Current Events > Steam should really have hardware check functionality.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm not a developer but this seems very easy to do, correct me if I'm wrong.

• Have a service that reads your machine'srelevant hardware specs and stores them (to save memory/processing).
• Use this to compare against listed minimum/recommended specs for games in the store
• Output a report based on your hardware. Could show you where you hardware is ok/lacking. Could report a "you can run this at mid settings" type summary.
• Basically an in-built "can you run this game?" function

This seems very straightforward to me, and would be really helpful for gamers. So why not do it?

Or would this potentially eat into their bottom line by discouraging gamers from buying things they can only run sub-optimally

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pinky0926 posted...

Or would this potentially eat into their bottom line by discouraging gamers from buying things they can only run sub-optimally

I'm thinking this. Considering Steam allows you to pay for games that aren't finished and probably never will be, it isn't the best business model for them overall.

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Wii_Shaker posted...

I'm thinking this. Considering Steam allows you to pay for games that aren't finished and probably never will be, it isn't the best business model for them overall.

Counter-argument. There are a dozen competitor launcher products now that are fast catching up to steam (if not in functionality, at least in catalogue). Why not provide services that set them apart?

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Seems like a good idea to me.

At this point my only computer is a decently powerful laptop, and I just want to know if it can run older games on the store decently. (360 games basically and some rts)

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pinky0926 posted...

Or would this potentially eat into their bottom line by discouraging gamers from buying things they can only run sub-optimally

Steam pretty much refunds anything no questions asked as long as the conditions are met, so I doubt this is the case.

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I don't know why they don't they don't have that function. If you buy a game from them and it runs sub-par on your pc, they will give you a refund if you want it. So I doubt it'll cost much money for them.

To the points the first couple posts were making, it has stopped me from buying games entirely.

Except for some indie (plus some ancient rtses) stuff I am sure it can run.

*huh, didn't know the above

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Valve EASILY could do this but they won't because publishing tech specs is not only a consumer advocacy indicator, it's also a sly marketing tool for PC gamers to know what hardware they should upgrade to before buying a game to run at full optimization.

It makes no difference than a 3rd party device checker you could click on to which is why I think it's more about the business aspects.

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pinky0926 posted...

Counter-argument. There are a dozen competitor launcher products now that are fast catching up to steam (if not in functionality, at least in catalogue). Why not provide services that set them apart?

Probably name recognition. There are few launchers also that offer the sort of community conveniences such as chat, forums, matching, ect.

It's kind of like Apple being worried about knock-off phones. Steam gets the lions share of the pie.

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Wii_Shaker posted...

It's kind of like Apple being worried about knock-off phones. Steam gets the lions share of the pie.

Apple doesn't get the lion's share though.

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Because those checkers don't always work. And that would just be more hassle that they have to deal with .

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Also, developers sometimes heavily over or underestimate their minimum requirements.

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cjsdowg posted...

Because those checkers don't always work. And that would just be more hassle that they have to deal with .

What do you mean "don't work"? Do you just mean that the developer's recommendations just don't reflect the actual requirements?

Cause I've never had those checkers fail to properly identify my hardware or fail to compare it reasonably to the developer's recommendations.

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Predicting performance based on hardware isn't always straightforward. Some games depend more heavily on CPU than GPU, some benefit from more processor cores, some only care about clock frequency. A lot of variables are involved. OS & drivers can have an impact too. The only way to get accurate results is to have Steam do benchmarks on a lot of different hardware combinations + different resolutions and ingame settings.

I think this would definitely be a good feature to have but I can understand why Steam doesn't want to implement it. Honestly I'd be happy at this point if Steam would just disallow devs from using 'funny' system requirements, like: recommended video card: anything not a potato lolol.

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Hornezz posted...

Predicting performance based on hardware isn't always straightforward. Some games depend more heavily on CPU than GPU, some benefit from more processor cores, some only care about clock frequency. A lot of variables are involved. OS & drivers can have an impact too. The only way to get accurate results is to have Steam do benchmarks on a lot of different hardware combinations + different resolutions and ingame settings.

I think this would definitely be a good feature to have but I can understand why Steam doesn't want to implement it. Honestly I'd be happy at this point if Steam would just disallow devs from using 'funny' system requirements, like: recommended video card: anything not a potato lolol.

I suppose there is a lot of support that they'd have to implement and provide to make this serviceable. I didn't realise developers submit their own specs apparently unchecked. Would explain why I can't run Just Cause 3 for shit.

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