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SteamMachines

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Re: SteamMachines

#251

Post by AYBABTME »

shardling wrote: post #132
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I love HN. Were you randomly looking up Valve-assigned patents and happened to stumble on this?

Hardly a HN exclusive. :) From 2012: http://kotaku.com/5890372/is-this-valves-control-pad-design/

It was posted here too. What's cool in this case is that user X asks about the relevance of P, and user Y comes up with many months olds news on Q that happens to be the perfect missing piece in the puzzle.

This stuff happens all the time. Why is R this way? CEO of R Inc. comes up to tell you. Why is S not in space? It just so happen that a engineer from the space program is reading the comment and answers with a detailed insightful post.

When that happens, HN is awesome.

Re: SteamMachines

#252

Post by mheathr »

Negitivefrags wrote: post #229
mheathr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about the ones advertises for PC or the ones not sold for PC? When I bought mine (circa 2010) I had to purchase one advertises for PC as the one I had for the 360 before would not work with it otherwise. It seemed nonsensical to me that such was the case.

I'm talking about this product here: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/xbox-360-wireless-... Though mine was in white. From the page. "Xbox 360 Controller for Windows works with most Windows XP-based PCs and Xbox 360, delivering a consistent and universal gaming experience." It comes with a wireless dongle thing you plug in to your PC. Both the controllers that come with your 360 and this controller can be sw…

(replying to the child post) The products are not the same if for no other reason than because one comes with the receiver and ordering the other product does not, and that the receiver is even required is not something that is apparent beforehand without research, so the buyer must understand that having the product work as expected will require purchasing either the receiver as a stand alone product or as the bundle which is distinguished by being labeled as "...for Windows."

Naively, I had expected beforehand that the controller to use 802.11(a|b|g|n|ac) or bluetooth and therefore not need another receiver provided that those protocols were already available on the PC, but in the case of the wireless Xbox 360 controller another component is necessary for better or worse.

Luckily, I researched the situation before purchasing another controller with its usage on the PC in mind, so I did not encounter a potential headache until the solution dawned upon me.

Hopefully the next generation PS4 or Xbox One wireless controllers work without taking up a port on the PC with a wireless receiver again.

Re: SteamMachines

#253

Post by haarg »

mheathr wrote: post #246
Negitivefrags wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about this product here: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/xbox-360-wireless-... Though mine was in white. From the page. "Xbox 360 Controller for Windows works with most Windows XP-based PCs and Xbox 360, delivering a consistent and universal gaming experience." It comes with a wireless dongle thing you plug in to your PC. Both the controllers that come with your 360 and this controller can be sw…

There actually exists two separate Microsoft Wireless 360 controllers, the one that specifies for Windows will work on both the PC and for the Xbox 360 (after syncing the controller with the appropriate receiver, something which is somewhat tricky if the PC receiver and the console receiver are within the controller's wireless range). However, the one which does not specify "...for Windows" will not work with the PC,…

They are separate listings because one has the USB receiver needed to connect to a PC.

I have a wireless receiver that came with a 'for Windows' controller, and it works perfectly with the controller that came with my Xbox.

Re: SteamMachines

#254

Post by Sektor »

cheald wrote: post #32
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…

I use my Xbox 360 controllers with a no-name wireless receiver. It took some work to get the drivers working properly, but it's fantastic now. If Valve can provide a similar experience, except all plug-and-play, that'll be killer. I totally agree that it's non-obvious to most of the gaming market, though.

This was my first thought when i heard about steam OS - currently I've forced the official Microsoft driver onto my Chinese knock-off wireless receiver, will that work on steamOS? i don't know...

Re: SteamMachines

#255

Post by yaeger »

roc wrote: post #85
NoodleIncident wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA: >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. The third announcement will be the controller Valve patented some time ago. This controller replaces a thumbstick with a trackball, and might let you swap out input devices for different games. Rega…

> "This controller replaces a thumbstick with a trackball" That sounds like a special hell. What would even be the point? Making it marginally easier to control products that were never properly re-designed as living room software at the expense of compatibility with essentially every piece of contemporary living room software? Here's to hoping that if such a thing is actually rolled out, it falls under "an option" a…

According to the patent other people in here have already linked, the feature of the gamepad will be that it uses "modules". Modules like directional pads, touch pads or trackballs. You will stick these modules into the pad and they will use interfaces within the controller.

Not sure just how sturdy the thing will be, all this talk about separate components being stuck together by the user sounds kinda fragile. But if it is, you will be able to configure your pad just the way you want.

Re: SteamMachines

#256

Post by yaeger »

millstone wrote: post #203
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.

>needing to buy

That's a non issue. Valve would be stupid to start making Linux only games. The SteamMachine is for people who would want to play pc games in their living room but who don't have a PC anywhere close to connect it to the tv.

So now, they can get the Steam Machine. But since Linux based games on Steam are still a minority, people might say they don't want that "console" if it doesn't have much games so Valve set it up that you can stream every windows based game from your pc that can be anywhere in your home via lan to your SteamMachine.

Re: SteamMachines

#257

Post by bni »

Sektor wrote: post #254
cheald wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use my Xbox 360 controllers with a no-name wireless receiver. It took some work to get the drivers working properly, but it's fantastic now. If Valve can provide a similar experience, except all plug-and-play, that'll be killer. I totally agree that it's non-obvious to most of the gaming market, though.

This was my first thought when i heard about steam OS - currently I've forced the official Microsoft driver onto my Chinese knock-off wireless receiver, will that work on steamOS? i don't know...

The Linux kernel should support the receiver and xbox 360 gamepad out of the box. If its not currently I suppose this has a very high priority for fixing at Valve.

Re: SteamMachines

#258

Post by InTheSwiss »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #210
InTheSwiss wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 al…

I apologise if you felt my post was targeted directly at you. That certainly was not my intention. What you do as a parent is ultimately your choice and I have no right to tell you what is right and wrong for your family.

I was simply sharing my opinion that until a few years ago no kid grew up with these automated digital restrictions and pretty much everyone seems to be ok.

I understand that such things can be helpful however my personal opinion is that it is a little sad that there is such a need for such features. I would bet that most people on Hacker News are successful in their lives because of unrestricted access to computers as children/young adults. I know that is certainly the case for me. I would spend hours typing in BASIC from computer magazines sometimes into the early mornings. I would get told off and have my computer taken away now and then for breaking the rules my parents put in place but this was ultimately good for me I feel (both the breaking of the rules and accepting the punishment).

Re: SteamMachines

#259

Post by tsahyt »

Pxtl wrote: post #17

> 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. This excites me. Valve's bread-and-butter, as a gamedev company and not a game reseller, uses a pointing device. FPS games and Dota are both genres that do far better with a mouse. Obviously, supporting gam…

I'd be open to something new if it serves the purpose but I wouldn't mind getting a mouse and keyboard in my living room if that happens to be the best way to play a game. But that's probably just me.

Re: SteamMachines

#260

Post by InTheSwiss »

lelandbatey wrote: post #196
InTheSwiss wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'm ambivalent on the topic. Sure you can instill the values of proper time management into your kid and hope they abide by them when you're not around. However, I don't feel it's unreasonable to have an automated solution for this kind of thing. Just like I'd love to have automated lighting in my home, or automated curtains, or a computer that will automatically turn on at certain times, sometimes it's also nice to…

I think there is quite the difference between automating curtains or a computer turning on or off and parental control systems. Please do not take offence but I feel kids deserve more than an automated system that tells then when they can and can't use something.
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