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[velociraptor]

I can't remember where I read it but apparently valves prototype case with a titan maintained the same decibel levels at peak to the Ps4. But I don't know how loud or quiet that is. It does operate warmer though but that is typical of machines with those kind of cards under load

Wow, that is very impressive.

 

[ashecitism]

Not sure if this is the place, but has any manufacturers revealed their streaming focused machines yet? Or is there a way to build something small already available?

Not yet. Also depends how small you want to go? Like Ouya, Fire TV, Chromecast? I don't think so. Things like Gigabyte's Brix Pro or BX model seem nice, but I think they're like $300+.

 

[ashecitism]

Shalarn posted a vid about his thoughts on the supposed new SC design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdB3UXmhSp8

Is concerned about losing buttons in favor of a stick and also mentions that maybe the grips could be split up, which I was also thinking about previously. But it's probably problematic for people with smaller hands.

 

[ashecitism]

One of the testers posted a vid about his 6 months with his unit. Basically ditched the OS and controller.

which got posted on kotaku, where a Stardrive dev commented

Yep. I've got one of the Steam Controller prototypes that they gave out at Dev days, plus the Steam Box they gave to us all. It's a bit of a hot mess to be honest. The controller just doesn't do it for me even a little bit. I use a 360 controller with the box. And I'm also getting ready to just wipe the OS off the box and install Windows 7.

I want to love this concept but I think the execution just has a long way to go. We mouse with our hands, not our thumbs. This controller simply isn't good enough to change that for me.


And also, I just want analog sticks. The haptic feedback is a poor substitute for a good analog stick.

Also, honestly I'm really close to losing all my interest in this. If Valve can't be arsed why should I care? The testers certainly don't seem to anymore.

 

[fallout]

Also, honestly I'm really close to losing all my interest in this. If Valve can't be arsed why should I care? The testers certainly don't seem to anymore.

I've never been terribly interested in the controller, but the idea of having a quiet, little SteamOS box in my living room is still appealing.

 

[epmode]

Also, honestly I'm really close to losing all my interest in this. If Valve can't be arsed why should I care? The testers certainly don't seem to anymore.

At least we got Big Picture Mode out of it.

 

[alexandros]

Also, honestly I'm really close to losing all my interest in this. If Valve can't be arsed why should I care? The testers certainly don't seem to anymore.

Don't lose hope just yet. I share your frustration at the glacial pace of Valve's progress but I still believe that both the Steam Machines and the Steam Controller have enormous potential. I am quite optimistic that the final version of the Controller will be great.

 

[ashecitism]

My major gripe is how they said this would be this huge community shaped project, yet they have shut out the community for months now. No official word since May, but even before they haven't talked a lot. And this goes hand in hand with how the testers have lost interest and gone quiet after the first months. It should have been in Valve's best interest to poke them and to provide them with material. Can't blame people for not giving impressions when there's lack of content or reason to. Not to mention their controllers are long outdated.

 

[Sendou]

My major gripe is how they said this would be this huge community shaped project, yet they have shut out the community for months now. No official word since May, but even before they haven't talked a lot. And this goes hand in hand with how the testers have lost interest and gone quiet after the first months. It should have been in Valve's best interest to poke them and to provide them with material. Can't blame people for not giving impressions when there's lack of content or reason to. Not to mention their controllers are long outdated.

I think this will turn out okay but I still completely agree with you.

"We'll post more demonstrations like this soon, including footage of some other game developers using the controller to play their own games."

... that was a year ago. I dislike how much Valve clams up with these things even when they claim the opposite.

 

[ashecitism]

Oh yeah totally, mentioned that before. They dropped the ball with those vids!

 

[pixlexic]

Not really about steam machines but I was thinking about seeing how far I can strip down windows to a gamer only version that didn't have all the unneeded background services to run games and the clients like steam and origin.

 

[alexandros]

Oh yeah totally, mentioned that before. They dropped the ball with those vids!

My hope is that Valve will resume with these once the controller is closer to its final for.

 

[Moral Panic]

I just want the case's CAD files they promised.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Not really about steam machines but I was thinking about seeing how far I can strip down windows to a gamer only version that didn't have all the unneeded background services to run games and the clients like steam and origin.

I was experimenting about a month back using KVM and VGA passthrough to try and run a virtualized Windows Steam instance behind the scenes of Steam OS. It was largely unsuccessful due to a number of technical factors with the motherboard I was using but the things you can try to do with cutting edge virtualization is insane.

 

[Dolor]

My major gripe is how they said this would be this huge community shaped project, yet they have shut out the community for months now. No official word since May, but even before they haven't talked a lot. And this goes hand in hand with how the testers have lost interest and gone quiet after the first months. It should have been in Valve's best interest to poke them and to provide them with material. Can't blame people for not giving impressions when there's lack of content or reason to. Not to mention their controllers are long outdated.

I think the fact that they brought prototype versions of the controllers to several industry events and let just about anybody play on one seems quite a bit more open than anyone else in the industry is. And I may be wrong about this, but I thought SteamOS is in beta currently and could be downloaded for anyone to see and use. Don't know if they have stopped updating it though...

My first response when people complain about Valve's lack of openness is "Compared to what?" If this were MS or even Sony, we wouldn't know anything about it until all the decisions are already made.

I wish I had more information on it too, but it's hard to see the argument that having very public testing of the beta is somehow not a very open process.

As an aside, I am still optimistic. Not as much that the Steam controller will become my only controller (although maybe still!) but that I will now have the option to play M/K games on the couch without issues.

 

[alexandros]

I am still optimistic, even if I am disappointed by Valve's sloppy handling of the Steam Machines project. If I had to guess, I would say that Valve wasn't at all ready to launch SteamOS/Steam Machines/Steam Controller and simply made its progress so far public to stop some of its clients from "defecting" to next gen consoles. Another possibility is that Valve encountered unforeseen difficulties and had to push back the project a lot, hence the lack of communication. A third possibility, SteamOS and the Steam Machines were revealed way too early in order to scare Microsoft into backing off the walled garden approach with Windows 8.

 

[ashecitism]

Jimo's closing thoughts on the beta period, before GDC starts

probably going to be the last update I make to the OP, as everyone disappeared, but it's an eye opening entry to how Valve handled this beta. At least as far as the testers are concerned. Because hopefully a lot of things went down in the background and they'll have a good showing at GDC. That post doesn't inspire confidence. We'll see.

 

[alexandros]

I don't know, I believe that Valve still wants to push Steam Machines but maybe they finally understood that their iterative approach will not work for hardware. I think that the Steam machines will essentially be relaunched.