• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Steam's Big Picture Mode beta starts Monday Sep 10th [out now]

I like it. It feels like the 360 dash but a lot smoother and easier on the eye. Very slick.

Ditto. It's surprisingly easy to navigate to almost anything I'd want. The only issues I've had so far is:

1) Videos not playing in the store page.
2) the "Search" function isn't working. I can bring up and type characters into the search box, but any attempt to confirm and actually search Doesn't work. Pressing "A" simply closes text entry (but if I move the left stick around I can hear the selecting sounds, meaning it's still up somewhere) and pressing the start button on my Xbox controller just brings up a settings pane for some reason. Anyone figured this out yet?

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention the text input method is fucking genius. How this has never been used outside of homebrew apps (props to Durante!) is astonishing.
 
Gave it a shot once I realized it could be used on the monitor as well (derp). I like it but not being able to navigate stuff with the d-pad is a huge negative to me. I don't like scrolling menus with the stick, that goes for games as well.

I also think if they're going to go through all this work to redesign the Steam interface to work as a "console" like one, then they have to have everything work on there. It seemed like everything I clicked on in detail took me to a web page in the old traditional Steam format. At least come up with some kind of achievement interface for it.

Just some constructive criticism. I liked what was there for the most part but since I can't really connect this to my TV I probably won't use it too much.
 
BP is a lot more fluid than the standard UI. I wish the standard UI was this fluid :|
 
Gave it a shot once I realized it could be used on the monitor as well (derp). I like it but not being able to navigate stuff with the d-pad is a huge negative to me. I don't like scrolling menus with the stick, that goes for games as well.
.

You can configure it for that. Also Achivements do show up in a formatted list on the community page.
 
BP is a lot more fluid than the standard UI. I wish the standard UI was this fluid :|
Yeah, all it's really showing me is how bad the regular Steam UI is.

Once they integrate the community, implement mentioned features and get bugs fixed it'll be amazing.
 
I got an update just now that reset the d-pad fix. I hope I don't have to keep doing this and Valve fixes this on their own.
 
You can configure it for that. Also Achivements do show up in a formatted list on the community page.

When I click community I only get my friends list. When I click achievements for a game in my library it loads the web browser and loads the achievements in the old format.


Ah thanks. Kind of sucks we have to do that but I'm sure it'll get fixed. It's a simple oversight.
 
This is actually pretty cool. Very responsive and smooth. Not frame rate issues with any games. I need to fix the dpad thing but I seen someone posted a fix for that. So good.
 
When I click community I only get my friends list. When I click achievements for a game in my library it loads the web browser and loads the achievements in the old format.



Ah thanks. Kind of sucks we have to do that but I'm sure it'll get fixed. It's a simple oversight.

Sorry, I meant on the game page. To the left of "play now" when you select a game.
 
Only literally one trillion combinations of numbers left to try!

Quadrillion with CVG code...and let's say 36 quadrillion with the expiration date, assuming it's in the next three years. (It is.)

Actually ignoring the code, it's only 100 billion, not a trillion numbers to try. Visa always starts with a 4.
 
Linking XBMC into Steam and then launching it in BPM has a weird issue. If you hit the guide button to bring up the overlay, it doesn't go away when you close it.
 
Anyone figured out any way to get x360ce working with BigPicture mode? My controller needs it to work and I can't seem to figure it out :( guess it's time to buy an actual 360 pad...
 
I'm getting a weird issue where it says Steam is running in compatibility mode, but I went to the preferences and it isn't. Sucks because whenever I click the button or use guide to launch it I get a pop up about it.
 
I'm getting a weird issue where it says Steam is running in compatibility mode, but I went to the preferences and it isn't. Sucks because whenever I click the button or use guide to launch it I get a pop up about it.
You can fix that but it's a pain and requires registry editing. I don't remember exactly, but I ran regedit and searched for Steam.exe, I think, until I found a key that had Steam.exe in a list of programs to run in compatibility mode. DO NOT mess with this unless you're comfortable with the registry and sure you won't break something, though. And make a backup of the registry first with the regedit tool.
 
I think this is a nice idea, but it really just gets in the way for me. Lots of game launchers require mouse clicks to play, the interface itself interferes with GFWL games, the latest update crashed my dpad settings.. I think I'll probably just stick with the regular interface.
 
Anyone figured out any way to get x360ce working with BigPicture mode? My controller needs it to work and I can't seem to figure it out :( guess it's time to buy an actual 360 pad...
It is not possible at the moment. I suggest making a comment in the Steam forum, unless there's a better way to report bugs/problems.
 
I think this is a nice idea, but it really just gets in the way for me. Lots of game launchers require mouse clicks to play, the interface itself interferes with GFWL games, the latest update crashed my dpad settings.. I think I'll probably just stick with the regular interface.

Dude. It's day 1 of the BETA. I mean, yeah there are some things to improve, but i'm guessing there will be plenty of adjustments over the coming days weeks and years. Sheesh. Looking at the interface and what they've done, you can't see the potential? This could really revolutionize the home console business and be as big a disruption to the console space as iOS has been in the handheld one.
 
You can fix that but it's a pain and requires registry editing. I don't remember exactly, but I ran regedit and searched for Steam.exe, I think, until I found a key that had Steam.exe in a list of programs to run in compatibility mode. DO NOT mess with this unless you're comfortable with the registry and sure you won't break something, though. And make a backup of the registry first with the regedit tool.
Just googled it. Found the registry fix and it worked perfectly.
 
You know what would be neat? A build in task manager to kill a game if it hangs up (happened to me just now with Borderlands).

Or maybe a "force shut down" from the in-game overlay.
 
Any way to switch tabs while using K/BM?

EDIT: And where are Steam screenshots kept on the hard drive?

Each game is in it's own folder with a number (which is it's steam app number), should be something similar to this:

\Steam\userdata\*number*\*number*\remote\*game app number*\screenshots

Easiest way to access them is to open the screenshots manager (outside of BPM) and press "Check on Hard drive" (something like that), that will open the folder with the screenshots of that particular game.
 
Your games, your friends' avatars, etc in the tiles in the backgrounds of the main menu looks so sweet. Really felt like I just had unpacked a next gen console then and there lol.
 
Only tried it for a short while but from what I've seen so far.

I'm loving it.

Can't wait to see how it improves and evolves.

Lots of potential here.
 
I've been comfy couch gaming since it was released today. Played Borderlands LAN with a friend and I totally forgot how comfortable gaming on my couch was. Will definitely be using this more and more.
 
I was amused when I exited a game launched by Big Picture Mode and it popped the daily promotion thing that can only be controlled with a mouse :-P

Lots of little quirks to work out, but so far incredibly impressive!
 
Probably the first time I've second guessed using consoles as my main TV device... this is a very ingenious setup that Valve's got going here. Looking forward to seeing where things go from here.
 
Top Bottom