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A comment on SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect.

Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by sandGorgon on Friday December 13, 2013 @08:09AM (#6900295)
I'm seriously curious about their sound and graphics framework more than the actual games (unless it is HL3).

I am betting (and hoping) that they are going to start using Wayland as well as a custom sound framework.

I also wonder if they are using a custom packaging format based on top of .deb .

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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by jcastro on Friday December 13, 2013 @09:41AM (#6900675)
From what they've said publicly they're pushing OpenGL and SDL, I don't see why they would make up another sound framework.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by sandGorgon on Friday December 13, 2013 @10:45AM (#6901064)
This is taken from their website - I dont know what they intended, but it sure looks like a possibility.

In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level.

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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by jcastro on Friday December 13, 2013 @11:43AM (#6901418)
They have a guy working on SDL directly, and they've been doing a bunch of work around GL and working with driver manufacturers:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNVfUygvio

- http://www.paranormal-entertainment.com/idr/blog/posts/2012-...

You could take the statement on the site to seem that they could be working on their own stuff, but if you watch their video it seems that they are keen on working on existing things like SDL and participating in the Khronos group than building things from scratch.

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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by cheald on Friday December 13, 2013 @01:40PM (#6902091)
They don't just have "a guy", they have Sam Lantinga, the guy who created SDL. I don't know if he's working on it or not, but the fact that they have him at the company speaks volumes about where they're headed.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by viraptor on Friday December 13, 2013 @08:44AM (#6900406)
Why do you think they wouldn't go for straight deb-s? (apart for game data - I assume that will be downloaded the same way it is in typical steam application)
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by sandGorgon on Friday December 13, 2013 @10:47AM (#6901076)
Because it is not based on Ubuntu and nobody knows for sure what the base distro is - earlier they had claimed Ubuntu 12.04 but that was refuted by an Engadget team recently [1]

As promised, the OS is built on Linux (not based on Ubuntu, we're told, but entirely custom), though you'd never know it as the only interactive layer is all Steam

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/valve-steam-machine-hands...

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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by mackal on Friday December 13, 2013 @11:09AM (#6901202)
Its Ubuntu, the Engadget guy interpreted the Dev wrong. Or I should say for most of its history its been Ubuntu based but it is still entirely possible they changed it, but I think its more likely the reporter is wrong.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by Arelius on Friday December 13, 2013 @02:51PM (#6902519)
Do you have any evidence to back this up? We've never seen SteamOS so we can't say what it's been for any of it's history. This sounds like pure speculation to me, and if I had to speculate I think it's more likely that the reporter is correct, and it is unlikely Ubuntu.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by TsiCClawOfLight on Friday December 13, 2013 @02:55PM (#6902539)
What makes you think that? Valve has been focusing on Ubuntu up to now, and they have an APT repo. If they don't base SteamOS on Ubuntu, they will probably base directly of Debian testing. Debian makes up most of desktop linux anyway...
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by Arelius on Saturday December 14, 2013 @03:53AM (#6905167)
> Debian makes up most of desktop linux anyway

Actually, I'm pretty sure that spot belongs to Ubuntu, which is why:

> Valve has been focusing on Ubuntu up to now

They focus on Ubuntu release because that is where their target players are. SteamOS, being it's own release, doesn't have the same restriction.

> If they don't base SteamOS on Ubuntu, they will probably base directly of Debian testing

Nice save, anyways, the argument is moot now: http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

Debian being, indeed, The most obvious choice.

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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by TsiCClawOfLight on Saturday December 14, 2013 @05:48AM (#6905327)
what save? I thought it was probable, so I wrote it.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by TsiCClawOfLight on Friday December 13, 2013 @11:03AM (#6901168)
They will probably base of Debian testing with custom backports.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by thomasknowles on Saturday December 14, 2013 @08:28AM (#6905623)
Description: Beta build of SteamOS 1.0 distribution based on Debian 7.1 Wheezy
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by dubcanada on Friday December 13, 2013 @09:26AM (#6900591)
No they will most likely use .deb that's what they use now for everything. Games will be downloaded and installed the way they currently are in Steam, a giant pile of files with random game data stuff.
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Re:SteamOS: What we know so far and what to expect by hansjorg on Friday December 13, 2013 @05:08PM (#6903186)
Wayland is missing the driver support right now. It's also one abstraction down from what game developers should worry about. I imagine Valve are going to focus on SDL. Sam Latinga, the original SDL dev, is employed by them now (was with Blizzard before).
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