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Valve is about to win the console generation

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Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#231

Post by stavros »

> The big thing I want to see in practice is their implementation of foveated rendering. This beautiful hack abuses the fact that human eyes have the most sharpness and fidelity at the exact centre of your field of vision, whereas your peripheral vision is abysmal at it. This means that on average you only have to render about 10% of the frame at maximum quality for it to feel like it's running at full resolution all over the screen.

> This should make the fact that the Frame is using a "weaker" CPU/GPU irrelevant. Games should look fine as long as they render the slice that needs to be in full quality fast enough.

It's not foveated rendering, it's foveated streaming. The CPU/GPU should easily be able to handle decoding video, whether foveated or not.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#232

Post by theshrike79 »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #71

I don't really understand the early enthusiasm about the Steam Machine, and I happily own a Steam Deck. "It's on par with a PS5!" You mean the thing that was launched over 5 years ago (exactly!) ? We don't know its price yet, which is the most crucial detail.

If it can play all games on Steam _today_ at 4k60fps (even with FSR) it means I have about 570 games on my Steam library it can play in perpetuity.

Even if I play 2 hours of each game, it's still a bargain =)

And because this is Valve and I've had a stellar experience with my Steam Deck, I'm pretty confident that future games will run on it too. Most likely gamedevs will add special "Steam Machine" performance profiles like they've done with the deck. And there will be a "Steam Machine certified" checkmark on Steam.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#233

Post by theshrike79 »

bsder wrote: post #133
ethmarks wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? For normal computer use (reading email, watching videos, doing spreadsheets), there are much cheaper and better options available. If somebody wanted a Steam Machine specifically, it'd be for the GPU. If you needed a lot of GPU compute (for AI or blockchain or whatever), it'd be cheaper to buy or rent a dedicated server with Nvidia H100s rather than…

> What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? Media box under your TV? Right now I don't have a lot of options that also don't inundate me with ads. Sure, I can build one, but if Valve can put this out at a price that makes me go "Nah. Not worth building it myself." that's a win.

You can get 100-200€ Chinese mini (or micro?) PCs with an Intel N97/N100 CPU that can do this perfectly.

No need to buy an almost 1000€ massively overpowered custom gaming machine for that.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#235

Post by dontlaugh »

crote wrote: post #207
wraptile wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not winner games these days. Gaming trends are so fast that indie games like the one where you play a duck with a gun is what's driving the gaming community these days.

Sure, but those AAA games still exist, and people still want to play them. As a gamer, why would you want to spend a few hundred bucks on a gaming box, when it isn't able to play the biggest hits? Who would want to deliberately limit their ecosystem to indie games? There's a nonzero chance that BF6/GTA6/etc becomes a thing that everyone wants to play. If all your friends are raging about how much fun it is and are al…

Exactly, this competes with a second hand PS5.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#236

Post by stavros »

tombert wrote: post #155
Mistletoe wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have link to the little gaming box?

Yep! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D733JFML?th=1 The one I ordered had 32 gigs of memory; this was more than a year ago so I'm sure there are better ones now, but I have to say that I feel like this thing "punches above its weight" in that it does seem to run a lot more stuff than I thought it would at a decent framerate.

Hm, does it work well for games? I have a NUC I could use...

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#237

Post by sunaookami »

bsder wrote: post #222
sunaookami wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an argument in the Steam Machine's case as you have the same situation there (even worse because you can't resell your games).

You aren't wrong. However, the single digital service that hasn't killed my digital library at some point is Steam. Games that I bought many years ago are still fine. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all killed digital games that I bought. That having been said: I've transferred a lot of my purchasing to GoG. Steam doesn't get the benefit of the doubt anymore.

>Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all killed digital games that I bought.

No? All stores are still online. Some don't allow buying new games anymore (DSi Shop, Wii Shop, PS3 store for example) but redownloading still works.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#238

Post by Yoric »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #193
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #46

Valve certainly won't win it, but they're bringing the heat where it wasn't before. SteamOS is the important part here - if it is proven to be a good console experience (which the deck has basically proven already) then licensing of the OS to other manufacturers will put a lot of pressure on integrated h/w s/w manufacturers. Unlike the handheld format, the tvbox console is fairly easy to manufacture and is tolerant o…

Steam needs IP. Something as iconic as Kratos or Mario. That's how you go toe to toe with consoles.

Does it?

I mean, it already has a library of games vaster than all other consoles taken together.

Re: Valve is about to win the console generation

#240

Post by pbmonster »

eptcyka wrote: post #203
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. Kernel level anti cheat is the problem. I know BF6 isn't proton safe. Fortnite is the same. GTA VI will probably run single player on proton fine, GTA V does. Multiplayer will probably not. The multiplayer with kernel level anti cheat will keep Sony safe through at least another generation; Microsoft is less safe as they're so vulnerable this generation anyway.

GTA V multiplayer was working fine on Proton not too long ago. Haven't played in years though.

There where changes a few months ago. Multiplayer is completely non-viable since then.
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