Linux distro != Linux. Linux is the most widely used and probably the best operating system kernel, but that is all it is.
Linux distro != Linux. Linux is the most widely used and probably the best operating system kernel, but that is all it is.
Benchmarks have shown that both the noveuo and radium gallium drivers have been making great progress. They also have other features that the proprietary drivers do not have.
The real question is whether StreamOS is a GNU/Linux distro? :/
That's the most ridiculous splitting of words I've heard for weeks.
My OS is running the Linux kernel, what OS am I using ?
Your OS, which uses Linux as its kernel. Just the same way MacosX uses XNU.
Most of the benchmarks in the linked AMD article where between 70-80 % of the performance of the proprietary drivers. That is not a long way from parity.
Blazkowicz
Legend
Phoronix benchmarks are half a dozen free games that all run on the Quake 3 engine, maybe some of them with pixel shaders and post-processing tacked on.
That makes them a bit weak. In fact if what you want is limited retro-gaming and open source games, then yes the open source drivers can work well enough for that. You can run Counterstrike 1.6 fine for instance, warcraft III in wine etc. and try to work up from there. But to go neck-to-neck with the consoles (both new and old) that's a hard proposition.
That makes them a bit weak. In fact if what you want is limited retro-gaming and open source games, then yes the open source drivers can work well enough for that. You can run Counterstrike 1.6 fine for instance, warcraft III in wine etc. and try to work up from there. But to go neck-to-neck with the consoles (both new and old) that's a hard proposition.
Here's a video of the controller being used with various games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eeAjkbNq4xI
It actually looks pretty good, was surprised to be honest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eeAjkbNq4xI
It actually looks pretty good, was surprised to be honest.
Whereas I doubt Valve approach vs a more profound re-invention of the desktop market (I don't wat to go in the details, a couples of glasses of alcohol are telling me to keep it short) I dislike that kind of article:
http://techreport.com/blog/25491/are-valve-and-amd-about-to-ruin-pc-gaming
Pretty much to me it sounds like submitting one-self to the established power in the market and ignoring that changes can ultimately only be delayed, and the title of the article is purposefully aggressive, putting the blame of a market that is set to change (with a period of instability) on the ones that are trying to somehow save it and push it forward. PC gaming while making money is not really sustainable by self (even steam) only a handful of (dedicated) high end games could exists without the indirect "subsidizing" of the console market, segmentation is too high, backward compatibility is nice but it is pushed to the point where it turns into a significant handicap, lots of hardware conf, by far superior to the ps360 for example, struggle to deliver proper performances, etc. People that are into high end stuff and the beefy margins made on high conf are actually killing the market, the question should be how many PC out there could be pretty neat gaming devices? How they could be linked "somehow" to a TV and simply do not deliver because... of many reasons.
On the matter MSFT policies are actually incredibly stupid (my pov feel free to disagree) they have been subsidizing xbox for years, not porting their exclusives to PC when they already had a massive user base in the PC market, making in the process Valve's fortune.
In my humble opinion that is not worth being on the techreport website.
My pov is that the company that can "reboot' the desktop market (pretty much changing it all together) is Google, my view is that in a couple of years PC will based on SoC and ARM (mainly), they will not not act as old desktop but more like 'home server' and gaming will be a selling point, a selling point something like the Nexus Q lacked. I wished it came for a lesser company like Valve, not in a situation to establish a de facto monopole but well... I can't change people I experience it every day of my life.
Home server (running either Android or a revamp ChromeOS) will either act as a desktop, a console (thanks to devices like Chrome cast), will handle storage (NAS) for devices that are no longer set to embark as much storage as our old laptop did (the same applies for phones), and should (along with the cloud which should further expand the storage capacity) do the heavily lifting tablets and netbooks can't reasonably do within their power constrains (or making those devices able to do it is to make them too costly (so counter productive) whereas the market is moving toward a lower margins model, a commodity market).
I believe that this new "PC'"/desktop" market will take over by the low end, eating into both the tradition desktop/pc market and the console market.
Now I expect that trend to appear (they should take over but it won't happen in one day) around 2015, at that time, 16/14nm process, ARM v8 architectures, and solution like HMC should allow to push out "competitive" products at an interesting price that would "integrate nicely into the dominant software ecosystems (Android and ChromeOS which seems to get traction fast (even if my belief is that it gets "undue" credits, windows get the blame for crumbling PC sales (at large) because it has been good enough for a while (few intensive to upgrade) and the economy is bad, people buy few products when they do they buy at commodity type of prices).
http://techreport.com/blog/25491/are-valve-and-amd-about-to-ruin-pc-gaming
Pretty much to me it sounds like submitting one-self to the established power in the market and ignoring that changes can ultimately only be delayed, and the title of the article is purposefully aggressive, putting the blame of a market that is set to change (with a period of instability) on the ones that are trying to somehow save it and push it forward. PC gaming while making money is not really sustainable by self (even steam) only a handful of (dedicated) high end games could exists without the indirect "subsidizing" of the console market, segmentation is too high, backward compatibility is nice but it is pushed to the point where it turns into a significant handicap, lots of hardware conf, by far superior to the ps360 for example, struggle to deliver proper performances, etc. People that are into high end stuff and the beefy margins made on high conf are actually killing the market, the question should be how many PC out there could be pretty neat gaming devices? How they could be linked "somehow" to a TV and simply do not deliver because... of many reasons.
On the matter MSFT policies are actually incredibly stupid (my pov feel free to disagree) they have been subsidizing xbox for years, not porting their exclusives to PC when they already had a massive user base in the PC market, making in the process Valve's fortune.
In my humble opinion that is not worth being on the techreport website.
My pov is that the company that can "reboot' the desktop market (pretty much changing it all together) is Google, my view is that in a couple of years PC will based on SoC and ARM (mainly), they will not not act as old desktop but more like 'home server' and gaming will be a selling point, a selling point something like the Nexus Q lacked. I wished it came for a lesser company like Valve, not in a situation to establish a de facto monopole but well... I can't change people I experience it every day of my life.
Home server (running either Android or a revamp ChromeOS) will either act as a desktop, a console (thanks to devices like Chrome cast), will handle storage (NAS) for devices that are no longer set to embark as much storage as our old laptop did (the same applies for phones), and should (along with the cloud which should further expand the storage capacity) do the heavily lifting tablets and netbooks can't reasonably do within their power constrains (or making those devices able to do it is to make them too costly (so counter productive) whereas the market is moving toward a lower margins model, a commodity market).
I believe that this new "PC'"/desktop" market will take over by the low end, eating into both the tradition desktop/pc market and the console market.
Now I expect that trend to appear (they should take over but it won't happen in one day) around 2015, at that time, 16/14nm process, ARM v8 architectures, and solution like HMC should allow to push out "competitive" products at an interesting price that would "integrate nicely into the dominant software ecosystems (Android and ChromeOS which seems to get traction fast (even if my belief is that it gets "undue" credits, windows get the blame for crumbling PC sales (at large) because it has been good enough for a while (few intensive to upgrade) and the economy is bad, people buy few products when they do they buy at commodity type of prices).
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Though it is a game that should work great with that type of input, it looks like it was working in the same fashion in the portal 2 demo.
I wish we had some vid showing how it behave while mimicking our usual analog sticks / a game where a pad acting like a trackpad is not an option.
EDIT
I'm a dumb ass the left stick/trackpad seems to act as a proper analog stick in the counter strike demo... may be it is time for me to go to bed...
EDIT 2
I really suck the left track-pad is configured a d-pad not an analog stick...
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Still seems a bit unintuitive, without the tactile feedback of sticks. Need hands on.
I applaud them for trying a new paradigm though. I feel controllers have needed one,.
RenegadeRocks
Legend
Shit man ! We needed this on next gen consoles. I don't want to touch any other controller anymore. I hate the X360 controller on my PC, will get this for sure, but I wish I could use it on ps4/X1 too. This is so freaking cool !
Why?
The Steam Controller has less frontal buttons than the the DS4 or the XBO controller; not to mention that it doesn't have motion controls.
The extra triggers are awkwardly placed and pretty much can only be pressed with your 4/5 finger which is not comfortable for a lot of people.
Also the Stem Controller will not work well for fighting games or H&S since you can't press two frontal buttons simultaneously with one thumb comfortably and d-pad is fundamental for fighting games.
Even pressing forward + X/Y (respectively reloading and switching weapon in motion in shooters) is going to be very uncomfortable and pressing forward +X+A or forward + Y+B simultaneously with two thumbs is totally uncomfortable.
The 3 buttons placed under the touchscreen are also placed uncomfortably compared to the D-pad in the Dualshock or the 360 controller.
The DS4has the same functions + motion controls and better button layout (also the XBO controller) than the Stem Controller and while XBO controller is behind the DS4/Steam Controller in therms of number of buttons Kinect makes up for this "deficit" and will allow developers to do way more than with Steam Controller.
I am not a hater but this controller won't be as universal/versatile as the DS4 or the XBO controller nor presents any significant innovation.
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Billy Idol
Legend
Looks very good! Great! Looking forward to test this...I guess that this pad will also be available for standard gaming PCs...
Why would you expect differently? It's not about being better than keyboard and mouse, I don't think it can be done in a handheld controller period, it's competing with dual stick console controllers and providing a smaller alternative for keyboard and mouse. A dual stick controller would be absolutely crap at mouse driven interfaces.
It doesn't need to be more versatile, just better for certain genres like FPS and RTS which it obviously is. The PC will support the XB1 controller (and DS4) as well so you simply use the best controller for the best game.
