Steam

Steam is a software for digital game destribution. It is developed by Valve. Steam uses its compatibility layer, Proton for running windows games on linux based operating systems.

Usage

Adding non-Steam Games

Games that are not in the Steam store can be added to the Steam application. This is done by opening (the desktop mode) of Steam and selecting Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library under the Games tab in the top left corner. A dialog window will open to select the software to add to Steam. Check the box or boxes of the software to add to Steam and tap Add Selected Programs.

For games such as launchers a Launch Option can be set most of the time to skip the launcher and go directly into the specified game. This option usually mirrors the command that would be used in the command line of a system to go directly into the game. Often this is done by simply appending the path of the specified game to the command but this can also differ depending on the launcher.

Websites can be added by setting xdg-open "<url/ip>" as the Launch Option. This will open the website with the Steam browser.

Setting Icons and Banners for Games

The following paragraph explains the usage of SteamGridDB in a normal Steam installation. For Steam Deck users the plugin manager Decky can be used to install SteamGridDB in a package of the same name. Icons and Banners can then be changed by opening the menu after selecting a game and selecting Change Artwork....

Images for games can be changed by downloading them and applying them manually. An easier route can be taken by using SGDBoop. To use it, you first need to install it. It is available in the flatpak package manager. After that navigate to the SteamGridDB website and log in with your Steam account. Follow the remaining steps as described on the website. Following this different images, banners and icons can be found on the website. When hovering over an asset a little blue button will appear. On the press of the button a game can be chosen that will use the asset in the Steam application. Make sure the game is a Steam game or added to Steam as a non-Steam game. After the installation of the game, the system may need to restart to correctly work with SGDBoop for the game.

Steam Cloud and Game Synchronization

The Steam Cloud allows games and the platform to utilize cloud storage hosted by Steam. Games can use this to store data including game settings and saves. The data stored this way can be accessed on the corresponding website.

Games can also be synchronized without the Steam Cloud by using Syncthing as described in the games entry.

Error Handling

The following section addresses errors that can handle inside Steam or game errors that are specific to Steam.

Store Wishlist Displays More Items Than Shown

It is possible for the counter of the Steam wishlist to display more games than the number of games shown when showing the wishlist. This happens when a game is removed from the Steam store but still being on the wishlist. To remove it navigate to the wishlist in a browser like Firefox. Press F12 to open up the developer tools. Then navigate to the Console tab and enter g_rgWishlistData in it. It will display the list of games inside the wishlist. Identify the game that has been removed and is not shown in the wishlist anymore. Remember the appid of the game Then run the following command inside the console and change <appid> accordingly.

$J.post( g_strWishlistBaseURL + 'remove/', {
				'appid' : <appid>,
				'sessionid' : g_sessionID
});

By running this the game will be removed from the wishlist causing it to display the correct number of games.

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