If Nvidia is willing to play ball with AMD and use Mantle, that could further help SteamOS get stable footing.

But still, the biggest hurdle for it, the way I see it, is still gonna be the Windows only titles on Steam. How will that be handled? Emulation? Something else? I don't think it's something they can, or should, ignore.

The FAQ also says that you'll be able to download the OS freely. It's not going to be exclusive to the Steam Machines.

You might not have actually said that. But without that context, this:

"That means you need the Pro license"

implies that that is what you meant. [Edited for clarity]

So we're not in disagreement on that, but my contention still kinda stands since you also omitted the revenue limit and only mentioned the license costs. I don't think the cost of the license is that big of a deal if you have excess revenue of 100k. Though, that's of course a subjective contention, since you're free to think it's too expensive.

As it says in the FAQ, the feature set of the free version is not intended for the production of professional games and interactive content. That means you need the Pro license.

Actually I have to contest you on that point.

It says that the 'feature set' isn't 'intended' for production of professional quality content. It doesn't say that you're not allowed to use it for such, it means that the feature set is scaled down (for student use, primarily) and will not provide everything you need for a AAA quality/budget title.

You're still allowed to make a game and sell it with the free version, but once you hit 100k USD you need to purchase the Pro license (it's also worthy to note that this is based on the fiscal years, so you could actually be in excess of far more than 100k when you truly legally need to purhcase the license).

It's the exact same kind of deal C2 has, only with different amounts. Considering most people are fine with the requirement to get a business license if you hit 5k USD with C2, the 100k limit for Unity Pro should be more than enough.

I'm not sure what to think about this. I'm much too Windows reliant to switch over to Linux based alternatives (in a lot of cases there aren't any alternatives), so from an OS standpoint, it kinda falls flat on me.

However, the part that interests me is the focus on Streaming games from another computer to the SteamOS machine. I think that is where it will shine. Because when they released Big Picture, it was largely pointless. For the average gamer, they'd just play on the PC anyway and didn't need it, and for the people with mediacenter computers and such, those machines typically aren't strong enough to play a lot of the games on. This could change that and could also maybe get some more multiplayer games to steam that aren't strictly fps'es or coop based games or what-have-you.

Like with most things, we won't know until it's released proper, and I'll reserve judgment of it until I've poked at it.

This is pretty much exactly what you want to use if you want to emulate F-Zero (the first one, that is).

Mode 7 Effect

Working with it is kinda complicated and will involve some math.

Here's a page R0J0hound directed me to when I asked about Mode 7 stuff:

http://www.coranac.com/tonc/text/mode7ex.htm

Sounds like I'm talking to Anti-3D tech people here!!

You're not. Would I mind having some 3D options in C2? No. Would I use them? Likely not.

New Super Mario world, GTA China Town Wars....

China Town Wars was full 3D.

"Construct 2 is a powerful ground breaking HTML5 game creator designed specifically for 2D games."

This has been talked about countless times, and it's always the same old song and dance. C2 is for 2D development, not 3D. 3D might be possible, but it's not the focus.

Are you using the latest beta patch? r144 had issues with exporting, causing black or blank screens when exporting to html.

Same issue here. I've tried exporting a webkit exe and a regular html export. Neither works. The exe starts, but doesn't appear and just lies hidden within the task manager, and the html version on dropbox just opens a black page.

Previewing still works, strangely enough.

Cost for a WiiU devkit lies around $3000, according to things talked about here on the forums.

Whether or not the PS4 or Xbone will require devkits for indies is unsure at this point, but it seems the PS4 kit goes for $2500, a number I got from some articles (so, could be wrong) and Sony seems to have been loaning kits to various indie devs for zero cost.

Woah! o.o

That's cool of them. Congratz on that!