Steam Machine | Steam Link | Lighthouse | Source Engine 2

**6souls** · 2013-11-10 19:36

No Third Person Controllers

Valve will allow multiple manufacturers to produce Steam Machines, but its unique controllers are an in-house affair only.

Valve’s Greg Coomer confirmed with IGN that Steam Controllers will not be licensed to third-party manufacturers.

“The controller is going to be a Valve product.We’re going to manufacture it. We’re going to supply all the people who are making third party Steam Machines with controllers,” he said.

“It’s not really because we’re super anxious to get in the hardware business and we think it’s the best way to turn 90 degrees and start racing toward success in hardware and making money in that way. It’s really because we want the controllers to exist.

“We want them to have the attributes that we think are important, that allow people to play all the games on Steam, and we didn’t think that it was really going to be possible to outsource the design for manufacturing and the finishing of the controller in a way that would allow third parties to take from us an idea or a reference design and bring it to market soon enough.

“We just think that, for now, at least, we have to do that ourselves. So we’re going to be doing high volume production of the controller for ourselves.”

Valve doesn’t expect to turn a profit on the controllers, which represent its very first step into mass hardware production – a costly decision.

“We’re making a lot of decisions that are not actually optimized for cost. We’re not going to lose money when we go make the controller. We have enough confidence around that, that we’ve thought through the manufacturing. But we’re also not looking at it the same way that typical hardware manufacturers would look at it,” he said.

That said, Coomer believes Valve has made some smart decision with its controller; the shift from physical analog controls to haptic touch pads will save money, he said. The unusual inputs seem to work really well in this Steam Controller demo featuring Portal 2, Civilization 5 and more.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/11/10/stea...by-valve-only/
<<link removed due to copyright problems>>

**6souls** · 2013-11-19 21:27

Virtual Reality tech to be showcased at Steam Dev Days in January
http://images.vg247.com/current//201...ggle_steam.jpg

Valve has confirmed it will showcase its prototype VR tech during its Steam Dev Days event in Seattle, January 15-16.

It follows Valve’s confirmation of the first Steam Dev Days speakers. Find out who’s speaking through the link.

Now, the event’s schedule has been updated with a lecture called “What VR Could, Should, and Almost Certainly Will Be within Two Years.” It’s being delivered by Valve’s Mike Abrash.

We’ve figured out what affordable Virtual Reality (VR) hardware will be capable of within a couple of years, and assembled a prototype which demonstrates that such VR hardware is capable of stunning experiences. This type of hardware is almost certainly going to appear in short order, and the time to starting developing for it is now. This talk will discuss what the hardware is like, and the kinds of experiences it makes possible. A few attendees will be randomly selected to try out the prototype following the talk.

A second talk, titled “Virtual Reality and Steam” will be delivered by Joe Ludwig and is described as follows:

Come and hear what Valve is working on in Steam to support and promote Virtual Reality (VR) games. This includes a discussion of the Steam Overlay in VR, Steam store changes for VR, and our VR plan for Steamworks.

It appears that Valve is approaching VR seriously. We saw last year that a journalist visiting Valve was able to try the company’s VR goggle tech, and even took time to take a photo of himself wearing them.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/11/19/valv...ch-in-january/
http://www.steamdevdays.com/?p=sessions

**6souls** · 2013-11-26 18:43

iBuyPower's Steam Machines (Gordon & Freeman) revealed

Spoiler: show

That game console headlining this text? It isn't a white PS4: it's a commercial Steam Machines box, or at least a prototype of one. iBuyPower tells us that it's building the box for a 2014 launch, but says it's still early. The company says the prototypes are running an early build of Steam OS, but it's not quite a finished product. That rings true of our impressions of Valve's own reference model, which hosted a version of that same OS devoid of media playback and streaming options and had a very limited selection of games.

iBuyPower tells us that it actually has two models, codenamed Gordon and Freeman, in the works. The two consoles are identical, save for the light bar round the middle -- one model's is clear, while the other's is black when not illuminated. And, while the company wouldn't tell us about the boxes' internals, it did confirm that the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps. Not as much info as we'd like to know, but still, it's good to see hints of what we'll see from Steam Machines when they hit the market -- though we'll likely have to wait until CES to see them in action.

Update: The Verge reports that the Steam Machine will pack a multi-core AMD CPU, AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card and be bundled with one of Valve's Steam Controllers for $499 when it arrives. It's not clear which model that list of specs and price tag apply to, but we've reached out to iBuyPower for clarification and will update once more as soon as we find out.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/25/c...box-prototype/
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/25/5...-radeon-r9-270

**6souls** · 2014-03-16 09:50

Controller Re-Designed
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/...redesigned.jpg
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/...r-assembly.jpg

**BaneTheBrawler** · 2014-03-16 16:18

interesting that they switched to a more familiar setup

**djzombie** · 2014-03-16 18:07

anyone know if there is a sdk for that yet?

**6souls** · 2014-05-28 01:13

Steam Machines delayed to 2015

We've been getting emails from the Steam community asking us how our in-development Steam Machines are coming along. It's great that you're excited about it, and we know you appreciate it when we keep you in the loop on stuff like this, so we wanted to give you all a quick update.

We’re now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers. It's generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we'll be able to make the controller a lot better. Of course, it's also keeping us pretty busy making all those improvements. Realistically, we're now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014.

Obviously we're just as eager as you are to get a Steam Machine in your hands. But our number one priority is making sure that when you do, you'll be getting the best gaming experience possible. We hope you'll be patient with us while we get there. Until then, we’ll continue to post updates as we have more stories to share.

As always, we love getting feedback on the Steam Machine and Steam controller from the community. After all, you're the people we want to be happiest when we release them.

Feel free to continue posting your thoughts and suggestions to the Steam Universe discussion group.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ste...91223906967821
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ste...se/discussions

**6souls** · 2015-03-03 20:27

Source Engine 2 | Steam Link | Lighthouse announced
New info on Steambox

Spoiler: show

Steam Link

Steam Machines, Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux PCs will be able to take advantage of a new product announced at GDC called Steam Link. Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network. Supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency, Steam Link will be available this November for $49.99, and available with a Steam Controller for an additional $49.99 in the US (worldwide pricing to be released closer to launch).

Steam Machines

Steam Machines from partners Alienware and Falcon Northwest are being shown, with Machines from a dozen other partners slated to release this November. Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs. Epic will give a demonstration of the newly announced Unreal Tournament running on a 4K monitor driven by the Falcon Northwest Steam Machine. "We love this platform," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "Whether you're running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience, this brings world-class gaming and graphics to televisions with an open platform true to Valve's PC gaming roots."

Valve will show a virtual reality (VR) headset. Developer versions of the headset will be available this spring, and partner HTC will ship their Vive headset to consumers by the end of the year.

Lighthouse

Two new technologies are part of the VR release - a room scale tracking system codenamed Lighthouse, and a VR input system. "In order to have a high quality VR experience, you need high resolution, high speed tracking," said Valve's Alan Yates. "Lighthouse gives us the ability to do this for an arbitrary number of targets at a low enough BOM cost that it can be incorporated into TVs, monitors, headsets, input devices, or mobile devices." Valve intends to make Lighthouse freely available to any hardware manufacturers interested in the technology.

"Now that we have Lighthouse, we have an important piece of the puzzle for tackling VR input devices," said Valve's Joe Ludwig. "The work on the Steam Controller gave us the base to build upon, so now we have touch and motion as integrated parts of the PC gaming experience."

"We've been working in VR for years and it was only until we used SteamVR's controllers and experienced the magic of absolute tracking that we were able to make the VR game we always wanted to make," said Alex Schwartz of Owlchemylabs.

VR demos being shown at GDC include work from Bossa Studios, Cloudhead Games, Dovetail Games, Fireproof Studios, Google, Owlchemylabs, Skillman & Hackett, Steel Wool Games, Vertigo Games, and Wevr.

Source 2

Valve announced the Source 2 engine, the successor to the Source engine used in Valve's games since the launch of Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2. "The value of a platform like the PC is how much it increases the productivity of those who use the platform. With Source 2, our focus is increasing creator productivity. Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not for just the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favorite games," said Valve's Jay Stelly. "We will be making Source 2 available for free to content developers. This combined with recent announcements by Epic and Unity will help continue the PCs dominance as the premiere content authoring platform."

Source 2 on Vulkan

Also as part of supporting PC gaming, Valve announced that it will be releasing a Vulkan-compatible version of the Source 2 engine. Vulkan is a cross-platform, cross-vendor 3D graphics API that allows game developers to get the most out of the latest graphics hardware, and ensures hardware developers that there is a consistent, low overhead method of taking advantage of products. Vulkan, previously called Next Generation OpenGL, is administered by the Khronos Group, along with other standards such as OpenCL, OpenGL, and WebGL.

GDC 2015 will mark the 13th anniversary of Valve's first public announcement of Steam, which has since become the leading platform for PC, Mac, and Linux games and software. In the last year, Steam realized the addition of many new services and features - including In-Home Streaming, Broadcasting, Music, and user-created stores - as it grew to over 125 million active accounts worldwide.

https://steamdb.info/blog/source2-announcement/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380/

**Cantih** · 2015-03-05 14:36

Steam Controller has a $50 price point as well http://store.steampowered.com/app/353370

And various manufacturer's Steam Machines are up http://store.steampowered.com/sale/s...?snr=1_5_9__12 ranging from $460 to $5,000

**6souls** · 2015-03-07 09:45

I think this interviewer will become a new meme.

**Scizor** · 2015-03-09 07:46

Gabe looks like shit now, has he aged 40 years in record time?

**Cantih** · 2015-03-30 21:35

Futuremark will be putting up the 3Dmark benchmarks for manufacturer's builds. And listing the MSRP, and giving the price/performance value derived therefrom

http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/steam-machines

EDIT: I'll break it down for you though.

Spoiler: show