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Valve put up a new Steam Client Beta yesterday and while small, it is a pretty damn useful update for Steam Play users.

Firstly, they claim to have solved the issue of having an invisible cursor when you bring up the Steam Overlay for Windows games played through Steam Play. It's a massive nuisance when it happens, so it's good to see some time spent fixing it. However, it's not yet fully solved. Some games it works fine, others it does not.

I tested out Deep Rock Galactic in Steam Play and when you bring up the Steam Overlay, there's no cursor. However, if I alt+tab and come back to the game it is now there. Once I click to give the actual game focus and try the Steam Overlay again, the mouse is once again invisible.

Speaking about it on Discord, Valve said "yeah it looks like it only partially fixed things" and "there's two more bugs that were hiding behind it" and so they're working to solve the other issues. With that in mind, hopefully it won't be long until it's fully solved. Update: Valve put out another beta, which solves more mouse issues.

Valve also said they've now solved the issue where the Steam Client wouldn't automatically update or download Proton, before launching a Steam Play title. Hopefully now, we won't have to keep installing it through the tools menu.

Also, if you noticed when connecting a controller in the previous beta it would now give you a pop up to let you know it's connected. They've now added an option to disable that if it bugs you.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mal Mar 29, 2019
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Nice thing for the invisible cursor.

Though this remembers me how annoying is when you play games in big picture mode with controller and the cursor sits there in the middle of the screen. (more so if you steam link and pc is in another room). Ofc it's not a Steam issue, it's a game issue. But maybe is there was an option to launch game in big picture mode and "default" the cursor on bottom dx this could be worked around.
nosklo Mar 29, 2019
I just globally disable the overlay.
Xakep_SDK Mar 29, 2019
Still invisible in stalker clear sky. But now overlay renders correctly.
seanbutnotheard Mar 29, 2019
Quoting: BeamboomWhat do people use that overlay for, when gaming? For Steam chat? I just simply never enter that mode other than if someone happen to message me during a session...?

In SteamOS/Big Picture (yes I'm still a loyal SteamOS user), it's nice to be able to tweak your controller config on the fly. Though I suppose this bug doesn't necessarily affect that situation since the controller can do the work.
Dunc Mar 29, 2019
Quoting: seanbutnotheardIn SteamOS/Big Picture (yes I'm still a loyal SteamOS user), it's nice to be able to tweak your controller config on the fly. Though I suppose this bug doesn't necessarily affect that situation since the controller can do the work.
It's really annoying you can't open the controller config tool from the desktop overlay. Especially since you can bring up the main Steam client settings window. It'd be nice if a controller always opened the BPM overlay regardless of what mode the actual client's in.

For a developer so obsessive with level design in its games, it's weird that Valve is so terrible at UIs.
Maath Mar 29, 2019
I have found, using i3 as my window manager, that I have no problems switching to a different desktop even with a game running full screen. Just thought I'd mention it for those who have difficulties with alt+tab. Though it's a tiling window manager so there's that.


Last edited by Maath on 29 March 2019 at 9:56 pm UTC
MayeulC Mar 30, 2019
Looks like the last beta update fixed the remaining issues for me, from ~10min ago.
Philadelphus Mar 30, 2019
Quoting: BeamboomWhat do people use that overlay for, when gaming? For Steam chat? I just simply never enter that mode other than if someone happen to message me during a session...?
I use it for checking achievements—either to see which ones I have and decide which one(s) I feel like going for in a particular play session, or sometimes I'll get one seemingly at random and I'll pull it up to check and see what I just got it for. :D I'll also use it for referencing guides, since there's a handy link right there. And as mentioned, some games rely on it for inviting friends to play with you. Actually I barely use Steam chat itself…

I encountered this issue in Seasons After Fall, and checking now…it looks like it's fixed, so yay! ^_^
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