Items tagged with Valve
With mobile phone displays switching over to OLED panels, companies like Japan Display Inc., specializing in LCD screens, face the consequences. However, OLED panels are not perfect, nor can they do everything, such as displays in virtual and augmented reality headsets. The pixel density of LCDs simply cannot be matched with present technology or price, so that is what JDI is now focusing on in the fledgling VR and AR marketplace. Following the downturn in LCD sales to smartphone manufacturers, the Tokyo-based JDI believes that its display technology will become the standard for VR/AR as “it can achieve higher resolution than OLED while keeping costs reasonable,” as reported by Bloomberg....
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Thanks to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders over the last year, gaming has seen a massive uptick. However, traditional consoles and even PC components have been hard to come by due to the global semiconductor shortage. Amidst this console-supply vacuum, though, handheld consoles like the Nintendo Switch have achieved record sales, and now hardware and software company Valve may want in on the action. On Tuesday. SteamDB creator and data miner Pavel Djundik found a reference to a device codenamed “Neptune,” within the Steam Client beta. He further explained on Twitter that this “Neptune” controller is named “SteamPal” and has a list called “SteamPal...
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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has been going strong since 2012, regularly hitting the “Top Games By Current Player Count” list on Steam. With this thriving community, it could make for a great opportunity to try and hack players through the game, and it seems that is indeed a potential threat. Researchers recently found a way to get reliable remote code execution on players’ computers just by joining a malicious community server. The Secret Club is a group of like-minded hackers and researchers who believe in open research about security, reverse engineering malware, and game hacking. Concerning the last part about game hacking, it seems they targeted CS:GO due to...
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Fair or not, Mac users are sometime a forgotten bunch when it comes to playing computer games, perhaps even more so now that Apple has embarked on a slow breakup with Intel. It wasn't always that way. Remember being afflicted with dysentery in Oregon Trail? Like Pepperidge Farm, Valve remembers, and it has made its Steam Link application available in the Mac App Store. "The Steam Link app allows you to play your Steam games across all your computers. Just pair an MFI or Steam controller to your Mac, connect to a computer running Steam on the same local network, and start playing your existing Steam games," the app's description states. This is one of the final destinations for Steam Link. While...
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Last week, Apple attempted to drag Valve into the legal standoff with Epic Games by requesting a large quantity of data from the PC games creator and seller. While this request appeared out of place, the subpoena seems to have worked, as a judge has told Valve Corp. to hand over certain data from the request. During a Zoom court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixon ordered Valve to produce “aggregate historical sales, pricing and other data on 436 games sold on the virtual game store Steam,” according to Law360. This is significantly less than the original request for information on every Steam game dating back to 2015. Thankfully, the judge saw the flaws in this request...
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While the Fortnite battle continues, now internationally, Apple is attempting to gather ammunition for the courtroom showdown sometime in the future. A court filing from this week reports that Apple subpoenaed Valve Software in November 2020, "simply requesting" Valve’s revenues and the name, price, and availability of every product on Steam to show competition. That is one tall order, and it appears that Valve is not playing ball. In short, Apple believes data from Valve could bolster its legal position against Epic Games, and subsequently requested a plethora of data. According to the record [PDF], in “Request 2,” Apple wanted documents “sufficient” to show...
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At this point, I will be working on my backlog of games in my Steam library for the next 450 years or so, because I have been conditioned (like Pavlov's dog) to stock up on titles every time there is a sale. And I am okay with the situation. If you are too, then here's a heads up you might appreciate—Steam's Lunar New Year Sale is likely kicking off later today. There has not been an official announcement, but if there is a trusted source for this kind of information, it is Twitter user Steam Database (@SteamDB). They actually gave the first advanced notice almost a full month ago, claiming the date and time were "leaked from an email to Steam partners." Plus the Chinese New Year is February...
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Valve has recently been in some hot water as the EU’s European Commission slapped the games company with a $1.9 million fine over “geo-blocking.” Now, some gamers are suing Valve in California over anti-competitive clauses in developer agreements. Valve and multiple other developers have been named defendants, alleging that the companies entered a competition-stifling contract with a “most favored nations” (MFN) clause. In this case, the MFN clause is an agreement where game developers arrive at a specific price of a game on the Steam platform, and then that price will remain the same on all other platforms. As the suit explains, “Because of this Most Favored...
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Here we are excited about things like ray tracing and the latest game controllers such as the PS5 DualSense with its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. But folks, when it comes to the future of gaming, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has some wild ideas. The DualSense might be cool now, but "meat peripherals" will eventually take a backseat to brain computer interfaces (BCIs). If true, then OCZ was way ahead of its time. Remember OCZ? While best known for its memory and storage products, OCZ dabbled in BCIs over a decade ago with its Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA), which attempted to read a body's natural biosignals and translate them into commands that can be used to control PC games. We found...
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Have you ever tried to buy a game but found that it was not available in your region for some unknown reason? This may be due to a practice Valve’s game platform Steam does, called “geo-blocking.” This is done to lock out certain countries from getting a particular game or to manage pricing worldwide. The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, took issue with the latter and has now fined the gaming company approximately $1.9 million. According to the European Commission website, “geo-blocking” is how a company “segment[s] markets along national borders and to increase profits to the detriment of foreign customers.” They claim that Valve,...
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VR gaming is growing in popularity after being seemingly stagnant for a few years. Now, HP has debuted a new VR solution called the Reverb G2, and its hailed as a "no-compromise VR headset" that was developed in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft. The headset is designed to be used for multiple tasks, including design, training, and gaming. HP says that the Reverb G2 is equipped with lenses and speakers that were designed by Valve to offer the highest quality resolution and fully immersive spatial audio. The headset uses mura-free, 2.89-inch 2160 x 2160 resolution LCD panels for each eye with a full RGB subpixel stripe. The panels have 9.3 million pixels, 2.5 times more pixels than the Oculus...
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Gamers all around the world were extremely excited when Half-Life: Alyx was announced. After many years, fans were able to get back into the Half-Life universe. The game has been updated recently to include Steam Workshop support along with a beta release of community development tools. One of the best things about the update for fans is that it brings a native version of the game for the Linux, and optional support for Vulkan on Windows. To enable Vulkan on Windows, go to the main menu, then Options > Performance > Advanced (gear icon) > Rendering API, and choosing Vulkan. While support for Linux is welcome, the big news is that the tools in the Steam Workshop update allow players to...
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Valve has confirmed a major source code leak earlier this week involving two of its most popular competitive multiplayer games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2. Players of the games have been concerned that the code leak for the popular and active games would allow hackers to find ways to develop remote code execution attacks or other exploits for the games. Valve has issued a statement that says players shouldn't be concerned about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but hasn't said anything about Team Fortress 2. Valve's statement said it had reviewed the leaked code and believed that it was a reposting of a limited CS:GO engine code depot that was provided to partners and...
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Half-Life: Alyx has only been out for a few days, but many are already claiming that the game is a masterpiece. Many have argued that it is one of the best VR games to date. Unfortunately, many gamers will not be able to experience the game because it is currently only available for VR headsets. But where there is a will, there is a way. Gamers have already found a way to play Half-Life: Alyx with a keyboard and mouse instead of a VR headset. Tyler McVicker, the founder of the Valve News Network, found a few commands that allowed him to play the game without a headset. McVicker was able to enable several weapons and shoot with his mouse. He was thrilled with his findings and remarked, “I...
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Those who have been waiting for a fresh Half-Life fix can now have it, though only if they own a compatible virtual reality headset. Valve's latest addition to the Half-Life world, Half-Life: Alyx, was designed from the ground-up for VR (and getting rave reviews), so it is not a game fans of the franchise can simply fire up and play on a flat-screen monitor. For now, anyway—it is only a matter of time before modders do their thing, and Valve is aware of this. Game designer Robin Walker, best known for co-developing the Team Fortress mod for Quake before later going on to co-create several Valve games, including Half-Life: Alyx, believes it is only a matter of time before someone mods the...
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Today is the big day; Half-Life: Alyx has been released. We had no idea that Valve was even working on the game until late last year, and once it was announced, the gamers around the globe lost their collective minds. Rather than being a traditional first-person shooter that is controlled using a mouse and keyboard like Half-Life and Half-Life 2 that came before it, Half-Life: Alyx leaps into the realm of virtual reality (VR). Hardware Requirements Being a VR-only game, the hardware requirements (to run the game as the devs intended it) are steep for this latest installment in the franchise, which arrives nearly 16 years after Half-Life 2 was released to the public. For starters,...
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Fans of virtual reality (VR) and the Half-Life franchise have been excited since the next game in the franchise was announced last year, Half-Life: Alyx. The game launches on March 23rd, but many fans have been worried because the required VR hardware to play the game has been out of stock. That will change on Monday, March 9th when the Valve Index VR system will be in stock again. Valve notes that demand for the Index VR system has been high and it expects the available stock on Monday to sell out quickly. Valve is planning to continue to take orders after all the available units are sold. It will fulfill the purchases in the order they were received as more stock becomes available. Valve says...
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The clock is ticking down towards the release of Half-Life: Alyx (March 23rd for those keeping count), and hype surrounding the game is growing. Long-time Half-Life fans became even more excited earlier this week when Valve dropped three new videos totaling around 10 minutes showing actual gameplay footage. Now we're learning that Half-Life: Alyx won't be the end for the Half-Life franchise. Instead, we can look at it as a rebirth or sorts. In an interview with Game Informer, Valve developer Robin Walker gave some insight both into why Half-Life: Alyx is exclusively a VR title and what will come next in the franchise. "Half-Life's set of mechanics was a surprisingly natural fit...
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The excitement surrounding Half-Life: Alyx is starting to ramp up as we get closer to the game's March 23rd release date. For those that haven't been keeping abreast of the game's development, it's a virtual reality-only title that takes place before the events in Half-Life 2. Valve today is giving us another look at what to expect with Half-Life: Alyx courtesy of three new gameplay videos. All of the things that you've come to expect from the Half-Life franchise are seen in the videos including those annoying head crabs, health stations, and various puzzles that you'll find along your journey. In the first video seen above, you start off on a subway car where you encounter...
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The launch date for Half-Life: Alyx is now set in stone. Valve announced today that the virtual reality-only title will officially launch on March 23rd, which is sticking with the developer's previous statements that the game would be available in March 2020. Hype for Half-Life: Alyx has been building, as this is the first installment franchise in over a decade. While everyone has been reading tea leaves, wishing on a shooting star, and hopping on one foot for the inevitable release of Half-Life 3, Half-Life: Alyx is no doubt the next best thing. Half-Life: Alyx, available March 23, 2020 https://t.co/NCOLWqSp3e pic.twitter.com/Q04EZwNfBt— Valve (@valvesoftware) February 13, 2020...
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It has been somewhat of a wild week for Steam. A week ago Sunday, Valve's digital distribution platform broke a concurrent user record that had stood for over two years, with 18,801,944 users. The previous record was 18.5 million users. Then this past Sunday, Steam saw 19,107,803 people hop onto the service, setting the record for the second time in a week. The new record came at 14:10 GMT. Out of those users, just over 6 million people were playing in a game, as opposed to simply being signed into the service. That's a lot of gamers, and it raises the question, why is Steam suddenly setting concurrent user records? Source: SteamDB.info Part of the reason is players flocking to Counter-Strike:...
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Half-Life: Alyx is one of the most highly anticipated PC games for the H1 2020, and with good reason. Although it isn't the mythical Half-Life 3, it's the next besting thing, serving as a prequel of sorts to the groundbreaking shooter Half-Life 2. All of the excitement surrounding the latest entry in the Half-Life saga coupled with the fact that it’s a virtual reality-only title has led to a huge uptick in interest for the requisite hardware needed to run the game. According to tracking firm SuperData, sales of Valve's Index VR headset more than doubled from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019, climbing from 46,000 units to 103,000 units. Sales might have also been spurred by the fact that each Index...
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