He has a point. The current system is really barebones and isn't that easy to use and see what your overall achievements are.
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Steam's Big Picture Mode beta starts Monday Sep 10th [out now]
- Thread starter LiK
- Start date
He has a point. The current system is really barebones and isn't that easy to use and see what your overall achievements are.
I really like the look of that case aesthetically, but in terms of volume, it actually consumes more space than microATX case I use:
Fractal Design Core 1000
That's not my personal build, it's an example picture, but that case is probably one of the most compact ones that can still fit any sized video card. And being a mATX build, you can also add a high end sound card for your HTPC sound system.
I've seen much more compact looking miniITX builds (SilverStone?).
WHOA.
Awesome timing. I've been holding off and reinstalling my failed second hard drive because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of simlinking all my stuff again. Maybe now we can finally have a proper multi drive installation!
Yeah, this is what I've been talking about. The new Steam community pages look nothing like the client any more and big picture mode just cements the fact that Valve are capable of making amazing looking interfaces these days. Need I remind you of Steam 1.0?
I'd just like Steam to redesign to be faster, it's so incredibly slow at loading the Store or Community and the in-game web browser is awful
It's probably coming out now because they've been fucking with the infastructure of steam for BPM. Might not have been possible prior
I wouldn't mind making it easier to see overall stats, but when a score is attached to it people like to cheat to game the system and suck the fun out of games.
Oh nice, no, I'll try that tonight
Felix Lighter
Member
I'm not a fan of Gamerscore either. Achievements are fine, some are poorly conceived but, I like the idea of showing off a particularly difficult or interesting achievement. Gamerscore seems to inspire the worst behavior related to these systems. If all you have to show for reaching a poorly created achievement is proof that you achieved something stupid, people don't waste their time but if it adds to an ever growing point total, it suddenly becomes worth it for a lot of people.
It would make sense given that they are drastically different in terms of style. BPM shouldn't be completely different, it should just be the Steam client made for TVs. Therefore I think it does make sense as well that the regular Steam client gets overhauled to have the themes match a lot more closely.
I hope they'll patch in the ability to navigate using the D-Pad. I'm used to that
Yeah, I hope so too. It was nice however, to see the Xbox Guide button working in the UI.
Betta Lines
Member
Are screenshots in the Store loading for everyone? The trailers work, but the screenshots are all blank here...
[edit] oh... they do work... they just take ages to load sometimes. Which is weird, because the trailers seem to play instantly.
[edit] oh... they do work... they just take ages to load sometimes. Which is weird, because the trailers seem to play instantly.
And that's fine, but even if if they added scores to achievements it would still be terrible due to how many clicks you need to even see someones achievements. There's no connection between games. A simple section in your profile showing your latest achievements, total, or favorites would do wonders. And then we need the profile updated since its still using the older steam skin stuff.
According to task manager, Steam takes up 380 megabytes of memory when running Big Picture mode, and only 60 when not.
So, if you only have 2-4 gigs of RAM you're probably better off not using it.
Also on PC, it's way too easy to hack achievements to unlock them, making any kind of score kind of meaningless. I'm sure it's possible to game the system with console-based achievements as well, but probably not nearly as systematically and easily as with PC.
Yup. During the Winter Sale achievement hunt, people were tossing around save files to get those achievements.
EternalGamer
Banned
It woudnt be dificult at all fo them to turm the percentage achievement completion into a running aggregate. In fact, it would be incredibly easy.
On fact, couldnt somone just implement a feature like that in a skin? The info is all there already.
I hope they'll patch in the ability to navigate using the D-Pad. I'm used to that
From a few pages back:
There needs to be a google doc with all the tips and tricks people have found for each build of the client
Mohonky
Member
Who cares? If people want to cheat their achievements I don't give a rats ass. I like to see my achievements and compare them with friends (who equally don't care for 'competing' to get the highest scores). It's just interesting to see what they did and didn't do (completed the game at a higher difficulty, whether they found all secret areas, killed X number of enemies with a certain weapon). Just lots of things like that.
People are always going to cheat that sort of thing but I'm not concerned about that, it's mainly that it gives me some incentive to go back and finish a game on a harder mode, use a certain weapon type, actually bother keeping an eye out for collectibles, fully upgrade all weapons etc, and see if friends did the same.
Microsoft got it right by having that attached to a gamercard on the 360 from day 1. The PS3 trophies were all over the shop but they seem more coherent now (I don't care for the 'tiers' though) but the Steam achievements are all over the shop. I'd like to see a coherent version on Steam with a standard points capped system (1000/1000 maybe) across all games. I like GFWL titles but they have already adopted the standard I am used to, if Steam were to incorporate a similar system I would actually use it, but right now because it's so random and it's only game specific they are kind of pointless; I'd like to see they tied up in such a way that they are more relevant.
Hell most of the games appear on console anyway so they already have a list and value and Steam has it's achievements also, it just needs to bring it all together.
Except it is. Either try trolling better or read what the thread is actually about, being a new alternative UI for Steam.
Bumpers area already used for things like backspace/space in typing.
EternalGamer
Banned
I am not that big on aggregate either, but why not just replace the even more useless "Steam rating" with some sort of aggregate? It is a very quck scannable way to get a sense of friends progress and your own in games.
it would also be nice if they improved the presentation of achievements. Just being able to scroll through a list with the controller would be great or a quick easy shortcut to compare with friends (right nw it is buried and clunky). Also randomly spotlighting an uncompleted on the game screen before you hit "play" or something. Just a bit more something to make them feel integrated rather than tacted on.
Diablohead
Member
big picture mode is just there to make navigating steam and launching games possible with a pad without having to do lots of stuff to get things working, it's not the new coming of tv gaming if that's what you thought.
Huevos de Oro
Member
Tried it out last night, although in my PC monitor. I definitely like it. It's easy on the eyes, easy to navigate, only hiccup I noticed was the chat group windows taking a bit of time to respond from time to time. Otherwise, it was a pretty good experience.
ratcliffja
Member
Is there something special I need to do to get Big Picture mode working? I opted in for the beta on Steam and it appeared to download something, but I don't see any button to change it to Big Picture mode.
Oh ok maybe I'll test it, was just lurking the thread for info and wasn't that impress.
EternalGamer
Banned
They wouldnt even have to convert a value system. Just use the percentage completion stat that is already there and turn it into a running score tally would get you most of the way there.
I agree though. The advantages of the score type system isnt e-peen with strangers and I dont care if they chest. I just like having a very visible and easy metric to compare and discuss progress with friends.
If I see someone's gamer score go up by their name on my friends list I immediatky know they have been playing/accomolishing tasks in a game and I can quickly click over to check it out. The individual oercentage systems doesnt give you thst sort of quick info.
HOWEVER, Valve should be given credit for the community feed which accomplishes a similar task but even more (achievements, purchases, wish list, user reviews, screen shots, etc.). That shit is awesome and outdoes anything on 360 or PS3 in terms of letting you know what your friends are doing. Maybe the real solution is just to spotlight that stuff a bit more. Which is what they seem to be trying to do with the Facebook style "new content" community messages that pop up.
Awesome, I'm glad this worked for you. It's a pretty neat solution which, I feel, is the most automated one we have at this point.
It would be very cool if Valve could implement this into the Steam client. Then the only headache their customers have is a hardware one: i.e. getting the HDMI cable and a USB socket (for a local USB controller/bluetooth/wireless controller dongle) from the PC to the HDTV.
Huevos de Oro
Member
Weird. Have you tried closing Steam and then firing it up again? Maybe it was a small tech fart.
EternalGamer
Banned
Are you in a chat at the time you switch? That is a bug.
Wow that's great!! So much better now.
Are you for real? haha
im not. just starting steam and pressing the button -> crash
edit: found it. aero needs to be on o.o
edit: aero can be off, but radeonpro makes it crash. well....
ratcliffja
Member
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
I just tried that and still nothing. Oh well. Here's what I see:
Go to a steam window and push the guide button on your controller!
Huevos de Oro
Member
I just tried that and still nothing. Oh well. Here's what I see:
Might want to try going back to original skin for a bit, just to see if that's the thing.
Maybe they're reducing the memory footprint during gameplay?
Amazing, I love PC gaming.
I just tried that and still nothing. Oh well. Here's what I see:
As mentioned, your Pixelvision skin is breaking things. In the pulldown menus under View, should be "Big Picture Mode"
Felix Lighter
Member
You connect your PC to your TV.
Inferno313
Banned
How did you think it'd work? The idea is that you connect your PC to a TV and use big picture mode.