Pericolos0

Hey guys, I figured I should create a spin-off thread from my local multiplayer games thread .

So I've been toying around with setting up the ultimate steam big picture setup for my apartment. I wanted to see if I could get the full console experience like you get with a ps4 using steam. This means:

-Being able to sit down in my couch and start up SBP with a controller

-Being able to control everything with a controller, I don't ever want to be using a mouse and keyboard in my couch

-Media controls. Stream videos, watch netflix etc

So far I've managed to get it to be 99% there the way i want it to be, and I'm pretty damn impressed with SBP . I think they still have ways to go for this to be a proper console replacement for the mainstream user, but it's already a great starting point.

Let's use this thread to share hardware/software setups and share ideas on how to make the experience better. 

HARDWARE:

I had to get a few things to get everything hooked up. I spent about ~150$ on cables, controllers and other equipment. More than I planned to spend, but still way cheaper than actually getting a console .

For my setup I have a projector set up in my living room which has a VGA connection. I used a VGA cable splitter to clone my primary monitor and hook it up with the projector. I'm using this one which uses a USB plug for extra signal strength: http://www.startech.com/AV/Splitters/VGA-Splitters/2-Port-VGA-Video-Splitter-USB-Powered~ST122LE

This way, I'll always have my primary monitor turned on when I turn on the projector. I don't need to go into any display settings to turn it on.

For sound I already had my pc connected to my surround sound system, so that takes care of that.

I also bought 2 wireless XBOX360 controllers. Make sure to get a PC receiver for them. You can order ones that are bundles for PC with a receiver. I've successfully tested one receiver with 4 wireless controllers, and it works perfectly.

And finally I also got a Nyko charging base, so I can keep the controllers right next to my couch and always fully charged . I like it because it just connects to a power plug, you dont need to have it hooked to your pc.

http://www.nyko.com/products/product-detail/?name=Charge+Base+S

It comes with 2 rechargeable battery packs

With all this, all I have to do is turn on my projector, grab a controller, and hold down to xbox button to start up SBP. Holding down the xbox button for 3 seconds will start up steam in big picture mode, even if you had other stuff running on your computer. It'll even turn on your computer if it was on stand-by mode. Really cool feature which is crucial to make the console experience work.

Of course this is just my setup, there are many different ways to set it up. If your PC has a HDMI out option, that's better than my VGA setup, as it's digital and can also carry audio. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried out any wireless solutions. I'd love to hear about any wireless HDMI solutions. If that works well I could also setup steam to work with my bedroom tv .

SOFTWARE:

Steam Big Picture works great with a controller if you only play the games that are officially on steam and 100% controller compatible. SBP will actually tell you if a game is controller compatible, partially compatible or not at all, which is great. However it makes the library pretty limited, and you can greatly extend it with some hacks.

Some game are partially compatible, which means they need either a mouse or keyboard at some point. For example trackmania 2 requires a mouse to get through the maniaplanet menu. Dark Souls 2 needs a keyboard to type your name (even though everything else is controllable with a controller).

I don't want to ever leave my couch for any of these things, so I've been looking for ways to emulate mouse and keyboard control with a controller.

mouse control:

http://nirklars.wordpress.com/xboxmouse/ - this handy little software will allow you to press a button combo on your controller to turn on mouse emulation. Really useful to navigate menus in some games. If you are hardcore you can probably use it to play CIV5 too . However the button combo (LB+RB+B) is kinda crappy, because pressing B als causes you to go back or even exit a game in some cases. Not ideal. 

So I adjusted to source code so it uses LB+RB+X, which works a lot better. I also turned off all the other extra features that you don't really need. 

You can get it here: http://www.brameulaers.net/filez/xboxmouse_steam.rar

Just unrar it anywhere you want, and link up the .exe to your windows startup folder so it's always on . Toggle it on or off using LB+RB+X, and press X to mouseclick.

This is obviously a hacky solution but it's better than nothing. Valve is obviously trying to fix this issue with their proprietary steam controller, but it would also be awesome if this feature was built into steam. Fingers crossed someone from valve is reading this.

keyboard control:

The steam "daisy" keyboard popup seems to be working really well for most games, however not all of them seem to use it (dark souls 2 for example ). I havn't found a good hack to get around this yet, if anyone knows of a good on screen keyboard overlay, that works with a controller and that I can run on top of software, let me know! 

Meanwhile this is the biggest drawback of SBP so far... for some games you just have to use a keyboard every now and then.

If anyone has a 360 chatpad, let me know if that works on PC .

*UPDATE*: found another good solution for keyboard+mouse, simply use your phone! If you have android, you can use this free app: http://remote-control-collection.com/

MEDIA:

For playing media I simply have XBMC installed, and launch it from within steam as a non-steam app. I even gave it a separate media category. Works perfectly so far! Exiting XBMC returns you back to steam as well. XBMC could probably use a thread of it's own so I won't go into detail on this . 

more info: http://xbmc.org/

Figured out how to make steam BP work with a ps2 emulator. Took a while to figure out but I can now launch ps2 games from steam, and it works beautifully with the steam overlay. Screenshot of it running ICO:

I think I'll just start a steam TV hacks thread

I havent played it myself but i've seen a lot of people having a good time playing.... crap I forgot the name of the game. 

 

Just came out, was on ps4 first, kind of 4 player arena game like smash bros... 

 

EDIT : Towerfall ascension was the name. Had to go through like 3 sites on google to find it.

Mazy suggested that one as well, Ill try it out!

I found a tool that alllows you to enable/disable mouse control with a controller: http://nirklars.wordpress.com/xboxmouse/

you press the left and right bumper + B at the same time and it will toggle mouse control. Really useful for situations where you absolutely need to use the mouse to navigate a menu! It's a hack, but still, better than nothing . I actually adjusted the source code and my version uses left and right bumper + X, because B in some menus also triggers you to go back or even exit the game. If anyone wants it, let me know!

At least now I can play trackmania without having to leave the couch .

Maybe I should start a separate STEAM TV HACKS thread?

trackmania2 is fantastic with 4 player split screen, and everything is controllable with a controller, EXCEPT for one part of the menu (to open trackmania2 from maniaplanet). What a stupid oversight . It sucks having to walk over to the computer just to click than one button. Of the whole game they left one button you cant access.. what a bummer, hopefully I can find a way around it

literally the only thing you can do in the maniaplanet menu is exit the game lol

That looks awesome!

Alright today i met a russian guy in dayz. After the proper courtesies of the introduction, he told me i had nice tits ( i was playing a black woman ), so i asked him if he was liking my big fat black ass - i was kneeling down and he was behind me going : ohh yeah that's nice ass uh uhhhh uhhh yeahh, with a very strong russian accent. Then we politely told each other goodbye and we went on our way.

 

I.. I don't feel .. i mean this is the first time i experience virtual copulation.. is it... is it normal ? Is this what dayz is about ? What am i doing with my life ?

u r gay now

hidden in plain sight is an amazing party game, which i had a blast with on the 360. It's now released on steam!

I think in recent years controller support in PC has become a lot more common. Mainly thanks to indie games, and steam making AAA console title releases on PC profitable again. It used to be even just a few years ago that PC releases of traditional console titles were pretty crappy or plainly just ignored but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Even the new metal gear is going to be on steam now! 

Really the only thing ps4 and xbone have going now is a few exclusives but with the PC space being so strong now I'm ready to just skip getting any of the consoles this time around . 

 

My projector has a VGA input so I just got a vga splitter that duplicates my primary monitor.

 

Do you have to change any settings in Windows for that? I use DisplayFushion and have to switch between profiles, since my gfx card doesn't support more than 2 monitors. So the default profile is just Dual Monitor PC and the other is that my primary monitor is duplicated on TV (and with this the seconday monitor is automatically disabled).

The situation you seem to have is what I wanted from the beginning.

 

Nope, windows doesn't know about the projector at all. It's just a cable splitter with a usb plug to increase power for the signal. There are HDMI splitter as well which function the same.

This is what I got for my setup: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port-VGA-Video-Splitter/dp/B000YB2HEM/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1411662018&sr=1-3&keywords=vga+cable+splitter+usb

of course HDMI or digital VGA output is better quality because it's not analog. But simply splitting VGA was the most simple setup in my case . Takes a little fiddling to get the sharpness right, but once setup it's perfect.

I also got a charging base for my 360 controllers setup up next to my couch;

So now all I have to do to get the console experience is turn on big picture, turn on projector and grab a controller . Really feels like a proper console experience, except everything is 1080p and 60 fps , which from what I've seen the xbox one and ps4 are still struggling to achieve

- The 2 Trine games are great coop puzzle-solving

- Renegade Ops, fun top-down driving game

- The Watchmen games are so bad they become good in coop, I enjoyed them

- Dead Pixels is worth a try, seeing how cheap it is

- Dungeon Defenders was cool, never tried coop but has potential

- Jamestown

- Hammerwatch

- Magicka

- Shank & Shank 2 (although too hard for me and my wife, never got past the first bosses)

- Kung Fu Strike (same, was hard)

- Rocketbirds

- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is awesome

- Capsized

ooh yeah i forgot about renegade ops and magicka, I have them on steam but never tried local multiplayer!

I'm pretty impressed so far with the amount of local multiplayer games there actually are on steam. Makes the selection on current consoles look pretty abysmal

My projector has a VGA input so I just got a vga splitter that duplicates my primary monitor. Really loving steam TV so far! The fact that you can set it up to launch non-steam stuff really turns it into basically an amazing console. I added XBMC to it as well so basically I can play movies, netflix, go back to steam, play some emulators etc all with a controller .

you probably already know but portal 2 and l4d1 and 2 can do split screen.

Yeah heard about this too . How easy is it to control the whole thing with a controller? Can you navigate menus etc? One thing I don't want to end up with is a setup where I have to use a mouse from my couch . 

mario war:

someone suggested speedrunners to me:

rayman origins:

I think Flatout Ultimate Carnage have split screen, they also have party mode with the stunt games in them.

Seems like you're right! Great suggestion

racing games?

seems like trackmania 2 has split screen! Excellent!!!

mazy: no kane & lynch recommendation?

Also thisis a bit old school, but what about Liero or Soldat?

 

oooh.. soldat has local multiplayer? That would rule

serious sam 3 has split screen on pc:

terrible game but could be fun coop

spelunky has local coop as well. Not sure if it's any good? I've only ever played it single player

Ooooooh excellent recommendations so far! I forgot about Nidhogg and Mount Your Friends . Exactly what I'm looking for!

for starters: broforce supports 4 player local multiplayer, and is a lot of fun: http://www.broforcegame.com/

Hey guys,

I decided I'm not getting any of the new consoles this time around, and want steam to be my next "console". So I hooked it up to my tv and got a bunch of wireless controllers. Now I'm wondering what some good multiplayer partygames are that are available on PC. I already have some emulators installed, which is cool for classic snes games and stuff, but I'm wondering what there is on steam for this, or outside of steam. Any indie games & freeware too

Thanks!

Steam big picture mode is really really awesome by the way