Valve has published its latest Steam Client update, and for Steam Deck and Steam Machine owners, this means a new Stable update is available to all users. The most noticeable change is on the home screen, as gamers can now enable ‘Big Art Mode’ to spruce up the page with artwork from whatever game they are currently hovering over. We see it as a nice console-like touch. Regular desktop PC users on Windows can access these features by hopping over into Big Picture Mode.

Screensavers have also been added as another form of customization. If you leave the screensaver as the default, then you’ll also get a game art slideshow, though this can be configured further to focus on your recently played games or include your recent in-game screenshots. Much like startup movies, custom screensavers are also supported, so we can’t wait to see what users come up with. It didn’t take long for fans to make a GameCube-style intro for the Steam Machine, for example.

Valve has also added “A retro-inspired bouncing logo screensaver” for users to enjoy. It turns out this is identical to the classic bouncing DVD logo, except it uses the Steam logo. Users can also use this particular screensaver as a base for customization, turning the Steam logo into whatever they like. The logo changes colors each time it hits the edge of the screen, and we imagine people will spend a silly amount of time waiting for it to hit exactly in the corner in the hope it does something extra special.

The rest of the patch notes for October’s Steam Client update

Along with the Home Screen and Screensaver updates, the new October update for the Steam Client comes with a long list of improvements and fixes. You can find the rest of the patch notes below.

General

• Added notification about the current user when waking from sleep, if there have been multiple recent users. The notification can be activated to switch users and dismisses immediately on any other input. This notification can be toggled from the Notification Settings.
• Added confirmation step to “exit VR” and “switch to desktop mode” power menu actions, and removed it from “sleep”.
• Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game.
• Added confirmation dialog/user switching ability when waking from sleep would require kicking an active session elsewhere.
• Added “Default to Desktop Mode” toggle to System settings.
• Added support for keyboard glyphs in the footer when using mouse/kb to interact with Big Picture Mode
• Added delaying dimming the screen or displaying the screensaver when the Steam Store, web browsers or other apps request to disable monitor sleep and screensavers while playing video.
• Added a setting to disable the screensaver when in game
• Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork.
• Improved the layout of the QAM Voice Chat tab, added a mute toggle to the volume sliders, and fixed the link from the tab to the active chat to focus the textbox when opening to the chat window
• Improved the text layout in achievement notifications when the name, description or both wrap across multiple lines.
• Improved download speeds on high latency connections.
• Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power
• Pressing the controller’s system button will request the TV to switch to the Steam Machine as the active source (the connected TV must support HDMI CEC)
• The ‘System Report’ dialog is now more responsive when displaying and uploading the gathered system report.
• Windows binaries registered as non-steam games will now run in Proton by default.
• Using a physical mouse to click on text input will no longer bring up the On-Screen Keyboard
• When waking from sleep with a game running but the account now playing elsewhere:
  • Provide an option to exit the local game.
  • Go back to sleep if there is no input for 60 seconds.
• The “Select compatibility tool” dropdown is now always visible.
  • The recommended compatibility tool, or steam runtime for native games, now shows at the top of the list as the “Default” option.
  • Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. “Proton Stable”, can now be selected from this dropdown.
• Fixed a case where Windows games would show as ‘Not Compatible’ in the library view until a manual Proton version was selected for this app.
• Fixed “Suspend Download Throttle” not properly updating on the downloads page.
• Fixed an issue where virtual gamepads were torn down temporarily when a game called the ISteamUtils::SetGameLauncherMode api, which could cause titles that don’t support controller hotplugging to lose input
• Fixed the on-screen keyboard not popping up in non-Steam games after toggling wifi or suspending the machine
• Fixed the Recordings & Screenshots dialog not showing all games that have related screenshots in the game filter dropdown.
• Fixed some cases of header/footer flicker and invisibility during the first seconds after waking from sleep.
• Fixed issues with trackpad typing if the trackpad is touched while the onscreen keyboard is opening
• Fixed the onscreen keyboard not working the first time it is invoked on desktop.
• Fixed clicking the buttons in the footer causing the glyphs to change back to gamepad
• Fixed a clicking the back button in the footer not working if nothing on the page had digital navigation focus
• Fixed the Steam logo spinner moving during the login flow
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused an empty “Steam Family Activity” group to appear in notification settings
• Fixed cases where users with older CPUs could have the client hang/crash when starting downloads for games with many identical files

• Fixed desktop shortcuts always using the default launch option rather than your saved option
• Fixed some cases where the onscreen keyboard would drop presses during dual trackpad typing
• Fixed the diacritic options menu interactions during dual trackpad typing
• Fixed a case where non-steam games would fail to launch after changing the Target binary via the Browse button.
• Fixed a case where the ‘Stop’ button would fail to close the game if it was launched by an external tool.
• Fixed a case where library playtime could temporarily show an incorrect value.
• Fixed an issue where deleting an uploaded screenshot would only delete the local copy.
• Fixed hovering DLCs not working in some places.

Desktop Mode

• Fixed rendering the overlay and using other overlay related features (screenshots, game recording, etc.) in Vulkan games that create multiple windows.
• Fixed crash when Vulkan games recreate their swapchain.
• The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show when installing games not verified for that HW.
• In the desktop overlay the desktop config will now be applied. For most gamepads this will not be a difference in behavior because they have a blank desktop config, but Steam Controllers or devices that have setup a custom desktop config will have mouse input to click on things in the overlay.

Game Recording

• Fixed some cases where playback would jump to an unexpected point in the timeline when reaching the end of a play session or clip.

Steam Input

• Added a new view in the configurator for Steam Input API games that lists out actions and their bindings rather than inputs to actions along with streamlined binding interface.
• Added a new multi-binding page in the configurator for authoring button combinations that visualizes the timeline of command outputs and their settings.
• Added information about which configurations are compatible in the configurator browser when using a game that requires Steam Input API.
• Added the missing settings for adjusting emulated joystick adaptive centering on trackpad.
• Added support for inverting button chord bindings.
• Added support for the user-invoked On-Screen Keyboard in the desktop overlay.
• Added a landing page to the configurator when no file on disk could be loaded and give you the option to select a new configuration. This was one of the causes of a blank configurator.
• Improved CPU performance at runtime and in configuration loading.
• Improved the consistency of trackpad sensitivity between Steam Deck and Steam Controller.
• Implemented a version of the “Reorder Controller” dialog for Steam Input API games. Note – this disconnects the controllers temporarily so older games which do not handle hot plugging properly can lose controller input.
• Switch to reshuffling gamepad input when the last running game exits instead of on game launch to avoid issues when running multiple apps at the same time.
• Improve the display of cloud sync status in the configurator and give you the option to skip and proceed to the configurator. This was another common cause of a blank configuration because the layout was broken and the info offscreen.
• By default, Steam Frame controllers will now use gamepad input in VR games that don’t support VR inputs. The preferred mode can be changed for any VR game in either the game’s Steam Input settings or in VR Controller settings on the Now Playing page. Please report any titles that do not work out of the box. Note: both Frame and the PC must be on the beta channel for Steam and SteamVR.
• Fixed the controller support widget showing “This game doesn’t support controllers” for unreleased games that don’t have controller support information yet.
• Fixed controllers not using the desktop configuration on the desktop UI login window.
• Fixed older-unnamed Virtual Menus showing up as “Create Virtual Menu” in some views.
• Fixed the glyphs shown for the Xbox Elite Controller paddle buttons.
• Fixed cases where the Virtual menu modes could show the wrong activation type if it was created in the standalone menu vs from a controller source.
• Fixed issues with button and slider sizing in the configurator when opened in the desktop overlay.
• Fixed pairing the 2015 Steam Controller.
• Fixed glyphs for Switch controllers in Heavy Rain.
• Fixed a bug on the “Reorder controller” screen on Linux where sometimes swapping controllers would not work.

Remote Play

• Added an experimental video codec, Pyrowave, which allows high bandwidth, low latency video streaming. You can find out more on the Steam Remote Play discussion group.
  • Added the -pyrowavestats command line option to log Pyrowave encoding performance
  • Added convars @PyrowavePSNR and @PyrowaveHeightFactor to tune the automatic bitrate calculation (see https://github.com/Themaister/pyrowave/blob/master/eval-results/objective-bitrate-evaluation.md for details)
• Greatly improved Vulkan capture performance.
• Improved color accuracy, clarity, and brightness.
• Automatically fall back to H.264 if HEVC isn’t available.
• Disabled HDR when streaming to the OLED Steam Deck.
• A PIN is no longer required to download an app to a remote device. A PIN is still required to Install and Stream from a remote device.
• Added a Download Complete notification for a remote download if you initiated the download on your current device.
• Fixed EULA acceptance when starting a Remote Stream.
• Fixed streaming launch failing if the host client had a cloud conflict.
• Added a dialog to recover if your network isn’t able to handle current streaming settings.

Steam Controller Firmware

• Added a 2nd BLE pairing slot – to pair hold L1 + B + Steam when powering on the controller. To switch between slots hold either L1 + B + Steam at start up or R1 + B + Steam at start up. 
• Improved rumble emulation and added configurable intensity levels.
• Improve the time needed to fully connect the device in Steam.
• Fixed an issue where certain thumbsticks could lose the ability to reach full range.
• Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth BLE connections could disconnect repeatedly, especially on Steam Deck.
• Fixed an issue where pairing via a puck connection could fail.
• Fixed an issue where switching to BLE mode would stick, even if the host device could not be found.

Source: Steam Community

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.