SteamOS and Steam Machine - let the testing begin

[James]

SteamOS, Steam Machine hardware put to the test

Early adopters and prototype testers are giving Steam Machine hardware and the software a thorough thrashing

 

[B1nary]

mmmm i wonder if the o/s does a automatic vsync lock or not, there should be some way to view your fps I hope. We tried to get this running on a vm but it gaves us to many headaches for some reason. guess we will have to justify getting a small pc somewhere

 

[Wesley]

mmmm i wonder if the o/s does a automatic vsync lock or not, there should be some way to view your fps I hope. We tried to get this running on a vm but it gaves us to many headaches for some reason. guess we will have to justify getting a small pc somewhere

You can disable the V-Sync lock, its apparently easy to do in the terminal on desktop mode. As for VM's, most people are using Virtualbox and editing the config files to get the OS to run on Intel or AMD graphics properly. GCN GPUs are to be avoided, though.

 

[HavocXphere]

You can disable the V-Sync lock, its apparently easy to do in the terminal on desktop mode.

GFX tweaks on *nix are never easy in my experience. Though maybe with step by step walk telling you exactly what button to press it could be OK. In this case the user doesn't really have to understand what he/she is doing anyway.

I'm thinking the vsync is a temp related decision - the prototype looks a bit daring on that front. I learned that with my skyrim thread: If you can get vsync to work smoothly then its better than no vsync. Perfectly stable framerate, lower temps & you can boost gfx quality higher. The getting it to work smoothly is a big IF though...

mmmm i wonder if the o/s does a automatic vsync lock or not, there should be some way to view your fps I hope. We tried to get this running on a vm but it gaves us to many headaches for some reason. guess we will have to justify getting a small pc somewhere

Virtualbox does't support 3D accel for *nix, so that whole approach is a non-starter. Maybe other VM solutions do but it seems like a waste of time to me. And if if you can get it to work you still have the windows WM messing with your rate. As you said...a small pc will be better for experimenting.

Looks like these things are going to be significantly more powerful than the peasantboxes. Not even out of beta yet and models with a R9 270 are being announced:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/st...evealed-runs-at-1080p-and-60fps/1100-6416393/

 

[Wesley]

Though maybe with step by step walk telling you exactly what button to press it could be OK. In this case the user doesn't really have to understand what he/she is doing anyway.

That's probably Valve's end-goal with SteamOS. Make it as user-friendly as possible and don't ask people to sit and configure every damn setting in the menu. I like what they're doing so far and the power users aren't barred from making their own changes either.