Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Valve adds the new Steam Chat into Big Picture Mode

By - | Views: 12,412

It's taken Valve a while to get there but they've new added the new Steam Chat into Steam's Big Picture Mode.

One thing to note, is that for the new key-binds to actually work on the Steam Controller, I had to go into Steam's settings and re-select the official Steam Controller config. Do this by going into Big Picture Mode > Settings > Base Configurations > Big Picture configuration and then simply select the official one again and apply it. I've opened an issue on the Valve GitHub for it.

Once I did that, it worked better, although not exactly as they describe. The D-pad binds don't seem to work correctly, you're supposed to be able to do a long press on the D-pad or the stick for certain actions. This works for the stick, but the D-pad always picks up like you're pressing Left to open/close the actual friends list. On top of that, it was basically unusable with a Logitech F310. The Steam Chat system is still new to Big Picture, so there will be teething issues.

This should mean that SteamOS itself will now have the new Steam Chat too, for those of you using it. Even so, it's a shame they basically shoehorned the existing UI into Big Picture Mode without making it work any better.

Another Steam Input change, is now having per-game settings into the desktop client's game properties:

See here for the full details, including key-binds.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Valve
13 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
9 comments

hardpenguin Nov 9, 2018
QuoteOn top of that, it was basically unusable with a Logitech F310
That's what I was afraid of :) Daisy Wheel chat input was the best!
jardon Nov 9, 2018
Ya it looks absolutely horrendous and screams laziness. I hope they just did that so that its usable until the next big picture update. It will make me really sad if this is indicative of Valve bailing on BPM
skinnyraf Nov 9, 2018
It doesn't look too BPM-like to me. I doubt the font is readable from 10 feet, but I will see.

Anyway, the BPM is sooo broken and missing features and it hasn't seen any updates in a while.
Mohandevir Nov 9, 2018
Quoting: jardonYa it looks absolutely horrendous and screams laziness. I hope they just did that so that its usable until the next big picture update. It will make me really sad if this is indicative of Valve bailing on BPM

Without bailing out on BPM... Couldn't it be possible, with good screen scaling, to have a controller friendly UI that looks a lot more like the classic desktop client. In fact, couldn't be the same UI on both?
jardon Nov 9, 2018
Quoting: Mohandevir
Quoting: jardonYa it looks absolutely horrendous and screams laziness. I hope they just did that so that its usable until the next big picture update. It will make me really sad if this is indicative of Valve bailing on BPM

Without bailing out on BPM... Couldn't it be possible, with good screen scaling, to have a controller friendly UI that looks a lot more like the classic desktop client. In fact, couldn't be the same UI on both?

In this case, absolutely not. Anyone who has any experience with UI/UX or even has any kind of an eye for aesthetics will tell you that the current chat implementation does not maintain any uniformity or fluidity. I really hope that this is temporary and isn't a sign that theyve given up on improving BPM
Mohandevir Nov 9, 2018
Quoting: jardon
Quoting: Mohandevir
Quoting: jardonYa it looks absolutely horrendous and screams laziness. I hope they just did that so that its usable until the next big picture update. It will make me really sad if this is indicative of Valve bailing on BPM

Without bailing out on BPM... Couldn't it be possible, with good screen scaling, to have a controller friendly UI that looks a lot more like the classic desktop client. In fact, couldn't be the same UI on both?

In this case, absolutely not. Anyone who has any experience with UI/UX or even has any kind of an eye for aesthetics will tell you that the current chat implementation does not maintain any uniformity or fluidity. I really hope that this is temporary and isn't a sign that theyve given up on improving BPM

I was just referring to this:

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-ui-overhaul-game-keys-g2a

We still have no clue what it's going to look alike. The only thing that got updated until now, correct me if I'm wrong, is the chat window.

It's probably more a sign of what, like it or not, Steam will look alike?
ProfessorKaos64 Nov 10, 2018
First time I opened it in SteamOS,made me sign in again. Wat??? And yes, it is not 10-foot friendly scaling.
slaapliedje Nov 10, 2018
I am shocked they finally fixed the weird input for the pin number entry on family share. That has been there for years.
cprn Nov 13, 2018
They should just buy Discord (open the source, obviously), build it into the client, make the overlay work in Linux as it should, give devs SDK to use voice chat features like positional audio, etc.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.