Well Steam Dev Days has kicked off in style and we have a little bit of the lowdown here for you, keep an eye on this post as I will keep updating it to keep everyone in the loop as much as I can!
This information is gathered from many different developers at the event as they leak it out. Well, I say leak it's more like a flowing river!
DAY 1
Highlights
- Every developer there got a Steam Controller and a Steam Machine for free! That's right, every single developer team now has a Linux SteamOS box, that's one way to win developers over.
- Valve are hiring.
- Valve want things like Music, TV and more on SteamOS.
- Alienware's Steam Machine will launch in September.
- Valve want to move away from Greenlight.
- Source Engine 2 mentioned during OpenGL talk
- Working on their own OpenGL debugger called VOGL developed natively on Linux, more info on it here. Looks like Valve will be making the most complete OpenGL debugger around for free, wouldn't make sense for them to charge for it.
Controller
- No longer has a touchscreen (see this image), it will have a DPAD and ABXY buttons for backwards compatibility.
- It will use AA batteries - that's a bit dissapointing, I hate fiddling with batteries. It does mean that you won't have to buy a whole new controller if the battery pack inside died though.
- Has an API for developers to hook into.
- The Steam Controller API supports up to 16 players. - So who will be first to come out with a controller-based 16 player game then on one screen for Steam?
- Key-bindings will be crowd-sourced to find the best ones.
- May still change more yet!
Business Highlights
- Steam has grown rapidly in 2013 - Source
- They will add more currency options - Source
- There are plans to allow e-gifting of Steam wallet currency, finally. - Source
- During 2013 holidays sale 1.7million in-game items given out, 2 million snow globe trading cards traded, 2 million daily community marketplace transactions - Source
VR
- Valve have their own Virtual Reality devices, David Hensley of Tripwire stated "the valve demo really blew me away. VR is going to be amazing" and "It felt like an oculus but a generational leap forward", so Valve are ahead of the game in VR! - Source
Users
- They had 1.2m reviews in under 60 days for games - Source
- Steam now has 75 million active users.
- Assault Android Cactus may add a 16 player mode for the controllers! - Source
This could be the latest version of the Steam Controller, they could go through more revisions of course:
Source
I sure do hope more developers bring their games to Linux after attending this event, no reason not to at least test now with a free Linux machine!
The developer of Democracy and Gratuitous Space battles said
QuoteLinux looks more important to gaming than ever
Source
It certainly does look important to Valve, important enough for them to team up with Intel & Gigabyte to give away free machines and controllers!
You can see the information flow in from twitter here. Be sure to follow us @gamingonlinux to keep up even quicker with our retweets and to generally follow us!
This information comes from many different developers tweeting the info in public, thanks to them!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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13 comments
The best would be 22 player support, in order to play 11 vs 11 football games!! (On a 50+ inch screen apparently, and on a very big living room...)
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I don't get this about the controller: "No longer has a touchscreen, will have a DPAD and ABXY buttons for backwards compatibility."
Where are they putting them? In place of the touchscreen?
Where are they putting them? In place of the touchscreen?
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AA batteries are the right choice, at least as long as the hardware is good. My Logitech F710 has been running the same two AA batteries for months... Never did my PS3 controllers ever last that long.
I am disappointed to hear about this d-pad/ABXY crap, though I need to see it to understand it.
Edit: that live feed embedded in the post is super annoying to try and scroll through. Can you filter out the retweets?
I am disappointed to hear about this d-pad/ABXY crap, though I need to see it to understand it.
Edit: that live feed embedded in the post is super annoying to try and scroll through. Can you filter out the retweets?
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16 controller support... Must have something to do with the 8 screen support announced when they started the SteamOS project... What kind of gpu will support that now?
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philip550c Jan 15, 2014
I hope that the battery pack is like the xbox where it comes with a spot for 2 AA batteries but you can replace it with a rechargeable battery pack. I hate buying new batteries.
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I hope that the battery pack is like the xbox where it comes with a spot for 2 AA batteries but you can replace it with a rechargeable battery pack. I hate buying new batteries.Use rechargeable AA's ?
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philip550c Jan 15, 2014
Not the same. Atm I can just dock my controller and it charges. That's a lot easier than pulling batteries out and plugging them into a charger.I hope that the battery pack is like the xbox where it comes with a spot for 2 AA batteries but you can replace it with a rechargeable battery pack. I hate buying new batteries.Use rechargeable AA's ?
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Noooo! :( I want my touchscreen back!
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Good to hear that the controller is taking AA batteries. Releasing some sort of proprietary or hard-to-get battery pack would have run contrary to the whole 'open' philosophy valve is spruiking. Besides, AA's work file on my xbox controller.
I think that the removal of the touch screen on the controller is partially due to negative feedback over the touch surfaces not doing the job well for w,a,s,d emulation (although I read good things about emulating mouse movement), partly because valve is thinking the occulus rift and other VR devices are going to be big and the touch screen display is useless there and maybe even a little bit of an issue with extra power draw for a backlit touchscreen reducing battery life. Just my guesses. This is still what I'm looking forward to most out of the entire Steam OS/Steam Machine development...
I think that the removal of the touch screen on the controller is partially due to negative feedback over the touch surfaces not doing the job well for w,a,s,d emulation (although I read good things about emulating mouse movement), partly because valve is thinking the occulus rift and other VR devices are going to be big and the touch screen display is useless there and maybe even a little bit of an issue with extra power draw for a backlit touchscreen reducing battery life. Just my guesses. This is still what I'm looking forward to most out of the entire Steam OS/Steam Machine development...
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A dock could charge AA batteries as well, it doesn't have to be a non-standard battery.Use rechargeable AA's ?Not the same. Atm I can just dock my controller and it charges. That's a lot easier than pulling batteries out and plugging them into a charger.
Instead of a dock, it could also be recharged by pluging in a USB cable (which would let you use the pad while it charges the batteries). Yesss, I hope they'll go for this, batteries + USB cable.
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philip550c Jan 16, 2014
Sounds unlikely, most people dont use rechargeable batteries and if thats the case they wouldnt include a docking method or a usb charging method to charge non rechargeable batteries. That could cause damage, unless of course it comes with rechargeable and has some sort of safety mechanism in case someone uses regular batteries. IDK? But to me personally these are both semi bad news, nothing major but I would prefer an internal battery (that can be replaced when end-of-life) thats usb charged and a touch screen but until I have one I cant really judge anything. Although I have no plans to give up keyboard/mouse combo that I have been using in my living room for years.A dock could charge AA batteries as well, it doesn't have to be a non-standard battery.Use rechargeable AA's ?Not the same. Atm I can just dock my controller and it charges. That's a lot easier than pulling batteries out and plugging them into a charger.
Instead of a dock, it could also be recharged by pluging in a USB cable (which would let you use the pad while it charges the batteries). Yesss, I hope they'll go for this, batteries + USB cable.
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Be nice if they brought out the touchscreen controller. I like having both as options. I'd get two for myself, and then two non-touchscreens depending on price difference.
At this point, im not sure if ill get a steambox, an actual valve branded steambox? id be all over it. Anything else just seems like buying a regular machine preinstalled with steamos, which isn't a bad thing. But I get enough of that with my alienware laptop (sans steamos obviously :P).
That alienware one does look very very nice though...
At this point, im not sure if ill get a steambox, an actual valve branded steambox? id be all over it. Anything else just seems like buying a regular machine preinstalled with steamos, which isn't a bad thing. But I get enough of that with my alienware laptop (sans steamos obviously :P).
That alienware one does look very very nice though...
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I think the Steam VR is going to be the next big thing from the comments and articles I have read and could be why the touch screen has been removed. It would be pretty useless if you cant see it..? plus it helps keep the cost of the unit down and power consumption etc.
I really hope VR / Occulus device comes to fruition and is truly amazing as people are indicating, that could be a game changer on making the Steam machines a success. Otherwise I think I will wait a year or so before taking the plunge.... the range of games on Linux really does need to improve... I keep waiting for news about some great new titles... but its just not happening yet... :(
Give it time they said..
I really hope VR / Occulus device comes to fruition and is truly amazing as people are indicating, that could be a game changer on making the Steam machines a success. Otherwise I think I will wait a year or so before taking the plunge.... the range of games on Linux really does need to improve... I keep waiting for news about some great new titles... but its just not happening yet... :(
Give it time they said..
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