| Also, it's worth mentioning that the actual SteamOS operating system will be distributed free. There's nothing stopping you from buying a different PC, using Windows for now & then switching to SteamOS after it gains some traction and more games are playable on it. Likewise, AFAIK if you bought a Steam Machine you could just as easily install Windows on it, if you particularly liked the look of one or something. |
Steam Machines, PCs, DayZ and general advice... • Page 2
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SamNunn92 943 posts
Seen 22 hours ago
Registered 10 years ago -
Dirtbox 92,595 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 19 years ago -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years agoDirtbox wrote:
Depends on the game. If the game is designed to be played with keyboard and mouse, then it's probably not a game I'll want to play anyway.
That doesn't include dumbing the games down to their most vacuous and superficial. The games don't change, neither does the platform, they're still PC games made to play with a keyboard and mouse. You can by all means try to play with a pad, but you'll be forced to drink a shitload of disinfectant at gunpoint.
Fair enough if DayZ requires it, but am sure there'd be a way to adapt that particularly game for controller use without 'dumbing' it down.
Looks dumb anyway. Sort of why I like it.
Other games that are probably better on PC anyway (eg Battlefield) will work perfectly on a controller, and would benefit from something like Big Picture Mode that couples the convenience of consoles with the power of the PC.
I guess in a nutshell that's what I'm looking to purchase, and figured this is what Valve were offering. -
hax1 16 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 8 years agoSo I'd definitely say that you go ahead and buy / build your own PC. It sounds daunting at first but it's really just a bigger version of Lego. I've built a couple PCs in my lifetime and there are loads of guides on the internet (NewEgg in particular are amazing for beginners) / your motherboard should come with a manual telling you what should go where. For £600 you can get a pretty decent rig however there are lots of things that need to be taken into consideration. I'd recommend spending the extra £60 buying windows, or you can spend £20 getting a windows key but that's a bit more complex.
I'll start by saying that if you buy a premade PC you're pretty much paying AT LEAST £60 extra than the cost of the parts. It's even worse with "gaming" brands such as Alienware. I'll be willing to help you out if you really need help. Also, I messed up my back a little sitting on the floor playing on my PC so I do recommend an office chair (no harm in getting one, they're pretty comfortable). There are some good premade builds that people have done on PC Part Picker so you wouldn't even have to make sure all the parts work with each other.
I have no idea where your from so getting parts may be different for you but most places you can just order parts.
Just a heads up too; I play a lot of PC games and have probably got around over 300 hours on the DayZ ARMA 2 mod so I do know a fair bit about what I'm talking about. The DayZ standalone is in alpha right now and is not going to be complete for at least another year so it's kinda buggy. I haven't bought it yet because I'm waiting for vehicles to come out because I've done enough running around in the game (there is a lot). Player interaction is amazing though, it's one of the only games that gets my adrenaline going; having been running around in the forest for an hour with some friends to come across a group of bandits and have a 10 minutes firefight is totally worth it and satisfying if you win.
If you're from the UK I'd be willing to help out / recommend some places to get stuff from. -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years agohax1 wrote:
Cheers that's really helpful! I'm coming around to the idea that it might be quite fun to build one...
So I'd definitely say that you go ahead and buy / build your own PC. It sounds daunting at first but it's really just a bigger version of Lego. I've built a couple PCs in my lifetime and there are loads of guides on the internet (NewEgg in particular are amazing for beginners) / your motherboard should come with a manual telling you what should go where. For £600 you can get a pretty decent rig however there are lots of things that need to be taken into consideration. I'd recommend spending the extra £60 buying windows, or you can spend £20 getting a windows key but that's a bit more complex.
I'll start by saying that if you buy a premade PC you're pretty much paying AT LEAST £60 extra than the cost of the parts. It's even worse with "gaming" brands such as Alienware. I'll be willing to help you out if you really need help. Also, I messed up my back a little sitting on the floor playing on my PC so I do recommend an office chair (no harm in getting one, they're pretty comfortable). There are some good premade builds that people have done on PC Part Picker so you wouldn't even have to make sure all the parts work with each other.
I have no idea where your from so getting parts may be different for you but most places you can just order parts.
Just a heads up too; I play a lot of PC games and have probably got around over 300 hours on the DayZ ARMA 2 mod so I do know a fair bit about what I'm talking about. The DayZ standalone is in alpha right now and is not going to be complete for at least another year so it's kinda buggy. I haven't bought it yet because I'm waiting for vehicles to come out because I've done enough running around in the game (there is a lot). Player interaction is amazing though, it's one of the only games that gets my adrenaline going; having been running around in the forest for an hour with some friends to come across a group of bandits and have a 10 minutes firefight is totally worth it and satisfying if you win.
If you're from the UK I'd be willing to help out / recommend some places to get stuff from. -
What Valve are offering is not a hell of a lot different to what you have today.
Rather than putting Steam on PC, Mac or your own Linux build, it is giving you their Linux build with Steam on top. There will be no changes to the games on the platform themselves.
The machine itself, well, it's just another PC. One with SteamOS installed rather than Windows. The crux of this is: the game you want to play is not available on SteamOS, only Windows.
If you want DayZ to be controller friendly, then it will be up to the developer to design it with that in mind. On the whole, it is the cross platform and indie games that are controller friendly.
Outside of that, the Steampad will give you a chance to experience those non-controller games with mouse ape-ing control. Reality will be that you will need a keyboard to hand for the controls that you can't bind and you might be scuppered by tiny game UI's that are designed for people with their noses pressed up against a monitor.
It's an option though. -
FYI - I built a small form factor PC for about £800 if you want an actual case study to refer to. -
hax1 16 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 8 years agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw
This is part 1 of the 3 part NewEgg tutorial, really good. Also, I used to be a console gamer and I've found that if you wait for Steam deals that you can get games RIDICULOUSLY cheap, Like I bought a friend Bioshock Infinite, Dishonored, Tomb Raider and CS:GO for less than £20 total during the winter sale, all of which are fairly new releases. -
Personally iam thinking I can't see any point in SteamOS as it stands right now. If you want a free Linux based OS then just install Ubuntu (or any other distribution) and chuck steam on it.
The advantage being you then still get your steam games, but the flexibility a full OS gives you with media, browser, documents etc. I assume steam big picture mode works on any steam version. When other features are working properly like the streaming it might be another matter. Valve are not doing anything special at the moment it is very much about the future, the OP wants a neat and tidy PC with a controller which can all be easily done today using current systems.
And on a semi related point, I wonder how DayZ works on Wine hmmm.
Edited by Sharzam at 16:58:43 20-01-2014 -
Sharzam wrote:
I understand that but some people just want something that works out of the box with no kerfuffle. SteamOS, straight to Steam, no fuss. You have to remember the off the shelf, out of the box market.
The advantage being you then still get your steam games, but the flexibility a full OS gives you with media, browser, documents etc. -
Widge wrote:
Yeah but you can do that (straight to Steam) with 0.5% kerfuffle on PC.
Sharzam wrote:
I understand that but some people just want something that works out of the box with no kerfuffle. SteamOS, straight to Steam, no fuss. You have to remember the off the shelf, out of the box market.
The advantage being you then still get your steam games, but the flexibility a full OS gives you with media, browser, documents etc.
Edited by Physically_Insane at 17:18:54 20-01-2014 -
FogHeart 1,270 posts
Seen 2 weeks ago
Registered 14 years agoPhysically_Insane wrote:
Absolutely. I'm guessing you like the idea of a Steambox because you switch on, Steam comes up, you shop/download/play, and shut down afterwards. No mouse or keyboard, no icon clicking, no desktop stuff.
Widge wrote:
Yeah but you can do that (straight to Steam) with 0.5% kerfuffle on PC.
Sharzam wrote:
I understand that but some people just want something that works out of the box with no kerfuffle. SteamOS, straight to Steam, no fuss. You have to remember the off the shelf, out of the box market.
The advantage being you then still get your steam games, but the flexibility a full OS gives you with media, browser, documents etc.
This can be achieved on a Windows machine with five minutes of work. There's no need to commit to using SteamOS now. I do think down the road, when MS would be content to let gaming on Windows 'wither on the vine' as they concentrate on their console where the money is, we'll be moving to SteamOS. Until then, no need to deprive yourself of all the AAA games available on PC because they're not on Linux. -
Don't forget about the streaming games ability steamOS will have at some point. Not that that particular aspect will appeal to the out of box crew of coarse.
@POPTONES - Have a look at scan.co.uk also. You can order a PC for them to build, or even pick one from their catalog. They have great customer services to boot.
As far as PC gaming with a controller goes, I always play with my 360 pad when possible, but not for competitive MP.
eg. Payday 2. I play with 3 other guys who all use K/M. It makes no difference in a co-operative game like this.
Battlefield 4 on the other hand. I tried it but all though it controls and handles fine, the reaction times for lining up a shot just cannot compete with a mouse. You WILL lose at least 9/10 one on ones.
Can't comment on DayZ though sorry. -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years agoHi everyone!
Following this thread, I took everyone's advice and decided to build a PC. So I did that this weekend - it's great, nice and small but powerful enough (and I can upgrade as I get braver!), but I have no idea how to put an OS on it...
So the PC works; it fires up, it has the weird/confusing looking BIOS(?) screen - but I how do I boot up an OS?
I downloaded the Ubuntu ios to a USB stick, but it says it can't recognise it. Really frustrating that this is the last hurdle!
Can anyone help?
Also, dunno if this complicates things, the only other available computer in my house is a Macbook Air (so downloading OS's via Mac).
Massive thanks in advance. -
ISmoke 1,700 posts
Seen 18 hours ago
Registered 14 years agoWhen your computer is turning on, after the BIOS screen press a F8/F12 and choose to boot from the USB -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years ago@ISmoke I do that, but it just says 'Missing operating system_' with a black page...
Any thoughts!?
On the USB, I've just downloaded Ubuntu. -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years ago@ISmoke And just tried exactly the same files using a different USB stick (incase of some annoying incompatibility thing) and got this message:
"Reboot and select proper boot device. Or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key" -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years agoI can't believe how hard I'm finding this... I thought all the aggro was in building the fucking thing! I'm insanely close!
Any suggestions at all? -
Dirtbox 92,595 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 19 years ago -
Dirtbox 92,595 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 19 years ago -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years ago@Dirtbox If I press Delete - this is what it says:
"The current BIOS setting do not fully support the boot device. Click okay to enter the BIOS set-up.
Go to Advanced > Boot > CSM Parameters, and adjust the CSM settings to enable the boot device"
Then, if I follow that route, I get these options:
"Auto, Enabled and Disabled"
Assuming I want to "Enable" something, I then get the following:
"Boot Device Control" - with the following options:
UEFI and Legacy OpRom
Legacy OpRom only
UEFI only
"Boot from Network Devices" - with the options:
Legacy OpRom First
UEFI driver first
Ignore
"Boot from storage devices" - with options:
Both, Legacy OpRom first
Both, UEFI first
Legacy OpRom first
UEFI driver first
Ignore
"Both from PCIe/PCI Expansion Devices" - with options:
Legacy OpRom first
UEFI driver first
??????
?????? -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years ago@Dirtbox Yup, saw that but only computer I have in my house is a Mac, and can't seem to follow those instructions.
Or is it suggesting I need to install Ubuntu on my Mac first?? -
Dirtbox 92,595 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 19 years ago -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years ago@Dirtbox this looks promising. I literally love you. Though it's an intimidating list of things to do for someone like me...
Will try now. -
POPTONES 465 posts
Seen 11 hours ago
Registered 11 years agoStill can't get this working... I've just got an expensive box sat in my living room.
I've downloaded and tried various bootable operating systems, but none work. I think the problem(s) might be as follows:
+ A graphics card/compatibility thing - I probably need to install drivers, but I can't do that without an OS.
+ The fact I'm trying to do this using my LCD TV, thus plugging in directly into the HDMI through the graphics card (I have no traditional PC monitor).
+ I have no disc drive, which adds complexity.
Really just want to get this fixed. I could take it to a local PC shop, but they'll charge a disproportionally large sum of money for what, I suspect, is not much work at all (ie they'll just plug it into a monitor; boot up Linux; install drivers and config for a TV - charging £100 in the process).
Any other options? If someone can fix this for me I'll buy them a game! -
Ultrasoundwave 6,439 posts
Seen 14 hours ago
Registered 11 years agoWidge wrote:
Yeah, thats me. Kind of tempted by this AlienWare Alpha - my birthday is coming up and the mrs is struggling to think of something to get me. I've got the "XbonePS4WiiU" triple combo and the Alpha seems like a nice, easy, simply way to dip my toes into PC gaming.
Sharzam wrote:
I understand that but some people just want something that works out of the box with no kerfuffle. SteamOS, straight to Steam, no fuss. You have to remember the off the shelf, out of the box market.
The advantage being you then still get your steam games, but the flexibility a full OS gives you with media, browser, documents etc.
I'm assuming the general consensus is that its an awful piece of shit that will be obsolete in 6 months though? -
Odd bump. -
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