Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

gamingonlinux.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 118 posts

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#51

Post by fc417fc802 »

mrheosuper wrote: post #39
whatisthiseven wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone know what the refresh rate for these displays are, at least with the stock firmware? Reading the datasheets didn't help, though maybe I didn't know what to look for.

The refresh rate of eink is kind of...muddy. It depends on temperature and target contrast. With the right waveform and voltage, you can push it pretty far(like 30hz+). The thing is, Eink's waveform is kind of secret afaik, everyone has different tuning.

As I understand it going faster typically skips steps that are necessary for maintenance of the panel. Fine for a while but if you don't periodically run a "proper" cycle the panel could eventually be permanently damaged.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#52

Post by dismalaf »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #45
tra3 wrote: post #41

I would love to see an analysis of how valve's openness and goodwill affects their bottom line. Intuitively it should be a net positive for them, but there gotta be upfront costs, otherwise everyone would be doing it too.

They have a money printer that gives them nearly unlimited flexibility. Being a private company means Gabe can do long-term investments without concern. Steam has been an incredibly good steward of its position, but I fear for the day when capitalism finally sinks its claws into the platform.

> capitalism finally sinks its claws

Capitalism has nothing to do with short term greed.

Some CEOs are just too arrogant and think that optimizing for the short term won't hurt goodwill. That's their own failure. Capitalism says nothing about how a business should be run. It's merely defining the idea that humans who own things (capital) allocate their resources and keep the result.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#53

Post by BunsanSpace »

tra3 wrote: post #41

I would love to see an analysis of how valve's openness and goodwill affects their bottom line. Intuitively it should be a net positive for them, but there gotta be upfront costs, otherwise everyone would be doing it too.

1. Valve is a private company with a money printer (steam) 2. the point of these initiatives is to build an ecosystem with steam at the centre.

A better way to look at this is valve is trying to hedge it's self against microsoft. By creating an ecosystem of devices and software that's full open so they're not reliant on Microsoft. The goal of Valve hardware ISN'T to make money. It's to encourage others to build devices free of Microsoft that Steam can be installed on.

They have nothing to gain by being closed, and everything to gain by being open.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#54

Post by lelandfe »

p2edwards wrote: post #40
westurner wrote: post #10

Looks like Waveshare has a E6 full color ePaper/eInk/EPD display in 3.6" and 7.3" but not yet in 5.83": "5.83inch E-Paper Display (G), E-ink Display, 648 × 480, Red/Yellow/Black/White , SPI Interface" https://www.waveshare.com/5.83inch-e-paper-g.htm?sku=32584

Full color, except for certain shades of blue

Supports full color (images of the German flag)

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#55

Post by iso1631 »

deadbabe wrote: post #42

e-ink is becoming the new hotness lately. There may soon be a time when you will look at every poster or menu on a wall and wonder if it is paper or an actual e-ink screen that will soon change to some other image. Airports, highway signs, etc.

And of course it will be used for advertising, creating massive externalities for barely any income for the land owner, but they won't care because its others that pay

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#56

Post by esseph »

delecti wrote: post #28
rbanffy wrote: post #11

Is the Steam Machine a decently priced desktop compared to the "generic" ones?

You can't build a machine which is as powerful, small, quiet, and cheap, nor can you take for granted that a machine you build can have a controller that can wake it from sleep, or which has HDMI-CEC (both are possible, but take extra work or hardware). You can rather easily build a machine with multiple of those attributes, but you'll have to pick ones to sacrifice in the name of the others.

The only thing you might lose by building your own and running SteamOS is HDMI-CEC.

The steam controller would work just fine.

Valve supports SteamOS on other hardware.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#57

Post by esseph »

tl wrote: post #49
delecti wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Steam Deck itself doesn't have an HDMI port, but the official dock does, and that does support HDMI-CEC (support was added to SteamOS a couple years ago). The Steam Deck also does support controller wake from sleep (added in the past year or so); I've actually seen people complaining about their Steam Decks waking up when they didn't realize that feature existed. And all of the reviews I've seen about the Steam M…

It does not. Source: have a dock. Latest firmware installed from deck. And because the current Steam controller is a recent release, I had to try a whole mess of third party controllers before settling on PS5 controllers because everything else I tried had Bluetooth pairing issues / disconnects as you approached four controllers. SteamDeck as a handheld is great plus or minus a few nits baked onto the power / battery…

You are confidently incorrect.

SteamDeck supports HDMI-CEC as of 3.7 ~2 years ago, using the original dock or select third party docks.

---

How to Enable CEC:

Press the STEAM button and go to Settings.

Navigate to the Display tab.

On the right side of the screen, find and toggle on Enable HDMI CEC Support.

Ensure Wake TV when device resumes from sleep is also enabled.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#59

Post by hamdingers »

artisinal wrote: post #17
rbanffy wrote: post #11

Is the Steam Machine a decently priced desktop compared to the "generic" ones?

For a small gaming box it is a good price. If you don’t care that much about size, HDMI-CEC or SteamOS there are faster alternatives for the price.

If you do care about SteamOS, any machine with a reasonably recent AMD GPU will run SteamOS or a similar distro just fine.

Re: Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own

#60

Post by delecti »

tl wrote: post #49
delecti wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Steam Deck itself doesn't have an HDMI port, but the official dock does, and that does support HDMI-CEC (support was added to SteamOS a couple years ago). The Steam Deck also does support controller wake from sleep (added in the past year or so); I've actually seen people complaining about their Steam Decks waking up when they didn't realize that feature existed. And all of the reviews I've seen about the Steam M…

It does not. Source: have a dock. Latest firmware installed from deck. And because the current Steam controller is a recent release, I had to try a whole mess of third party controllers before settling on PS5 controllers because everything else I tried had Bluetooth pairing issues / disconnects as you approached four controllers. SteamDeck as a handheld is great plus or minus a few nits baked onto the power / battery…

CEC support was added in to the Dock in May 2024 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200?emclan=10358...

Bluetooth wake made available for LCD Decks in September 2025 (it was already available in OLED models) https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/4983336...

I will say that the Deck has less than stellar bluetooth reception in my experience too. I settled on an 8bitdo controller because my XBox Elite couldn't stay connected from across the room. The Steam Machine has a dedicated antenna for Steam Controllers though.

Post reply on HN