Team Fortress 2 Update Released March 18th

[rudedog]

Here's another update by the Valve team.
Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Added Multicore Rendering



This initial release is aimed at testing compatibility, so the option is OFF by default
To turn it on, go to the Options->Video->Advanced dialog, and check the "Multicore Rendering" option


Other Changes


Several performance improvements to decals and client bone/flex setup
A variety of alt-tab and mode switch fixes
Improvements to the way the engine initializes surround sound, fixing some specific hardware cases
Fixed a crash on exit in Vista 64

[Misnomer]

So they update the game aaaaaannnndddddd engine handling :rolleyes:.

Don't they know they could make money off this? :p

[bacon]

We have been asking for the mulitcore update for a while now, and they finally came through.

Did some testing running a timedemo and it is giving me a 20-25fps boost. This is an awesome update.:)

[Pendragon]

So they update the game aaaaaannnndddddd engine handling :rolleyes:.

Don't they know they could make money off this? :p

The whole thing about Valve's business model is that they do make money out of updates. Every time they patch a game it gets publicity, heck we are talking about it. Because they have Steam they know precisely that is being sold. They have identified a direct link between patches and sales, publicity and sales.

Other game sales drop off, hit the bargain bucket, then the shops run out of stock and that's it, the game is simply not available. (Some games continue to sell long after release because of the community that surrounds that game. The clans, mods and competition, keep people playing and buying the game. That's why we think we should be a voice that game devs should listen to)

This slow death doesn't happen with Valve back catalog, if you want Blue Shift, not a problem you can have it now for £2.99. If it wasn't for Steam you wouldn't be able to get it, but more to the point from Valve's point of view they now have your £2.99 and they have Steam on yet another PC.

[rudedog]

The whole thing about Valve's business model is that they do make money out of updates. Every time they patch a game it gets publicity, heck we are talking about it. Because they have Steam they know precisely that is being sold. They have identified a direct link between patches and sales, publicity and sales.

Other game sales drop off, hit the bargain bucket, then the shops run out of stock and that's it, the game is simply not available. (Some games continue to sell long after release because of the community that surrounds that game. The clans, mods and competition, keep people playing and buying the game. That's why we think we should be a voice that game devs should listen to)

This slow death doesn't happen with Valve back catalog, if you want Blue Shift, not a problem you can have it now for £2.99. If it wasn't for Steam you wouldn't be able to get it, but more to the point from Valve's point of view they now have your £2.99 and they have Steam on yet another PC.

I would love to know how many people Valve employees to keep cranking out these quick small patches compared to say EA or Activision. I can only assume Valve has quality workers not hindered by upper management working on their continued support for these products.

Currently we have JD2020 informing us that the priority with all the past patches for Call of Duty World at War put them behind on getting the PC content out the door, however I understood it as it was the same content across all platforms.

Either Treyarch has a guy working part time on patches and content or there is a problem with their management and or system over there.

[Pendragon]

With Valve I think it must have a lot to do with Steam. Distributing patches must be a nightmare for most publishers. I would be nice to see how Valve have their team organised. How they prioritise the work load. I would imagine there is a bug/feature list and people working through them. They must have a test process and a patch/feature approval process. Once all of the boxes get ticked it gets uploaded to the Steam servers. A quick note gets pushed out to the customers and that's that.

When a game is dragging it's feet on the sales or player number front they revisit the game with a fix or feature or just a sales push. They can give existing players "Free Passes" they can do a free play weekend (UT3 last weekend) or simply drop the price for a few weeks.

It appears to be working for Valve and given the resent success of UT3 it's working for other company's that buy in to the Valve way of doing things. Rock Paper Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/16/unreal-tournament-3-and-the-new-lazarus-effect/) New features, a sales push freeplay weekend plus discounts = increased players and sales.

This model is one we would like others (EA Activision) take up.

[rudedog]

I read the RPS article but after looking at the online numbers for UT3 they does not appear to be any increase in online activity.

Current UT3 numbers from gamesply is as follows:
33. Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) (http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/mods.asp?id=1727&s=1) 738 servers, 357 players

It may have increased sales, which the discount + patch + steam should increase sales. TBH I can't take the time to reinstall UT3 and patch it, I lost so much interest with the piss poor game upon release and Cliffy B's attitude towards his PC customers, you know all us pirates....

Funny thing while doing some research late last night and this am, you would be surprised or not, on which company has the best contact page and who does not have one at all........ more info to come within the next day or so.

[Pendragon]

I took part in the Freeplay weekend, it took me around 5 mins to figure out it's not my type of game. Quake Arena but a little bigger. My ability to play a game for any length of time is inversely proportional to how high you can jump! Quake=5mins TF2=15mins CoD:4=1hour ArmA=4hours

[Misnomer]

I rd the RPS article too. For as much of a steam fanboy as I seem, I do worry about what sudden third party publisher enthusiasm for it could mean. UT3 did not become a better game simply by having a free weekend, but it got the most from the Steam community. Plus, as rudedog so pointed out. Steam isn't growing fast enough to support all these games equally. Sure some people tried UT3 and bought it, but are they long lasting members of the UT3 community now? No. Steam Sale bubbles are becoming common in games, hard to say if it is a good thing or not.

Another danger here becomes that with discounts on weekends and Steam promotions, developers will be able to foist more of the same crap off on us. The best thing Steam has going for it at the moment when it comes to this is the "Should I buy this ?" thread in the forums linked to each game. At least there is a way for gamers to warn each other. I consider this the online equivalent to the guy standing next to you in the game shop looking casually at the rack and saying "Don't bother, it's crap." (A member of fpsadmin most likely).

Still, as long as people will buy for the discounts on Steam, publishers will be able to say "oh well, the game may be crap but we can still get some money out of it."

A good thing has not been created that was not immediately abused by business.