New Steam Beta Offers Better Friends
posted on Wed, 24/02/2010 - 12:37
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Valve Software have announced a new version of Steam which is currently in beta testing. Boasting improved functionality for Friends, a central news feed, and a stack of other things. Here's the full list of major new features: * Complete overhaul of Steam client UI design to improve discoverability of features and to better expose all the information related to games in your library
* Complete overhaul of in-game overlay UI design to create a richer in-game experience exposing context sensitive information related to the game you are currently playing
* New game details view, presenting a detailed view of all the information for a single game in your library
* New grid view, presenting a graphical view of your game library
* New news page in the store/client/overlay which aggregates from Valve related news sites, official community groups, and third-party gaming news feeds
* New downloads view in the client, making it easier to track your progress downloading new games or game updates
* New Steam store design, including more integrated community features, improved recommendations, and improved video and screenshots viewing (and much more!)
Their update page includes more information and some visuals. If you have Steam installed you can just click this link, then select "2010 UI Update" under Beta Participation, and you can check out the beta right now.
[As originally posted on AusGamers]
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At the top right of the Steam window, there were 2 arrows, one left and one right, clicking them would swtich between the big fullscreen window and classic (slim) window.
It's missing the option to select your country of origin to help determine your download locations, it doe seem to keep the setting from the old UI however, I grabbed 16Gb worth of game files tonight and freaked out a little. It's all good though it all came from AU servers.
Yup, I noticed that too. It's headed in the right direction, but still needs some tweaks...
Tried it last night, it's ok. I can see what direction they're going in, makes it pretty.
The in-game UI crashed on me last night though.
One thing I really really want is a search facility. I want to type my game name in and press enter. I guess I could do that through the windows start menu, but dammit I wanna do it in steam.
Need to be able to do other things while verifying a steam cache. Getting messages asking why you haven't joined a game yet but can't respond to until the verification is done ain't cool.
I am running the beta now, doesnt seem that much different/better ?
Will wait and see.
Yer I've switched back to the standard version.
The future is cool and all, but I'm just not ready for it.
I switched back, I like what they are trying to do, they want to be the gaming portal, whereas I just wanna launch games and connect with friends hence like the stripped back version.
The uncertainty over the region I am downloading from is however my main concern. With that fixed I'd be willing to give it more of a go.
It all seems pretty gimmicky to me, I tried it but within the first 20 mins it crashed twice, so I reverted.
What i like most about it is the changes to the downloads / updating page. Also when you go to library > games, you can switch to either detail, list or grid by going to View at the top. Game Grid is pretty cool looking if you have a large collection of games.
@MasterCyl: even tho you could set that in the 'old' version, it never guaranteed that you had the data from there. Very little of the game data files are actually fully contained on a single content server.
A word of warning if you're trying to switch back and it's not working: DO NOT UNINSTALL STEAM!!! It deletes your entire game cache. I had to restore it from backup! :(
MasterCyl wrote:
The uncertainty over the region I am downloading from is however my main concern. With that fixed I'd be willing to give it more of a go.
Although it would be very nice if it told you specifically where it was downloading from, you can use SteamWatch to stop steam from downloading anywhere but your chosen safe listed IPs.
You can also try to launch the game, when you attempt to launch a game that is downloading, it shows the banner of the ISP you are connected too. More often than not as an Internode customer I get the Internode banner, but sometimes, 3FL or GameArena too. If you get the left 4 dead logo or a US ISP logo it means it's gone offshore.
Internode makes all AU Steam servers free (I hates you for that!).
The update to the Beta has added support for download locations again. It's also fixed a few bugs with the overlay...
Nice, I'll switch back tonight.
This is still the thing I dislike about Steam , that it doesnt allow for a decent system to see where the Content is coming from , or in built blocking content from another server then the server you select (eg GameArena / Internode).
Often it just seems easier to copy the steam files off someone else and integrate it into your own install to save bandwidth and time
While the game is downloading you can attempt to launch the game and a small download window will pop up informing you which ISP the content is coming from. Also keep in mind the server you selected my not contain the content you require, or be incredibly busy. It's a world wide load sharing system and the problem you speak of is unique to Australia. Over the Christmas sales period the AU ISP's couldn't keep up with the requests and I was constantly being routed overseas. This had the upside that I could still access the content, though knew it was being attached to the quota.
All you are saying in the second paragraph is you'd rather your mate use up his quota. I get free Steam Traffic from AU servers and it's really the only free traffic I have need to take advantage of without it, I would not have nearly the amount of titles I do now.
Yeah, I have a shitload of titles, but most of the time they're uninstalled because it's hard to keep it downloading off an AU server.
charliebrownau wrote:
This is still the thing I dislike about Steam , that it doesnt allow for a decent system to see where the Content is coming from...
Of course this is only really useful for people outside of the US. When quota's become widespread in the states then we'll see more features such as locking steam to ISP's etc.
This doesn't mean you'll be able to download everything from your ISP though.
It's ironic that, as the spread of internet content gets larger, ISPs are going towards restricting access to that!
It's more interesting that we fight for net neutrality yet accept the opposite here in Australia.
By ISP's saying this traffic is quota free this traffic isn't ISP's are deciding content wars. I choose steam as a digital distribution method because of the free content, there are other systems I haven't even looked at. iTunes getting a free ride from some ISP's, decide digital entertainment choices. They are being marketed as value add but we've given up the ideal of net neutrality.
I do remember a time when an ISP on the Pipe Peering network was a great thing and offered free traffic within that network, it's strange that those peers still exist yet the free traffic has dried up and now counts towards profits, and trust me the peering still exists. The ISP's aren't paying for all that traffic that we are.
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I love the new look.
But Im pissed that I no longer have the slim games window option.
Iv had steam looking like that for 5 years, how dare they take it away.