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SteamMachines

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Re: SteamMachines

#201

Post by dkersten »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #109
chadwickthebold wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... Did you finish Episode 2? Have you lost internet access for the last 6 years? Valve confirmed it waaaaay back in '07, and Gaben has been dropping little nuggets about it every few years. You really need to understand how painful this is for HL fans. It would be like if AMC decided not to produce & air the final season of Breaking Bad... or delay the final season for 6+ years.

I know that episode 2 did not end the story. However, http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Future_of_the_Half-Life_seri... indicates that it did not contain any teasers. I don't remember the details of the ending since it has been a few years since I played it. But in any case, leaving the story with a loose end is not the same as announcing or hyping a game. I don't see anywhere Gabe has even indicated they are working o…

I don't remember the details of the ending since it has been a few years since I played it.

This is a big problem with this long dev cycles. There are a few games where I was a big fan of the previous games but when the sequels eventually came, I had lost interest because I couldn't remember the precious game's story and did not want to replay it. Of course nowadays I'd just get the rundown online or watch the ending on youtube, but unless you're a big fan, it IMHO still dampens the excitement somewhat. At least for me.

Re: SteamMachines

#202

Post by Steko »

cheald wrote: post #136
Steko wrote: post #124

2014 Oculus Rift expected to ship widely demoed and lauded next generation experience. Nov 2013 Sony and MS start shipping new consoles. Oct 2013 Apple likely to announce and immediately ship $129=$199 A7X based console killer. Sep 2013 Valve announces beta opt in for SteamMachine with zero details on product.

> Oct 2013 Apple likely to announce $149 A7X based console killer. Maybe I'm just missing something here, but I'm pretty sure an ARM-based system has exactly zero chance of displacing current gaming platforms. They could whip up a sexy Ouya competitor, sure, but Ouya isn't exactly setting the gaming world on fire. An ARM console would be a competitor to phone/tablet gaming, not to console gaming.

The Ouya GPU pushes 12 GFLOPs (gamecube, original xbox quality).

The GPUs in the 5S give 76 GFLOPs and are underclocked at 300 Mhz for battery reasons. A hypothetical A7X which, following the A6X, has twice as many GPUs as the A7, would put us at 150 GFLOPs.

Keep in mind the A6X is still on a mobile device. Up the clock speed to 500 Mhz and we've arrived at 250 GFLOPs. This is comparable to the PS3 (230) and 360 (260) and the assumptions seem pretty reasonable.

GFLOPs aren't the whole story but it's important to understand what class of machine Apple could ship now. It's certainly console quality. Specwise it won't hold a candle to the PS4 (1.8 TFLOPs), at least in 2013/14. But as we learned last generation the new stud consoles often trail not only underpowered upstarts (Wii) but sometimes their own previous generation consoles due to supply or price issues.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ps2+outsells+ps3&safe=active

And in terms of price Apple could ship the system we're talking about with a decent amount of RAM and a controller for $149. Of course they won't even market it primarily as a gaming device so it would probably ship without a (gaming) controller for $129+.

Re: SteamMachines

#203

Post by millstone »

mikevm wrote: post #48

I'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?

I'm more concerned with the prospect of needing to buy both a PC and a Steambox to play games.

Re: SteamMachines

#204

Post by pekk »

ihsw wrote: post #139
julius wrote: post #46

They 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).

> They want SteamOS to restructure the console market like Android did with the mobile market. Makes me wonder when MS will complain that SteamOS is free just like how they complain Android is free. http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20130409/0212...

Given their investment in Xbox, they complain about it yesterday

Re: SteamMachines

#205

Post by gknoy »

sejje wrote: post #182
jdjb wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens when the timer hits zero? The game just kicks out? Why not just set a timer on your smartphone and when it goes off turn off the kid's console..

Or just, you know, have your kids obey the rules. Without your daily intervention.

Ah, I want to live in this magical fictional world too. (:

Re: SteamMachines

#206

Post by Aloisius »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #119

>> Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven't already) Are there any HN groups on Steam? If I try to create a group named Hacker News, it's already in use. If I try to find it, no results found :-)

Just hop on here [1] and jump to the end of the thread. View profile of 10 people & add them. Should take only a minute.

[1] http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/0...

Re: SteamMachines

#207

Post by msie »

M2Ys4U wrote: post #191
msie wrote: post #175

I wish they would follow Apple's lead and tightly control the hardware. It would make it easier for devs to test and consumers to make a choice. Apple's wildly successful with their iPhone business model. Please try to avoid the fragmentation issues with Android. Windows already owns the home PC market, why go after it?

> It would make it easier for devs to test and consumers to make a choice. A choice of one is no choice at all >Apple's wildly successful with their iPhone business model. Have you seen the mobile market share? Android is king.

Yes, I will admit that. Android is king with lots of devices running old versions. Google is trying to wrestle control of OS updates away from the HW manufacturers and Valve has to try to avoid that. Also the choice is SteamBox vs XBOne, PS4, WiiU. Better to have one device to focus all marketing and development efforts on than try the Windows Everywhere tactic.

Re: SteamMachines

#208

Post by Florin_Andrei »

jdjb wrote: post #154
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #120

As a parent, if these things don't come with time-based parental controls, that would reduce their appeal A LOT. Windows, for all its warts, is great this way. The Windows-based PC in the living room, running Steam, has time-based parental controls configured at the OS level. This works great for everyone involved, reduces effort and contention. Also, kids do really well on fixed timetables. I've opened a discussion…

What happens when the timer hits zero? The game just kicks out? Why not just set a timer on your smartphone and when it goes off turn off the kid's console..

On Windows at least, the account locks up similar to a password-protected screensaver, except you can't log back in.

The timer method does work (tried and true), but it's far, FAR easier if the computer automatically locks the account.

Re: SteamMachines

#209

Post by T-hawk »

gabemart wrote: post #147
breckinloggins wrote: post #22

I'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…

> Buying a good controller for a PC is not hard Is this actually true? I've been looking for a decent PC gamepad for a long time. The default recommendation seems to be the Xbox 360 controller, but with the caveat that the d-pad sucks. I play a lot of games that use the d-pad. What's a good PC gamepad with a good d-pad?

I have one of these that I've used forever, a Logitech Precision USB. If you just need a digital d-pad and don't care about analog sticks or triggers, it's great.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logitech-gamepad.JPG

Although I've started seeing compatibility problems recently: the Xbox 360 controller has become such a standard that some newer indie games support ONLY them and not native PC gamepads.

Re: SteamMachines

#210

Post by Florin_Andrei »

InTheSwiss wrote: post #162
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #120

As a parent, if these things don't come with time-based parental controls, that would reduce their appeal A LOT. Windows, for all its warts, is great this way. The Windows-based PC in the living room, running Steam, has time-based parental controls configured at the OS level. This works great for everyone involved, reduces effort and contention. Also, kids do really well on fixed timetables. I've opened a discussion…

Seriously? When I was a kind my NES and SNES didn't need built in time controls and I am just fine. I am a parent (11 year old girl and 7 month old son) and I restrict her (son is a little too young!) time playing games in the same way my parents did by making sure I do my chores and homework first. I don't rely on OS level parental controls and I find it kind of sad people need to. I spend a lot of time playing Anim…

I didn't think this would require pointing out, but amazingly it does.

So, without further ado: Each person / family is different. We could probably sit down and have a conversation and find out some topic where some random solution works amazingly well for me, but - surprise! - it does not seem to be working so well for you. At which point, it would be my turn to observe how you could just man up and do it; after all, it's so easy. For me. In my particular case. Which is different from yours. People and families being different from each other.

Have I belabored the issue enough now?

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