[AxelCloris]

Today Valve announced SteamOS, an operating system for the living room based on Linux. Natively compatible with all Linux Steam games and also able to stream from Windows and OS X, similar to the NVidia Shield.
 
Valve still has 2 more announcements this week as well, the next being Wednesday at 10am PST. So, thoughts?
 
Source: [Valve]

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Half-Life 3, Portal 3 plz.

 

[AxelCloris]

I wouldn't be surprised to see HL3, Portal 3 and L4D3 all announced this week. If those 3 games are SteamOS exclusives, you can be sure we'll see a high adoption rate.
 
After all, this is the first time I can remember that Valve has publicly counted to 3.

 

[mvrk10256]

Might be worth to try it out on a spare computer. I am still not 100% on how they are going to port the big windows games to the linux interface. But should be fun to watch. 

 

[AxelCloris]

  Might be worth to try it out on a spare computer. I am still not 100% on how they are going to port the big windows games to the linux interface. But should be fun to watch. 

 
Pretty sure their plan with Windows games is their announced streaming feature. It's similar to the method the NVidia Shield uses, where the game actually runs on one machine and is streamed without latency to another device, in this case the SteamBox.
 
From their site: "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!"

 

[mvrk10256]

   
Pretty sure their plan with Windows games is their announced streaming feature. It's similar to the method the NVidia Shield uses, where the game actually runs on one machine and is streamed without latency to another device, in this case the SteamBox.
 
From their site: "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!"

 
Ya I went back and read that. I guess i would rather just sit at my computer, to play my computer games....

 

[AxelCloris]

   
Ya I went back and read that. I guess i would rather just sit at my computer, to play my computer games....

 
There are definite advantages to staying on the computer, won't lie there. This is to get those games easily to a TV screen. If all goes as I want, I can see myself getting a SteamBox that plays Bluray, games from my Mac/Windows laptop, and has native Dolby Headphone built in. One perk I can see coming is more games developing for Linux so you don't need to run from another computer. I'd love to see more AAA games developed for OpenGL. I've been really impressed with the OpenGL port of Bioshock Infinite. That'll be a while before that happens, if at all.

 

[chewy4]

   
Pretty sure their plan with Windows games is their announced streaming feature. It's similar to the method the NVidia Shield uses, where the game actually runs on one machine and is streamed without latency to another device, in this case the SteamBox.
 
From their site: "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!"

 
So basically if you want to play games from the Steam OS, but still have access to Windows games you'll need two gaming PCs.
 
I can see it being useful for a streaming device but as it's own OS to run games natively, this doesn't seem like a good idea. Way too many Windows only games.

 

[mvrk10256]

   
So basically if you want to play games from the Steam OS, but still have access to Windows games you'll need two gaming PCs.
 
I can see it being useful for a streaming device but as it's own OS to run games natively, this doesn't seem like a good idea. Way too many Windows only games.

 
No. You need one gaming PC (which you probably already have) and another cheapo box where your tv/projector is. The cheapo box just uses a high speed VPN system. I am seeing latency concerns though. Movies, even hd generally stream fine on wireless N, but a nice new game like GTAV or similar -  thats a lot of info to load quickly....

 

[chewy4]

   
No. You need one gaming PC (which you probably already have) and another cheapo box where your tv/projector is. The cheapo box just uses a high speed VPN system. I am seeing latency concerns though. Movies, even hd generally stream fine on wireless N, but a nice new game like GTAV or similar -  thats a lot of info to load quickly....

 
It's not just for streaming. It's an OS that is meant for playing games off of it natively.
 
They talk about it having performance advantages, streaming it off a machine running Windows would get rid of those advantages.

 

[AxelCloris]

   
So basically if you want to play games from the Steam OS, but still have access to Windows games you'll need two gaming PCs.
 
I can see it being useful for a streaming device but as it's own OS to run games natively, this doesn't seem like a good idea. Way too many Windows only games.

 
For existing windows games, you'll need to stream from another computer but you can buy their "good" box to stream only. Earlier interviews say the "good" box is targeting a $100 price tag. This box would just stream and play basic games like you'd find on iOS and Android. Think Ouya, to an extent. Then there's the "better" box, which will have upgraded components that are supposed to beat consoles, but we'll have to wait and see. That would be for running full fledged games on the machine itself, not just flash or web style games. Gabe has already said many times that he's not a fan of Microsoft. I don't see him trying to license DirectX from them in order to give the entire steam backlog of 3000+ titles. If Valve does, however, I will be really impressed. Unfortunately all of this is just conjecture until we see the 2 remaining announcements this week.
 
It's the beginning of a new OS, so a lot of stuff won't run on the box out of the gate, true. SteamBox will be sold on the faith that developers will be developing all titles for the OS eventually. Windows is clunky on a TV setup. I've had 2 HTPCs and ended up selling both because of the interface. Something like Steam's Big Picture mode could make that a lot less clunky. For $99, I'd buy a device that can stream games from my Mac to my TV. Building the OS around Steam's sharing functionality makes sure that the "good" SteamBox will be something for people who want their games on TV, with an easier interface and a reasonable price point. It's not as much a PC as it is a method to display games. I see the "better" box being adopted only by early adopters for a while to come. But we'll see this week.
 
Edit: Doh, spent so much time typing and working that mvrk beat me to it

 

[n0str3ss]

I really hopes this starts pulling game developers to linux, such amazing SO's and business models and so undervalued...