Steam's Big Picture

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Valve released a trailer today showing off Steam's Big Picture mode. The company has billed it as the "World's First First Person Browser."

Check out Big Picture, Steam's new mode that lets gamers access all of their favorite Steam games on a television. With the press of a button, Steam displays a new full-screen user interface optimized for readability and interaction on TV. Big Picture has been designed to be used with a traditional game controller, while also fully supporting keyboard and mouse input.
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I don't see what the big deal is. . . I run plenty of games on from my PC to my TV currently?
 
"Step 1: Carry your PC or Mac to your HDTV."

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Although, I'm sure most people that use steam are smart enough to figure it out, but for the random user no way do I see that happening.
 
All I play is multiplayer games nowadays and I wouldn't be able to read tiny text like chat or item specs at that kind of distance.
 
I'm just going to download a better GPU.:eek:

Is this "Big Picture" thing for real or a joke? I hope it's a joke.
 
magoo said:
I'm just going to download a better GPU.:eek:

Is this "Big Picture" thing for real or a joke? I hope it's a joke.
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It's definitely not a joke. As soon as you bring a keyboard and mouse into a living room, any idea attached to that concept is dead (too complicated).

Honestly, I've wanted big picture mode for a long time because it makes total sense. Why on earth would I NOT want to play games on the best display in my home with a large HDTV, kick-ass 5.1 surround sound speakers, and the ability to let a few friends watch too?
 
fuck yeah. ive been waiting for this since i built my htpc and started gaming on it. im rebuilding my gaiming rig now so ive been doing all my gaming on it, and i love it. unfortunately, its on a textured, glossy wall, and text is impossible to read sometimes. im activating this as soon as i get home. steam just continues to amaze me by knowing what gamers want and giving it to them, and (hopefully in this case) giving it to them well. i love steam!
 
Perfect! I was just thinking about building a htpc with enough power to run games pretty well.
 
I see they're encouraging the use of controllers. But for games like cs, I'm assuming you'll still be paired up with players using the traditional kb+mouse... you'll get ur ass kicked.

I guess either you have to bring your keyboard/mouse to your living room or just play single player games.
 
SO, this is why they complained about Metro...they were releasing a similar interface and MS just antecipated them...now it makes sense...
 
So it looks like Steam is getting their software ready for Steam box, lol.
Made with controllers in mind, lol.
 
There were HDTV skins for Steam in the past that worked really well, setup such a system for a friend who was laid up with a busted knee and who hooked his PC to his 37" HDTV. This is going to be a nice step up.
 
03grandam said:
So it looks like Steam is getting their software ready for Steam box, lol.
Made with controllers in mind, lol.
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Just what I imagine everyone is thinking. But really, I don't see why Steam would want to get into the hardware business selling their own branded console. There's got to be a trick or twist to it because that's a TOUGH market.
 
sviola said:
SO, this is why they complained about Metro...they were releasing a similar interface and MS just antecipated them...now it makes sense...
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Hard not to see the similarity, I wonder how well this will work with a touch screen? The beta is supposed to be out later today, guess I'll find out.
 
heatlesssun said:
Just what I imagine everyone is thinking. But really, I don't see why Steam would want to get into the hardware business selling their own branded console. There's got to be a trick or twist to it because that's a TOUGH market.
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I'm sure that they know how many people love Steam and would buy up whatever they put out. If Steam got into it with a Steam Box they would most likely crush MS and Sony as long as they still has all of their game sales. Hell I bet most of the kiddies would drop the XBox and PS to be able to get the same games but much cheaper. it's a win for the parents and Steam, lol.
 
03grandam said:
I'm sure that they know how many people love Steam and would buy up whatever they put out. If Steam got into it with a Steam Box they would most likely crush MS and Sony as long as they still has all of their game sales. Hell I bet most of the kiddies would drop the XBox and PS to be able to get the same games but much cheaper. it's a win for the parents and Steam, lol.
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Crush Microsoft and Sony? That's a stretch. Most of the games on Steam aren't Valve's, they are PC games that need PC hardware to run. Putting Valve's game on Linux doesn't really mean anything. I have a feeling that they are looking at some sort of cloud gaming service.
 
heatlesssun said:
Crush Microsoft and Sony? That's a stretch. Most of the games on Steam aren't Valve's, they are PC games that need PC hardware to run. Putting Valve's game on Linux doesn't really mean anything. I have a feeling that they are looking at some sort of cloud gaming service.
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A cloud service is most likely as that would be the most viable but getting studios and publishers to agree to putting their new releases up on the cloud(new releases is what steam is about convenience of new game, midnight download vs picking up physical copy) would be the tricky part.
 
heatlesssun said:
Crush Microsoft and Sony? That's a stretch. Most of the games on Steam aren't Valve's, they are PC games that need PC hardware to run. Putting Valve's game on Linux doesn't really mean anything. I have a feeling that they are looking at some sort of cloud gaming service.
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OK maybe crush was a bit far out there.
But lets look at things here. They have ported Steam to Linux, right? Now Big Picture mode, even designed it with controllers in mind, added all kinds of enhancements to Steam communities. Seems like an awful lot of stuff that would be quite handy and useful on a console like system to me. If anyone can get the other game companies on board with this idea it would be Steam, with the idea of selling a ton more titles to a much larger crowd than just the PC market.
 
Semantics said:
A cloud service is most likely as that would be the most viable but getting studios and publishers to agree to putting their new releases up on the cloud(new releases is what steam is about convenience of new game, midnight download vs picking up physical copy) would be the tricky part.
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Like Onlive but 1000X better
 
Call me when it actually comes out. Until then, nothing to see here.
 
I said that Valve needed a full screen version of Steam that takes advantage of TVs and here we are, exactly just that. Now I'll just wait for a SteamBuntu linux version to be released, and you know they will do it.
 
I don't get why there isn't some kind of OnLive technology that lets you beam images from your PC to a living room box that you can hook a controller up to with minimal fuss. All you'd really need is real-time H.264 compression in your PC at good quality and it should be rather doable.
 
dagamer34 said:
All you'd really need is real-time H.264 compression in your PC at good quality and it should be rather doable.
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Oh, that's it? Do your realize what you're asking? First, you want your system to be able to play the game. Next, you want the system to encode on the fly and THEN beam it to another screen in the house? My Core 2 Quad Q6600 encodes 720p H.264 at about 13fps if nothing else is running, but drops to 2-3fps while gaming and slows down the game. Sure, I could reduce the video quality and aim for near 30fps, but again, that's with minimal background tasks.

Even Haswell won't be able to play a game at decent settings while simultaneously encoding on the fly at 30fps.
 
Medion said:
Oh, that's it? Do your realize what you're asking? First, you want your system to be able to play the game. Next, you want the system to encode on the fly and THEN beam it to another screen in the house? My Core 2 Quad Q6600 encodes 720p H.264 at about 13fps if nothing else is running, but drops to 2-3fps while gaming and slows down the game. Sure, I could reduce the video quality and aim for near 30fps, but again, that's with minimal background tasks.

Even Haswell won't be able to play a game at decent settings while simultaneously encoding on the fly at 30fps.
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You're fretting over nothing there are cheap H.264 dedicated chips for such work, but it would require an ad-on card or something like usb 3.0 for bandwidth considerations.
 
if anyones wondering and too lazy to RTFA, go to settings>account and enable beta updates. then it will restart steam and the big button will be there in the top right. just installed it and i gotta say so far i love it. the browser actually seems ok to use, gotta try it out more though.
 
dagamer34 said:
It's definitely not a joke. As soon as you bring a keyboard and mouse into a living room, any idea attached to that concept is dead (too complicated).

Honestly, I've wanted big picture mode for a long time because it makes total sense. Why on earth would I NOT want to play games on the best display in my home with a large HDTV, kick-ass 5.1 surround sound speakers, and the ability to let a few friends watch too?
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I've really got to see this to believe it.

I'm sorry, but my HTPC has an e6300, 4GB of RAM and an old HD 4890 running on a P35 ASUS MB.....sure I have a 46" Sony but the thing is still 1920 x 1080.

I do not see that able to match either one of my gaming computers in EyeFinity or Surround.
That and my computers do 5.1 suround sound already.

That and you can take the controller and burn it, too. Those are for the XBox.
 
can anyone connect to steam servers right now? i turned on beta updates and the big picture worked great, but it couldnt connect to their servers. now i turned off beta updates and restarted steam, but i still cant connect. i was connecting fine before i did the beta update. can anyone confirm whether or not steam is working for me? also you guys might wanna hold off enabling beta updates until i get confirmation on whether or not thats what effed up my steam connection...
 
I have had my regular PC hooked up to my TV since 2009. Steam has been a pain in the ass to read and use because the text is too small to read from 10ft away. I am not sure what the big picture freakin' deal is, because they should have given us options to increase the text size and readability without having to modify a .ini file from the beginning. Furthermore editing that .ini file is a pain in the ass and it doesn't make all of the text larger, especially some text in the games list screen where it is most important. The .ini file had to be re-edited with every single update as well - which was idiotic.

This is a welcomed addition and I have been waiting for it for three years. Thank you Valve. - now if we can only get you to finish HL3!!!!!!
 
HyperMinimalism said:
I have had my regular PC hooked up to my TV since 2009. Steam has been a pain in the ass to read and use because the text is too small to read from 10ft away. I am not sure what the big picture freakin' deal is, because they should have given us options to increase the text size and readability without having to modify a .ini file from the beginning. Furthermore editing that .ini file is a pain in the ass and it doesn't make all of the text larger, especially some text in the games list screen where it is most important. The .ini file had to be re-edited with every single update as well - which was idiotic.

This is a welcomed addition and I have been waiting for it for three years. Thank you Valve. - now if we can only get you to finish HL3!!!!!!
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so you can connect to steam servers from big picture right now? i restarted my comp and still cant see my friends list or access the cloud. internet is fine as i'm typing this on the same computer right now.
 
Hell yea!

I have steam on my Tv now (HTPC), big picture would help alot!
 
That virtual keyboard/wheel thingy is fricken genius. Typing on consoles has remained the same since virtual keyboards first appeared in games. Good riddance!
 
SPARTAN VI said:
That virtual keyboard/wheel thingy is fricken genius. Typing on consoles has remained the same since virtual keyboards first appeared in games. Good riddance!
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I really find it a nice concept as well, but Im still having my doubts that the average joe will go about with it. personally, I find Big Picture will cater for people who are more of Enthusiasts than the average living room joe though
 
It's the Phantom console come to fruition! Seriously, if they come out with a console that plays PC games, that's pretty much what the Phantom guys were trying to do with theirs, no?

At least Steam has a pretty much bulletproof delivery system already up and running.
 
I can understand the need to follow the 'trend' of console/mobile gaming but this still just pisses me off because, well, I don't subscribe to this point of view. All the talk of PC's being dead, or becoming dead, and heavy hitters going the way of the console just makes me a little sick inside. The first big punch was Id (Carmack) taking such a liking to mainstream bullshit, (I did enjoy his Orc's and Elves game on the DS though because it was old school in essence) but when more and more shit like this happens I almost vomit.
All my desire to save money to build that new PC and push it to it's limits is really dying for me. For me it takes me years to save that kind of cash, and for companies to pump out crap fucking console products just makes all my hard work in vain. I'm going off a little bit here, and have a few drinks in me but fuck.. Between the gaming industry and Windows 8, I'm a one sad mother fucking panda. As far as I'm concerned my current (sig) build should do just fine in the console world for the next 15 fucking years, minus Dx11, or will that even be on subject? I'll fucking quit gaming before I pick up a god damn controller for the types of games I enjoy (yes, Steam's Big Picture supports keyboard and mouse, but I talking in the I hope to high hell not so distant future here). Ahhh, got that said and done.. Time for bed.
 
heatlesssun said:
Just what I imagine everyone is thinking. But really, I don't see why Steam would want to get into the hardware business selling their own branded console. There's got to be a trick or twist to it because that's a TOUGH market.
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they'll do good at it, trust me ... with them working on their linux beta ... a steam linux box
 
One day when I get my new gaming PC built, I'll put my old gaming PC in the living room and hook it up to my 1080P TV for gaming. I really like this idea and think it would be awesome to have.
 
dagamer34 said:
I don't get why there isn't some kind of OnLive technology that lets you beam images from your PC to a living room box that you can hook a controller up to with minimal fuss. All you'd really need is real-time H.264 compression in your PC at good quality and it should be rather doable.
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There are wireless HDMI transmitter/receivers. You can put your PC off to the side and have the signal beamed out HDMI to the TV.

There are also HDMI over ethernet converters if your PC is very far away can run a dedicated ethernet cable.

But I see this mostly for people with a game worthy laptop docking it to their TV instead.

===========================

And yeah, the whole controller thing is about being able to game from the couch. And gaming from the couch is about gaming with friends present or with / against them often locally. So unfortunately this pushes the kb/m out of the PC scene from the inside.

I guess overall it help PC gaming, but if all PC games became controller only or had crappy kb/m support, I'm not sure I'd stay with PC games.
 
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