So the only thing I learned from this is that its not a SteamBox, it is a SteamMachine.
SteamMachines
41–50 of 291 posts
Re: SteamMachines
#42From the sounds of it they're producing multiple different machines.
I can imagine it being like this
1) Top of the range high spec machine running SteamOS (£500-£600) 2) Medium spec machine running SteamOS (£250-£400) 3) Basic machine running SteamOS that's designed for people who just want to stream games from their Desktop PC into their living room (£60-£120)
Re: SteamMachines
#43It'll be interesting to hear if AMD's announcement today has anything to do with this.
http://ir.amd.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-eventDetails&...
Re: SteamMachines
#44I want to praise the name choice. "Machine" is very catchy.
Re: SteamMachines
#45Sooo, it's what everybody's expected, except we don't know anything more about it. Frustrating. Also, only 300 boxes for beta? That seems a little small. EDIT: actually the latest answer in the FAQ is interesting: "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…
Good at hyping, bad at actually delivering on time... Half-life (Episode?) 3 :(
They haven't hyped HL3 or HL2E3, or even announced either of them. Kinda silly to blame them for not delivering something they never promised to deliver.
Re: SteamMachines
#46They want SteamOS to restructure the console market like Android did with the mobile market.
They give PC makers a great new customizable way to enter the livingroom-computer market. With their gaming shop built in.
This is great for gamers. In a few years any SteamMachine for 300$ will easily outperform PS4/XBone. And have way way more games. And all AAA games (all PC releases).
Re: SteamMachines
#47Now they need a pusher, to get SteamMachines and SteamOs on the market. Half Life 3 confirmed?
>Half Life 3 confirmed? If you take the time of the announcement (in seconds elapsed since midnight, March 14th 1993), divided by the amount of letters in the FAQ, and then find the square root of the resulting number, you get 3! Seriously though, are you suggesting that HL3 will only be released (even for a short while) the SteamOS? I agree it's possible, but I think that would piss all kinds of people off due to it…
but I think that would piss all kinds of people off due to it obviously being a marketing ploy.
You mean like HL2 and the original steam release?
Re: SteamMachines
#48I'm rather skeptical about their in-home streaming option. In a world where games are buying LCDs to minimize input lag, what kind of a performance are they expecting from streaming a game over LAN?
I'm interested in knowing how this streaming is going to work. Is this similar to VNC?
Re: SteamMachines
#49I'm excited about where Valve is going with this, of course, but to be honest I'm concerned about controllers the most. Buying a good controller for a PC is not hard, but it's not simple either. Picture yourself as a "living room console guy" getting into PC gaming. You'd like to use a controller for a certain game. Consider: - You can use your XBox360, PS3 controller, or WiiMote, but that's not obvious. You'll need…
I can echo your concerns because I ran into it with Spelunky recently - they seem to only support Xbox360 controllers as their "controller" settings. I solved it by using Joy2Key to map keys to my controller (a very solid Logitech one!) and had no problems. However, most people probably wouldn't want to jump through those kind of hoops (downloading a third party app + mapping the keys to the right keyboard keys) so I…
This is a pretty recent change in how controller support works in (Windows? DirectX? not 100% sure) but basically any third party controller can register itself as an Xbox controller.
I have an older Logitech DualAction and a newer one, the older one will fail those checks but the newer will register itself as an Xbox controller. It seems like Microsoft, somewhere, standardized what it means to be a "controller" finally instead of having an arbitrary button0 through button10 that are always different and constantly requiring remapping.
A good change, but really frustrating for anyone with older hardware.
Re: SteamMachines
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might have been true in the past (I remember having some trouble with a SideWinder controller on a dedicated control port in the 90's) but these days the 360 wired USB controllers are as plug'n'play as it gets (on windows at least). It Just Works. PS3 controllers are a pity though, you need those shady ad-ridden closed source third party drivers.
Very true, but remember that the issue I'm addressing is more about branding and marketing than about the tech. For example: "Wait, you mean I have to buy an XBox 360 controller to use my Steam Machine?" Well, no, but it's better that way. "What do you mean, isn't there a Steam Controller." Not exactly, you see any Steam Machine is compatible with any number of controllers. "So why can't I buy this other controller I…
More likely, you'll buy a SteamController as the preferred input on your SteamBox. In fact, they are basically teasing as much at the bottom of the page. Friday's announcement looks to be controller related.