SteamOS - SteamWare

I'm of the same mind on price. I was expecting something much more robust or at least modular. I'd replace my computer in a heartbeat for a rig designed from the get go for minimal footprint and 1 minute hardware swaps, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Especially if we're talking laptop quality/restriction video cards.

Steam Box is a device aimed at a PC gaming audience (also known as Master Race) who are, in general, fairly saavy when it comes to technology. The people with a large steam library that would benefit from this are also the people who probably build their own machines. When you slap together some mid-tier architecture that can't even play current gen games at max specs, and the pricepoint is 500 to get your foot in the door? Yeah, the people with existing steam libraries are just going to continue to game with their PC, or build a rig for the same price but better specs to do exactly what the steam box is doing. I get the idea that it's a no-knowledge "console" to run -some- steam games from, but really how many people out there are using steam, would want that functionality, and don't understand how to put together a modern PC? Or, even more likely, wouldn't just google/youtube up information and tips on building their own "Steambox" from newegg/amazon for less? The Linux problem is immediately apparent, and it would be like releasing the Mac OS version of this and infuriating the shit out of most people because the Mac steam library is paltry compared to PC.

I just can't see this being that big of a seller, especially when you can't even play a ton of popular games due to them not being written for linux. I just don't really get what audience this was aimed at in the first place.

So, few things, no controller is ever natural, we've just used the current best versions for 10 years we have a shit load of practice. My initial feeling to the pad was that I didn't like it when I pulled it out of the box. It sat on my desk for 2 days before I decided to try and figure out what it could do. First thing to understand is if you aren't going to program it yourself game companies haven't made you custom configs for this kind of tech. You must put in the time to at least try to envision your ideal control setup. I looked into some of the setup options to really make the controller fit your hand (such as rotating the horizontal swipe angle of your thumb on either pad - given the size of your hands that angle will change. If you do not go tweak this setting - your natural right/left motion may be slanted. The thing about the controller is that every button has haptic options, and the pads themselves can emulate like 5 or 6 different devices and you can tweak the precise nature of how they work.

I briefly mentioned above - I changed smoothing settings, rotational settings. And then most important to me I created the control zones to be the size that fit my hands/thumb. Once I actually learned what this thing could do and made a config for myself - I'm not using another controller in fps with a gamepad - the steam pad is so much more fun and gentle than the dual analog. And more importantly the gyro is more than just novelty when you finally get used to practicing with it. Its the kind of fine precision you wish you could sometimes get with a mouse - its not a mouse certainly but its so much closer than a 360 or ps4 gamepad. The controller saves configs for every game independently.

Soy, can you rename the thread, please, to "SteamOS and SteamWare" ?

Anyone use a wii u pro controller with steamlink? I keep reading mixed things on of it works or not. I dont want to have to install a new bluetooth stack and xinput converter and all that crap on the pc doing the streaming. Hoping it just works so i actually get some use out of the thing.

Going from other reviews while I was investigating the sound issue, natively, I do not think it works. However, the Steam Link is only transmitting back and forth to your PC, so if your PC is receiving input and is converting it, it should work if it would normally work with your PC assuming you have a receiver plugged into your Link.

Palum_sl said:

Anyone who trusted Valve to release a piece of software on time deserved to get hung out to dry.

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People are also forgetting how much Steam sucked when it first came out. I can see these being O.K eventually. I think it was just a fallback OS in case Windows 10 was terrible.

I don't. Steam hard locking your PC's resources was something that completely turned me off from PC gaming for the majority of the xbox 360 gaming era. Initial Steam was worse than malware. Christ. Now though, it's hard to imagine my current gaming without Steam being central to it.

I have to admit that with all the issues I've had with Steam Link, their tech support has been pretty thorough with trying to find the root cause of the self-programmed audio failure.

One thing I haven't really seen though is if any of the SteamBoxes are going to be modular. The Alienware's obviously aren't with an onboard mGTX, but did anyone actually hone in on the real aimpoint (simplicity of design/updating your rig)?

Being able to remove and replace key components with minimal hassle seems to me to be what should have been the core concept. The only thing that would never 'need' to get replaced is your storage device hosting the OS and the power.

Similar to the Ara:

I would replace my behemoth in an instant for something along those lines and only buy a cheap laptop every decade to do work on even if it meant buying all my hardware components via Valve.

So did some looking around at the Steam sponsored retailers for Steam Machines (Alienware,Maingear,Materiel.net,ScanComputers,Syber[CyberPowerPC],Zotac) and it looks like Syber hit closest to the mark with full powered PC(that boots Steam directly from Win8) in the size of an Xbox (price unlisted), but none of them built or service with modularity in mind from what I saw.

So you're stuck with buying a new box for $500-1400 instead of a new module for $50-200 which doesn't add new solution to the problems of the target market - convenience/portability of a console with the Power/Lifespan/Versatility of a Desktop PC.

For anyone with an open mind that wants to start unlock their controller's full potential and really enjoy it. To preface, I am an above average fps player with a mouse at least. The games he lists (CS/Dota) I am not interested in ever playing with my controller. These videos are about showing how much customization is built into the pads, and just precisely what they can be made to do.

So, honestly, does Steam controller have any effect on your Dota 2 performance or do you still Kb+M?

Did you read what I wrote? The dota video is about ARPGS like torchlight or diablo. I am not 100% familiar with the ranks of CS:GO but I think this guy is quite high tier. So you aren't getting opinions from a bad player with a M/KB when he talks about the gyro.

I did. And My question stands, keeping in mind that you stated you don't intend to use it for Dota 2 - how does it affect your gaming performance/enjoyment in Dota 2?

I feel it's a fairly relevant anecdote benchmark of reference (to me, and probably others on the board) as I (and others) have played with you on KB + M.

I said I'm not interested in playing in my post. I won't be playing dota 2 or cs:go with it. I plan on playing some fps single player games like the newer Wolfenstien games, and I plan on giving the new Xcom a lot of time with it since its a game without a console port. Helldivers comes out in a few days and I plan on trying to use both of the pads instead of the joystick to give that control style a shot. I love twin stick shooters, I want to see if I love them on 2 pads or 1 pad or if its worse I'll let you know my preference. I have literally played fallout 4 with it for 100 hours, its a lot more enjoyable to me than my 360 pad that I've used forever. It took time to set it up to my own preferences, but once I did, I look forward to setting it up in future games to get the most out of it. The binding interface is extremely fast and intuitive. Probably takes you like 2-4 minutes to design a control scheme once you know what you want it to do.

Edit: I have also played rocket league with it for maybe 10 hours - which as a game isn't much of a benchmark. But Its responsive, I like the way it feels in my hands.

Celestein_sl said:

It doesn't natively connect to it, least in my case.

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So it looks like Steam updated the firmware so WiiU does now work (at least via internal Bluetooth confirmed).

So KB+M, Xbox 360/1 (don't forget your dongle), Steam, DS 3/4 all work Wired or Wireless, WiiU confirmed Wireless(although I assume wired should work with the new firmware).

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Looking for a legit Shield Android Tv vs Steam Link comparisons to look at the PC stream comparison via NVidia Experience and Steam, but can't find anything.

The only legit shield review I can find only talks about the cloud gaming and doesn't cover streaming at all.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for so I'll try this and see if this helps anyone(neither are overly professional, and you need to ignore the Steam Link's controller portion):

Steam Link

Nvidia Shield