast combat movements and both are atmospheric in their own way.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#107

Post by schmorptron » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:33 PM UTC

wpdev_63 wrote: post #97

schmorptron wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve has money, but not Apple or Microsoft money. I doubt they'd be able to source a high-power arm chip + the necessary hard/software features to make something like the rosetta compatibility mode possible.

Not necessarily right now but a few years down the road when it actually releases(though no one knows when they'll actually release knowing valve's track record). Not sure why people are downvoting me....

According to the article they are shooting for a late 2021 release date if nothing goes wrong. Fingers crossed they'll say more at E3, which they're attending this year.

Not sure why people are downvoting you either though.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#108

Post by schmorptron » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:37 PM UTC

chucky_z wrote: post #92

schmorptron wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Artifact was a good card game only killed by really dumb marketing and monetization decisions. Half-Life Alyx is almost universally hailed as the best VR game and as good if not better than the previous Half-Life games. That being said, you're right about them neglecting a lot of their IP. Specifically a TF3 might be really cool to see, along with more love for Counter-Strike.

The most recent update for Counter-Strike is honestly really great. It's a difficult game to touch as the community is in a pretty good spot meta game wise. I'd love for them to shake things up faster and more frequently, but as a spectator it's a super competitive game and I love watching it.

Oh, I feel you! CS is one of those games where, at least with regards to weapon balance, it's in such a good spot that the community actively doesn't want many changes. Most people are also content with the same 7 maps and don't play new ones when they're added. Still, I think seeing a proper map rotation with competitive seasons would be really cool, especially since the community makes so many high quality maps! A bit more could be done to battle cheaters though, as those have been getting very bad in the last few months once again.

Definite agree on the watchability, CS is the only e-sport I really watch the big tournaments for, they just nailed the aspect of it being easy to understand and creating a lot of high-adrenaline moments.

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#109

Post by schmorptron » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:39 PM UTC

AMD recently patented their DLSS competitor (albeit with a really dumb name, "Radeon Gaming Super Resolution").[1]

If this launches on RDNA2 as rumored, it could be very interesting to see it maybe having a 1080p screen and just upscaling a 720p rendered image to that native resolution to save on computing power.

[1]https://www.techradar.com/news/amd-patents-gaming-super-reso...

Re: Valve is making a Switch-like portable gaming PC

#110

Post by alias_neo » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

DeliriumTrigger wrote: post #104

alias_neo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but I've had 4K monitors and 4K TV for almost as long as the Link has existed. It very quickly became useless to me the moment I upgraded to a 4K TV. The Steam controller is also an utterly horrible UX so the pair were just a waste of money that sat in a drawer until I stuck them on eBay. A 4K Steam Link should have been an obvious iteration, and a controller with actual buttons and sticks (I half-joke about the…

Psst... PS4 and Xbox One rendered 90% of the games at 900p. It's just your pretentious self who thinks it needs 4k.

Ive been PC gaming at 4K for several years now. Who mentioned consoles?

I'm not sure why you saw my want for 4k visuals in the single player, visual, story based games I prefer to play, as an opportunity to attack me personally. Perhaps read the rules or go back to Reddit or wherever that attitude is welcome.