Quoting: Liam DaweWe're not talking traditional consoles, we're talking what's basically a portable PC here.

I stand by what I said there. The market for portable PC gaming handhelds has nowhere near hit the proper mainstream yet.

Quoting: omer666As someone who's once been really passionate about handheld consoles, I second that.

I'd like to get back to you two on that, if I may.
From a regular consumers point of view I believe this will be a handheld gaming device just like all its predecessors, with its unique pros and cons. They all had their advantages, all had their selling points. They all had their unique OS, just like this one. This is a continuation of the market that started with the Game Boy.

You may say the PC game catalogue is the whole difference (cause really, that's all), but that's also the massive drawback here: The regular PC gaming market will render this device outdated almost before it leaves the conveyor belt. This is *THE* major advantage of the other handhelds: The developers had ONE specific hardware spec to follow - year after year. All tools primed for this particular setup. The advantage of this in regards to lifespan of the device simply can not be exaggerated.

And what regular PC game would you want to play on this device? May I remind you that you must take into account the extreme downscale of the screen dimensions here. Regular sized text scaled down from a PC display dimension will be next to impossible to see on this screen without a magnifying glass. Menus, item descriptions, written dialogue all run the obvious risk of simply being impossible to see properly.

So I'm in on a bet on this: The market will see this as yet another attempt to breath new life into an old market segment that's pretty much died unless your name is Nintendo. It needs games suitable for a handheld, and it needs a SOLID market penetration for that to happen. And what are the odds for that...
We shall see, but I am no optimist on this one.

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Valve are entering a market that's still relatively in its infancy.

I was quite surprised to see this rather odd claim. Infancy?? I would rather say the direct opposite: That this is a market that's long past the adult years of its life span. Hand held consoles USED to be big. Gameboy or PSP, anyone?

Then came PS Vita and demonstrated for the whole world that this market had dramatically changed - and it has not returned to former glory ever since. So, infancy!? It's rather a market that long ago entered it's senior citizen stage of the life cycle.

I also strongly believe that if they are to succeed they can't just run regular PC games, they will need games that utilise the format properly. This has been the case for ALL gaming device, from consoles to PCs to VR to mobile to arcade machines: They need games built for THAT platform.

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It's been a while since a Nvidia driver upgrade contained any significant news other than fixes, so this will be welcome indeed!

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I bought a game nobody has mentioned: Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2! It's primarily for my daughters but those games really are good. Lots of humour and really fun to explore and complete once the maps are unlocked.

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As long as Valve make the full product and not just throw out an idea for other manufactorers to act upon (like with the Steam Machine), then colour me interested! Their other hardware thus far is really excellent (I have the Index and Controller).

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Quoting: ShabbyXWhy not just ... manufacture more cards?!

Because supply shortage of components. It's not uncommon in computing manufacturing at all.

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Quoting: TheSHEEEPAnd even when it doesn't anymore, there's still the issue of a whole slew of games simply being incompatible.

Personally I don't think the way forward is to provide or expect the exact same in VR as we have on flatscreen gaming. In fact that very notion makes very little sense.

VR is a very unique way of gaming. The games should reflect that and utilise those unique properties. Just like mobile games are built around the limitations and possibilities of that hardware. VR is *very* different from flatscreen gaming. One might say even more so than flatscreen VS mobile.

There's plenty room for all three - and flatscreen, VR and mobile all have their fields they excel at, and should focus on that.

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Quoting: poisond

Quoting: Beamboombecause I usually need to change audio device to the headset

You mean the HDMI port on nvidia?
I have a small script/system unit to auto switch. Can share if you want ^^

Yup! It *used* to automatically switch to the headset when it was activated, I have zero idea why it stopped doing so. But it'd be interesting to see your script, yes please!

Another thing that used to work but no longer do, is that the SteamVR was activated whenever I turned on one of the hand controllers. Just turn'em on, put on the headset and off I went. No more so. I have to start SteamVR in the Steam client.

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Quoting: poisondDon't ask me how or why, but starting pavucontrol before anything else and keeping it running prevents the audio crackling/breakup/dropout in steamvr for me. I've added it to autostart and haven't had the crackling since ...

Aha! Now this is interesting. I always fire up pavucontrol when I am about to do a VR session because I usually need to change audio device to the headset - this might be why I too never have these crackling issues then!

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: orochi_kyoIt is a matter of time the converts get bored of preaching this new uncomfortable new belief to get back to their old religion. Happens almost every time.

Are you seriously comparing a next generational, niche, and groundbreaking technology (VR) to gaming on the go (mobile) and claiming that mobile gaming is the future?

Whenever the topic is VR there's always guys like these who for some reason have this urge to "call us out" for being so wrong and disillusioned. It's even unclear to me why they are so eager to tell us, but I have come to the conclusion that it simply must be plain old envy kicking in.

I just leave them be. They only tend to get more extreme if their opinions are challenged in a dialogue.

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