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Comment by simias | Hacker News Reader

Sooo, it's what everybody's expected, except we don't know anything more about it. Frustrating.

Also, only 300 boxes for beta? That seems a little small.

EDIT: actually the latest answer in the FAQ is interesting:

"Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?"

"If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though - we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input."

Something new on the input device front? Oculus Rift?

Valve sure is good at hyping things.

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I'd love to see Valve have the "defacto OS/console" for Oculus Rift. Oculus Rift will enable truly "next-gen" gaming, and Valve would be very smart to ride that trend, and grow with it.

I certainly hope not. The day I have to wear a f--king headset is the day I stop gaming.

Who said anything about "have to"? They're marketing SteamOS as the "do what you want with it" system. Why would they force you to use an expensive peripheral?

I responded to the typical Optimus Rift "future of gaming d00d" fanboyism.

I don't think it'll ever become mandatory, but don't you think that VR and deeper immersion is eventually where gaming is going to go? The technology still needs a lot of time to improve, but if the kinks can get worked out and if they're less likely to make people dizzy/nauseated, I imagine VR headsets will dominate the market in the next few decades.

Frankly, no, I don't. The immersion is more than canceled out by the additional hassle, not to mention that many people (including myself) that this sort of 3D either doesn't work for or causes intense motion sickness.

So parent's comment was "it will be great once the tech improves" and your response is "no it won't because the tech currently sucks"? I think you're missing his point.

No, not at all. I am saying the CONCEPT sucks. It's not really a technology issue, since to overcome it we would need to be at like literally jack-in-to-the-brain, bypassing the optic nerve levels of tech. At which point we will probably have something better to do than play Half Life 3D.

Well, I simply disagree. Once the technology improves, I really think it's going to become the first ever instance of true virtual reality. I think once they do a very seamless overlay that encompasses your entire vision, motion sickness may not be a problem anymore for most people.

If your only experience is with the developer kit then you're not really equipped to make a judgement on it. Motion sickness is caused by a combination of the demo in question and the fact that the screen is pretty low quality.

Also, I'm not sure how this sort of 3D can't work for someone unless you're either blind in one eye or have some sort of issue with stereoscopic vision in general. Sounds like a configuration issue.

I do have issues with stereoscopic vision. My right eye is about 20/25, and my left 20/40.

I would hope not, actually. Many people are nowhere near hardcore enough to spend the money and time for Virtual Reality Gaming over regular gaming.

OK Debbie Downer, what evidence is that based on? Even when I've shown non gamers the general impression is very positive...

Downer? Just because VR nowadays is a nice experience doesn't mean that casual gamers like, say, myself might want to save a few hundred bucks by sticking with a TV set. It's a nice add-on. It doesn't have to revolutionize the world of gaming forever.

Indeed! Apart from all the hype Valve just seems to be confirming the rumors here. I'm surprised by how little information they actually give away. No screenshots/videos of SteamOS, no specifications of the boxes.

I'd really like to know more. Currently I don't see why this is better than building a mini-ITX gaming rig in a nice case and putting Ubuntu + Steam Big Picture mode on it.

I think if you built a mini-ITX gaming rig in a nice case and put Steam OS on it, you will have built a Steam Machine.

Its probably this:

https://www.google.com/patents/US8241126

I would love a trackball on a game controller in place of the right thumbstick.

I just searched for such a controller and this study from the University I went to came up: http://www.yorku.ca/mack/FuturePlay2.html

Apparently gaming performance increased between 5 and 10 percent going from a traditional controller to a prototype trackball controller.

In addition to that gaming performance increase, I wonder if a trackball could be put to better use in other more traditional UI situations that SteamOS has to implement (big-picture mode clover-leaf keyboard, scrolling, item selection...)

only 300 boxes for beta? That seems a little small.

It does, but like any other prototype the beta boxes are probably a couple more times more expensive than the finished product, and they'll probably be giving them to people for free (??) which represents half a million dollars out of their pocket.

The Rift is output, not input. I think they're announcing some kind of new controller.

It does headtracking, so it's both.

Technically you could say head movement is input but I get your point.

That being said it could be a combo, like Rift + a wiimote-style thing?

Mouse + keyboard break Rift immersion, pads are better but still far from perfect.

Considering the vast majority of current Big Picture games use the Xbox360 controller, and that they'll probably already worried about getting enough content working on this device, I highly doubt they will do something so different as a Rift + Wiimote and the like.

My assumption is Rift will be supported, but primary controller will be something extremely 360-like. If not made by Valve than by someone that already makes 3rd party 360 controllers.

The entire idea here is to have a TV-attached device along the lines of the Xbox or Playstation that plays Steam games — so you can sit on the couch with your SO and play some Trine 2 or something. An input device that you strap over your face would make the couch-and-TV integration a bit moot.

The Rift is both input and output, though the input is fairly limited to head movements and generally requires supplementary input for gaming.

In any case, I don't think it is what Valve is hinting at, though it is something they have made some moves to support already in the form of TF2 and limited HL2 support.

Good at hyping, bad at actually delivering on time... Half-life (Episode?) 3 :(

They haven't hyped HL3 or HL2E3, or even announced either of them. Kinda silly to blame them for not delivering something they never promised to deliver.

... Did you finish Episode 2? Have you lost internet access for the last 6 years? Valve confirmed it waaaaay back in '07, and Gaben has been dropping little nuggets about it every few years.

You really need to understand how painful this is for HL fans. It would be like if AMC decided not to produce & air the final season of Breaking Bad... or delay the final season for 6+ years.

1998 Half-Life ... 2004 Half-Life 2 2006 Half-Life 2: Episode One 2007 Half-Life 2: Episode Two

I see what you mean, now.

However, not only has Valve been doing many other things in the interim, there was also about six years between the original HL and HL2. It might be a little longer to wait.

However, I would also not be surprised if Valve were to wait for the SteamOS release, and then announce HL3 as a "flagship" SteamOS game. They already have dozens of such games that work, but not as many that will make people put down their COD, GTA V, etc and play with a SteamBox in their living room.

I doubt/hope it won't be true "flagship" title with Steambox/steamOS exclusivity. However, maybe they'll do a bundle similar to xbox where if you buy a steambox you get HL3 included? HL3 could definitely be Valve's game that makes the steam box a major player, similar to Halo for xbox. Valve feel free to hire me.

@gknoy It's just frustrating from a personal perspective... I mean, taking 6 years off to work on hats? It feels like heckling from the sidelines, but if Valve is truly great they'll find a way to, you know, make a great game again - alongside doing all of this 'extraneous' hardware/platform stuff.

I know that episode 2 did not end the story. However, http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Future_of_the_Half-Life_seri... indicates that it did not contain any teasers. I don't remember the details of the ending since it has been a few years since I played it.

But in any case, leaving the story with a loose end is not the same as announcing or hyping a game. I don't see anywhere Gabe has even indicated they are working on HL3.

I don't remember the details of the ending since it has been a few years since I played it.

This is a big problem with this long dev cycles. There are a few games where I was a big fan of the previous games but when the sequels eventually came, I had lost interest because I couldn't remember the precious game's story and did not want to replay it. Of course nowadays I'd just get the rundown online or watch the ending on youtube, but unless you're a big fan, it IMHO still dampens the excitement somewhat. At least for me.

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