Steam OS local game streaming flawed

[Canoas]

Ouya has been out for a while and basically flopped. From my expeience Valve will probably do a bang-up job on the streaming making it solid and easy to use. Either way do as you wish nothing with this will satisfy you it seems.

It has? nice. I couldn't care less about how it's doing as a console, that's not the purpose I would give it. Actually, if it flopped so badly then I can probably get it for cheaper.

A lot of things will satisfy me, like a cheap (100$-) steambox or a repurposed ouya. What I really wanted was a proper steambox that didn't brick my desktop while in use, but I can always find cheap alternatives.

[rashdanml]

Maybe there will be incredibly cheap steamboxes, but right now any custom built one will be more expensive than a wireless adapter.

It's not a maybe. There WILL be Steam Machines at all price points, from the ultra-cheap $100 streaming device to the portable powerhouse living-room gaming machine at $1000+. The hardware vendor decides which ones they want to create. Valve provides the free software and optimisations. 

 

I'm willing to bet anything SteamPi (SteamOS running on the Raspberry Pi as a purely streaming device) will become a thing. You don't need much hardware to stream, as the encoding of the video/audio is probably done on the host side, and not on the Steam Machine side. 

 

Obviously, a beefier machine running SteamOS will be needed for native gaming. Only time will tell how much you'd need to spend to actually get great performance. Will it be better performing than a Windows machine at that price point? Again, only time will tell. Assuming Valve's optimisations hold true, it should be better. 

[Canoas]

It's not a maybe. There WILL be Steam Machines at all price points, from the ultra-cheap $100 streaming device to the portable powerhouse living-room gaming machine at $1000+. The hardware vendor decides which ones they want to create. Valve provides the free software and optimisations.

 

I'm willing to bet anything SteamPi (SteamOS running on the Raspberry Pi as a purely streaming device) will become a thing. You don't need much hardware to stream, as the encoding of the video/audio is probably done on the host side, and not on the Steam Machine side.

You do realize that Raspberry Pi uses an ARM, right? You won't be able to install Steam OS on it. That's why you can't install it on a ouya either, it won't be supported.

 

Either way it's still better to get a remote desktop app instead of steamOS that just works for gaming.

[madcow]

Streaming is based on Nvidia's hardware encoder right? Shield is a good example of how it will perform then. Surprisingly good according to reviews I've seen.

[TheProfosist]

Streaming is based on Nvidia's hardware encoder right? Shield is a good example of how it will perform then. Surprisingly good according to reviews I've seen.

Nvidia's streaming is I doubt that Steam OS's is as that would alienate all intel and AMD systems.

[musicrab]

Streaming is based on Nvidia's hardware encoder right? Shield is a good example of how it will perform then. Surprisingly good according to reviews I've seen.

 

Nvidia's streaming is I doubt that Steam OS's is as that would alienate all intel and AMD systems.

Valve were reportedly spending alot of time with nVidia and MAY explain the SteamMachine Beta/prototypes being nVidia only.  However, the Streaming solution (NB. between ANY Steam instance including SteamOS) will cover all GPUs.

 

Best to view the nVidia Gamestream (as seen in the nVidia Shield) as a top-spec solution. It requires 1.a 802.11n dual band router and 2. hardware h.264 encoder of top-spec nvidia GPUs.  Valve must provide a solution that works across a wide range of GPUs and networks.  That undoubtedly means a number of users will be required to run at reduced resolutions on their living room TV in order to get lag-free gaming.

[TheProfosist]

Valve were reportedly spending alot of time with nVidia and MAY explain the SteamMachine Beta/prototypes being nVidia only.  However, the Streaming solution (NB. between ANY Steam instance including SteamOS) will cover all GPUs.

 

Best to view the nVidia Gamestream (as seen in the nVidia Shield) as a top-spec solution. It requires 1.a 802.11n dual band router and 2. hardware h.264 encoder of top-spec nvidia GPUs.  Valve must provide a solution that works across a wide range of GPUs and networks.  That undoubtedly means a number of users will be required to run at reduced resolutions on their living room TV in order to get lag-free gaming.

for living room run lan or powerline if possible and yes people may have to upgrade from wireless G finally. I have been on dual band since draft N (dont get me started on that!) and currently have 2 of asus's 2nd best AC routers (were the best when I bought them). This is because I like having access to everything everywhere in my house and prefer to have all non working data centralized. Centralized working data would be nice but gigabit ethernet just isnt fast enough.

The dual band is just for the 5ghz. You could buy a just 5ghz router since A launched. Possibly when AC (which should be ACN or just C) get to be the standard as N is not you might see just 5ghz routers again. the more important thing is the multi antenna and using mimo to utilize a even wider band.

Decreasing resolution is less likely than decreasing bit rate initially. once bit rate cant be reduced anymore then youll be looking at lowering the resolution possibly only slightly and then scaling it up on the steam box like you see with console games with their wacky rendered resolutions sometimes. As long as it still has the proper aspect ratio, in this case 16:9, and you use a good scaler, say bicubic at a minimum, you could actually decrease the resolution a good bit.

[rashdanml]

You do realize that Raspberry Pi uses an ARM, right? You won't be able to install Steam OS on it. That's why you can't install it on a ouya either, it won't be supported.

Either way it's still better to get a remote desktop app instead of steamOS that just works for gaming.

Oh, I'm aware of that. However, I'm also aware of something else you're unaware of: Arch Linux was ported to run on the Pi. Debian was too. Fedora too. If all of those can be ported for ARM, SteamOS will be too.

The reason you can't install SteamOS on the Ouya is because SteamOS isn't even out yet. Once it's released, an ARM port of it will happen, and both the Ouya and Raspberry Pi will be running them. The Community developers of Linux will make it happen.

E: Forgot to mention, the Ouya has a working version of Debian.

[Canoas]

Oh, I'm aware of that. However, I'm also aware of something else you're unaware of: Arch Linux was ported to run on the Pi. Debian was too. Fedora too. If all of those can be ported for ARM, SteamOS will be too. 

 

The reason you can't install SteamOS on the Ouya is because SteamOS isn't even out yet. Once it's released, an ARM port of it will happen, and both the Ouya and Raspberry Pi will be running them. The Community developers of Linux will make it happen. 

 

Hmm, alright then, if it'll be ported for ARM then I'm more optimistic about steamOS now.

[aselwyn1]

The reason that its dedicated is because that PC is using all its power to stream and if you try and use it then you can slow down the computers ability to play games