Games on Voltaicforge

Guide added for Steam Emulation

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

New guide added for steam emulation

I have added a tutorial for an excelent, tidy setup for running all your retro consoles via Big Picture mode.

Check it out here

Steam Controller - Worthy addition?

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

What is the Steam Controller?

The steam controller is Valve’s offering into the controller segment. With the launch of their Steam Link and upcoming Steam Box offerings, Valve decided to continue their campaign to bridge the gap between PC games and the living room by designing a controller with PC games in mind.

The Steam Controller boasts 2 trackpads, haptics, by my count 18 buttons, 2 dual-stage analog triggers and an analog joystick. Two of the buttons hide on the bottom of the controller that double as the battery housing - when your fingers wrap around the wings you naturally rest on both of them. One feature that doesn’t make the press almost at all is it does contain a gyro, similar to the Wiimote, the playstation thingy, and a whole raft of other completely failed motion controllers. It’s a pity it isn’t marketed more as they have gotten the gyro completely right and it actually synergizes with the controller - but with how bad most implementations are I don’t blame Valve for not making a song and dance about it.

The main feature is customizability. Playing using Steam’s big picture mode, a raft of configuration options are presented at a click of the steam button (The controller’s home button). From here, you can customise a massive amount about the controller. This means that you can bind any button to anything - keyboard press, controller press, joystick, D-pad, mouse, your cat, whatever. More mind boggling is that there are multiple styles of joystick, D-pad and mouse, with different behaviours.

On top of that, you can customise dead zones, scalings, haptics, sensitivity, and a massive amount more options that I currently don’t even understand. Trackpads can be simple joysticks and mouse, or work as touch menus complete with OSD (I.E. weapon swapping, item hot menu, etc). Oh, also it has mode shifting, to allow buttons to double-duty for those more command intensive games. It would be like holding down CTRL and having all your keys function different - here you can swap the function of every button again. Boggles the mind.

Frankly, it’s intimidating. It needn’t be, however, as for any game a number of user profiles are shared so you don’t need to setup from scratch every game. You can simply load a profile from another user (usually the most popular one) and tweak from there. Sometimes the developer will list an official profile - or perhaps you can just use one of the templates for the game’s genre.

Note it is pairs as well with a Steam Link as a PC. I’ve done a short write up on the Steam Link here.

The controller just works ™ with the Steam Link if you follow the instructions - like I didn’t. It does come with a dongle for using with a PC, but it isn’t required if you pair it with a Steam Link. Read the instructions first, like I didn’t!

But how does it handle?

Getting used to the steam controller

At a glance, the controller most likely won’t look comfortable. And you’d be right! This controller takes time and patience to get used to. It’s not the comfortable 360 controller you’ve bene using for the last forever; Valve has broken the mould to a degree here. The resemblance to the 360 controllers is present in the design, however. They have chosen to follow the 360 in the wing design instead of the stubby things the Playstation controllers have had for some time. It looks big - but put it over the top of a 360 controller and it’s almost dead on the same footprint.

I have small hands and was concerned that I would struggle to reach the buttons - a fear that seemed founded on unboxing but really hasn’t eventuated. I’ve had no issues reaching anything, so if I can manage I expect anyone can.

Overall, it took me under a week to get the hang of it. Due to the fact Valve chose to move the buttons to the lower right and put the touchpad in the upper right, 360 controller aficionados can expect the first few hours to be smashing their thumb into the touchpad in frustration as that were the buttons ‘should’ be.

So I cranked out a few different types of games and gave them a good old go.

Third person

I started out playing some third person games. I played through Shadow over Mordor from scratch, having recently picked up a bundle. It did take some time to get the hang of it and fiddling with the right trackpad settings/sensitivity to find something I liked - but once I had it down I was cutting down uruks like nobody’s business. Right trackpad controls the mouse, left analog stick to move, buttons to make people’s lives miserable. The steam controller did enable me to bind the sprint button to the back bumper, as holding down a button to sprint meant I couldn’t look around at the same time - a problem fixed by a quick rebind.

Additionally, the gyro can be used as a fine aim which was amazing for this game. When aiming an arrow I could use the right trackpad to aim generally then wave the controller around to fine aim. It’s a joy to behold as coupled with the time slowdown it was nothing but constant headshots - probably a little unfair considering the time slowdown mechanic would have been added to give analog stick users a handicap.

Both the game and the controller were ultimately enjoyable, which game me a good opportunity to get the hang of using it for my next game.

I resumed my first round of Dark Souls (yet, I know I’m a little late to the party). I was just finishing off the abyss with no idea was I was about to face - Manus, Father of the Abyss. The next 4 hours of fighting him was an excellent time to become intimate with the exact dynamics of dodge rolling through attacks, and not throwing my shiny new steam controller through the TV. I prevailed in the end with what ended up being easily the most satisfying battle in Dark Souls 1, and justification on the controller. If you can beat Manus with it, you can play any damn game with it.

Platformer

I played both Rouge Legacy and Trine with the controller. I slotted back into Rogue legacy like a glove but using the analogue stick as a d-pad. I did swap over to using the left trackpad as a d-pad by turning off the option to require a click for it to trigger. It was eerie using a trackpad as a d-pad, but amazingly responsive.

Trine was a bit more of an interesting beast, as it has mouse gesture controls and mouse aiming. It was great for this, and after a slight adjustment, I had no issue using the trackpad to draw boxes, aim bow/shield.

First person

I have played some Portal 2 with the steam controller. Only a few hours worth just to give it a shot. I have it setup to use the left analog stick for movement, triggers for both portals, flaps underneath for crouch/jump, and right trackpad for aiming.

It’s a plain joy to use. It’s responsive and easy to look around, but precise enough to be able to hit where you need a portal. Whilst I won’t say it is as good as a keyboard/mouse, it’s certainly going to fit the bill for any slower single player FPS that I might prefer to play on the couch.

For the more serious, again you can use the gyro to fine aim. I haven’t used it for a twitchy game, but I’ve read posts of people swearing it approaches keyboard/mouse levels of control.

This is something I need to explore and report back on.

Third Person… Rocket Exploder Simulator?

Yep, you can even play Kerbal Space Program with it. And it’s actually fantastic. It’s hard to explain how it works, but analog stick works menus or camera, and right trackpad does mouse. It.. works. Building a rocket is not much harder than with keyboard/mouse. Unfortunately, my rockets still tend to suffer RUD’s.

Build quality

The build quality is great. It feels nice and solid, the buttons have a great feel to them. No Xbox 360 D-pad floppiness here!

Just check out the construction of one!

My only real gripe is the way the floppy buttons on the back work - The flaps are part of the battery housing, so when you push in one flap it tends to pull the other flap away toward it, which pulls the other flap away from its respective button. Little awkward, but if you don’t plan on using both buttons at the same time it should be fine.

I love the battery housing. When the housing opens up the batteries slot deep into the wings, using the space efficiently and leaving the rest of the controller thin and allowing space for all the electronics. I’m surprised more controllers aren’t built like this!

Additionally, the battery life is insane. The Duracell’s that came with it ran for over 5 weeks before going flat. This was with heavy, nightly usage. My Xbox 360 controllers hardly lasted 2 weeks on regular batteries.

Closing thoughts.

If you are a PC gamer looking for a customizable controller, look no further. Don’t be put off by the swath of options - if that’s not what you’re into, there’s always a community config that will be perfect (or close) for what you want.

For steam link users - I feel this unlocks the true potential of the device. It can work with any old controller - but this controller really lets you unlock away from your PC with almost any game.

*[RUD]: Rapid Unplanned Disassembly

Steam Link - The ultimate console?

Sun, 24 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Why Steam Link and what is it?

In short, Valve’s Steam Link is a small box (not much larger the size of a deck of cards) that you can plug into your network and TV and stream games from your PC to your TV, in glorious 1080p @ 60hz. It also takes care of ensuring your controllers talk to your PC, and turns on like a console via turning on your controller. If you ever wanted to play your PC games from the couch with a controller, this is for you. If you have a wired network already it is literally as simple as plug into TV and Ethernet, plug in controller adaptor/pair with Bluetooth, enter PIN on PC running steam, and you are literally playing games from your couch within 5 mins.

If you ever wanted all your emulation in once place, your modern games playing friends side by side with Zelda, Super Mario 3, River Raid, Sonic or perhaps even Goldeneye, you need to get this!

Notice: I have written a guide for neatly setting up emulators to work with Steam Big Picture/Steam Link. Check it out here

I call it the ultimate console. Who doesn’t want all your games in one place - from Atari to the latest releases?

Unfortunately, it appears there’s so much confusion about it - if you read the review articles or forums there it appears there’s confusion about what it is, or who it is for. Unfortunately many of, the reviews for the Steam Link are lukewarm at best for reasons that I don’t feel are valid. Comments such as input lag or artefacts make me think reviewers simply haven’t tried changing a single setting to adjust - and they are simple to fix.

However, I will note that I expect any Wireless connection will introduce input lag (doesn’t matter how fast/good it is, radio waves are slow things compared to the speed of an electron) - if you can’t hardwire a Steam Link I don’t think this is for you.

I used to have an HTPC each for the Projector and the TV, running Plex and Steam for Steam Streaming. It wasn’t particularly polished, and felt clunky, either using a Xbox 360 controller or an IR remote setup.

Recently, I upgraded to a shiny new 70" LG 4K TV. This removed the need for an HTPC for Plex and YouTube. Using the TV’s remote to browse the in-tv apps for Plex and YouTube was amazing, and far superior to anything I could have down with the HTPC.

So, now the HTPC was only doing Steam streaming, it was time to find a solution for retiring the HTPC completely. Enter the Steam Link.

I think there is confusion and trepidation on Valves latest gear. Not everyone seems quite sure what is it.

The Steam link is merely a device to stream your PC’s screen to an HDMI device (i.e. your living room TV). It doest play the games, it merely extends your PC’s reach. But it’s also so much more.

The Steam link is a little black box with a small, unobtrusive steam logo that includes

3 USB2.0 ports
HDMI out
100mbs Ethernet
Power input
Bluetooth 4.0
Wireless AC
Works with Xbox controllers (requires dongle), a ps4 controller (Bluetooth, no dongle), racing wheels, keyboard/mouse (wired and wireless), just about any input.
Comes with various power point adapters for various regions (AU, US and probably EU)

That’s about it. It runs off an ARMv7 with a dedicated h.264 hardware decoding, custom Linux kernel. Technically speaking, it’s comparable to a Raspberry Pi 2. And don’t get scared off by the 100mbs ethernet - if you do the math that is more than capable of 1080p @ 60hz.

But it will stream from your PC at 1080p @ 60hz if your gaming PC is up to the task. Not only that, but with Big Picture it will do this seamlessly with a nice, functional interface, it will manage your controllers (Xbox, PS4, racing wheel, etc), and it works like a console. Hell, it’s so tiny that it is easily hideable behind any TV - my wall mounted TV has no need for a shelf to put a bulky console on.

Note it is best paired with a Steam Controller. I’ve done a short write up on the Steam Link here.

One week with the steam link.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been so impressed with a tech purchase. It runs a dream, plays games at 1080p @ 60hz, and as completely unlocked me from being hunched over the PC to game.

My living room TV has become the go-to place in the house (I haven’t even wanted to fire up the projector since I got this!). Once I’ve finished watching a show over dinner, I can hit the logo button on the Xbox controller or my Steam controller, turning on the Steam link. Any controller ‘just works’ assuming you have the PC dongle (for a Xbox controller) or a PS4 controller will connect via Bluetooth, no dongle necessary. You can choose to connect a keyboard/mouse as well with no issues, again it ‘just works’

From here, you are presented with a menu of the available PC’s detected on the network you have setup. Adding a PC is as easy as selecting it and entering a PIN code on the PC - only required once to pair. On subsequent boots, all you have to do is select the PC from the menu.

From there, it’s all over to the PC in terms of work - the steam link will request the PC to go into big picture mode and begin streaming the window. From your seat, at the TV it seamlessly transitions to the Big Picture launch intro.

Then it’s just like using Big Picture on your PC. You have a nice interface for the store, your library, etc. Launching a game will drop you directly into the game and big picture will jump to streaming that window without you noticing any transition. It’s just like having a console - but it’s your PC!

This has opened up a realm of games that I’ve wanted to play but didn’t want to hunch over the PC with a controller.

Running emulators on the steam link

Now, if you are like me and you love emulating old games - you’re in for a treat. You can ditch fiddly front ends and use steam to manage your games - and stream them via your Steam Link as if you had your SNES, N64, Playstation, Atari, Sega, whatever plugged in. A GitHub project called Ice can be setup to run through a ROM directory, and manage adding/removing a custom game to your steam list that will launch an emulator of your choice, passing the game as a command and launching the emulator directly into the ROM.

I’ve written a guide here covering how to set this up.

As a result, I have a multitude of my favorite old games in my steam library (complete with artwork, and tagging the game with the console name). From my couch, I can thus filter my game list into the “SNES” category, and see a list of SNES games. Launching one will drop directly into Retroarch with bsnes core with full controller support. Dropping into a emulated game instantly at a button press and getting the intro screen for the console of choice is mind blowing - it’s like having a SNES or N64 plugged into your TV. All this in a package the size of a pack of cards.

So I can go from Shadow of Mordor to Donkey Kong Country to Pitfall, all within 20 seconds of each other using whatever controller I chose.

Why is this better than a console?

I can think of a multitude of reasons

Emulator support - build the ultimate console! Heck, play old DOS games with DOSBox and a Steam controller!
Mod support! You get the modding of PC, with the comfort of couch and controller (or keyboard/mouse if you still choose)
Better graphics - sorry, but a decent PC will plain outperform a console, especially as the console lifecycle drags on.
Massive games library, not bound to one manufacturer
Multi-room support - move from TV to Home Theater to PC. Or connect to different PCs with different steam accounts running.
Customization - especially with a Steam Controller, customise to your hearts content either the game or the control set.
Games are plain cheaper on PC with Steam Sales.

The downsides

MUST be hardwired! I can’t see any solution on wifi that won’t introduce too much input lag
Comes with the inherent possibility of crashes on PC - Steam has bugged out on occasion.
The odd console exclusive game
Requires decent PC (mind you, I’m running MGS:V at 1080p @ 60hz with a Nvidia 670 no problems)

Closing thoughts

If you haven’t already run out and bought 10 Steam Links then I don’t know what’s wrong with you and you require professional help. Assuming you have a wired network and can’t/won’t have your PC directly hooked up to your TV, this is for you.

I have had nothing but perfect streaming experiences, smooth FPS, no artefacts, lag, etc. That said, I have built a robust network, it is wired, and I have given it an optimal network to run on - and it is delivering in spades. If you want to run on Wireless then it’s your funeral - even with AC dual band, you’re going to get input lag. I think it’s a simple fact of the way wireless works.

Also keep in mind that when you stream you are also asking your PC to run the game AND encode the audio/video - this means you need the grunt to run the game at 1080p as well as the stream encoding overhead.