Steam - 'Big Picture' released!

http://www.examiner.com/article/valve-go...cture-mode

Anyone going to use the 'Big picture' mode for Xonotic?

Awesome, this article managed to not tell me anything about what this does. I can already plug in my hypothetical HDMI output to my hypothetical TV's input and get everything in full HD, so what's the difference? Just a controller-friendly steam interface?

What's up with the attitude, after all it's the world's first 'first person browser'.

But it's certainly not the world's first wacky browser UI.

This "world's first" business is just marketing talk, what's so special about it? I'm genuinely curious.

Wow, plugging a computer into a TV. No one has ever thought of that before...

Am I now supposed to play with a big tv on my desk? Or make a table in front of my bench, and put my mouse and keyboard there and try to game on a tv a few meters away?

And why the hell would I want to plug console controllers in my pc?

I just don't see why I would want this.

I think it means that steam is now not only limited to being PC only but a new competitor for gamers using television. (move over xbox, wii and PS3). Ultimately I think the fusion between desktop computers and television is not to far off for the everyday consumer.

So what about the lon proposed Steam console that might come? Surely this would be redundant once such a console would launch. Does this mean there will be no Steam console?

Does this mean there will be no Steam console?

Alternately, this could mean that there could be multiple steam consoles.

Or more simply a console that's both computer and televison compatible which would mak more sense. Probably wireless if that's the case.

Just a controller-friendly steam interface?

This :-).

One word... lol.

I think it means that steam is now not only limited to being PC only but a new competitor for gamers using television. (move over xbox, wii and PS3). Ultimately I think the fusion between desktop computers and television is not to far off for the everyday consumer.

And what exactly made it limited to PC in the first place? What prevented me from connecting my PC to my TV and use it as a screen and using a game controller for input?

Well, I suppose you don't have to connect your PC to your TV anymore? You can now browse webs down- and upstairs, without plugging in anything.

I think it means that steam is now not only limited to being PC only but a new competitor for gamers using television. (move over xbox, wii and PS3). Ultimately I think the fusion between desktop computers and television is not to far off for the everyday consumer.

And what exactly made it limited to PC in the first place? What prevented me from connecting my PC to my TV and use it as a screen and using a game controller for input?

Instead of being obnoxious and using rhetoric to make a point I said for the "everyday consumer". Its simply not that common though.

You can obviously connect your TV to you computer and yes what Steam is doing is not going to change anything from a technological standpoint.
All it is, in my view, is bringing TV-computer connectivity, in regards to games, further into the mainstream and to take a share of the consumer market that are still console users.

One thing for sure; its beneficial for us if Steam makes the effort to undercut Sony and Microsoft regarding pricing. Game cost may come down as a result across the board(fingers-crossed).

I'm all for it if it takes away gaming from consoles but will this ONLY work in Steam games? If I have another game outside of Steam (or on another OS) is it still possible to make use of this system some how?

For everyone who still doesn't get what this is about:

This is just an option for the steam launcher gui to work by using a gamepad, and not a mouse. You can use it to launch games (any, not only those that use a gamepad, though that would be kinda pointless if you don't have a mouse/keyboard at hand, even games from outside of steam like earlier), it also has a quite interesting gui to write text by using a gamepad, it also uses different layout, object and font size etc to be better visible on a screen when seen from a distance. Period, end of story, nothing more to see here, move along ;-).

It doesn't use any new technology, doesn't enable anything really new that you couldn't do before this. Well, apart from the seemingly comfortable writing text on a gamepad that is :-).

Gotta love the media hype machine ... "much anticipated", hmmm

Well, I suppose you don't have to connect your PC to your TV anymore? You can now browse webs down- and upstairs, without plugging in anything.

Without plugging in anything? Please elaborate.

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And what exactly made it limited to PC in the first place? What prevented me from connecting my PC to my TV and use it as a screen and using a game controller for input?

Instead of being obnoxious and using rhetoric to make a point I said for the "everyday consumer". Its simply not that common though.

You can obviously connect your TV to you computer and yes what Steam is doing is not going to change anything from a technological standpoint.
All it is, in my view, is bringing TV-computer connectivity, in regards to games, further into the mainstream and to take a share of the consumer market that are still console users.

One thing for sure; its beneficial for us if Steam makes the effort to undercut Sony and Microsoft regarding pricing. Game cost may come down as a result across the board(fingers-crossed).

I'm really sorry if my message didn't come across the way I intended. I'm not being obnoxious, I'm being dubious. I'm honestly puzzled as to why this is presented as an innovation, where plug-and-play PC to TV video connections and plug-and-play controller input in supported games have already existed for a while. It takes absolutely no skill and no software to do this on Windows PCs, so if anything this only complicates the set-up. Which is why I'm thoroughly confused and am seriously wondering if there is anything more to it than just a web browser that supports controller input.

I'm completely fine with Steam campaigning to bring PC games to the living room, I couldn't care less. What troubles me here is what the hell the "Big Picture" package is.

If there's one thing that I might bitch about, it's the lack of a practical exposition of what they are proposing with their package. All I see is a facade of hype talk.

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EDIT: Just noticed Cyber Killer's post. Thank you, Cyber Killer. I understand why they aren't going straight to the point, now. That would not be a good strategy for this kind of thing.

I think it means that steam is now not only limited to being PC only but a new competitor for gamers using television. (move over xbox, wii and PS3). Ultimately I think the fusion between desktop computers and television is not to far off for the everyday consumer.

And everyone looked at me like I was crazy five years ago in tech school when I told them that it would be PC that phases out console, not the other way around. Everyone in there insisted that consoles were replacing PCs. They would still almost be right though if this thing really takes off, because it kind of is a console, though it's running a PC platform.

The main point is not bringing something new to the computer world
but its making people aware that an existing feature exists ...

many people don't know they can plug their computer into the tv ... in the same way, you would be surprised how many people don't know what the printscreen button does. (or scroll lock for that matter)

being able to use steam without the a mouse is pretty cool ... but you still need the mouse and keyboard to login to launch steam itself ...
something that a dedicated linux distro (with the upcoming linux steam) could fix easily


...


... wait ... what does the scroll lock do ?
... i dont see any setting in kde to turn it into another numlock (which i did for the capslock)

something that a dedicated linux distro (with the upcoming linux steam) could fix easily

That's quite the jump in your reasoning!

I like Scroll Lock, I use its LED to signal new mail.

EDIT: Well, making it a numlock substitute should be doable in xkb configurations (which I guess your KDE thing is partly a frontend to). But why on earth did you set caps lock to be a num lock substitute, it's at the opposite side of the keyboard? Why not make it a ctrl key or an esc key for easier reach.

@hutty: scroll lock suppresses the refreshing of the screen on a terminal (real, not emulated so check this on e.g. tty1 - ctrl+alt+f1)

something that a dedicated linux distro (with the upcoming linux steam) could fix easily

That's quite the jump in your reasoning!

how so?

I changed capslock to numlock for 2 reasons ...

I keep accidentally pressing it (especially when im playing games) ...
I'm on a laptop and have to push the [fn] key and [numlock] at the same time ... capslock is faster

That's quite the jump in your reasoning!

how so?

Actually it's not a jump in the reasoning, sorry about that. But you're suggesting such a radical move for such a small problem, whose fix will need specific software in any case, even if they moved everything to a Linux-based distribution.

EDIT: Also, I don't know why you seem to say that Linux makes it easier?

I'm on a laptop and have to push the [fn] key and [numlock] at the same time ... capslock is faster

Oh okay, that sucks indeed. And I guess you don't have a dedicated numeric keypad on your keyboard either since you don't have a num lock.