On the subject of computing as utility.
May. 24th, 2005 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
issaferretThis weekend I purchased Valve Software's latest masterpiece, the long-ago released Half Life 2. I've since been obscenely pleased with how good the game is, but that's actually another topic entirely. This little entry is about Valve's design and distribution methods, and what I believe they signify.
First, let me state that I was recently exposed to the concept of computing as a utility. 'Utility' in the sense that it has reliable availability - services stay up despite the workings of entropy on individual components, thus engendering a trust in the service so strong that when, even for a moment, it's unavailable, people are _surprised_. There's some other analogies involved in computing-as-utility that I don't currently care about; I just want to talk about availability.
You see, I purchased Half Life 2 without leaving the house. I made use of Valve's new 'Steam' distribution system. Valve's faith in Steam is so strong that their settlement with Vivendi, their distributor, involves Vivendi _ceasing to be their distributor_ as of August 31. All Valve's offerings will be available online only. At least until they decide that Steam's not quite enough for the folks who have modem service. Talk about trying to move a hill of sand with tweezers.
In any case. Steam. The idea of Steam is that you buy the game from them, and then you download a basic set of the game software - the Engine, the basic textures, so on, and you can start playing, while your three gigabyte monstrosity is still downloading in the background. I found this both cool and remarkably irritating first day, since I had to wait a Whole Two Hours to start playing after putting my money down, and the load times between levels were a pain, since it was downloading them on demand, effectively. The idea, though, is that you're going to be able to get the software, and _keep it updated_, without effort, because Steam keeps things neat an' tidy for you. It even politely mentions when drivers need updating and if you leave your computer on(line), it'll keep your game software updated. Some nice features.
It's predicated on the idea that your network connection will be there at all times. If you _lose_ your net connection midgame while it's still downloading (I suppose I should mention that once it's downloaded allaway, it's "offline capable", so you're not doomed to play a single player game only when you have 'net), you're screwed. Valve's assuming that's a sufficiently rare occurrence that it won't be a nuisance.
The network is becoming a utility that we all expect to have access to at all times. It's as addicting as television (or electricity for that matter). We need it. It's an interesting culture shift.
Now, on a similar but disconnected note, I'd like to tip my hat to ATI's Radeon cards, for having a video driver that is not inherently the weakest link in one's operating system. For those in the audience who don't pay rabid attention to The Way Things Work, modern OSs have some built in protections to make it so that the inevitable logic errors that cause applications to crash don't corrupt core system processes. They do this by segmenting memory and protecting who can write to it.
The problem here is that drivers run in the system space, in the core. Any third party driver is a potential source of issues that can perform a 'fandango on core', but due to the complex nature of the computations involved in 3D video, Vid cards are the worst offenders. Gamers like me will be playing along, and suddenly my display locks up and the entire computer ceases to respond, requiring a complete reboot. Lame. very lame.
Well, I was revving around a corner in the swampboat (goddamn, that's such an awesome sequence) when suddenly the sound went on tight loop and the video wedged. I sighed, but waited, because I could hear my computer ticking over. Went and got tea, came back, and a little dialog box had popped up on the screen - 'Sorry, but we've reset your video card because it'd stopped responding to driver commands.' And then my game came back, purring happily.
My jaw dropped briefly... then I realized I was still stuck in the Canals outside City 17, and I wanted to get to Eli before my tea got cold.
Nevertheless, it's a sign that computers are maturing, slowly but surely.
I'm pretty sure my brain started wandering off somewhere on that first one, and I lost some of the points I was going to make. I am, however, not going to fix my short-attention-span damaged writing tonight. I needs me the sleep.
Oh. Pherapods. Second coolest FPS game mechanic evar. It's like 'Follow me', but evil.
First coolest is still the gravity gun. The gameflow in HL2 is just a little more intelligent than average - and so many little puzzles involving moving things around involve the gravy gun... it's just very slick. The whole game design has me in serious awe. Leaves the frogs standing and all that.
Sleep.
First, let me state that I was recently exposed to the concept of computing as a utility. 'Utility' in the sense that it has reliable availability - services stay up despite the workings of entropy on individual components, thus engendering a trust in the service so strong that when, even for a moment, it's unavailable, people are _surprised_. There's some other analogies involved in computing-as-utility that I don't currently care about; I just want to talk about availability.
You see, I purchased Half Life 2 without leaving the house. I made use of Valve's new 'Steam' distribution system. Valve's faith in Steam is so strong that their settlement with Vivendi, their distributor, involves Vivendi _ceasing to be their distributor_ as of August 31. All Valve's offerings will be available online only. At least until they decide that Steam's not quite enough for the folks who have modem service. Talk about trying to move a hill of sand with tweezers.
In any case. Steam. The idea of Steam is that you buy the game from them, and then you download a basic set of the game software - the Engine, the basic textures, so on, and you can start playing, while your three gigabyte monstrosity is still downloading in the background. I found this both cool and remarkably irritating first day, since I had to wait a Whole Two Hours to start playing after putting my money down, and the load times between levels were a pain, since it was downloading them on demand, effectively. The idea, though, is that you're going to be able to get the software, and _keep it updated_, without effort, because Steam keeps things neat an' tidy for you. It even politely mentions when drivers need updating and if you leave your computer on(line), it'll keep your game software updated. Some nice features.
It's predicated on the idea that your network connection will be there at all times. If you _lose_ your net connection midgame while it's still downloading (I suppose I should mention that once it's downloaded allaway, it's "offline capable", so you're not doomed to play a single player game only when you have 'net), you're screwed. Valve's assuming that's a sufficiently rare occurrence that it won't be a nuisance.
The network is becoming a utility that we all expect to have access to at all times. It's as addicting as television (or electricity for that matter). We need it. It's an interesting culture shift.
Now, on a similar but disconnected note, I'd like to tip my hat to ATI's Radeon cards, for having a video driver that is not inherently the weakest link in one's operating system. For those in the audience who don't pay rabid attention to The Way Things Work, modern OSs have some built in protections to make it so that the inevitable logic errors that cause applications to crash don't corrupt core system processes. They do this by segmenting memory and protecting who can write to it.
The problem here is that drivers run in the system space, in the core. Any third party driver is a potential source of issues that can perform a 'fandango on core', but due to the complex nature of the computations involved in 3D video, Vid cards are the worst offenders. Gamers like me will be playing along, and suddenly my display locks up and the entire computer ceases to respond, requiring a complete reboot. Lame. very lame.
Well, I was revving around a corner in the swampboat (goddamn, that's such an awesome sequence) when suddenly the sound went on tight loop and the video wedged. I sighed, but waited, because I could hear my computer ticking over. Went and got tea, came back, and a little dialog box had popped up on the screen - 'Sorry, but we've reset your video card because it'd stopped responding to driver commands.' And then my game came back, purring happily.
My jaw dropped briefly... then I realized I was still stuck in the Canals outside City 17, and I wanted to get to Eli before my tea got cold.
Nevertheless, it's a sign that computers are maturing, slowly but surely.
I'm pretty sure my brain started wandering off somewhere on that first one, and I lost some of the points I was going to make. I am, however, not going to fix my short-attention-span damaged writing tonight. I needs me the sleep.
Oh. Pherapods. Second coolest FPS game mechanic evar. It's like 'Follow me', but evil.
First coolest is still the gravity gun. The gameflow in HL2 is just a little more intelligent than average - and so many little puzzles involving moving things around involve the gravy gun... it's just very slick. The whole game design has me in serious awe. Leaves the frogs standing and all that.
Sleep.
