Using Steam in 'Big Picture' mode

[staknhalo]

http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture/#out_now

Anyone try it? It's pretty cool using it for PC games. I have a 360 controller I game with. Navigation works with my Harmony. Now I don't have to use MediaBrowser/GameBrowser.

[STC]

Good grief:

Browse your way across the internet with reticle-based navigation,

I read it as RECTAL at first.

[staknhalo]

Also add -tenfoot as a launch parameter to have it start up in Big Picture mode. Then you can launch it from right from Media Center into the new ui.

[bobbob]

i launch steam games through gamebrowser (mediabrowser addin), its been working well. interested to see what this adds

[Rahabib]

just played around with it, seems like a nice game companion for WMC.

So how do I add it to WMC with an icon. I am kinda new to WMC.

Also, there seems to be a way to add non .exe games to the library, which means you can add in emulator games like .nes and if the system is set up to open those with the chosen emulator it should be able to act an arcade mode without using media browser. Ill have to give it a try but since most emulators use .zip it will probably only work with two emulators

[bobbob]

you can add icons by creating an .mcl and then changing the menu setup with media center studio. i still haven't taken a look at this yet though...

[bobbob]

so its seems Steam's Big Picture is really just a view of their app store customised for tv. it doesn't change the game play at all and i'll continue to launch games from gamebrowser.

rahahbib, if you're talking about gamebrowser then its excellent. i have working emulators for virtually every system. i do need to go back and look at a few items such as the universal quit key and configure my xbox360 controller to work with the emulators again but its all working

[Rahabib]

no I wasn't talking about gamebrowser, although that would be a better solution for people who have lots of roms.

What I was asking was, how do I add steam to WMC start menu? The only thing I came across was WIndows Media Studio which appears to be abandonware.

But what I was saying about using emulators/roms in Steam (if you did not want to use gamebrowser etc.) you can and have a unified gaming front end with steam big picture. All you have to do is add any program exe to as a non-steam game (it doesnt matter what you add), then you can change the properties of that dummy program in steam to point to your rom which if windows is configured correctly will automatically launch the correct emulator. eg .nes roms.

There are several problems with this however.

1) if you are using .zip files for roms (many are), you will need to find another way. I found that pointing steam to an .ahk file that says "Run path-to-emulator, path-to-rom" works, and I am sure you can also use a .bat file to something similar. I went the autohotkey route because you can also enable things like exit keys and customizing the buttons without using profiles in the emulator. It still a hassle however to do this for each rom, so if you have a lot of roms this wont work. I dont have many so its not a big deal.

2) Steam in general does not let you customize non-steam game icons, so in big picture all roms look the same. I hope valve will eventually address this. Its a problem in stream in general, not just big picture - although it highlights it worse in big picture.

3) There is no metadata. For me this is not a big deal, but for some, it will be. No artwork, no backgrounds, no nothing - just a launcher.

The advantages of using Steam big picture over something like gamebrowser or hyper spin:
1) steam overlay - chat with friends or at least see them and use of web browser in game (very nice)
2) familar interface for PC games
3) steam community and news

anyway, I got most of it working, I just am at a loss of how to get it added to WMC. I am very new to WMC.

[Mavi222]

Hey, I tried to add the custom menu by Media Center Studio too. I am now at the point when I have Steam button in the custom menu, when I press it, it shows the Steam Big Picture intro, and after a couple of seconds, the WMC comes back on top (big picture is still running, but WMC is on top so I can't control the Steam)

But it only happens if I have Steam in Fullscreen mode. not sure why

If you want to add custom menu to the WMC in Media Center Studio, open it, and then follow this step by step instructions:
0. Be sure your WMC is not running
1. Click on Restore Default
2. Click on Start menu tab (on both tabs actually, there are two)
3. In the upper Start Menu tab click on Menu strip (it will add the custom menu strip on the bottom of the whole menu WMC menu)
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and rename the custom menu strip by clicking on the little icon right, next to the strip name
5. In the upper Start Menu tab click on Application and fill this in
Title: Steam
Path: steam://open/bigpicture
put there some custom icon if you want
6. Click on the Save button on top of the MC studio window
7. Click on the Start menu tab (the bottom one, that shows the preview of the start menu)
8. on the bottom left of the MC studio window there's a little arrow with text "Entries" click it
9. Drag the Steam entry to the menu strip you want.
10. Save and run WMC

the steam://open/bigpicture is way better than steam.exe -bigpicture because it works even when Steam is already running ...
Now I need to manage that WMC is minimized the whole time the big picture is up, but I don't know how to do that.. any ideas?

[Rahabib]

I havent tried Studio yet, I have heard that its kind of abandoned, however, it seems like the only really good option out there. I tried using Media Center Themer but it seems using steam://open/bigpicture does not work.

However, I did try the easy method:
http://hack7mc.blogspot.com/2009/01/add ... y-way.html (no icon and has to be in extras)

I made an autohotkey script from this site:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpic ... 772490356/

Just tack this on the end:

Code: Select all

IfWinExist, Windows Media Center
{
    WinActivate  ; Automatically uses the window found above.
    WinMaximize  ; same
    return
}

Made a shortcut to that ahk and added that to the extras menu via the first link's instructions. This works pretty well. It minimizes WMC and then launches big picture full screen and works. When you exit it shuts down steam and maximizes WMC.

I may have to just use Studio I guess to get the icon and move it into its own "Games" category. Its a shame that something so obvious MS makes so obscure.

[Mavi222]

Thanks for mentioning the AutoHotkey, it was really useful, I've made simple script and it works flawlessly thanks again!

If anyone needs the script in the future:

Code: Select all

Process, Exist, Steam.exe
if ErrorLevel
Run, "steam://open/bigpicture"
else Run, "D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe" -bigpicture
WinWait, Steam ahk_class CUIEngineWin32


Loop{
 WinWait, Windows Media Center
 WinMinimize, Windows Media Center
   IfWinNotExist, Steam ahk_class CUIEngineWin32
   break
}

[scyto]

Has any one tried using MCE reset toolbox to make a big picture entry point?
http://vistademon.wordpress.com/

[staknhalo]

Has any one tried using MCE reset toolbox to make a big picture entry point?
http://vistademon.wordpress.com/

I use Media Center Studio. I have it set so when I press the 'back' button on my remote it closes/kills Steam and goes back to Media Center. Has worked without a hitch so far

[scyto]

Has any one tried using MCE reset toolbox to make a big picture entry point?
http://vistademon.wordpress.com/

I use Media Center Studio. I have it set so when I press the 'back' button on my remote it closes/kills Steam and goes back to Media Center. Has worked without a hitch so far

Yes but I thought that was abandoned and doesn't work with win 8?
Also what / how did you configure the close event?

[staknhalo]

Yes but I thought that was abandoned and doesn't work with win 8?
Also what / how did you configure the close event?

It isn't developed anymore but it still works fine on Windows 7 (along with a program that runs on startup to make sure any updates don't revert my MCS settings). I can't say if it works or not on Windows 8. You could try it or try this : http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... 8-Mce-Beta (I can't vouch for it so do a virus scan on it first).

The close event is a feature of Media Center Studio:

[scyto]

Here is my solution for anyone who wants it.

Required tools: V8 of MCE Reset Toolbox from vistademon.wordpress.com and event ghost from http://www.eventghost.com and a batch to exe compiler from http://www.getbatchcompiler.blogspot.com

1. Create a batch file with the the following (remove quotes) "start /B /I steam://open/bigpicture"
2. Convert batch file into an exe for example startsteam.exe - the reason to do it this way is so you can monitor for a unique process name, if you just monitored for the command windows these macros would take effect ever time you opened a cmd!!

3. In event ghost create 2 macros
First is to minimize ehshell when your startsteam process event is created.
To do this add the process watcher plugin
Creat you new macro and rename it.
Add event = Task.Created.startsteam
Add wait for 1.0 sec (increase if sometimes big picture pops behind task bar)
Add find window: ehshell.exe, with sub properties of window name = Windows Media Center, window class = eHome Render Window
Add action = minimize

Second is to maximize ehshell when big picture is exited
To do this create and name your second macro
Add an event of Task.Closed.Window.Steam
Add find window: ehshell.exe, with sub properties of window name = Windows Media Center, window class = eHome Render
Add action = maximize

4 Use MCE Reset Toolbox MCE start menu editor to create a new entry point for the EXE file you created
remember to check video, directx, and stop currently playing media, oh and don't forget to click fix menus and schedule the fix menus

[SikSlayer]

As Steam Big Picture Mode now has a 'Exit Steam' option which truly shuts down Steam rather than minimizing to tray, this should solve the issues we were all having. Who is up to the task of making the final solution?

[turbofeet]

It never fails to amuse me how many loopholes we need to go through to Get WMC working as we want.

It's still the best option out there though...

For me; I use GameEx for all emulated games.

It links to Steam from it's own Interface and displays intro videos and game information for them as well.

Quite nice as well as you can customise the Interface as well with Various themes. I use the Brokeh theme for both WMC (Changed With Media Center Studio) and GameEx. Looks sexy...much better than the sample video they show there.

I can YouTube a clip if anyone is interested...

[newfiend]

Has anyone tried using ReLaunch for Steam Big Picture Mode? http://madeformediacenter.com/m4mc/app. ... 80f7c38526
newfiend~

[staknhalo]

I use ReLaunch for YouTube Leanback and Media Center Studio for Steam. Pressing the Green Button brings me back to WMC from YouTube; and just selecting 'Exit Steam' via the Steam menu brings me back to WMC from Steam.