Quoting: GuestWe tried the FAQ thing when we had the Github issue tracker, people just ignored it and continued to parrot the same old shit that has been bandied about since Witcher 2.

Still a good idea though.
It would useful to have a "Debunking myths about wrapped games, FAQ, whatever" article in a place with good exposure (maybe even here on GOL wiki, Liam?) where such myths that keep popping up can be explained/clarified one by one.

I've seen over time some interesting discussions and insights/details about this from VP and even Feral, but they are now long forgotten, buried in some old GOL or reddit topic.

Some folks will keep complaining most likely, but at least you'd have a place to address their concerns (please read this and that), instead of keep replying the same thing over and over again.

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Taken by surprise by this, and boy, does it look good or what...
And even with my old now GTX 780 I can play at max settings with occasional drops to 50 something fps. Also Vsync does kill a bit the performance here, better use a frame limiter.
But anyway, looks awesome.

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Quoting: DoomsdayOrangeHey, IM volunteer developer here, just want to state a minor thing, Kim isnt the only person working on the game anymore. He has gathered many experienced individuals like me to volunteer with the development of the game, and since were all working for free, we dont have to run into the issue of funding. That is all.

Hi, can you please make some inquiries about the state of the SSAO on Linux builds? It used to work on older builds (Unity 4x) but since switching to Unity 5 it was disabled completely.

I asked the same question on Steam forums but nobody answered, and given the well known situation of game's development, I didn't insist.

(and well, maybe look into a Vulkan Linux build?)

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Quoting: Redface

Quoting: dubigrasu

Quoting: RedfaceThe Alienware Steammachine R2 I have and also the Zotac NEN support power-on from USB, which at least on the Alienware is controlled in the BIOS settings under the power options. I do not know about any settings on in the Steam client BPM or window mode about that, but I was asked on the initial setup if I wanted it turned on.

I did turn it off it again after a while because I also have a wireless mouse with an USB dongle connected which on the slightest movement turned the steammachine on when I did not want that. So it is more convenient for me without. But it works when the hardware and BIOS support it.

That's quite interesting!
I've installed SteamOS several times by now, but I have never been asked such question on my custom configurations setups.
So, looks like USB Wake-up works after all, but only on specific (and tested) hardware configurations (such as "official" Steam Machines).
On my current custom Steam Machine I can wake it up with the wireless steam controller in desktop mode, then click back to BPM. Is practically the same functionality.
Thanks very much for the info :)

P.S. Come to think about, SteamOS also has some specific extra settings when installed on Alienware machines, something about those case lights or something similar...

I am not an expert in the various suspend/sleep/shutdown states on modern hardware, but I believe its USB power-on and not USB wake-up. The OS is definitely shut down and all fans and lights, but some electronics still must be running to check for USB activity ofc. And its a fresh bootup when I use a USB device, not a resume or something.

And yes the Alienware lights can be controlled from the BPM including turning them off.

You're actually right, it is also USB power-on, or to be exact they are both working.
To summarize, on SteamOS you can suspend/resume from desktop mode, while also you can completely shutdown the machine and then boot it wireless from your couch by pressing on the Steam button on your SC, exactly like you do on consoles.

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I guess that after the Steam Machines and SteamOS hype got nowhere, they got cold feet.
This in relation with how excited they were initially:
http://www.pcgamer.com/tripwire-steamos-steam-machines-and-steam-controller-will-be-the-best-thing-to-happen-to-pc-gaming-since-digital-distribution/ [External Link]

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Quoting: RedfaceThe Alienware Steammachine R2 I have and also the Zotac NEN support power-on from USB, which at least on the Alienware is controlled in the BIOS settings under the power options. I do not know about any settings on in the Steam client BPM or window mode about that, but I was asked on the initial setup if I wanted it turned on.

I did turn it off it again after a while because I also have a wireless mouse with an USB dongle connected which on the slightest movement turned the steammachine on when I did not want that. So it is more convenient for me without. But it works when the hardware and BIOS support it.

That's quite interesting!
I've installed SteamOS several times by now, but I have never been asked such question on my custom configurations setups.
So, looks like USB Wake-up works after all, but only on specific (and tested) hardware configurations (such as "official" Steam Machines).
On my current custom Steam Machine I can wake it up with the wireless steam controller in desktop mode, then click back to BPM. Is practically the same functionality.
Thanks very much for the info :)

P.S. Come to think about, SteamOS also has some specific extra settings when installed on Alienware machines, something about those case lights or something similar...

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Quoting: wojtek88

Quoting: dubigrasuBut when I feel like gaming, then I just fire in a couple of seconds my SteamOS, get the SteamController in hands and here I go. This is where SteamOS perfectly fits.

I already forgot, but this sentence is one of the reasons I didn't decide to buy Alienware Steam Machine.

Currently with PS4, I sit on the couch, take Dualshock that was laying on the couch, press button on the gamepad and console is waking up.

With Steam Machine / PC with SteamOS on it the order is different: You need to go to the machine, press power button and then go to the couch and wake up the controller.

For me kind of bummer.

This feature does work on SteamOS but the access to it was eventually disabled by Valve's developers, which found at the time that it wasn't 100% reliable on Linux.

The Steam Client runs on SteamOS through a special "-steamos" flag that alters slightly the client behaviour and features to fit some SteamOS characteristics (for example its custom compositor), and disabling/hiding the USB wake-up is one these alteration.
You can remove the flag and get the classic client and the USB wake-up back, but this is not the intended behaviour.

However, you can still enable it back from the desktop mode and use the Steam Controller (wired or wireless) to start your SteamOS/Steam Machine without moving from your couch.

This is one of the point from my list I mentioned earlier btw, where SteamOS can and needs to be improved.

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Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: dubigrasuI think many of you are disappointed in SteamOS status because you are actually disappointed by the Steam Machines.
But remember that the purpose of the SteamOS in itself (as a distro) is only to run the Steam Client, which it does fine. Other than a newer Mesa for AMD users (and maybe more frequent updates) there's not much you can ask from it. It already does its job.

Actually, I think most of the discussion has been about Steam Machines, not about SteamOS. Your point about the purpose of SteamOS, as in just the OS itself, is quite accurate . . . but that's why there isn't all that much point talking about SteamOS and I don't think anyone much has been doing so. Basically SteamOS itself, not including user experience issues involved in the Steam client/Big Picture, is pretty boring.
To the extent they have been talking about SteamOS, they've actually been discussing a broader definition of "OS" to include the user experience it gives out of the box (and so things like integration of multimedia sources, in the way that consoles today tend to provide). This broadening is not unreasonable IMO. It's true that in SteamOS technically the OS is separate from the main user interface, the Steam Client, which can be used outside of the OS. But SteamOS is envisioned as a competitor to console OSes for which this is generally not true. So if you're going to talk about the things that PS4 does in its OS versus the things that a machine running SteamOS does not do, it's going to get pretty persnickety to note that the things SteamOS doesn't do wouldn't technically be part of the "OS" in the case of SteamOS. So for a lot of purposes I don't think it's a really useful distinction to insist on, in that it would lead to more confusion rather than less (and I think is actually doing so in this discussion thread).

All that said, I think there is actually room to criticize SteamOS at the OS level. There have been some decent updates just lately, but overall Steam OS has been lagging behind in its use of relevant drivers and other infrastructure relevant to graphics and gaming. This is a bad thing in something whose main purpose (absent actual Steam Machines) is to act as a reference OS for game developers. I suppose there might be arguments that SteamOS should stay fairly conservative to increase the chances that, if something works on SteamOS, it will work on many distros. But the improvements in Linux graphics-related abilities has been fast, making it worth taking advantage of them, while adding newer versions is fairly easy in most Linux distros. So I think it would be useful for SteamOS to be more up to date.

That's surely one way to see things, and at this point I'm not sure what I can say without repeating myself too and beating the poor old dead horse. My point is simply that SteamOS gets blamed too much for sins that is not actually guilty of. Sort of like kicking the delivery guy for the pizza having not enough pepperoni in it.

Regarding for SteamOS room for improvement, yes there is plenty of it. As an actual SteamOS user I have a long list of things I'd like to see done, but then again, most of the list content can be applied to Linux gaming/distros in general.
The part with the latest drivers is indeed more obvious on the AMD side, where advances happened very fast lately, but is something that is unlikely to change according to Valve's developers. At least one time they've stated that they will go for stability rather than bleeding-edge drivers/features. I do think though that they can pick up the pace a little bit, you definitely get the feeling that they've been dragging their feet.

With all its shortcoming SteamOS is still a very good distro and is definitely not boring if used within its intended purpose. Sure, if someone want to have fun with its system he can go Gentoo or Arch, and definitely not SteamOS. Is not the distro you would recommend to the Linux tinkerer kind of guy, and not even for basic desktop usage, it wasn't meant to do that and is not aiming at pleasing everyone.
I've been a Linux user for 18 years or so, and I do have another bleeding edge system (actually I have several across various PC hardware configurations) where I can go wild and test the latest and the greatest and break stuff as I want, and yes, is a fun system to have.
But when I feel like gaming, then I just fire in a couple of seconds my SteamOS, get the SteamController in hands and here I go. This is where SteamOS perfectly fits.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: dubigrasuNot many reasons to be disappointed in SteamOS itself. The SteamOS experience (features wise) is as good as the Steam Client allows it to be.

Quoting: dubigrasuAll these feature you want (and we want) belong to the Steam Client, not to SteamOS.
The Steam machines didn't failed because SteamOS wasn't doing its job, they failed because (among other strong reasons) the Big Picture experience as is provided by the Steam Client wasn't up to par with what you find on existing consoles. The disappointment is mostly wrongly directed at SteamOS, which just a vehicle for the Steam Client.

I don't agree here. I don't want Netflix/Spotify/Amazon Prime/whatever support in Steam. But if I buy a Steam Machine, running SteamOS, I want an easy way to access those third party tools, just like my PS4 does.

Well, I would prefer to have the possibility to access them on any Linux distro I may choose, (and while browsing the Big Picture is a straightforward way to do it, at least for the moment), not to be something tied to SteamOS and Steam Machines only.
But to each his own.

Edit: To clarify one thing, when I say support for Netflix/etc in Steam, by that I mean these features/apps should be available and install-able (or uninstallable if you chose so) from the Steam Client's Big Picture mode.
I most definitely don't want them integrated in the Steam Client, the way Broadcasting or Streaming are right now.
I have the feeling that this is what you understood from my previous posts, hope this clarify things a bit.

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Quoting: wojtek88

Quoting: dubigrasuI think many of you are disappointed in SteamOS status because you are actually disappointed by the Steam Machines.
But remember that the purpose of the SteamOS in itself (as a distro) is only to run the Steam Client, which it does fine. Other than a newer Mesa for AMD users (and maybe more frequent updates) there's not much you can ask from it. It already does its job.

If so, then I guess I am either disappointed with the idea of Steam OS, or with the functionality of Steam Client.
For me Steam OS has to offer native Netflix client and native Spotify client. HBO Go would be nice as well. I believe a lot of users want to have native support for stream services like Twitch. All this should be available from OS UI, without a need to use desktop mode (spotify) or browser (Netflix, Twitch).
For now Steam OS is not a console like OS. It is just an OS with Steam preinstalled and launched OOTB. Users other than Linux lovers shouldn't use desktop mode of Steam OS at all. Everything should be available from Big Picture mode.

P.S. Native support for streaming services and Netflix / HBO Go is something that in my opinion killed Ataribox. During advertising guys from Atari said they will provide support for native apps, and then they realized, that there are no such apps and probably those companies are not eager to create native Linux apps for Atari.

Not many reasons to be disappointed in SteamOS itself. The SteamOS experience (features wise) is as good as the Steam Client allows it to be.
Is a convenient little and basic distro meant to run the Steam Client out of the box and nothing more, (BTW, you don't really need its "Linux desktop" feature to actually run it. That's only a bonus). I think there's nothing wrong with this idea/concept of a distro.
All these feature you want (and we want) belong to the Steam Client, not to SteamOS. (as available apps, but not integrated in the Steam Client.)
The Steam machines didn't failed because SteamOS wasn't doing its job, they failed because (among other strong reasons) the Big Picture experience as is provided by the Steam Client wasn't up to par with what you find on existing consoles. The disappointment is mostly wrongly directed at SteamOS, which just a vehicle for the Steam Client.

Also, ElectricPrism above is right: one other use for SteamOS is to act as a target for gaming developers, which is also a good idea.

Edited for clarity

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