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Valve announces SteamOS

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derExperte

derExperte

Member
mrklaw said:
I don't see why - if you have a competent gaming windows PC - you'd install steam OS at all. Wouldn't valve make the main steam client equivalent in terms of functionality? i.e. family accounts, sharing, video/music streaming/apps, big picture mode, streaming etc
Click to expand...

Correct.

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/ "Four new Steam features focused on the living room. Available soon in both SteamOS and the Steam client."

The reason for some to use SOS and Windows side by side could be better performance (I'll believe it when I see it in more than a few games) but for me and others that perfomance gain has to be susbstantial before I start juggling with 2 OS'.
 
A

AdmiralPain

Banned
Durante said:
People should really get to terms with this. Valve has nothing to gain by giving up sales to make people migrate from one of their supported platforms to another one of their supported platforms. They take 30% either way.
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I never said exclusives to SteamOS. I said exclusives to Steam, which means all of Valve's future games will be only available on platforms where Steam has a presence. I'm calling it again: no Left4dead,Portal, Team Fortress or Half-Life for anything other than SteamOS, Windows, Linux and Mac. No console ports period.
 
S

SymbiantXenos

Member
Very interested in steamOS. Hopefully the second announcement is a steam box. Also for a very hopeful and straw grasping guess. The third annoucement has to be Half Life 3 right?

Right?
 
T

Tobor

Member
mrklaw said:
I don't see why - if you have a competent gaming windows PC - you'd install steam OS at all. Wouldn't valve make the main steam client equivalent in terms of functionality? i.e. family accounts, sharing, video/music streaming/apps, big picture mode, streaming etc

I would expect to have the same experience whether I have a steambox in the lounge, or a windows PC running steam in my spare room
Click to expand...

I have a gaming PC connected to my TV that is only used for gaming. It's running Windows 7 and I have no intention of upgrading to 8. I'd also like to avoid buying new systems running Windows in the future.

Assuming valve can get a good proportion of AAA developers on board, this could be the longterm solution I've been looking for.


pixlexic said:
I still don't see why you guys are trying to shoe horn steam is into a windows replacement.

You should be thinking of as more of a console and media box replacement.

I will def have one connected to each of my tvs besides my gaming tv.
Click to expand...

I'm looking for a Windows replacement as stated above.
 
E

elektrixx

Banned
I'm not quite believing that games will theoretically run smoother. I expect it to be largely dependant on a GPU driver that will have much lower priority to develop than releasing a Windows version. Same goes for the games themselves.

Once this launches I don't think it will be a preferable platform for several years, just like Steam itself once was.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Tobor said:
I have a gaming PC connected to my TV that is only used for gaming. It's running Windows 7 and I have no intention of upgrading to 8. I'd also like to avoid buying new systems running Windows in the future.

Assuming valve can get a good proportion of AAA developers on board, this could be the longterm solution I've been looking for.




I'm looking for a Windows replacement as stated above.
Click to expand...

or just have it boot straight into steam BPM? That way you're guaranteed compatibility.

I don't see the functional difference what OS you have - if you've already paid for it. Vague comments about performance are IMO greatly outweighed by most games not supporting linux and that picture will probably take a year or more to change
 
Vestal

Vestal

Gold Member
elektrixx said:
I'm not quite believing that games will theoretically run smoother. I expect it to be largely dependant on a GPU driver that will have much lower priority to develop than releasing a Windows version. Same goes for the games themselves.

Once this launches I don't think it will be a preferable platform for several years, just like Steam itself once was.
Click to expand...

If the status quo remains then yea your assessment is absolutely correct.

Its a chicken and egg conundrum really. Will steamos by itself be enough to get NVIDIA and AMD to release competent drivers in a timely manner while at the same time pushing 3rd party devs to build games for Linux.
 
M

MaLDo

Member
Holy shit! SteamBOX by Nvidia? with stacked gpus as future upgrades in sli form? bundle with SteamPAD and 20 games classics collection? fully oculus rift compatible? standarized physx-gpu?


only dreaming XD
 
T

Turin Turambar

Member
Nonentity said:
mQ65R3b.jpg


So if the first circle is the SteamOS, the second circle is a box around the OS - has to be the SteamBox, right?

So what's the third button, which looks like SteamOS + SteamOS? Some sort of multisystem-based announcement?
Click to expand...

First circle SteamOS

Second circle in box = SteamBox, yeah

O+O has to be more details about their streaming solution, where a O indicates Steam in a pc in the second O in the SteamOS in the SteamBox.
 
R

riflen

Member
It's interesting that SteamOS appears in the runup to nvidia's 800 series (maxwell) release. The maxwell architecture is rumoured to include a general-purpose ARM CPU onboard. Use-cases are just conjecture, but it could conceivably be used to boot and run a lighter OS intended for gaming alone, freeing up the main system CPU to run purely game code.
 
D

Donny

Member
MajorMelchett said:
I just don't see that happening at all, it'd be great if it did - but I just can't seem SteamOs gaining that much. I'd say it would be much more likely to be 45 to 100 FPS on Windows to 48 to 105 FPS on SteamOS (random numbers I know, my point is the gain would likely be much smaller).
Click to expand...

Don't kill the dream man. Would this be absolutely impossible then?
 
A

antti-la

Member
If SteamOS is able to stream any game from my desktop to my htpc without huge loss in image quality or fps and it's pretty much lag free, I'm very interested.

Hopefully it will also have some sort of media library function and good codec support similar to XBMC which scans my movie folders, updates data for them automatically etc.

And all this in a simple X-input controller friendly environment. Do want.

edit. O+O could also be something VR related, reminds me of goggles.
 
A

angular graphics

Banned
I like the idea of releasing a fully compliant with Linux Source 2 so that people can start making Linux compatible content immediately but I don't think this will be announced now.
 
T

Tobor

Member
mrklaw said:
or just have it boot straight into steam BPM? That way you're guaranteed compatibility.

I don't see the functional difference what OS you have - if you've already paid for it. Vague comments about performance are IMO greatly outweighed by most games not supporting linux and that picture will probably take a year or more to change
Click to expand...

That's what I do now, and it's fine. That said, it's a temporary solution. Windows 7 will eventually be deprecated. I would like a longterm gaming solution that doesn't require buying more Microsoft products for my next system.

I know 100% compatibility is unlikely, but if the percentage is high enough over time, I'd be ok sacrificing the few games that don't get ported.

I could even keep my current PC around to stream old games that will never be ported.
 
D

Datschge

Member
Turin Turambar said:
O+O has to be more details about their streaming solution, where a O indicates Steam in a pc in the second O in the SteamOS in the SteamBox.
Click to expand...

Or they could not leave it at streaming alone and instead use all local connected Steam units for distributed computing, helping out the weaker computers among them.
 
R

Ragnarok4750

Banned
AdmiralPain said:
Can't make a new thread as I'm only a junior, someone get to it! Apparently Notch is very happy about the Steambox, saying that Valve is "saving the entire gaming world".

http://m.gamespot.com/news/minecraft-creator-praises-steamos-6414862
Click to expand...

Is a quote about Notch really threadworthy? I thought the Minecraft fad was over and no one really cared much about that guy anymore.

Anyway, the idea of Valve being some sort of "gaming savior" is just silly. Linux has a 1% install base, they are not going to pull switch millions of users from Windows to SteamOS just so they can play some old Source titles and indie games (and possibly Metro: LL, but that's a rare exception to the trend). This is not Jesus Newell coming down from heaven, it's just a powerful company trying to stick it to MS by drawing consumers and developers away from their proprietary DirectX API - the less dev.s using that, the less royalties paid to MS.
 
B

bleachrude

Banned
If this was competing with Windows VISTA, I can see a potential improvement in games...

But Windows 7 and even Windows 8 (as much grief as Win 8 gets, it is even less resource intensive than Win 7)? I'd be stunned if there's is even a difference in even a week of development time to lock down a game at a certain frame rate...

Furthermore, what exactly is the appeal for the larger publishers..EA already has a beef with Steam and they certainly aren't going to trouble themselves with Linux ports of the franchises.

Neither would Ubisoft or Activision....
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Xilium said:
I think this will ultimately be about as relevant as the Ouya, the target audience for this is just too small (HTPC gamers that, for whatever reason, aren't content with their current setup).

Also, maybe I'm missing something but aren't they basically in the process of creating the "walled garden" that Gabe was giving MS so much shit for with Win8? This would actually put them closer to that reality than MS since the Win8 store doesn't sell many of the types of games you would see on Steam/Origin/ect. and Steam itself is a form of DRM.
Click to expand...

You forget there is more models than just the streaming version. There will be versions capable of playing games by themselves.

All models can dual boot Windows for 100% compatibility. Its a version of Linux, so you can install what you want.
 
E

EVIL

Member
bleachrude said:
If this was competing with Windows VISTA, I can see a potential improvement in games...

But Windows 7 and even Windows 8 (as much grief as Win 8 gets, it is even less resource intensive than Win 7)? I'd be stunned if there's is even a difference in even a week of development time to lock down a game at a certain frame rate...

Furthermore, what exactly is the appeal for the larger publishers..EA already has a beef with Steam and they certainly aren't going to trouble themselves with Linux ports of the franchises.

Neither would Ubisoft or Activision....
Click to expand...

EA is feeling the same sweat drops down their back as Gabe does, same goes for Ubisoft since they both have a Digital distribution client relying on windows staying open. Valve saw this coming from miles away and put effort into trying to solve it, they welcome Origin and Uplay on SteamOS
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
bleachrude said:
If this was competing with Windows VISTA, I can see a potential improvement in games...

But Windows 7 and even Windows 8 (as much grief as Win 8 gets, it is even less resource intensive than Win 7)? I'd be stunned if there's is even a difference in even a week of development time to lock down a game at a certain frame rate...

Furthermore, what exactly is the appeal for the larger publishers..EA already has a beef with Steam and they certainly aren't going to trouble themselves with Linux ports of the franchises.

Neither would Ubisoft or Activision....
Click to expand...

Valve's own games have a 30% or so gain in framerate, and that is just using their wrapper solution to emulate DX calls in OGL.

The writing is in the wall that Valve will bring this to bear for more of their library, but it isn't ready yet.

Nothing is stopping Ubisoft or EA from putting their respective clients on Linux with SteamOS compatibility. Blizzard will release a Linux port this year, my guess is Hearthstone.
 
W

w1ck3dn1nj4

Member
Prophet Steve said:
Microsoft has not been pushing Valve away at all, not even with Windows 8. Even if Microsoft says that it will not want the desktop anymore and it will not be allowed, Steam can as easy conform to the new standards. Which would be to make a Steam app or something.

I see no sign at all that Microsoft wants to push out Valve with the XBL marketplace, and I doubt they would get away with something like that.
Click to expand...

Therein lies the problem. The predominant fear is not that of being pushed out, but to be a slave to MS’s “metro” terms of business (aka xbox mach 2) that’s the issue. Accepting MS’s clever little package of control is like giving them a leash already tied to your neck, which they can then yank or suffocate in any way they please, when “the time is right”. There’s a reason why many people do not trust MS or want to have anything to do with their new direction for windows. SOS is one borne out of such a necessity.
 
R

_Ryo_

Member
Okay, so there are many Linux distributions that do not have media codecs included because they are proprietary and you need a license in the US and some other countries to use them legally for free, (MP3, MP4, MPEG, WMA, WMV, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc)

How will SteamOS get around this fact? Will Valve pay the license fees and still allow the OS for free?
 
V

valouris

Member
We have yet to see how open the platform will be. What worries me are games that are not on Steam at all, like Blizzard's games, Mojang, or any indie that hasn't been Greenlit. Will we be able to play those games on a SteamOS machine? Is it going to be a true OS/Linux, or will it be like booting straight into Steam but with some extra features?
 
P

pixlexic

Banned
Let me ask this.. If valve can get third parties to port thier next gen games to steam os. Why would you not want to build your own steam console ?

Not saying that will happen over night
 
A

angular graphics

Banned
valouris said:
We have yet to see how open the platform will be. What worries me are games that are not on Steam at all, like Blizzard's games, Mojang, or any indie that hasn't been Greenlit. Will we be able to play those games on a SteamOS machine? Is it going to be a true OS/Linux, or will it be like booting straight into Steam but with some extra features?
Click to expand...

1) The Verge were the first to reveal the existence of a SteamBox. They said: http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up.
Click to expand...

2) Gabe indicated the SteamBox (which will run SteamOS of course) is fully open. http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852144/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box-future-of-gaming

So... Netflix on the Steam Box?

Oh absolutely. You can fire up a web browser, you can do whatever you want.
Click to expand...

3) The SteamOS page says: http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want.
Click to expand...

I think it'll be fully open.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
pixlexic said:
Let me ask this.. If valve can get third parties to port thier next gen games to steam os. Why would you not want to build your own steam console ?

Not saying that will happen over night
Click to expand...

Common answers would be along the lines of one already has a machine capable of playing those third party games.
 
B

bleachrude

Banned
So you automatically believe Valve that their games are 30% better than on a Windows machine?


Does ANYONE actually believe that you will see a 30% increase in frame rate between games optimized for Windows vs optimized for Linux?
 
U

Ubersnug

Member
I'm guessing it will be too early to really know the answer to this yet, but I was wondering if one of these cheap Atom powered mini-pc's, like the Asus EEE box, would be powerful enough to run the stream from your main gaming PC

for example, one of these:
eee-pc-desktop.jpg


I think it's safe to assume that the main PC would be compressing the game into a video stream and broadcasting it to the SteamOS powered PC. So, all the receiving machine should need to do is pick up on the stream and decode the video codec that wraps around the stream, as well as process your input and pass that back to the streaming machine (yes, I know I am over simplifying the entire process here).

So, I'm thinking that as long as the receiving PC can play HD videos, it would be capable of displaying a stream from your main gaming PC? No? Too obvious?

If that's true, then one of these little pc's could easily be tucked, hidden away around your entertainment centre and have full access to your Steam library - which is an exciting and very cheap prospect.

I also wonder if Steam would stream non-Steam games that you have manually added to your library...
 
S

shakin_haitian

Banned
_Ryo_ said:
Okay, so there are many Linux distributions that do not have media codecs included because they are proprietary and you need a license in the US and some other countries to use them legally for free, (MP3, MP4, MPEG, WMA, WMV, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc)

How will SteamOS get around this fact? Will Valve pay the license fees and still allow the OS for free?
Click to expand...

It will be solved the same way it's solved now, by the end user stealing the codecs.
 
P

phosphor112

Banned
This is probably nothing, but there is this thing going around that originated from 4chan.

uy8NoBX.jpg
Click to expand...

A lot of it sounds plausible, but it's probably all fake. I figured this would be the place to post it though.

We'll know by tomorrow if this is bullshit.
 
A

Azih

Member
I think it's a long term move by Valve and I don't think that it'll take over the world.

But then again I don't think Valve expects it to take over the world either. It's not going to be the next Windows or anything but the world is pretty fragmented now and there's no reason why the SteamOS can't be very good at catering to the niche that Steam already handles very well.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Ragnarok4750 said:
Is a quote about Notch really threadworthy? I thought the Minecraft fad was over and no one really cared much about that guy anymore
Click to expand...

Besides how hilariously wrong your comment about Minecraft is, a game designer is permitted to share his thoughts and reflections even if he or she is not currently making a hit game or hasn't in a long time. This practice where people enter discussions just to shit on David Cage or Peter Molyneux or -- before all this Based nonsense -- even Mark Cerny is terrible. "Who the fuck is this guy and what has he done lately? Fuck this idiot, who cares what he thinks?" It's thread shitting and it's absurd in how proud it is of being ignorant and closed. It is important to listen to diverse voices that offer their input on issues of the day.
 
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