The device is the hardware. The software and ecosystem is a different question.

I know the reasons why, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it is underpowered and overpriced. Valve admit this themselves!

Yeah! I'm even dabbling with using mine as a home desktop pc, hdmi out to a full size monitor. Perfectly good linux desktop when not using it for games

Yes, it is WINE in its core, but its more than just that. Valve is actively working on it and does not try to make it work with Steam only. Valve could have made Proton only work with a proprietary component that only Steam has. So that the WINE component stays Open Source, but uses some API to connect to proprietary services in example. I mean Steam itself is proprietary and its using Proton and is included in SteamOS in example. FEX is developed by Valve developers and it didn't have to be Open Source.

So I think it is actually commendable to mention that. It's the only (relevant and large) gaming company that is operating like this.

one day it’ll be taken public when GabeN is gone

Well, I'm not talking about the future, but about the recent years and about now. We don't know what the future holds for us, I mean would have anyone seen the Ai hype coming? If Steam sucks in the future, then I will tell it so. But for now, I can fangirl because Steam and Valve is awesome. And they earned it in my opinion. There is no other gaming company to fangirl to (okay with the exception of Projekt Red who owns GOG maybe).

Let’s not fan them too much, eh?

What is too much? Mentioning two projects and commend them for making and keeping it Open Source? That is too much?

I interpreted that to mean when it releases to a sane market at a reasonable price. Right now it's basically an early adopter device.

Isn't Apple still peddling Metal that nobody wants to learn? I haven't been following the happenings on that front, but also heard absolutely nothing new from there.

The compatibility layer is wine actually, Proton is just an extension of it and is probably open source because wine itself is LGPL.

Valve has been good to us in recent years, by it's a corpo and one day it'll be taken public when GabeN is gone. Let's not fan them too much, eh?

No mention of DroidDeck or Apple? There are a lot of things converging to make Steam on ARM more feasible.

And the cool thing is, Proton (Windows to Linux compatibility layer) and FEX (x86 to ARM emulator) can be used without Steam. Even SteamOS can be used without Steam (although it is preinstalled, but you can boot into Desktop mode and use other stores instead). It's not just optional, its free of charge and Open Source and not locked to a specific eco system.

Just fangirling here. Sorry. :D

Software and ecosystem wise, I don't think so. Most of the issues stem from the hardware costs due to the AI bubble (Valve can't source components to provide a subsidy similar to the Steam Deck at launch/before shortages).

One nice thing about the release is that the OS is starting to be released for use on general hardware (just need to finish working out the driver kinks)

when it releases

Brother it released four months ago

I think the cube is gonna be a huge win for the console crowd when it releases. With PS6 likely costing around $2000 and xbox committing suicide, the field is wide open for a new competitor.

Update: Mentioned my issue offhand and she walked me through it. Turns out in sound settings under the recording tab the microphone was disabled which made steam all grumpy. My issue was looking under the playback tab and just seeing it was enabled.

Highly doubt someone's gonna find this post for troubleshooting but the amount of threads I've seen with "nvm fixed" or no update on it.

*SlopFest

If I'm not using it, I shut it down. Steam. Web browser. Any GUI program.

That's weird. Are you using a VPN? It's the first time I did not messed it up and allowed VPN users right from the start. Otherwise I don't know why it would think you voted already.

Tells me I've already voted

Steam link for steam vr (to my knowledge) isn't an app like the mobile version, more of a way for steam vr to recognize the headset. So any settings would be the remote settings and vr setting on my computer. Also I don't know if you can see the images, but steam vr specifically says the streaming speakers are disabled, while clicking into that sound control panel says they aren't (I think?)

Tho I did decide to boot up steam link on my phone, audio works IF I set it to play out of my headphones (switching to the steam speakers would cause it to mute) so now I'm even more confused... yay

I don't know what the Steam Link menu looks like on a Quest, but I do know that stream audio can be toggled on and off from a setting in the Steam Link mobile app...

I would poke around in the Steam Link menus on your Quest, because if your Steam Deck streams the audio no problem then it sounds like the issue is on your Quest's end. I would also check the audio settings menu for the Quest itself.

The use of AI is not the cause of low quality generic crap. Not least because AI is more creative than the elitist pricks I was referring to

Yes, because you are. Go learn something about the fucking subject

Your point?

Lower product quality. It's visible that the game is using the same generic assets, characters and voices that many AI generated games are using. I can't say they are buggy because I don't buy the games since they never appeal to me.

People are still free to generate and purchase AI games if they want, but the quality looks bad to me.

What is the cut off for human gruntwork to make it good and not badwrongfun?

As long as it doesn't feel generic and poorly developed, which can be AI and non-AI generated games. Doesn't have anything to do with elitism.

By the way, your initial comment talks about "elitist pricks who don’t know how to code and refuse to use tools to help". In my previous comment I was trying to differentiate between professionals using AI to assist them and people generating almost an entire game with AI with no thought behind it, which produces the low-quality products I mentioned.

Forced AI disclosure.

Only to Steam themselves and not the consumer. And really just for copyright reasons.

There's plenty of games that don't disclose it on the store page. Because they don't actually need to.

Those disclosure sections on a game's store page are written by the devs/publishers. Not Steam.

And there's nothing stopping them from downplaying. Or just outright omitting it.

I don't think it's a issue of filtering out games that are bad but more of one making sure the good ones are seen.

I don't really see the ai games as a new issue but continuation of just slop games in general.

I'm all for a filter, it would help I just don't think its going to give the result people want. Epic/unreal is going practically full ai, and people are just going to hide the disclosure.

Ai just makes this problem way more obvious because it increases the rate of which these games can be made. It came at a time when indie games are at their strongest and charming friedslop games and endless rougelikes are taking over. its just so many things to look through you could spend a whole day searching for a game to give 30 bucks to, and still feel unsure what to buy. And often I'll overlook good games because someone made a shitty clone of it and I assumed they're all the same. Or just the art looks generic or ai when it was actually the game I wanted.

Yeah, totally understandable. Agree that it's hard if not impossible to enforce a disclosure on generated code. And also agree that what I'm describing is a code-based means to achieve an art style but a means to skirt disclosure rules that would impact me financially. Both things are true.

I'm hoping they will add a middle ground disclosure where I can differentiate my work from pure genAI slop but also give people like yourself a fair heads up.

On the point about separating ourselves from the people we're supposed to be working with, I both agree and disagree. In my case, I went to college for animation and game design, but found that none of the jobs I could find out of college would pay enough to cover cost of living. I also heard horror stories about eternal crunch time and studios moving between cities frequently to take advantage of tax incentives. So, I moved home with my parents and got a job at the local computer store. My friend got me a job in a call center as a support technician, but it turned out to be more of a site reliability engineering job under support technician pay. Involved a lot of lateral thinking to solve technical problems and I mostly worked and played video games to try to unwind. I wanted to make something that would allow me to change my circumstances and make money as a creative rather than continually burn out being overworked as a technician. I wrote novels, drew animated shorts, wrote scripts, and made games. But nothing ever felt finished enough to show to other people. I'd always find flaws too deep to fix, or discover it was going to take years to make all the assets I needed and gave up because the work seemed so insurmountable before any payoff was possible. I've got about fifteen rich detailed game designs from around twenty years of daydreaming, and not much to show for it.

AI has entirely changed my situation. I left my day job and got a job as a DevOps engineer where I basically has AI teach me all the skills I was missing. I left that job and spent a year trying to build a PaaS. Which like all the other passion projects was aimed at generating enough passive income that I could slow down enough in this rat race and start collaborating with other creatives and get to the point where I can pay them to help me make things.

That PaaS has never been profitable, but it did get me noticed and I'm now a senior software architect at a well-known company. For better or worse, my designs have become central to the product and my work hours have been steadily climbing, currently between 70 and 95 hours per week because so many people depend on my work product for direction and I don't want to let anyone down. I make enough money to have a house to myself now, but don't have much time to relax in it. What I can do is set my work laptop on one side, to send it off on AI-driven tasks, while having another laptop on the other side that I give instructions while I wait for my work prompt to come back. I've resurrected some of my old ideas and now I'm playing games I was beginning to doubt would ever become a reality.

Hopefully, some of these will be profitable enough that I can both support myself and hire creative people to work on more involved projects. I do see your point about AI separating creatives who should be working together. But it also feels like my best odds of having time to collaborate in a healthy creative way is by leveraging AI to make some things on my own first. And not to say I can't find ways to bring artists in on my projects that I'm working on now.

Despite being made in many different styles and genres, my games tend to have one commonality to them. They introduce some kind of asset submission pipeline where creators can make skins or customizations on top of my games and get paid for their work in a way that fairly balances the time I've put in and their submitted work against the benefits our works collectively provide to the player.

Because I am deeply concerned about the direction the world is taking. The ease with which corrupt political parties deceive the populace. The control that the super wealthy have over almost everything. The fact that they will soon be able to do most things without the need for any kind of proletariat. I don't think the non-wealthy people will get basic income on a platter. They are more likely to be disposed of when they are no longer necessary. It's already happening.

So, part of my aim is to provide jobs for people in a post-job society. But of course, people without jobs have no money to spend on games. So, the primary purpose of my working insane hours and developing these old game designs is to make money. Specifically, to make enough money that I can leave my job and finish my PaaS. Because that hosting platform will become the foundation of a software creation platform which allows people to democratically create software, in a structure without a competitive hierarchy. One which runs not on capital but collective reasoning between confirmed real humans. And the means of that production as well as the profits of everything produced belong to the ones putting in the work to make the system successful. Those are the rules I need to codify and ensure cannot be corrupted once I allow my system to fork and federate.

And only once we rebuild and improve all of our existing software, currently owned by greedy companies that answer to profit-obsessed shareholders, will the act of living stop funneling profits to the ultra rich. If you can't change that reality, then it's only through effective voting and responsible governance that we can regain control of our civilization. And I have stopped holding my breath on that account. These AI companies are spending a lot more than they are making right now because it's in their best interests to get people hooked and train on the users. It's only during this window that it's financially possible for the general populace to create and market tools that will replace the profit-driven platforms of today.

AI does indeed contribute to horrific climate change, enables the ultra rich to disconnect their futures from the existence of the masses, and gets its users addicted in ways that are already hard to reverse. It is nonetheless my opinion that leveraging it heavily in the months and years to come is by far the best shot we have to take the game of the oligarchs and turn it against them. I may be wrong. But you now have all the logic that has brought me to this place.

I can only hope we can find a path that is best for us all.

TL;DR: i think you are correct and most of our differences may be in the perspective from which we view a shared goal