Agreed.
and @ the source 2 thing, I don’t really believe the post, but if it IS fake than this guy has the same impressions about what Valve is doing that I do. As in, they’re abandoning reliance on Windows completely to the core. A scratch built source 2 is completely OpenGL? k, yeah. Wouldn’t doubt it.
Yeah, it’s a believable take, but as far as this announcement goes, I don’t believe it being relevant.
:jizz::jizz::jizz::jizz::jizz::jizz::jizz:
If the Above is true then “SAUCE EL DOS!!!”
that means #3, of several games!
Hate to be a buzzkill but I wouldn’t recommend you get excited. Especially hl3 related, just as a general rule but also because valve isn’t going to just give away their biggest potential cash cow (as the screencap hinted).
Thinking about it though opengl sauce 2 would actually make a lot of sense because it’d explain why they aren’t just updating sauce like they originally planned.
I was referring to L4D3 
but yes. A game engine, truly open, across multiple platforms and operating systems is an EPIC game changer. Valve, as one of the 10 most successful companies on the planet is truly poised to do this. The screencap, while possibly fake echoes the sentiments I have been reading from valve posts for several years now. Gabe talks a ton about openness these days, and the difficulties associated with proprietary hardware, operating systems and API’s. Even if the screen cap is BS, it should be telling that both Sony and Microshaft have ditched (semi)exotic processing hardware for stuff directly off the personal computer shelf. The price they pay for that is ditching their legacy software that people payed $60 a pop for new. Valve has yet again pulled a hat trick, Doing what they have always done best, making games, all the while entering the console market and including, and not abandoning other enterprises. They made OSX AND Linux into viable gaming platforms, not just something nerds tinker with. They have been my favorite gaming company for quite a while. This cements it for all time
Yeah, this is pretty big.
I’m actually getting a little hyped for the third announcement. I’m assuming it’s going to be about a steambox controller. What I really want to know is how will they level the playing field between controller users and KB+M users? They can’t add aim assist for control users because that’ll be hacked and exploited by KB+M users as well as just being a frustrating mechanic in general. And you can’t set it up for KB+M to only play with KB+M and controller with controller because that’ll split the community and also be exploitable.
It may be completely unrealistic of me to hope for this as it is probably impossible, but I’m imagining Valve coming out with an input method so innovative that it gives you the accuracy of the mouse with the couch-compatibility of the controller.
I gotta say… that black star thing on the main page got brighter… and it looks like there’s something in the center… That “white patch”. I’d love to say “It’s probably nothing”… but Valve doesn’t just throw random stuff everywhere… and it DID get brighter.
I just tried the big picture mode with a PS3 controller on Mac. The controller works flawlessly in Big Picture mode itself, but it’s clear that a lot of the games will need some updates when it comes to gamepad control (for a wide variety of gamepads that is).
i.e.: could easily go up and down in Big Picture mode and ingame in L4D2, but in the L4D2 menu, the controller simply would not go up or down or even left or right.
A trackball in place of a thumbstick. It would bring it up to mouse levels of accuracy. I saw a sketch a long time ago of this being proposed.
I can’t see people being into a trackball, it seems like an awkward method of interaction, then again I’ve never really used one. Is it really as accurate as a mouse?
it’s how mouses used to work 
And this is in the Quake days, so people got along just fine.
Turns out it’s just a rebranded Kinect camera.
either way, at this point I can guarantee it will be awesome
Agreed.
so through proper optimization openGL runs better than direct3d/x?
On Linux apparently it does. Especially on a Linux distro made for gaming. They’re probably fairly close on Windows.
OpenGL always had the same performance as DX, it just lacks some of the more modern and useless shaders that can barely be noticed anyway.
On a slightly off-topic note, this thread was running a little stale, and I was curious to see more reactions and insights on what valve is doing so I checked out reddit and /v/ (never really touched either before). Man, as rocky as this community has been at times you’re all a cut above.
/v/ was just a bunch of neckbeards getting really mad at eachother and making stupid claims about stuff they didn’t understand. Reddit/steam was just a bunch of gaben worship and shallow commentary/questions that really didn’t cover any information that wasn’t given in the official announcements.
Tl;Dr: thank you guys for not being twats
Also I looked up a lot of stuff on trackball controller systems. They seem pretty cool, despite the learning curve. But I feel like they’re off the table for Valve’s announcement because A) already existing trackball controllers will work with SteamOS, so a Valve trackball is nothing special and B) I think the public reaction to a trackball controller wouldn’t be so good given its learning curve and extreme unpopularity with the console community.
I’m really hoping we’ll see something cool out of Valve’s input system, but I’m really suspicious that it’ll be a fairly lackluster announcement. So far these announcements haven’t really told us or given us much. The Steam box announcement didn’t really say anything we didn’t already know/assume (except for maybe in-home streaming, but I’m waiting to see it in action before I trust it).
Edit: took a look at Nvidia Shield’s streaming. It was at 720p and there was some pretty noticeable latency, I hope steamOS/higher power hardware will be able to cut that down to a respectable level for even as much as 1440p.
Despite my eternal skepticism, I am still looking forward to this, but only if:
A high-end Steam Box is truly independent from your proper PC (as in: your main PC does not have to be running or even connect to the Steam Box in order for it to work)
It doesn’t cost more than $400 to put a proper Steam Box together (or to buy a pre-made one)
It really has widespread support from developers, as I can’t be arsed dealing with “it’s only for Windows, but we might port it over in the coming years” (I have OSX for that crap). I simply do not want to pay a lot of money just to have a glorified HDMI cable that has my computer “stream” its processing power to my TV.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.