Foreshadowing?

[staddydaddy]

We've been seeing lots of new updates for steam that resemble what was forcasted for the hl2 release. They announced the trickle update recently. Now Steam is going to have a depth test of their content servers.

"Before we release CS:CZ, we will need to test these changes to see how they hold up under lots of stress. Stay tuned for details of how you can help us test the network (and get some free stuff in the process). "

Doug said that we'd be getting the rest of the bink videos soon. Maybe this means they'll be test distributing the bink files. Seems to fit?


Chris_D edit: http://www.steampowered.com/?area=news

 

[supertrooper]

Yes my friendly! I hope very much to this.

 

[Chris D]

That's a new one, where's that quote from?

 

[The Dark Elf]

could well be the bink vids, which would be neat.. I hope lots of sites mirror the vids once their out or it could be weeks before non steam users get to see them

 

[MrMan16]

sweet

Sweet! You never know...... :cheers:

 

[staddydaddy]

thanks for the edit chris

 

[Chris D]

You're going to have to migrate one day Fenric, might as well be ASAP to get used to the idea.

The problem with a lot of people is they have the intention of giving it a go but they make the mistake of judging it on how it works during the initial rollout when the servers are overloaded etc. and quite obviously they get fed up. It's stable as anything for me now. As soon as the servers were eased and the updates finished, it works no problem.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Chris_D
You're going to have to migrate one day Fenric, might as well be ASAP to get used to the idea.

The problem with a lot of people is they have the intention of giving it a go but they make the mistake of judging it on how it works during the initial rollout when the servers are overloaded etc. and quite obviously they get fed up. It's stable as anything for me now. As soon as the servers were eased and the updates finished, it works no problem.

I used it for a while early on, it wasn't bad, considering it was still in beta i think. Ended up reformatting (unrelated reason) and decided not to bother with steam until HL2 and then I'd get it setup properly, don't plan on using it until then. I don't play multiplayer enough to warrent it at the moment (that may change with HL2.. depends if I can find decent players), and also plan on a new machine to use for hl2 aswell so its just easier to wait and get setup properly on that than mess around now and probably end up having to do much of it again later. I've nothing personally against it.. Currently a little weary that they'll be able to keep it going without a good deal of advetising or monthly payments to keep the system running, but we'll see how they sort that out over time. I would however like some solid info on how they plan to sort out third party mods. I'd like to know I can make a mod without it being available to others (even if its password protected) while in the WIP stages. So yeah, I'd rather wait until HL2 and a new machine, sort it out properly then, and keep it off proper workstations for security reasons (heh a new computer soley for playing HL2 and probably Doom3, thats so geeky its sad lol!)

 

[Chris D]

Hehe... sounds fair enough. I'm quite sad too, I would go through the hassle of installing Steam again and getting it up to date just to see the HL2 media... Wait... I already did that with Steam v1...!

I'm pretty confident Steam is safe; it wasn't anything to do with the hack was it?

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Chris_D
Hehe... sounds fair enough. I'm quite sad too, I would go through the hassle of installing Steam again and getting it up to date just to see the HL2 media... Wait... I already did that with Steam v1...!

lol. I am looking forward to seeing the Strider vid in full resolution, thats gonna look great. There's also the buggy clips and the tech demo's.. Those will be interesting seeing the DX9 effects on those rotating blocks as they'll really look instead of blurry video. Cant wait

I'm pretty confident Steam is safe; it wasn't anything to do with the hack was it?

I dunno, I never saw the stolen source code itself, wouldn't have known what to look for if I had haha. I've just heard the same stories as you would have, some say part of the code is included, some say it isn't and so on. No idea who to believe lol.

I do hope though that mod makers will be able to build, test and play through their mods without ever having to send any of the data across the net. Not to mention the security implications and legal issues involved. It could also be a huge headache if it ends up meaning you spend forever sending files back and forth whenever you've made the smallest change.. I can understand things like CS, TF etc. being tied to Steam. But I think the homegrown third party stuff should be entirely independant of Steam, and playable without a net connection, atleast while its a WIP.

 

[Crusader]

You can play third part modifications on Steam already, without any need for the use of it's updating system or anything complicated. You just install the mod to the relevant directory in Steam, much the same as you would have done using the old HL client. I work for Rival-Species, and despite the problems some mod teams have had, even our early betas seem to work fine.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by Crusader
You can play third part modifications on Steam already, without any need for the use of it's updating system or anything complicated. You just install the mod to the relevant directory in Steam, much the same as you would have done using the old HL client. I work for Rival-Species, and despite the problems some mod teams have had, even our early betas seem to work fine.

So nothing you do is made available outside your network then? or is accessable in any way to the outside world?

So long as HL2 is like that I'll be happy


Thanks

 

[NSPIRE]

It all makes sense... we'll just have to wait and see.

We might even hear somethin' new when ATi makes their announcement tomorrow (like they officially said that they would); but then again... it could be meaningless to HL2 at all!