Steam offers great deals on games, a safe and secure experience for online gamers, a huge collection of games, and regular promotions for gamers from all around the world. However, it’s not completely flawless, as its support service is constantly made fun of, plus not everyone is a fan of Valve’s monopoly on PC gaming. Whether you’re on a PC, Mac, Linux box, mobile device, or even your television, you can enjoy the benefits of Steam. Take the fun with you.
Valve publicly launched Steam In-Home Streaming today, a feature which allows users to stream games from their main gaming PC to lower-end networked computers running Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, or Steam OS. But a description of the service on Valve's official landing page lends support to the notion that your entire Steam game library may soon be playable on Android tablets and iPads.Here's the wording that raises my eyebrows: 'Play your Windows games on devices running other operating systems. Currently Mac OS X, Linux, and SteamOS, with support for more systems coming soon.' I can't think of many other operating systems Valve would invest their resources into supporting besides Android and iOS.
What Is Steam App For Mac Pro
Steam In-Home Streaming: Coming to an iPad near you?
![Steam Steam](https://www.pcper.com/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2012-08-08/steam_non_game_software.jpg)
Valve also states that the client computer (the one receiving the stream) has modest requirements, needing only a CPU or GPU with support for hardware accelerated H.264 decoding, something which has become fairly standard. It indeed works as advertised. I just successfully streamed racing game GRID 2 using Ultra graphics settings from my PC to my MacBook Air with no detectable lag. The MacBook Air only has an Intel Core i5 with embedded Intel HD Graphics 5000.
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So let's put these pieces of information together. A large selection of tablets such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 are driven by Intel's Atom processors, which boast full support for H.264 acceleration. Besides, Google's Android platform natively supports H.264 decoding. The list of companies mass-producing chips with this type of support is lengthy, and encompasses (to name only a few) Conexant, Broadcam, Realtek, Nvidia, and AMD.
In the Apple camp, iOS has had a hardware-based H.264 decoding API for years. It's a widely supported spec, and although Valve is promoting the ability to now play games like Tomb Raider and Metro: Last Light on your humble netbook or Mac via In-home Streaming, there's no limitation preventing them from extending the feature to a majority of Android and iOS devices. And that's an exciting possibility especially with Apple's recent controller support and the wealth of quality Bluetooth controllers for Android.
Speaking of exciting, most of you know that custom APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) from AMD are behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's graphical capabilities. All of the company's APUs produced since 2010 could feasibly support in-home streaming.
Best app for mac performance. And while it represents a clear conflict of interest and likely would never be allowed by the console gatekeepers, what if Valve developed a Steam client app for Xbox One and PlayStation 4? What if future Smart TVs shipped with controllers and a built-in Steam app?
All of this is speculation, but in-home streaming -- and not Steam Machines -- may be the trojan horse Valve needs to find their way into your living room.
Steam For Mac Os
You can learn more about Steam's in-home streaming for yourself via their website. I've reached out to Valve PR for comment.
From Valve: Steam is a software and gaming platform. Thousands of games from Action to Indie and everything in-between are available to purchase, download, and play from any computer. Enjoy exclusive deals, automatic game updates and other great perks. Check out the new releases, indie hits, casual favorites and everything in between. Find someone to play with, meet up with friends, connect with groups of similar interests, and host and join chats, matches, and tournaments. See when your friends are online or playing games and easily join the same games together. Chat with your buddies, or use your microphone to communicate in any game.