[TT]NVIDIA is developing something BIG and it's not a GPU

[flexy]

Then again, dailytech says this about a potential Steam box:

"Reportedly the Linux-based box will be fully compatible with most Windows OS games of the past and present without any complicated custom fiddling. It is unclear what Linux distribution the console will run, but we should soon find out. "

I'm not sure how accurate that is, or even if it's legal. But creating a program that can efficiently and adequately intercept direct X calls and translate them to openGL (better than WINE) would completely eliminate the biggest hurdle to customers adopting a steam box (the hurdle being that they would be losing their existing library because of Linux).

Ok, this IS interesting!

I have no clue what this "steam box" is, but a linux distro machine that gets rid of the required Windows layer for games would be awesome.

I remember many, many years back when we discussed with my roommate how awful this fact (DirectX) actually is since it made an OS (!!) a requirement for gaming. Remember, this was not always so. Back in ancient times you did not HAVE TO load Windows to play a game...it's still odd although we're so used to it now.

 

[tviceman]

If valve found a way to pull that off and maintain good performance I will send Gabe a cake. He obviously loves cake.

However, I suspect it is actually the near field display tech previously mentioned in the thread.

Yep to all of this.

 

[bystander36]

Ok, this IS interesting!

I have no clue what this "steam box" is, but a linux distro machine that gets rid of the required Windows layer for games would be awesome.

I remember many, many years back when we discussed with my roommate how awful this fact (DirectX) actually is since it made an OS (!!) a requirement for gaming. Remember, this was not always so. Back in ancient times you did not HAVE TO load Windows to play a game...it's still odd although we're so used to it now.

Yet DirectX brings lots of tools to the table and makes working with tons of different configurations much easier than in the past. Even John Carmack has noted that if he had not so much time and resources into OpenGL, he's used DirectX instead. Given how poorly more recent games using OpenGL have been, it is kind of telling and that is just with the graphics API, imagine having to juggle everything.

Now things change a bit if you only have one piece of hardware to work with.

What actually might be interesting, is if MS or some other company created a gaming OS, with real time instructions, that worked on PC hardware with features designed for gaming.

 

[gorobei]

if it is the near eye display stuff they will have some serious work to do to bring it to consumer level product. the prototype displays are 1280x720 OLED arrays at 15mmx8mm, that rez scaled up to something large enough to cover eyeball scanning arc lengths will require the newer 400+ ppi OLED processes which certainly wont be cheap. and if it is a commercial product the OLED longevity issues pop up. and unless they are licensing headtracking software, they still need to work that out.

that said, the light field effect with the microlens array looks very impressive. this is probably as close as we are going to get to hologram displays with out a major breakthrough in physics.