Steam In-Home Streaming Monopolizes Host Computer

[Albino Boo]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

I have a windows PC already. It has 'ok' system specs. I will not be running ANY games from next year on it with settings past Medium. If I use a SteamBox to stream it to the TV, even if that box has an i7 and a Titan in it, because there is still computation (ie DirectX, plus other) that has to be done on the source PC (my less than excellent one) that means I still have to use crappy settings. It doesn't matter how great a SteamBox is, if the source PC is bad then the SteamBox is essentially an expensive brick or router.

If all of the important heavy computation could be done on the SteamBox itself there would be no need to stream in the first place, we'd all be buying steamboxes to replace our computers. The way they've described it we would still be playing all non-linux games (my entire collection) from the source PC, not the steambox, which means we still need 2 PCs.

 

[alj]

I need to pick up another IBM x3655 off ebay and stick a 780 in it

steamblade!

 

[Slash2x]

Why wouldn't you just connect the host PC directly to the TV.... This seems dumb and complicated for something that could be solved with a lengthier HDMI cable. Internet streaming Would have been a true step forward.

So you can access you steam games round the house on less powerful devices than your gaming rig? Not useful to everyone but thats fine its almost as if evey feature doesnt need to be useful to everyone....

This isnt designed to just be a longer HDMI cable. Hell the guy above you has proposed one of the likely intended uses.

The guy above me could bypass his laptop completely by getting a cable from his bedroom to his living room TV. If he needs to access files there are plenty of remote desktop apps like team viewer. I still don't see the practical or revolutionary aspect of this, maybe it is just me that has a ridiculously small apartment compared to Darkzero

so you have an HDMI cable strung across the house maybe from the first floor to the second floor and are using this tv as another monitor, do you also string usb cables across the house so you can have your mouse, keyboard, controller, head set?

There it is! For me it would be over 200 ft of cable to do this. I have 5 computers in my house but only one of them is the real Beast. The others are just crappy laptops and decent desk units. This lets me play a game on my best PC is ANY ROOM, and I do not have to sit next to the giant unit.

 

[iniudan]

I'm kinda surprised anyone thought this wasn't going to be the case.

Same. Computers aren't magic, they have to process things according to the programming of the firmware/software.

But hey, maybe someone will figure out a way to use multiple control inputs seamlessly, especially if the streaming becomes a standard.

At any rate, it's not really a loss, because if you wanted to play WITHOUT the Steam Machine, you still had to use your computer anyways.

Actually on *nix system it is simple, use an other tty instance, trouble is that the streaming server in the case of Steam is most likely not running a *nix OS. =p

 

[iniudan]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

SteamOS is not using RDP, has the server is only present in professional or higher version of Windows.

If the computer used RDP there wouldn't be problem of input duplication anyway.

 

[Albino Boo]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

SteamOS is not using RDP, has the server is only present in professional or higher version of Windows.

If the computer used RDP there wouldn't be problem of input duplication anyway.

RDP is microsoft's implantation of the T.120 standard. There are plenty of software that does the same and even some that use RDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software

Its not beyond the whit of man, to either license another remote desktop or seeing that valve have enough programmers to make an OS version of their own, to make there own implementation.

 

[DrOswald]

Why wouldn't you just connect the host PC directly to the TV.... This seems dumb and complicated for something that could be solved with a lengthier HDMI cable. Internet streaming Would have been a true step forward.

So you can access you steam games round the house on less powerful devices than your gaming rig? Not useful to everyone but thats fine its almost as if evey feature doesnt need to be useful to everyone....

This isnt designed to just be a longer HDMI cable. Hell the guy above you has proposed one of the likely intended uses.

The guy above me could bypass his laptop completely by getting a cable from his bedroom to his living room TV. If he needs to access files there are plenty of remote desktop apps like team viewer. I still don't see the practical or revolutionary aspect of this, maybe it is just me that has a ridiculously small apartment compared to Darkzero

My computer and my Big screen are 100 ft apart (as I would lay the cable.) In my old apartment connecting my computer to my big screen required a 25 ft cable. Running cables this distance is annoying, and running cables between rooms and though hallways (where they are ugly and can be tripped over) is not a good option.

While you are right that this is not exactly revolutionary in its current form it is still a very useful function for many people. In fact, I would say you are in the minority in thinking that connecting your computer to your TV is no big deal.

Also, it could very well be revolutionary down the road. I could very easily see myself setting up a beast server somewhere out of the way, say in a storage room or in the basement, and streaming all my games from that machine. The functionality isn't quite there yet but it could get there soon.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I am not surprised and the feature is still cool. A Steambox will still be able to play games locally.

 

[GladiatorUA]

It's an obvious way to it and the simplest and most non-invasive one.
If you want to monopolize the host PC, you either have to have deep in-game support of this feature or significantly tinker with the OS to make a virtual secondary display, virtual controller/kb/mouse that do not interact with real ones. Something similar to virtual machine. And then some games will be troublesome with this setup because they want to go to the primary monitor or pick up wrong set of control method. It should be less troublesome on linux though.

 

[iniudan]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

SteamOS is not using RDP, has the server is only present in professional or higher version of Windows.

If the computer used RDP there wouldn't be problem of input duplication anyway.

RDP is microsoft's implantation of the T.120 standard. There are plenty of software that does the same and even some that use RDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software

Its not beyond the whit of man, to either license another remote desktop or seeing that valve have enough programmers to make an OS version of their own, to make there own implementation.

First, why would Valve license RDP server to integrate it into steam, when they are trying to distance themselves from Microsoft ?

Second that kind of implementation got too much latency for Valve need, thus why they are doing video streaming of GPU output and whatever input method they prefer (most likely raw, which easily explain the duplication problem).

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I tend not to be doing things on my computer when I am playing it. And I will be glad not to feel obliged to alt tab out to answer IMs. Plus I have a phone for that crap if I really need it. I am all for less distractions when I play games.

The point is, you are not if front of your computer, instead you are in front of the TV.
Other people in your house might not understand that you are using it siting in front of the TV.

More usefull is, you put the big ugly powerfull gameserver somewere out of sight.
And use a small formfactor pc as a sort of thinclient workstation.

I am the only one who uses my computer but I see your point.

 

[Albino Boo]

I just don't understand the appeal of a SteamBox AT ALL. I love steam, I have a ton of steam games, but why the hell would I buy a second PC that can't do anything but hook up to a TV and play my first PC's games when I could just hook up my first PC to start with and save $500? It's not even enabling us to play better/bigger games than we could otherwise, because the game can't run on an amazing SteamBox if the host machine is still crappy.

SteamBoxes will be near useless until they can find a way to get DirectX support, allowing us to just play our games on them without doing this BS middleman approach.

I think what the intention of the home streaming is to get around the directX issue. RDP is platform independent so you can run your Windows games on your main PC and stream it to a SteamOS box. You can run a linux screen on windows using RDP and vica versa. I still don't see the reason why you buy two PC's but its a part solution to the problem.

SteamOS is not using RDP, has the server is only present in professional or higher version of Windows.

If the computer used RDP there wouldn't be problem of input duplication anyway.

RDP is microsoft's implantation of the T.120 standard. There are plenty of software that does the same and even some that use RDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software

Its not beyond the whit of man, to either license another remote desktop or seeing that valve have enough programmers to make an OS version of their own, to make there own implementation.

First, why would Valve license RDP server to integrate it into steam, when they are trying to distance themselves from Microsoft ?

Second that kind of implementation got too much latency for Valve need, thus why they are doing video streaming of GPU output and whatever input method they prefer (most likely raw, which easily explain the duplication problem).

You don't have to license from microsoft to get remote desktop software, RDP is only one implantation of a standard and they all do pretty much the same thing. Latency is not much of an issue when you are dealing with home networks, if you play online with sub 10 ms pings you are doing fine. Even on wirless your ping isn't going to be over 40ms, which is again perfectly acceptable for online play.

The reason for the control lock out is that windows only has 1 cursor by default so any control input will move the single cursor. To get multiple cursors you need to add some kind of version of unix's window manager, which is another layer of complexity and cost. Its simpler and cheaper just to lock out

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I'd just like to point out that both the PS4 and the Xbox One can stream what you're playing without having to buy a second machine, as can any half-decent PC. (Well, the Xbox One doesn't have the feature yet, but they're working on it.) I'm really starting to wonder how Valve thinks this thing won't be laughed out the door before it even launches.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'd just like to point out that both the PS4 and the Xbox One can stream what you're playing without having to buy a second machine, as can any half-decent PC. (Well, the Xbox One doesn't have the feature yet, but they're working on it.) I'm really starting to wonder how Valve thinks this thing won't be laughed out the door before it even launches.

You...you DO realize the difference between just streaming a video feed and syncing remote video feeds and remote inputs across a network, right?

 

[Reed Spacer]

I'm kinda surprised anyone thought this wasn't going to be the case.

I'm kinda surprised anyone thought this was a good idea.

 

[Agayek]

I'm kinda surprised anyone thought this was a good idea.

Why wouldn't it be? It's functionally equivalent to laying an HDMI cable from your computer to your TV for gaming on the TV. The only difference is that it doesn't require you to lay out the cable, which is quite nice for many people. It's definitely not something I'd use, because I already have a long-ass HDMI cable connecting my computer and TV, but I can easily see situations where it would come in very handy.

 

[Olas]

People need to understand that this intended for a niche audience, not everyone.

Basically people who have a good PC, but want to be able to play games in their living room as well without having a 30 foot HDMI cable, and who apparently are okay if that computer is tied up while they do it.

I have a feeling a lot of PC gamers would like this.

But if this isn't you, then you can just ignore it. It seems that Valve is trying to create lots of different avenues for consuming their content, and I think that's a good thing across the board.

 

[Neyon]

That's a shame. Most operating systems including Windows aren't really designed to handle multiple users being online at the same time. The reality is a good PC can quite easily run a demanding game and surf the web at the same time as games rarely max out every CPU core (I have never seen it happen). But Windows is designed to have one thing, one active window in focus at once. Sure you can have multiple windows open, perhaps on multiple displays but only one is "on top" at once.

I can't plug in a second mouse and keyboard and tell windows these inputs only apply to screen #2. That said it isn't far off. Case in point I found earlier when playing AC Black Flag if I alt-tabbed out of the game and was using Firefox, the game would still recognize the controller inputs and it wouldn't interfere with the Firefox window. So while Windows doesn't really support simultaneous multiple user input and output I don't think it would be too difficult for Microsoft to implement, or for an application developer such as valve to build that functionality.

This doesn't totally degrade the value streaming adds. I would still be able to play my games in a different room on a TV if I chose but it does mean I still won't be able to use my PC as a central house computer just yet.

 

[Roxor]

Sounds like Valve is taking a leaf out of Nvidia's book. Nvidia has that Shield streaming feature in their drivers, and it looks like Valve is implementing something similar in Steam.