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Valve Built An Orb: The making of the Steam Deck OLED launch trailer

197 points by lesona 2y ago

pyrolistical 2y ago
Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do this with VFX?
- EveryPizza 2y ago
  > Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do this with VFX? Yes but this seems much more fun
  - balls187 2y ago
    From the write up, it’s hard to see that this was fun. It seems more like Chris Rock’s joke about driving a car with your feet.
    - ok_dad 2y ago
      The fun is the sense of accomplishment for doing something difficult or extraordinary. Humans have been doing not-fun things forever for that reason alone sometimes.
      - jauntywundrkind 2y ago
        Something hackers repudely excel at, taking on difficult feats for the heck of it & because we humanity are great & we can.
        balls187 2y ago
        Valve Software is hardly "hackers." They used a setup from TI, which I had the priveledge of attending this past year at CPA--one of the most stupidest overpriced venues in the US. This isn't a rag tag band of rebel filmmakers.
      - balls187 2y ago
        > The fun is the sense of accomplishment for doing something difficult or extraordinary. I think that was the issue--the write up did not go into the details, which makes it seem like what they did was neither difficult nor extraordinary, especially if you factor in that Valve has practically unlimited amount of money to spend, a deep pool of talented employees with nothing better to do, and no deadlines.
        ok_dad 2y ago
        Yea the details were lacking but this is a cool project which took someone’s time and creativity. Whether or not it was an accomplishment for them or valve on a grand scale doesn’t matter, you folks don’t have to shit on it because it wasn’t mind blowing. I swear, nothing impresses hacker news commenters, Dropbox included.
    - jeeva 2y ago
      It's possible that if you don't find it fun, it's not for you. I had fun reading about it; would probably have had fun doing it. No worries if that doesn't match up!
    - numpad0 2y ago
      people are paid assembling cars all the time
    - itishappy 2y ago
      The writeup explicitly states it was fun: > This seems fun enough — and dumb enough — to try, so we got to work. They then put it in their lobby because they thought it was cool.
- wpietri 2y ago
  As they write in the article: "we wanted to shoot it practically (with actual cameras) to show off the new screen" Because VFX can show anything, a synthetic video tells you nothing about the actual brightness of the screen. Which was their whole point: "Then, as we began to the see the new screens around the office, we were shocked. We knew we'd spec'd bright, OLED screens, but these things were EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT. Startlingly bright."
- larkinrichards 2y ago
  unlikely. They'd already created the prototype decks. They had the fabrication know-how in house. Sure they have in house VFX experience, but rigging the scene and trying to match lighting to reality and ultimately disappointing customers? It's a no brainer to use the real deal when you can. Many would hire an agency to create an ad for you but that would 10x the cost, not to mention dealing with the opinions of an outsourced creative director...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
a1o 2y ago
Honestly looks great. Liked the short videos, the one that shows the orb in After Effects with the cut of what goes into deck screen was also very interesting. Ages ago I saw a work that was (I think) a piece of art that reused many phones for their screens to show things in sync. I don't remember if they were early Android phones or if it was done before with screens of feature phones. But the work here reminded me of that.
dublinben 2y ago
If this seems familiar, this seems to be largely republishing a Fediverse thread that was originally posted back in November. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38240861 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38240861
Phiwise_ 2y ago
Somewhat off-topic, but I've been feeling really burned by my steam deck purchase lately. When it came out, I gave Valve the benefit of the doubt there was some good reason why they weren't providing an OLED option, and bought the highest tier even though money is tight. I figured their commitment to opening the PC platform and quality hardware earned them my trust on that. Now what am I supposed to do? Sell my model and take a bath on the used item depreciation to get a worthwhile screen? Buy a second device with pretty much identical performance otherwise? Pay for the screen I should have been able to choose separately and go through the headache of replacing it myself? This is tripping at the finish line, especially since I waited a massive fraction of the time it took them to release this for the inferior version anyway. I get Valve prides themselves on being different than most other technology companies, but innovating on what delivering the best product you can for the money to your customer means is the wrong place to break the mold, especially for a company of Valve's profitability compared to overhead. On so many things, they could do much better at comparatively little dollar cost if they just thought wanting to was important. It's really disappointing how much this has correlated with their success.
- amiantos 2y ago
  The original Steam Deck came out Feburary 2022 and the OLED model came out November 2023, nearly two years later. > This is tripping at the finish line It sounds like the only person tripping here is you.
  - Phiwise_ 2y ago
    The original Steam Deck came out Feburary 2022 and the OLED model came out November 2023, nearly two years later, and I got my original Steam Deck nearly one year after giving Valve my money.
    - amiantos 2y ago
      Is this verbal algebra?
      - 2y ago
rkachowski 2y ago
> [NDI] it's commonly used by modern planetariums and megachurches. It was perfect for our needs. out of context but I love it
- RunningDroid 2y ago
  Continuing off-topic, my (very much not-mega) church used to use NDI (for overlaying the presentation onto the view of the speaker/band) but we recently switched to using an extra HDMI hub + an HDMI capture card and had a notable improvement in performance/framerate (on an underpowered laptop.)
Hamuko 2y ago
Glad that they didn't tear it down afterwards. Seems like a fun artifact to have around the office.
resource_waste 2y ago
You just wonder what the would would be like without Marketing. Imagine we only had facts/specs of equipment in advertising, and all these people maliciously using your own psychology against you, had productive jobs where they contribute more resources/services to the world. Steam is one of the good companies, but when I see this much effort go into marketing, it just makes me think of waste. There is poverty, environmental degradation, cancer... but hey: Look cool video to convince me to buy something.
- dkdbejwi383 2y ago
  Not to mention the waste of resources, manufacturing a bunch of computers to be used for a short period of time to create an ad to sell the same computer, before being relegated to the corner of an office to gather dust.
  - jeeva 2y ago
    I quite liked this line from the article: > We figured we would need about 100 Steam Decks to pull this off. And as luck would have it, we had that many old OLED prototypes laying around the office.
- SiempreViernes 2y ago
  I understand the feeling, but I think it is ultimately not marketings fault. It is much more likely that the type of leadership that splurges on marketing would, if forced to put the money somewhere else, direct it to something else that directly serves their own personal needs. So if C-suit can't boost their personal brand by ordering expensive marketing, they'll more likely to spend on ostentatious offices or expensive company cars rather that headcount in in-house testing departments or getting technical writers to work on documentation.
- dotnet00 2y ago
  I feel like you're being way too cynical. You're complaining about advertising for a gaming product, which also isn't exactly something that one needs to survive. In your world where everything is only done because it is productive, gaming itself wouldn't exist.
Lio 2y ago
I like the reference to Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. For anyone interested, the story of how he was able to film by candle light[1] is a really interesting bit of engineering in the pursuit of art. 1. https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/ https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-fa...
pityJuke 2y ago
Did Valve re-render the "Meet the Spy" video for that gag in the article? Could you... pretty please do an official HD remastering of it? :)
- l-p 2y ago
  Looks composited to me, look at the odd wobble of the picture overlapping the Gonarch, that's not present in the original video.
- me_me_me 2y ago
  this whole post is the most valve thing, valve has done in a while. We built orb. Video shows building orb... there is no great reveal at the end no crescendo. We built orb and that's it. Love it.
- OliveMate 2y ago
  I'll always be peeved that Valve showcased Meet the Spy in SFM when they were advertising its release[1], yet never released the project files for it unlike their earlier shorts. If they released the full project files to the public we could render our own HD remasters as we please. [1] https://youtu.be/Zri1c_If6Ic?t=73 https://youtu.be/Zri1c_If6Ic?t=73

197 points by lesona 2y ago

pyrolistical 2y ago

Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do this with VFX?

EveryPizza 2y ago
> Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do this with VFX? Yes but this seems much more fun
- balls187 2y ago
  From the write up, it’s hard to see that this was fun. It seems more like Chris Rock’s joke about driving a car with your feet.
  - ok_dad 2y ago
    The fun is the sense of accomplishment for doing something difficult or extraordinary. Humans have been doing not-fun things forever for that reason alone sometimes.
    - jauntywundrkind 2y ago
      Something hackers repudely excel at, taking on difficult feats for the heck of it & because we humanity are great & we can.
      - balls187 2y ago
        Valve Software is hardly "hackers." They used a setup from TI, which I had the priveledge of attending this past year at CPA--one of the most stupidest overpriced venues in the US. This isn't a rag tag band of rebel filmmakers.
    - balls187 2y ago
      > The fun is the sense of accomplishment for doing something difficult or extraordinary. I think that was the issue--the write up did not go into the details, which makes it seem like what they did was neither difficult nor extraordinary, especially if you factor in that Valve has practically unlimited amount of money to spend, a deep pool of talented employees with nothing better to do, and no deadlines.
      - ok_dad 2y ago
        Yea the details were lacking but this is a cool project which took someone’s time and creativity. Whether or not it was an accomplishment for them or valve on a grand scale doesn’t matter, you folks don’t have to shit on it because it wasn’t mind blowing. I swear, nothing impresses hacker news commenters, Dropbox included.
  - jeeva 2y ago
    It's possible that if you don't find it fun, it's not for you. I had fun reading about it; would probably have had fun doing it. No worries if that doesn't match up!
  - numpad0 2y ago
    people are paid assembling cars all the time
  - itishappy 2y ago
    The writeup explicitly states it was fun: > This seems fun enough — and dumb enough — to try, so we got to work. They then put it in their lobby because they thought it was cool.
wpietri 2y ago
As they write in the article: "we wanted to shoot it practically (with actual cameras) to show off the new screen" Because VFX can show anything, a synthetic video tells you nothing about the actual brightness of the screen. Which was their whole point: "Then, as we began to the see the new screens around the office, we were shocked. We knew we'd spec'd bright, OLED screens, but these things were EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT. Startlingly bright."
larkinrichards 2y ago
unlikely. They'd already created the prototype decks. They had the fabrication know-how in house. Sure they have in house VFX experience, but rigging the scene and trying to match lighting to reality and ultimately disappointing customers? It's a no brainer to use the real deal when you can. Many would hire an agency to create an ad for you but that would 10x the cost, not to mention dealing with the opinions of an outsourced creative director...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

a1o 2y ago

Honestly looks great. Liked the short videos, the one that shows the orb in After Effects with the cut of what goes into deck screen was also very interesting. Ages ago I saw a work that was (I think) a piece of art that reused many phones for their screens to show things in sync. I don't remember if they were early Android phones or if it was done before with screens of feature phones. But the work here reminded me of that.

dublinben 2y ago

If this seems familiar, this seems to be largely republishing a Fediverse thread that was originally posted back in November. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38240861 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38240861

Phiwise_ 2y ago

Somewhat off-topic, but I've been feeling really burned by my steam deck purchase lately. When it came out, I gave Valve the benefit of the doubt there was some good reason why they weren't providing an OLED option, and bought the highest tier even though money is tight. I figured their commitment to opening the PC platform and quality hardware earned them my trust on that. Now what am I supposed to do? Sell my model and take a bath on the used item depreciation to get a worthwhile screen? Buy a second device with pretty much identical performance otherwise? Pay for the screen I should have been able to choose separately and go through the headache of replacing it myself? This is tripping at the finish line, especially since I waited a massive fraction of the time it took them to release this for the inferior version anyway. I get Valve prides themselves on being different than most other technology companies, but innovating on what delivering the best product you can for the money to your customer means is the wrong place to break the mold, especially for a company of Valve's profitability compared to overhead. On so many things, they could do much better at comparatively little dollar cost if they just thought wanting to was important. It's really disappointing how much this has correlated with their success.

amiantos 2y ago
The original Steam Deck came out Feburary 2022 and the OLED model came out November 2023, nearly two years later. > This is tripping at the finish line It sounds like the only person tripping here is you.
- Phiwise_ 2y ago
  The original Steam Deck came out Feburary 2022 and the OLED model came out November 2023, nearly two years later, and I got my original Steam Deck nearly one year after giving Valve my money.
  - amiantos 2y ago
    Is this verbal algebra?
    - 2y ago

rkachowski 2y ago

> [NDI] it's commonly used by modern planetariums and megachurches. It was perfect for our needs. out of context but I love it

RunningDroid 2y ago
Continuing off-topic, my (very much not-mega) church used to use NDI (for overlaying the presentation onto the view of the speaker/band) but we recently switched to using an extra HDMI hub + an HDMI capture card and had a notable improvement in performance/framerate (on an underpowered laptop.)

Hamuko 2y ago

Glad that they didn't tear it down afterwards. Seems like a fun artifact to have around the office.

resource_waste 2y ago

You just wonder what the would would be like without Marketing. Imagine we only had facts/specs of equipment in advertising, and all these people maliciously using your own psychology against you, had productive jobs where they contribute more resources/services to the world. Steam is one of the good companies, but when I see this much effort go into marketing, it just makes me think of waste. There is poverty, environmental degradation, cancer... but hey: Look cool video to convince me to buy something.

dkdbejwi383 2y ago
Not to mention the waste of resources, manufacturing a bunch of computers to be used for a short period of time to create an ad to sell the same computer, before being relegated to the corner of an office to gather dust.
- jeeva 2y ago
  I quite liked this line from the article: > We figured we would need about 100 Steam Decks to pull this off. And as luck would have it, we had that many old OLED prototypes laying around the office.
SiempreViernes 2y ago
I understand the feeling, but I think it is ultimately not marketings fault. It is much more likely that the type of leadership that splurges on marketing would, if forced to put the money somewhere else, direct it to something else that directly serves their own personal needs. So if C-suit can't boost their personal brand by ordering expensive marketing, they'll more likely to spend on ostentatious offices or expensive company cars rather that headcount in in-house testing departments or getting technical writers to work on documentation.
dotnet00 2y ago
I feel like you're being way too cynical. You're complaining about advertising for a gaming product, which also isn't exactly something that one needs to survive. In your world where everything is only done because it is productive, gaming itself wouldn't exist.

Lio 2y ago

I like the reference to Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. For anyone interested, the story of how he was able to film by candle light[1] is a really interesting bit of engineering in the pursuit of art. 1. https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-famous-f0-7-lenses/ https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-fa...

pityJuke 2y ago

Did Valve re-render the "Meet the Spy" video for that gag in the article? Could you... pretty please do an official HD remastering of it? :)

l-p 2y ago
Looks composited to me, look at the odd wobble of the picture overlapping the Gonarch, that's not present in the original video.
me_me_me 2y ago
this whole post is the most valve thing, valve has done in a while. We built orb. Video shows building orb... there is no great reveal at the end no crescendo. We built orb and that's it. Love it.
OliveMate 2y ago
I'll always be peeved that Valve showcased Meet the Spy in SFM when they were advertising its release[1], yet never released the project files for it unlike their earlier shorts. If they released the full project files to the public we could render our own HD remasters as we please. [1] https://youtu.be/Zri1c_If6Ic?t=73 https://youtu.be/Zri1c_If6Ic?t=73