Moving Steam Big Picture gaming into your living room without moving your PC

PC gaming is the coolest form of the medium. Valve and Steam want to move it from your cellar to your living room with the Big Picture . As it is though , elegant front end that it is , there are couple of things in fact one missing thing ,one vital tantalising omission that would allow Valve and PC gaming to dominate not just your living room but everywhere. 

I will reveal what I think this Gaulish magical potion that Steam needs later on . 

First let us address a concern about the Big Picture : What if you do not want to play on a big screen .. or use the screen for something else well you could play on your iPad using Splashtop 2 : 

lets try X COM Enemy Unknown 

or Planetside 2 

As you can see Splashtop 2 is sufficiently fast enough at streaming to allow you to game away  from your PC and thus away from your TV too on your iPad..ideal with a few caveats for your Big Picture front ended Steam gaming...

But there will be times you want to play on your big screen TV so here is how you can  play Big Picture and Steam games on your big screen without "bringing" your PC ..

For this you will need an iPad,Splashtop 2, Apple TV and of course your gaming PC loaded with Splashtop Streamer . And a game from your Steam collection say X Com Enemy Unknown. Mix all the ingredients together and  it should work.. Here's one such set up I prepared earlier: Apologies for the VGA camera but you should still be able to get the Big Picture ...

As you can see, it is simple to play PC games using streaming, there is minimal latency , thus technically there is no need to move your PC into your living room at all to play Big Picture Steam games. The missing component though is a tablet overlay control set up. 

Streaming Apps like Splashtop on PC,iOS and Android , DLNA TVs , Apple TV and fast wifi mean the backbone for being able to play our Steam games any where is already there ..the vital ingredient that is missing is control..

Whilst Valve have talked at great length re controlling games using a keyboard mashed with  a 360 pad interface mashed with a 360 joy pad ... What they have ignored to this point is most people are screaming for better touch controls as everyone owns some form of tablet or phone these days. I want to be able to play with any controlling device, mouse, joypad and tablet. 

Ask Windows 8 users what they want most from developers and they will say dedicated multi touch controls ... the OS is here , ..but the control scheme is still not .. you are still resorting to external controllers every time you play your classic PC games.. Similarly the disappointing thing about Xbox SmartGlass is the level of control they left out.

But controls are not enough ,what the Big Picture needs is it`s own dedicated android iOS and Windows 8 App, one that a single tap of would throw your game to your DLNA TV,Apple TV or streaming service of choice. And it needs to give you a control interface on your phone or tablet. Yes I could just use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse but as a gamer I need to nay expect to see cross device touch control advance alongside all the magical devices and software we are constantly showered with... 

I hope that the rumoured Steambox console is actually accompanied with a Steam Streaming App ... if you want the freedom to Steam game  anywhere on anything , we are almost there .. with Splashtop THD on Android all that is missing is a mirroring option to  a big screen, with Splashtop 2 on iOS we really need a control overlay a la THD . Of course all of this would be unnecessary if and when Steam release their own Big Picture streaming app... which will happen a lot sooner if we all get on to Gabe and ask for it ... so go on get twittering to Gabe and Valve !

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

How Steam's Big Picture will liberate you from living room TV slavery altogether !

Hey you!  Did you know  Valve's Big Picture actually makes for the most awesome little picture too?

The point of Valve's Big Picture is to introduce your PC to your living room with a beautiful front end for all your hundreds of Steam games.. The problem with the Big Picture is you still need to have a PC connected to your living room tv and the problem with the living room for gaming is you compete for that space with all around you ... 

These days we love to play with tablets, phones and hand helds whilst we watch tv on the big screen. Right now I am working on a big screen, watching a film on a laptop screen with an iPad and Google Nexus 7 running other duties .. 

So where does the Big Picture fit in ? Most gamers would not risk their 4k gaming rigs living in their living rooms ... and then consider the cost of buying another gaming laptop or machine for that room and the Big point of the Big Picture seems totally lost ...

That is unless there was a cheap, effective and uber cool way of having all the features of the Big Picture but without any additional cost or moving expensive tech into the wild non gamer infested jungle of our living rooms.. My recent shenanigans with Splashtop THD on the Google Nexus 7 streaming Windows 8 and onlive games got me thinking. Why not take the best of the Big Picture and make it mobile .. freeing us from the living room altogether or allowing us to keep watching Die Hard whilst playing our favourite Steam games and here is how we do it and what would you know? Steams Big Picture makes an awesome front end for playing all your Steam games streamed to your Nexus 7. And here is living proof : First let us check out how the big Picture interface looks on the Nexus 7:

playing X COM Enemy Unknown

Shogun Total War 2 

Retro City Rampage 

All in all the Steam Big Picture front end runs excellently on tablets like the Google Nexus 7 , yes you could use the old Steam games list and store, but Big Picture is far more up to date with today's world of Metro live tiles, you can see why Gabe was so miffed at Windows 8 ..when he had his own Big Picture in the wings .. The way the opening screen is personalised to your game collection is very cool. As it is Big Picture is way cooler to use on tablets than on tvs .. now if Valve would only wake up to streaming, cloud gaming and throw in some optimisations for tablet users ..how cool would Valves own version of Splashtop THD be?  

A decade ago now ..really .. Valve shocked the world with the first digital delivery system , people screamed and complained about having to go on line to activate their game (Half Life 2) , it is time they did some as shocking and controversial again. 

You see Gabe , you have the right idea , people are moving away from their rigs for gaming , but they do not want to move them to their living rooms. What was missing in the Big Picture from the start was a way to stream your game from your gaming PC to your TV. And this is what Splashtop THD gives you , the ability not only to stream your game to your TV via a cheap tablet but to actually game, fully PC game on a 7 inch Android tablet ..not just in your living room competing for tv time but anywhere .. doing so with Big Picture as your front end on a device that weighs less than a joypad, has longer battery life and stays cooler!

Of course this way of gaming is not perfect yet , all the examples above really require optimised controls for tablets,  but that is where our feedback will hopefully shock Gabe and co into once again shocking the world, how about releasing Half Life 3 as the first streamed cloud only Valve game? 

Exciting times ..right I am off to play the game of the year winner Dark Souls using Big Picture on my Nexus 7 more 2 follow as soon as I can video the action and upload it... Now I can prepare to die anytime any where thanks to Splashtop THD, Windows 8 and Steam's Big Picture...

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached