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[c0de]

Basically, when you are running windows, it's doing a bunch of stuff to maintain OS functions, and there will be a bunch of programs running in the memory that aren't related to the game you are playing right this second. I think the principle is that by creating their own OS they can ensure that all of the computers resources are put towards running the game at hand and not for doing auxiliary tasks like iTunes sweeping your music folder for new files or whatever.

Every os does a bunch of stuff besides gaming. Therefore schedulers have to put the load to the CPU in an appropriate way.

 

[Pagusas]

Less support for W8 is a good thing... aren't PC gamers worldwide being "screwed" by being forced to upgrade to W8? What is the difference?

The hell are you talking about? W8 is good OS, but no one is being forced off W7

 

[MrGreencastle]

Perfect. I've been looking for an excuse to move forward on my AMD FM2 APU mITX build for a while now. Might as well start laying the groundwork. Hopefully the software will be available to download this week, too.

 

[Ricker]

Real GAF Heroes
Today we pay homage to the not surprised guy
No matter what the thread discussion is
you're there posting about your own lack of surprise and how surprising it is that others are surprised by this news

Tune in next week for another episode of Real GAF Heroes

Streaming on your Steambox via the RGH app(who needs vevo and the like)

 

[plasticpassion]

Will I be able to install this alongside win 8? I have an excellent gaming rig but can't give up the other functions of my PC.

 

[NoPiece]

No. It says inhouse-streaming. You turn on your pc and can then use the "SteamOS machine", thats connected to your PC to play the Games in the living-room. Like Wireless-HDMI.

The annoucement says:

Hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS. Watch for announcements in the coming weeks about all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014.

So you only need a PC to stream your back catalog. This is a potential replacement for a PC.

 

[yami4ct]

Somehow doubt that. FPSes, console ports and indie action games consist of "most of Steam's library"

Majority of games coming to PCs now are console ports, indies that would work fine on a gamepad and F2P games. Sure, the heavy hitters like DotA are never going to work well on a pad, but I don't think you'd convince those people to play those games on a TV anyway. The games people would want on their TV would all work on a gamepad without issue.

 

[lightning2k3]

What if Steam just released their version of the Nvidia Shield? Think about it, a controller and a receiver that plugged into the back of the TV. That receive works much like CromeCast, PS4/Vita connectivity, or hell, they could create something more dedicated much like the Wii U to gamepad functionality.

Just a thought, I feel like the dedicated hardware idea would fracture an already small (and recovering) segment of gaming.

most people dont have a dedicated gaming pc to stream to this box.

 

[antiloop]

They should contribute to Wine so we can run things without streaming in the future. Streaming is bs.

 

[StuBurns]

Uhh yeah they do? Uplay does right? Probably be more "in-depth" next gen too I would imagine. Or do I not understand your response

They aren't apps though, they're just in-game options. Steam is on PS3 too in that sense.

 

[Tacitus_]

freely licensable operating system for manufacturers.

Is Microsoft shiting themselves right now.

About as much as they are shitting themselves about Ubuntu.

 

[RSTEIN]

Can't see myself installing this any time soon. Maybe if Valve started making their games exclusive for it. I don't think they'll do that though, the backlash would be enormous.

But if SteamOS somehow manages to become the next big thing in PC gaming I guess I'll dual-boot.

In order for me to jump onboard the performance gains would have to be quite big. Like, 10-15% improvement due to reduced OS overhead/better access to...graphical hardware things that make games look gud ??

 

[angular graphics]

Will I be able to install this alongside win 8? I have an excellent gaming rig but can't give up the other functions of my PC.

You will.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

 

[shadowstar]

Here is my use case: I have a gaming PC in my room. I just replaced the motherboard, CPU and GPU for the first time since 2010. So now I have most of the makings of a second, pretty ok PC sitting around unused. It can do things like run Battlefield 3 on medium at 40 fps. I also have a television in my living room.

I will get a small, quiet mATX case with a 350w PSU built in, a 4GB stick of RAM, and a small SSD, probably getting each piece over the next month or two as I find deals. I will plug in a controller. And there you have it.

It helps that my friends are all on Steam except for a couple guys who only play games when a GTA or something along those lines comes out. I also have a huge library of controller-ready games. And even before Valve announces the new lineup of SteamOS compatible games, I've already found a good chunk of my library is capable of running native in Linux.

The money I save on not needing another Windows key will go right to more games.

Plug in a controller to play an online fps with your friends and proceed to get pounded by all the M/KB players running at a shitty fps because you're playing in an HTPC or lagging because you're streaming? Yeah, still don't see the appeal. The only stuff I see playable are the multiplatform action adventure titles like Fez or whatever. I personally don't see the appeal of paying more money to build an HTPC and play games I can already play on my 360/PS3.

I'm probably biased because I already run an HDMI cable to my TV for media. I've never personally had a desire to play games on my TV over my monitor with it's better resolution. Heck I play Xbox on my monitor too (no lag).

 

[Mindlog]

Not for me. Saving a little on the OS isn't worth it in the end. However, if it creates a new market for... higher powered devices that can play games on an open platform (PC) then that is good. Competition drives innovation. Having more people aware of Steam's value prop can't hurt either.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Is Microsoft shiting themselves right now.

Nope.

 

[Wiktor]

Majority of games coming to PCs now are console ports, indies that would work fine on a gamepad and F2P games. .

Umm..I don't think you are up to date with what's being released on PC these days.

 

[maabus1999]

They aren't apps though, they're just in-game options. Steam is on PS3 too in that sense.

Alright, didn't understand the response check. Yeah, not the store fronts. However, I wouldn't be surprised if some form of "always online" was tied into these apps for next gen in some form or fashion. mark my words!

 

[Lynn616]

I sure as hell can't unless it's more powerful than either the PS4 or Xbone.

The post I responded to was saying just that. Plus you could stream all your Windows Steam games to the SteamBox.

 

[JeTmAn81]

An operating system...built just for PC gaming? It's so crazy it just might work.

 

[LCGeek]

I guaranty not only will Valve's games going forward run natively and perfectly on SteamOS, they'll also perform better on SteamOS OpenGL versus Windows DirectX on the exact same hardware. I also expect, like Valve says on the webpage, a lot of developers have already got their games up and running as SteamOS supported.

This is true already in some cases as you look up a variety of benchmarks done. If valve is getting real support in to linux gaming support the performance between the platforms could widen a bit more. Valve really should deal with perception issues if they are serious about this long term.

 

[VicDaMoan03]

Streaming:

Does the Windows PC streaming to the living room (steam box) need to be powerful engough to run the game? Or is the stem box running the actual game?

The reason I ask is beacuse I have a HP (non-gaming) PC in my office that I could stream games from.

 

[eot]

I'm going to assume all of the people in this thread posting variants on "Here is what the market currently looks like, why would anyone bother doing anything different to that because the current status quo will never ever change for any reason" don't invest in the stock market and aren't senior enough at whatever jobs they do to have to be aware of SWOT analyses.

Let me break it down for you;

Yes, on a rainy day 10 years from now it might be nice that they did this, just as it's nice that we have Steam now despite how much it sucked when I wanted to play CS in 2003. For now though I'll stick with the OS where I can play Diablo 2, Myth II, Deus Ex, Planescape, System Shock 2, etc. when I want to.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

freely licensable operating system for manufacturers.

Is Microsoft shiting themselves right now.

lol no..

 

[Minions]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

Missing how this would even affect windows as a viable platform.... unless Steam stops releasing games on windows.... which I don't see happening. This just seems like another product which would affect the console market more than the pc market.

 

[lensoftruth]

unfortunately, this won't impact me unless there is a hardware announcement attached to this announcement. I want a Steam Box that is <$1000; but is more powerful than both PS4 and XB1; if that happens; I will be down

Build a cheap gaming pc. Stick steamos on it. Done

 

[Tacitus_]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

Dat AAA Tuxracer gaming.



Seriously though, more support for Linux is nice, even though SteamOS doesn't interest me a bit.

Streaming:

Does the Windows PC streaming to the living room (steam box) need to be powerful engough to run the game? Or is the stem box running the actual game?

The reason I ask is beacuse I have a HP (non-gaming) PC in my office that I could stream games from.

Yes. All the rendering will be done on that machine.

 

[Plinko]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

Even that wouldn't do it.

 

[maverick40]

freely licensable operating system for manufacturers.

Is Microsoft shiting themselves right now.

Why would Microsoft be shitting themselves at all? Every company on the planet uses Windows and sticks with it because of the ease of use, reliability and most of all customer support. The money companies shell out for Windows is worth it for their customer support alone. Why would Microsoft suddenly be scared when a linux based os from a gaming company that neither casual customer or the majority of businesses even know exists?

 

[rakkadakka]

Do not need or want another fast machine in my house.

Do want streaming option for my PC to living room, give me a product reasonably priced and capable of doing that well and I'm sold.

 

[MesserWolf]

for me they are just following Android strategy.

And if you ask me it would be about time that all these "smart" tv finally get a decent software (right now it is often awful or becomes obsolete very fast as nobody does maintenance on it)

 

[NoPiece]

What percentage of the PC market do you seriously believe is dedicated just to gaming where they would dump the entire OS and game developers would do the same?

~1% this year. 5% next year if the big publishers support it. But you have to start somewhere.

 

[Guevara]

I agree. Is there a reason why everyone keeps specifically singling out Sony here as a likely candidate? Samsung, Google, HTC, LG, and others all seem like more immediately likely partners to me, if Valve is interested in working with large partners like that.

The close integration between PSN and Steam for Portal 2 seemed like the start of a partnership to come. Then... nothing else happened.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

I'm going to assume all of the people in this thread posting variants on "Here is what the market currently looks like, why would anyone bother doing anything different to that because the current status quo will never ever change for any reason" don't invest in the stock market and aren't senior enough at whatever jobs they do to have to be aware of SWOT analyses.

Let me break it down for you;

- Right now Windows has a kung-fu death grip monopoly on the PC gaming industry. If anything happens to dethrone MS, or if MS make any changes themselves to adversely affect gaming (and why would they? It's not like they have some gaming specific hardware they want to push), and company whose primary source of operations is PC gaming is fucked.

- Right now there is reluctance from embedded customers to switch platforms, due to their amassed libraries and reluctance to give that all away (for more of this, watch this holiday seasons NPDs)

- Right now Linux in particular and Open Source in general find it hard to appeal to content producers to put their software onto, as the market is perceived as 'niche', 'fragmented' and 'freeloaders'. A lot of marketing money has been spent to help foster this perception ("Get the facts!").

Here's what SteamOS brings to the table;

- A mature and well respected digital store front with a loyal customer base (why would Amazon sell their own apps on their own store? There's already a Google store on Android!). Why is this important? Because it provides a service that allows people who want to buy content a trusted way to buy that content.
This is good for both consumers and producers; consumers know if their machine can run SteamOS, it can run the 'app' they buy from the SteamOS 'appstore'.
Producers know products they sell on the 'SteamOS appstore' are piracy free, and can also see how many users the SteamOS appstore has to estimate potential sales in advance. Or indeed the value of porting costs of a product already available elsewhere.

- A method of accessing prior content; this is obviously a stop-gap solution, but it solves the whole "why would I buy a steambox if I already have a Pc and loads of games" question, until software and hardware solutions which don't yet exist do.

- Independence from Windows at a company level; the biggest factor by far. With this, Valve are no longer entirely entwined in the fate of MS and whatever it is they're choosing to do with regards to Pc gaming this month.
This independence is also there for others who might not be as super-peachy-keen on Windows as some of you are to join in on.

Thankyou for saying exactly what I couldn't quite put across. This is exactly how I see Valve's plan for the future. A future where Windows is no longer a requirement for desktop gaming.

 

[Ferrio]

Thinking people need to treat this less like a new OS to install on their computer and more like an AppleTV/Roku.

Maybe once the thing gets legs it'll be something you wanna run on your PC.

 

[Unicorn]

I'm in.

 

[Omegasquash]

And here I've got an old Thermaltake LANbox that I've been dying to do something with. So, I can upgrade my video card in my current rig, swap the 460 into the steam box, get a micro ATX and some RAM, a decent power supply, a few HDDs and I'm good.

So I basically have to build a new PC, but whatever. Totally doable as a streamlined gaming rig.

 

[Reversed]

Steam OS, or in short, SOS.

Heh.

 

[QaaQer]

I'm going to assume all of the people in this thread posting variants on "Here is what the market currently looks like, why would anyone bother doing anything different to that because the current status quo will never ever change for any reason" don't invest in the stock market and aren't senior enough at whatever jobs they do to have to be aware of SWOT analyses.

Let me break it down for you;

- Right now Windows has a kung-fu death grip monopoly on the PC gaming industry. If anything happens to dethrone MS, or if MS make any changes themselves to adversely affect gaming (and why would they? It's not like they have some gaming specific hardware they want to push), and company whose primary source of operations is PC gaming is fucked.

- Right now there is reluctance from embedded customers to switch platforms, due to their amassed libraries and reluctance to give that all away (for more of this, watch this holiday seasons NPDs)

- Right now Linux in particular and Open Source in general find it hard to appeal to content producers to put their software onto, as the market is perceived as 'niche', 'fragmented' and 'freeloaders'. A lot of marketing money has been spent to help foster this perception ("Get the facts!").

Here's what SteamOS brings to the table;

- A mature and well respected digital store front with a loyal customer base (why would Amazon sell their own apps on their own store? There's already a Google store on Android!). Why is this important? Because it provides a service that allows people who want to buy content a trusted way to buy that content.
This is good for both consumers and producers; consumers know if their machine can run SteamOS, it can run the 'app' they buy from the SteamOS 'appstore'.
Producers know products they sell on the 'SteamOS appstore' are piracy free, and can also see how many users the SteamOS appstore has to estimate potential sales in advance. Or indeed the value of porting costs of a product already available elsewhere.

- A method of accessing prior content; this is obviously a stop-gap solution, but it solves the whole "why would I buy a steambox if I already have a Pc and loads of games" question, until software and hardware solutions which don't yet exist do.

- Independence from Windows at a company level; the biggest factor by far. With this, Valve are no longer entirely entwined in the fate of MS and whatever it is they're choosing to do with regards to Pc gaming this month.
This independence is also there for others who might not be as super-peachy-keen on Windows as some of you are to join in on.

excellent post.

 

[StuBurns]

Alright, didn't understand the response check. Yeah, not the store fronts. However, I wouldn't be surprised if some form of "always online" was tied into these apps for next gen in some form or fashion. mark my words!

I doubt it, we'd know by now. Some of them will of course, if the game is always online, but if a publisher wide always online requirement was happening, I think we'd know. Who knows, they'll try to fuck everyone every chance they can anyway.

 

[starwarsfan541]

Well, I guess I am going WiiU-SteamOS this gen.

 

[Minsc]

How many Steam Users are there? 50 Million?

Last we heard when Big Picture Mode was announced, they put the total around 50 million yeah, but wiki has it at a little higher. So if they get 10% of their users to try it out, well slightly less given some amount of entirely new users trying it out, they'd have 5 million. Maybe a stretch, but seems possible.

 

[antiloop]

So is this a megaton for OpenGL or what?

 

[jediyoshi]

The annoucement says:



So you only need a PC to stream your back catalog. This is a potential replacement for a PC.

You're reading into different things differently. He's referring to existing, Windows only games

In-home Streaming

You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!

Native != Streaming

 

[Dennis]

Heard some rumblings about three announcements over three days?

 

[Louis Cyphre]

They aren't apps though, they're just in-game options. Steam is on PS3 too in that sense.

Well since Nintendo, Sony and now Microsoft will all offer Internet browsing on their new systems what are the chances all, if any, will allow their console to be a Steam powered device for Steam OS?

 

[angular graphics]

Steam OS, or in short, SOS.

Heh.

I like it!

 

[Kinyou]

Windows gaming is dead is the funniest hyperbole today.

Yeah, you only need a Windows PC to play all your game sans Tux Racer in your living room. RIP Windows.

Only a gigaton like exclusive like HL3 could make a dent.

Would MS even be hurt much if every steam user switched to SteamOS? Sure that's a couple of million people, but I thought the big money lies with the companies and average user anyway.

 

[Wiktor]

~1% this year. 5% next year if the big publishers support it. But you have to start somewhere.

5% would bigger than the whole Steam userbase. Not going to happen.