The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Immortal]

I went back and checked.. pretty sure Irrlicht is just 90% a Graphical Framework. Barebones collision detection but their own documentation says to not use it.
No Audio framework, no Animation framework / tools (That I can see). Not sure if it has any particle system or any predfined / boilerplate shader code (AKA you have to do this all yourself), irregardless - Really missing all the bells and whistles of what I'd expect from a "Game Engine".

Having collision detection, even if barebones, is still more than what XNA provided - remember that i was comparing it with XNA. Also it does have particle system, animation framework and other stuff, you can see the features here. BTW XNA also didn't have any of that either. When i made the RobGetOut demo i linked previously i made everything myself, the only thing XNA provided was the graphics framework (note that i also had to write the shaders as the default weren't that great), input handling and audio playback (in comparison Irrlicht doesn't have audio playback but there is irrKlang which was made by the same developer as Irrlicht - but TBH i only used the very low level API which would be trivial to do manually in C++ anyway).

I never used XNA - I wasn't making that comparison. Isn't XNA dead?
Also when was that support added? Are you saying it had that 10 years ago? AFAIK you said you only slightly dabbled with it long ago and haven't touched it since?

 

[Bad Sector]

I never used XNA - I wasn't making that comparison. Isn't XNA dead?

Yes, my first message about the topic was my amazement that so many games still used it based on that tweet about engine use in Steam :-P and how it was IMO overhyped for what it offered considering that other frameworks at the time (jMonkeyEngine if you wanted a managed language or Irrlicht if you wanted C++) had similar (if not more) features and how developers really used XNA because of Microsoft's promotion instead of its featureset.

(well there was also the XBox360 indie stuff but those weren't there from the beginning and many XNA games didn't even target it)

Also when was that support added? Are you saying it had that 10 years ago? AFAIK you said you only slightly dabbled with it long ago and haven't touched it since?

I don't know the exact date but when i played around with Irrlicht it had collision detection, particles and shaders. It was certainly more than 10 years ago, actually i do not think Irrlicht has seen much development in recent years, at least compared to back in 2000s.

 

[Boleskine]

https://www.pcgamer.com/indie-dev-l...anks-to-exploitation-of-steams-refund-policy/

Indie dev leaves industry 'indefinitely' thanks to exploitation of Steam's refund policy
By Mollie Taylor about 10 hours ago

Steam's refund policy can be bad news for short game developers.

A horror indie developer has stepped away from games development "indefinitely" because Steam's two-hour refund policy has led to a high number of returns on their latest game.

Solo developer Emika Games released the psychological thriller Summer of '58 at the end of July, receiving Mostly Positive reviews on Steam. But as they tweeted in a statement this week, the game's short length has led to a high number of refunds being processed, leaving Emika out of pocket.

"The fact is that my game Summer of '58 does not reach two hours of playing time by Steam standards," the statement read. "In this regard, a huge number of returns on the game, even with positive reviews, and I do not earn anything to create a new game."



It's proven a disheartening situation for Emika, who said they would be "leaving game development for an indefinite time" in order to "collect [their] thoughts." They also said that From Day To Day, another horror game currently in development, "will not see the light of day in the near future."

Steam's current refund policy allows for any game to be refunded if it's within 14 days of purchase and has less than two hours of logged playtime. This isn't a problem for larger titles where two hours barely scratches the surface. But for smaller games, especially those created by indie developers, it can be a frustrating loophole allowing players to essentially experience their game for free. One solution would be to implement a different policy for shorter games, but such ideas are easier said than done, and would be a tricky line for Steam to walk.

 

[Grauken]

https://www.pcgamer.com/indie-dev-l...anks-to-exploitation-of-steams-refund-policy/

Make the game longer, problem solved

 

[rashiakas]

Maybe dont charge 8 € for a 90 min game you fucking cunt.

 

[Melcar]

Make better games.

 

[thesheeep]

Maybe dont charge 8 € for a 90 min game you fucking cunt.

Make better games.

I mean, yeah, but refunding a game that you liked (and were aware that it was short to begin with) is just a dick move.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Davey Wreden, the creator of Stanley Parable, made stupid amounts of money with The Beginner's Guide even though the game has the same "issue". There are plenty of short games which still can do great. And if a dev really worries about this "loophole" they can just make the game longer. The game seems to do extremely well (likely over 6000 copies sold).

Since his last game was only 60 minutes long he should know well the "issue".

He isn't butthurt or an idiot. This is just marketing. Soon he will thank everyone for the great feedback and continue development with the extra exposure lol

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Just did check the twitter account

 

[J_C]

Make better games.

The game is 88% (very positive) on steam.

 

[LESS T_T]

The new downloads page and storage manager is now updated to the stable version: https://store.steampowered.com/oldnews/88497

STEAM CLIENT UPDATE RELEASED

A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

New Downloads Page
The downloads page in the Steam client has been replaced with a new implementation and has been visually redesigned for clarity and ease of use.

• When a game/update is actively downloading it will now display the total progression completed for the download or update. Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update to appear completed when it was not.
  
• Any partially completed downloads/updates in queue now will show a faded progress bar and percent completed next to it to clearly display its current state.
  
• A new (i) icon next to the game's title will reveal a tooltip displaying the types of content that is included in that update. Types consist of: Game Content, Downloadable Content, Workshop Content, and Shader Pre-caching. This icon only appears if the update is not solely game content.
  
• The download queue is now fully reorderable using drag and drop.
  
• The context menu for the actively downloading item now includes an option to launch the game when the download is complete and an option to suspend download throttling (if enabled) for the duration of that download.
  
• The "View News" button is now a "Patch Notes" link that will open an overlay to the most recent relevant patch notes for the game. This will only display for games that have entered patch notes into the new event system. The patch notes link will only show up on updates, not fresh installs. For workshop updates, a page of subscribed items ordered by update date can be accessed by selecting "View Updated Items" from the context menu.

Storage Management
The storage management section in the Steam client has been replaced with a new implementation.

• Updated Steam library folder UI for easy content management across multiple drives
  
• Allow mounting library folders on read-only drives
  
• Allow removing empty library folders on fixed drives

Library

• Updated Steam library folders dialog to better manage various game content installed on your drives
  
• Game counts in various places in the UI will no longer include Tools unless the Tools filter is selected in the left column.
  
• The Recent Friend Activity shelf has been removed.
  
• Fixed some errors for users whose account name was the maximum length.
  
• Fixed duplicate events appearing in the app detail activity feed
  
• Added "Patch notes" and "View subscribed items" to context menu on downloads page for items for which those options are relevant
  
• Removed demo banner on hero image for some things that are not demos
  
• Fixed a library crash when right clicking on certain kinds of multiple selections in the game list
  
• Streamline new library folder creation during game install
  
• When starting a tool (like SteamVR), do not automatically navigate to its details page
  
• Change display of bits per second from "b/s" to "bps"

Friends List

• Fixed issue with the Friends List not loading correctly
  
• Fixed group chat notifications dialog being scaled down within the window

General

• Replaced taskbar notification area icon for Windows
  
• Fixed “Uninstall Game” dialog blocking UI in case app is still downloading
  
• Fixed crash when attempting to delete some screenshots from the Steam Cloud
  
• Improved support for OpenXR applications.

Remote Play Together

• Fixed remote player's controllers not being detected or not getting input if they connect while the Steam overlay is up
  
• Fixed crash when closing Steam after using streaming or remote play together
  
• Fixed being unable to stream a game if it needs updates
  
• Fix loading / saving settings for users with non-ASCII characters in their name

Steam Cloud

• Fixed a sync issue due to one client running without a connection to Steam when files are changed from another client

Steam Input

• Further reduced CPU usage of Steam Input, especially in Steam Input API games
  
• Added support for the current set of PowerA Xbox Series X controllers
  
• Fixed handling Xbox Series X controllers when Xbox Extended Feature Support is enabled

macOS

• Fixed Steam Overlay displaying at wrong resolution in some games
  
• Fixed incorrect identification of current OS version as "Catalina" in Steam Library compatibility label when running macOS 11

Linux

• Fixed regression causing too many open file handles error during downloads of some games
  
• Library pinning process is significantly faster at startup after runtime updates
  
• Restore compatibility with NixOS (steam-runtime#431)
  
• Make /usr/share/nvidia available to the container if using the NVIDIA proprietary driver, so that app-specific profiles can be applied (steam-runtime-tools#73)
  
• Silence most LD_PRELOAD warnings
  
• SDL 2.0.16 now available in sdk and runtime
  
• Fix web views incompatibility with distro host freetype (steam-for-linux#7935)

SteamVR

• Added detection of HTC Vive Pro 2 and a prompt to install the Vive Pro 2 Driver
  
• Fixed bug that prevented Steam from counting some USB-connected headsets when gathering data for the hardware survey. In general, the sampling of SteamVR sessions should have caught most of these cases, but this could have resulted in some undercounting.
  
• Fixed game hitching that happens to some users when USB devices are inserted or removed

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

and "view news" below workshop updates is hidden somewhere else.
i wonder what kind of hyperfucking ultraretards have a job in this world.

 

[Caim]

and "view news" below workshop updates is hidden somewhere else.
i wonder what kind of hyperfucking ultraretards have a job in this world.

Reminder that Valve is still run as a mom and pop gaming studio where if you want shit done you have to convince your coworkers to help you out, despite making fucking billions every year.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

That must be a first, I like the new "download" UI. They actually made it more functional for me with a button to directly go to settings and set up speed limiters and shit.

 

[Baron Dupek]

does anyone here use that feature? Like, for mods or else?

 

[ADL]

No but this fucking sucks for SteamDB.

 

[lightbane]

Does that mean I can't download older versions of a game if a patch fucks up something?

 

[Caim]

From the looks of it that's the exact issue, yes.

 

[ADL]

https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-beta-...ble-to-revert-to-old-game-builds-much-longer/

Valve has responded to claims that Steam will soon disable the option to download previous versions of games. In a statement provided to PC Gamer, a spokesperson clarifies the company is not planning to disable access to older versions of software.


"We are actually not planning to disable downloading old builds. What we are working on is an approach on handling edge cases involving unowned content, and helping partners more easily take down builds that need to be removed for things like copyright issues," the statement reads. "We’ll have more to share on that work when it’s ready to ship."

 

[rusty_shackleford]

did they add a way to ignore all chinese games yet?

 

[Caim]

did they add a way to ignore all chinese games yet?

Just post the Tianmen Square copypasta in every game's community and you'll be banned from seeing the Chinese games ever again.

 

[mediocrepoet]

did they add a way to ignore all chinese games yet?

If you find a way to do this, please let me know. I'm tired of looking at all their shovelware bullshit that seems to have taken over the site.

 

[Narushima]

You should of course have "manga" and "anime" filtered out in your tag settings.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

did they add a way to ignore all chinese games yet?

If you find a way to do this, please let me know. I'm tired of looking at all their shovelware bullshit that seems to have taken over the site.

a ridiculous amount of them look identical to this
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1578810/_/
what am I even looking at here?

 

[Antigoon]

Under Language Preferences you can block any games not in your language(s). That should filter out about 90% of the Chinese games already.