Helping to build a huge community around the upcoming Steam Deck handheld, Valve has helpfully released the CAD files for the external shell.
As Valve said on Twitter it's "Good news for all the tinkerers, modders, accessory manufacturers, or folks who just want to 3D print a Steam Deck to see how it feels: We've published CAD files of the external shell for download", to which amusingly dbrand replied with "So... no C&D then?" (C&D being Cease and Desist) since they announced their Project Killswitch case.
Valve did similar for the Steam Controller back in 2016. Hopefully with this move, we will see a much bigger tinkering community spring up around it. They continue to show just how much more open they are when compared with the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
The files are on their own GitLab under the Creative Commons license.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Cool. Now imagine if the very operating system the thing ran on was open source too . . . oh wait. Um, and what if the 'secret sauce' it used to run Windows games was . . . oh, it is too, huh?
Valve is frankly a really weird company. I'm sure all the other companies look at it and think, to quote a certain Dr. from Austin Powers, "Not Evil enough".
Valve is frankly a really weird company. I'm sure all the other companies look at it and think, to quote a certain Dr. from Austin Powers, "Not Evil enough".
33 Likes, Who?
This is seriously cool of them. Not like a huge thing (they have already done plenty of those), but still a display of goodwill and openness that is completely uncharacteristic for a big corp releasing their own console.
13 Likes, Who?
buckysrevenge Feb 12, 2022
I don't have a 3D printer, but if I did, that Portal themed shell would be the first thing I'd make
6 Likes, Who?
I know that Steam is a DRM...but damn.
It's now been 10 years, yes, 10 years that Steam support Linux.
That support is real, with lots of interesting and useful projects.
Take my money Gaben, and again, thank you :)
It's now been 10 years, yes, 10 years that Steam support Linux.
That support is real, with lots of interesting and useful projects.
Take my money Gaben, and again, thank you :)
11 Likes, Who?
Quoting: AciDI know that Steam is a DRM...Not really. You do need to download the games through the client, but after that it's entirely down to what the publisher chooses. If a game doesn't make use of Steam features (which need the Steam client) and hasn't included any other DRM, you can just run the games however you like. There are lots of games on Steam like that.
23 Likes, Who?
It should be noted that there is no single "Creative Commons license". Creative Commons is a suite of licences with various clauses to choose between: From Creative Commons Zero (CC0), which is about as close to Public Domain as one can legally get; to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA), which has a bunch of conditions attached.
FTR, it seems Valve has chosen the latter: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0.
ShareAlike gives it a GPL-like quality (no proprietary modifications), but the more important clause is probably the NonCommercial...
So yeah, about that commercial operation you've got going there dbrand...
Though really, since dbrand have already been working on a case, they've probably already reverse-engineered a physical device so don't need these CAD files, and should probably avoid them from a legal standpoint.
FTR, it seems Valve has chosen the latter: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0.
ShareAlike gives it a GPL-like quality (no proprietary modifications), but the more important clause is probably the NonCommercial...
Quotedbrand replied with "So... no C&D then?" (C&D being Cease and Desist) since they announced their Project Killswitch case.
So yeah, about that commercial operation you've got going there dbrand...
Though really, since dbrand have already been working on a case, they've probably already reverse-engineered a physical device so don't need these CAD files, and should probably avoid them from a legal standpoint.
11 Likes, Who?
SlickMcRunFast Feb 12, 2022
I think Valve using gitlab is more interesting. Does this mean they will move everything they have from github to their gitlab instance? Would be nice.
3 Likes, Who?
Of course, it might not be so useful to open these CAD files in Blender as screenshotted, since Blender is a mesh modelling system, not a precision CAD modelling system. However, there are some addons that can make simple CAD possible in Blender, such as CAD Transform and tinyCAD.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyValve is frankly a really weird company. I'm sure all the other companies look at it and think, to quote a certain Dr. from Austin Powers, "Not Evil enough".Why would they? Valve is nowhere near the open source contributions of other closed source companies (e.g. Apple & Microsoft).
0 Likes
rustybroomhandle Feb 12, 2022
Quoting: LanzOf course, it might not be so useful to open these CAD files in Blender as screenshotted, since Blender is a mesh modelling system, not a precision CAD modelling system. However, there are some addons that can make simple CAD possible in Blender, such as CAD Transform and tinyCAD.
This comment is completely irrelevant and unnecessary. Opening in a 3D app is great for looking at it and making renders. And that's what most people will likely do, not frickin' CAD. Plus it's not inaccurate in Blender. Every vertex will be in the exact same place, no matter what you open it in, unless the application you open it in is broken. I think people who want to use it for manufacturing etc. will not be using Blender anyway, but actual CAD software.
Last edited by rustybroomhandle on 12 February 2022 at 11:19 am UTC
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me