Valve announced last night that they're beginning the proper roll-out of Steam Playtest, a system that allows developers to bring in testers without messing with beta keys. Additionally, a new Steam Client Beta is up.
For developers, this new Steam Playtest (announcement) system is going to be extremely useful. Usually when developers want to invite players to test, they have to mess about with manually producing keys and sending them out. Keys have long caused issues, and while this won't replace other methods like handing out keys, it sounds better. We actually mentioned this feature a while ago, when Valve were testing it with the first title. The idea is that Steam store pages get a big button for users to request access, and developers can manually invite users too.
Now it's open to all developers, although with it being in Beta, developers need to request access to the system until it's properly ready. What's interesting is that the Playtests happen on a different Steam ID, so it doesn't mess with the main app for things like playtime or ownership of the main game. Sounds really great for Steam developers.
As for the new Steam Client Beta update from November 4, there's some nice Linux fixes and improvements included. For all platforms they have improved the disk space pre-allocation performance when installing or updating content, and the Steam Overlay along with the built in web-browser should see better performance on Linux and macOS. For Steam Input, there's also a regression fix for controllers not showing up.
Just for Linux, we saw a number of improvements too:
- Improve the filtering of available compatibility tools in the game properties dialog
- Fix launching of non-Steam games over Proton 5.13 (steam-runtime#287)
- Fix games not getting stopped via the 'Stop' button in the client UI (steam-for-linux#7435)
- Auto migrate Steam libraries using the old 'SteamApps' directory casing to 'steamapps' when possible (Proton#4206)
Detect and warn the user if transition is needed but not possible.- Improve how host LD_LIBRARY_PATH settings are picked up and transformed for the Steam runtime (steam-runtime#274)
Full changelog here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
for example: they were looking for desperados 3 linux testers. in the future you can apply with playtest and developers see which client we are using and only accept linux clients
Comandante Ñoñardo Nov 5, 2020
QuoteFix games not getting stopped via the 'Stop' button in the client UI (steam-for-linux#7435)
I've opened this one because Magicka 2 have a bug which don't close the game process after we exit. I'm glad they "fix it" through the steam stop button
slaapliedje Nov 5, 2020
Quoting: BielFPsHa, the Stop button reminds me of how you're supposed to exit games on the PS4, because none of the games have a 'exit game' selection in the menu. Kind of hate it that UI choice is moving toward the PC. I mean the Stop button in Steam should be specific for games that crash in a weird state where they won't exit on their own.QuoteFix games not getting stopped via the 'Stop' button in the client UI (steam-for-linux#7435)
I've opened this one because Magicka 2 have a bug which don't close the game process after we exit. I'm glad they "fix it" through the steam stop button
Quoting: slaapliedjeI mean the Stop button in Steam should be specific for games that crash in a weird state where they won't exit on their own.
Exactly the case with Magicka 2, you can exit through the game's interface, but the game process in linux will run forever until you finish your user session or (now) use the steam stop button.
Quoting: BielFPsQuoting: slaapliedjeI mean the Stop button in Steam should be specific for games that crash in a weird state where they won't exit on their own.
Exactly the case with Magicka 2, you can exit through the game's interface, but the game process in linux will run forever until you finish your user session or (now) use the steam stop button.
I have had this issue with games before, though of course now I won't remember which games. It is a minor issue, so I just ignore it most of the time.
A bigger pet peeve is Civ 5 (and Civ BE) where I close the game, and Steam even recognizes it as closed (no stop button)... but the music still plays in the background until I kill the process manually. But even this I'm willing to live with.
Quoting: eldakingA bigger pet peeve is Civ 5 (and Civ BE) where I close the game, and Steam even recognizes it as closed (no stop button)... but the music still plays in the background until I kill the process manually. But even this I'm willing to live with.
Check if it still happens with the new steam beta version, and if yes, you can open an issue here so they can check why this is happen.
And of course, make sure to also inform the game devs
Last edited by BielFPs on 6 November 2020 at 4:29 am UTC
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