SteamOS has a minor update to test the waters before a bigger update

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

We have Tux Racer, that isn't but feels kind of exclusive ;)

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Wrong question it should of been when will they start making games again ?

They did announce several new games in the pipeline a couple of months back. Did you already forget?

Quoting: Sil_el_moti still have little problems with overheating when playing games like "dying light".

Yeah with ITX you have two options, first is make the GPU pull air from outside the case via vent holes and put a 120mm water cooler AIO loop on the CPU, or put a GPU AIO cooling loop on instead.

I want to go with the later option for my 1080ti MINI card BUT water cooling loop will cost up to $300 which is a bit much.

If I get a GPU waterblock then you could argue it has decent resellability but they start at like $150USD.

My ITX case(s) are not overly small, they technically above 2-3x the size of a console. To get a console sized ITX build you really need to do ALLOT of custom cooling configurations and not be afraid of using a dremel!


Last edited by TheRiddick on 9 July 2018 at 12:06 am UTC

I like the sound of major updates. Does this mean major updates to Steam for Linux itself or ONLY Steam OS?

I won't lie, I kind of feel like Steam OS should have been Arch-based from the beginning. Debian's nice and stable and everything but even when it has a new major release its kernels tend to be on the old side. Not a good option for a gaming-centric Linux distribution that could be running on computers on the leading edge of hardware. Does Nouveau even properly support a GTX 1080 Ti yet? I still see slightly-aged Linux distributions fail to initialize KMS properly on a GTX 1080 with Nouveau.

I know I'd end up using the proprietary driver, but until its installed you're at the mercy of the limited support of Nouveau. And who knows if you're using a very new motherboard? A lot of the sound chipsets on new gaming motherboards today are not your typical Realtek HDA chips which have been supported for a dog's age but are often stuff like Creative X-Fi.

Had Steam OS been based on Arch Linux we'd have been able to pretty confidently assure ourselves up-to-date hardware support pretty much every time Steam OS would update.

Does Steam OS backport new kernels? I don't see how it'd get the best gaming performance out of an old kernel.

This is also why Macs are poor gaming machines. They look cool but they can't keep a good GPU cool.

Sounds to me like:
Want a small box for your SteamOS machine? Put an APU in it and live with its performance.
Want faster hardware? Make a mid tower and live with the size.

Other options are simply not worth the cost IMO.

Didn't know they welded the GPU on the board, I thought they used MXM slots or whatever they were.

Quoting: Sil_el_moti built my own steam machine 2 years ago. with help of a friend who has all the machinery in his basement. i constructed an own case for itx. but if you want it really small to fit in your shelf in your living room, this isn't that easy. and to find a suitable little case with dvd-drive isn't neither.
i still have little problems with overheating when playing games like "dying light".

I went with ZOTAC NEN which, for me, stroke a good balance between price, power and size. It's tiny, way smaller than ITX or either of this generation consoles. It's built on laptop-grade hardware (i5-6400t and Nvidia 970M with 3 GB of VRAM). It handles high settings in AAA games that were published as the first wave of AAA ports in 2016-2017 and recent games on medium, sometimes high. It's quiet and it doesn't overheat.

Sure, it is not future proof and never was. But it's way more powerful than Alienware Steam Machines and fits perfectly in a living room, connected to an overhead projector. Gaming on 100" FTW!

My dream: the next wave of VR/4k ready Steam Machines done in close cooperation between Valve and ZOTAC, perhaps something like Magnus 1080, bundled with Vive. The question is what is the market for $2000+ bundles (if you include the cost of Vive)?

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Wrong question it should of been when will they start making games again ?

They did announce several new games in the pipeline a couple of months back. Did you already forget?

oh you mean the card game thats not actually a game its just a card game

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: Whitewolfe80

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Wrong question it should of been when will they start making games again ?

They did announce several new games in the pipeline a couple of months back. Did you already forget?

oh you mean the card game thats not actually a game its just a card game

That and the (three?) other games they announced they have in the works. If my memory serves me, at least one was supposed to be a full blown single player game (I'm hoping it's Portal 3) and VR is likely to be a prominent feature. You'll have to pull out your favourite search engine if you want more details, sorry.

Quoting: Comandante Ñoñardo

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Exclusives are just bad, no one wants them. They push platforms, sure, but they lock you into things.

And that is the point in this industry... SteamOS itself is pointless If you don't give a real reason to the average videogame consumer for to use it...

And that is the point in this industry... Antivirus itself is pointless If you don't fund development and spread of malware to give a real reason to the average antivirus consumer for to use it...

Quoting: GuestFirstly, an exclusive on Linux would fail almost immediately due to low populations.

That is Wrong.
If the SteamOS/Linux exclusive game is a real big game like HL3, you gonna have several millions of Windows users dual booting just for to play the long awaited HL3.

Is the same logic behind the consoles: The People that buy every iteration of the Playstation console do that for the big exclusive games and not otherwise.

For something as big as HL3, timed exclusivity would be enough, especially if first reviews were good.

Remember, Linux is free (apart from the time to learn how to install it), so if HL3 was released on Linux 2 months before every other platform millions would install Linux. If Valve announced the next generation Steam Machines in October, preloaded with HL3, and it was released for major platforms only for Christmas, thousands of Steam Machines would sell. Even if some folks would wipe SteamOS and install Windows, some would stay.

Quoting: skinnyrafFor something as big as HL3, timed exclusivity would be enough, especially if first reviews were good.

Remember, Linux is free (apart from the time to learn how to install it), so if HL3 was released on Linux 2 months before every other platform millions would install Linux. If Valve announced the next generation Steam Machines in October, preloaded with HL3, and it was released for major platforms only for Christmas, thousands of Steam Machines would sell. Even if some folks would wipe SteamOS and install Windows, some would stay.

Hell, you could bundle a Linux with a (timed) exclusive game release.
. . . come to think of it, there's a way to do something like an exclusive without being evil. Or at least, without being as evil as exclusives. You have, like, SteamOS (or, better, Mint--heh) bundled with the new game. So then, when you go to install the game from Windows, the game installer defaults to installing SteamOS as a dual-boot and then installing the game on it. You can choose to install it differently, such as on Windows as a Windows game, but you have to make a positive choice to do that. And, maybe if you let the installer do its thing and play the first time from Linux, you get a special 'hat', so you feel exclusive and badass rather than herded and put upon. A lot of people would end up with a Linux partition on which they played their game, and might start doing other things with it.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 9 July 2018 at 10:47 pm UTC

Or even less intrusive, yet efficient idea: Linux-exclusive early access :)

Quoting: Purple Library GuyYou have, like, SteamOS (or, better, Mint--heh) bundled with the new game. So then, when you go to install the game from Windows, the game installer defaults to installing SteamOS as a dual-boot and then installing the game on it. You can choose to install it differently, such as on Windows as a Windows game, but you have to make a positive choice to do that.

I know it's Linux we're talking about, but a game installer messing with my partitions and boot loader to install an operating system? Evil! Okay, maybe that's a strong word, but I really think the backlash would be worse than any positive effect.

Quoting: skinnyrafOr even less intrusive, yet efficient idea: Linux-exclusive early access :)

Well this sounds workable. I still wouldn't pay for alpha/beta access, but others would.

Even something silly like a Linux-exclusive playable character or loot might do the job and make gamers curious.

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Exclusives are just bad, no one wants them. They push platforms, sure, but they lock you into things.

How do you get locked in an OS that is free and open?

Quoting: Teodosio

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWhen will they starting developing exclusive titles?

Exclusives are just bad, no one wants them. They push platforms, sure, but they lock you into things.

How do you get locked in an OS that is free and open?

By having software that doesn't work on other operating systems. Windows can't stop you from switching to Linux. That doesn't mean Windows-exclusive software doesn't prevent some users from switching. That's a form of lock-in.

I agree with Liam. Exclusives do not fit well with the idea of an open software ecosystem, and they should't be used to push Linux. The end doesn't justify the means.

"Think $5 million vs. $100 million.
Present that to a board of directors and guess which one they will choose.[/quote]
Oh i agree I also dont believe the ones that dual boot to play hl3 will stick around once hl3 gets boring it would take a sustained program of platform exclusives to keep people on linux. Bottom line when and if Linux has parity and its day and date for all the big triple aaa releases and i mean getting gta or dead dead 2 etc then linux base will grow because the os is free.
There are a lot of barriers to coming over to linux full time, there is a learning curve I remmeber using wine for the first time i was looking at people talking about wine bottles and depenendancies and i remember thinking fuck this am out. At least on windows all i have to do is double click and wait until it installs then am free to play. But i stuck with it because well windows 8 was an abomination and windows 10 is even worse and learnt a new platform from scratch.
Other obsticles include the linux elite you know who you are that refuse to help people and just make bitchy comments and a large part of the linux community is very anti linux noob. I think in all honesty Linux has hit its status quo now we will get 3 maybe 4 big/ish games a year and a bunch of indie titles and small scale games from small publishers. It would take a big big move by valve like Team Fortress 3/Left 4 Dead 3 and Half Life 3 all exclusive to linux but financially that does not make sense.


Last edited by Whitewolfe80 on 10 July 2018 at 2:34 pm UTC

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: Purple Library GuyYou have, like, SteamOS (or, better, Mint--heh) bundled with the new game. So then, when you go to install the game from Windows, the game installer defaults to installing SteamOS as a dual-boot and then installing the game on it. You can choose to install it differently, such as on Windows as a Windows game, but you have to make a positive choice to do that.

I know it's Linux we're talking about, but a game installer messing with my partitions and boot loader to install an operating system? Evil! Okay, maybe that's a strong word, but I really think the backlash would be worse than any positive effect.

Well, perhaps you're right.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80There are a lot of barriers to coming over to linux full time, there is a learning curve I remmeber using wine for the first time i was looking at people talking about wine bottles and depenendancies and i remember thinking fuck this am out. At least on windows all i have to do is double click and wait until it installs then am free to play. But i stuck with it because well windows 8 was an abomination and windows 10 is even worse and learnt a new platform from scratch.

To this day I basically avoid using Wine. Only thing I ever used in Wine much was Starcraft (I). I mostly just made do with whatever software was available on Linux; before there were games on Linux I pretty much didn't play games. Except Alpha Centauri and one other title from back when Loki was a thing, before it imploded.
That used to be something of a sacrifice, but these days (for my use case) it really isn't; the Free Software ecosystem for (everything except games) has matured and the games are now well past the "more than I can ever play" level. Meanwhile, Mint at least is a really easy transition from Windows (which I use at work, more's the pity). Both Cinnamon and Mate are old style interfaces like a nicer, prettier, more powerful and more configurable Windows 7. Everything works about the same except a bit better; there are occasional minor polish issues but they pale in comparison to the issues Microsoft deliberately builds into Windows. I started using Linux for political reasons and it's really been great in recent years finding that the OS I was using for theory had delivered on its promise and was now the OS I would use purely from preference.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 10 July 2018 at 4:27 pm UTC