fonix232
@fonix232@fedia.io
- Comment on If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director 1 week ago:
I'll give it a go sometimes, but the AMD CPU + Nvidia GPU combo wasn't exactly winner the last time I tried.
- Comment on If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director 1 week ago:
Actually, that's not what I want or need.
First party support here needs to include system drivers (including GPU) from primary sources (aka no "just add this repo and install this DKMS and run that installer", it should work OOTB for the most common hardware).
- Comment on If Valve creates an "entry point" for living room PCs, the console-beating Steam Machines will follow, argues Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director 1 week ago:
Most definitely.
Valve's main success here will be establishing SteamOS as a de facto replacement for some 60-70% of PCs. Hell, I've built a gaming PC a little over a year ago, and am still running Windows on it, but only for one reason: no first party support from SteamOS.
Once that's sorted... My need for Windows will disappear basically, aside from the very occasional ancient Windows utility I might need to use (old Rockchip flashing tools come to mind), but those usually run quite well enough in a VM.
Make a baseline Steam Machine, let people adapt their PCs to it easily, and you won over the gaming market. Expand that with support for third party launcher integration and you've literally got every single fanboy, gamer, etc., on your platform.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Official support IS important, because the downstream companies can't (and shouldn't) be expected to make the support happen.
It's Qualcomm's hardware, only Qualcomm has the internal documentation that ensures the drivers are up to spec, it should be up to them to provide 6-8-10 years of continued support. They don't because they're essentially in a monopoly market.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Which part of "series" did you miss?
You want a specific model? 8945HS. There you go. Mini PCs as cheap as $400 with that one.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
A 1050 can barely play modern games at 720p 30fps.
Add on top of that the fact that the headset needs to:
- drive 2x 2K displays
- provide a 2K virtual interface rendered 2x, one for each eye
- do this at 90-120hz
- and still have left over capacity for running the games
add the overhead of the various Proton translation layers and such, and that 30% extra GPU capacity is gone.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Fortunately, "I don't think so" is not a legitimate argument, so off you feck.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Any Ryzen 7800/8800/8900 series APU miniPC will bring you close to PS5 performance. Frequently sold around $300-400, with 16-32GB RAM.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Drivers aren't the issue. Keeping them up to date is.
Most of these drivers are written for specific kernel versions (and are part of the BSP), but Qualcomm only keeps them updated for a given cycle. Which is usually 2-3 years (albeit Google's recent push has resulted in longer support cycles).
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Well the primary competition for the Frame, especially with the hardware limitations, is definitely the Quest lineup rather than the new Android XR headsets or the AVP. So pricing should reflect that.
IMO anything above $600-650 will be a super hard sell for anyone but hardcore Valve fanboys.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Triple the price? The fuck are you talking about?
Gaming-oriented mini PCs match the PS5 performance around $300. Around $600-800 you'll even get dedicated (albeit mobile) GPUs.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
It's also being marketed as a standalone headset. Absolutely no excuse for using a 3yo SoC when much better options are available at not significantly different prices.
Also let's not forget this is Qualcomm we're talking about, the company that drops support for even their most popular chips after 3-4 years. Which in turn heavily limits any updates this SoC will receive. Even performance questions aside, using a SoC that is guaranteed to go unsupported within the first year of sales is just a bad idea.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
Meta doesn't sell Quest units for a loss anymore. That's what the "recent" price hike was about, raising unit prices by $150-200.
The "really bad screen door effect" was mentioned by multiple reviewers.
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
It's not that much smaller, and like 80% of the GabeCube seems to be cooling...
The PS5 is that bulky because of the stupid exterior shell design, and that big because Sony went into weird directions with the cooling. Reformat that into a more traditional form factor and you can reduce overall size by 30-50%. Hell, there's gaming oriented mini PCs that are 1/2-1/3 the size of a PS5 Slim, with double the performance...
- Comment on Steam Hardware Announcement - (This is wild) 2 weeks ago:
The VR headset seems to be a major downgrade from expectations.
Three year old SoC, subpar quality LCD displays without local dimming (and apparently very bad screen door effect)... the eye tracking and custom wireless with foveated codec is a nice touch though. I think the main benefit here will be the Proton ARM translation layer and the ability to run SteamOS on other headsets.
The most disappointing part is the rumoured pricing of "aiming to be under $1000". I mean I get it, Meta had us spoiled with the $300-400 headsets, but this, aside the software goodies, is hardly better hardware wise than the current Quest 3, will cost approximately twice as much (unless Valve really cuts that "under $1000" target back a lot)... If the Steam layer gets cloned onto the Quest 3, the Frame loses all of its benefits, really.
I'm still excited for it, but found it somewhat lackluster.
- Comment on New data shows companies are rehiring former employees as AI falls short of expectations 3 weeks ago:
This. Use their desperation to your benefits.
Demand no probation since you were previously a good employee. Demand higher pay, better benefits et al, hell, a signing bonus and backpay for your unfair dismissal, go as far as you can. Remember, they just realised that they need you more than you need them.
Use that knowledge to your advantage.