Steam Update Announced - Public Beta Open Now


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Hm. WebKit instead of Trident as rendering engine.

Mac OS X-related resources coming with the UI update.

Steam for OS X, anyone? I think it's possible. If you ask 'What for? There are no games on OS X!' - two points:

  1. Valve might just have ported the Source engine to OS X.
  2. Alternatively they could license the Crossover technology and run Windows games via WINE.

I for one would welcome our new Steam overlords on the Mac OS X platform.

I kept seeing people constantly requesting to change the rendering engine used in steam to something else like WebKit, so they may have just changed it by users request on the forum.

Also someone on the forum has modded the skin:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3769988/temp/SteamSkin.png

And this one

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9467/steamuibetamod2.jpg

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No compact mode anymore really stinks, and changing the rendering engine was unnecessary.

Glad to see this happen honestly. I hate trying to look at screenshots in its current state. Takes forever...

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I like it well enough but is it just me or is it now way harder to tell which games you have installed? That's the only part I don't like.

Ah, nvm. I'm just slow.

It is if you leave it at the defaults. As it seems with you last sentence you already found out how to change it, but for anyone else:

Right above your games list click the dropdown arrow and change it from ALL GAMES to INSTALLED or FAVORITES or whatever you want. The only bad thing about this method is you either view all games, installed and uninstalled in one big list, or you view only the installed games.....you cannot separate them out like the old list did automatically, while still viewing both lists (unless I am missing something).

Hmm....it seems you can change the view to List, then sort by Status which can put all the installed games above the uninstalled games. It is still one big list, but it does put installed at the top (or bottom).....I prefer to use the W7 jumplist though and virtually never even open the new client, but it does look nice.

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It is if you leave it at the defaults. As it seems with you last sentence you already found out how to change it, but for anyone else:

Right above your games list click the dropdown arrow and change it from ALL GAMES to INSTALLED or FAVORITES or whatever you want. The only bad thing about this method is you either view all games, installed and uninstalled in one big list, or you view only the installed games.....you cannot separate them out like the old list did automatically, while still viewing both lists (unless I am missing something).

Hmm....it seems you can change the view to List, then sort by Status which can put all the installed games above the uninstalled games. It is still one big list, but it does put installed at the top (or bottom).....I prefer to use the W7 jumplist though and virtually never even open the new client, but it does look nice.

Yeah, well it's still beta so hopefully they'll make the distinction between installed and what not more noticeable. A separator would be very nice. I'm not really liking the huge font for the store, library, and other stuff either.

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They made a small update:

2/24/2010

- Fix Arial Bold font for menus not being found and menus rendering empty

- Fix a common crash rendering web pages

- Fix for apps that have already been downloaded re-downloading on initial beta opt-in

- Fix for a common failure discovering HTTP proxy settings which prevented Store/News/Community pages from loading

- Fix for text on Windows 7 with higher than normal DPI settings getting clipped vertically

- Fix for a texture memory leak in the in-game overlay that could lead to crashing after a while

It fixes the missing font and the MW2 redownload bug.

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One thing I don't like is all the empty space.

The new client is really nice, but... the dang empty space is just.. ick. :pinch:

Overall I think the new skin is pretty cool. There are a few bits with too much empty space though, hopefully that will either be cut down by a skin, or by Valve :)

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Heck yeah! New steam is super easy to customize! Just finished cutting away some excess space on mine. Will probably pack it up later if anyone's interested.

store.jpg

details.jpg

Woah thats how it should me, so much better, any chance you could release that?

You should post it on steam forums so the developers can take a look! Much cleaner.

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I will post it eventually, but currently its way too glitchy as of naow. Plus when it comes to steam forums... bah, theres enough "hire this man/look at this!" already.

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I think this was a much needed update but of course it is still in beta and I'm really hoping they fix small things like this-

newsteamUI.png

For a temporary fix start Steam with

-no-dwrite

to disable DirectWrite

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Well when you have invested a lot of money and time in games on Steam you don't really have an option to just stop using it. That's the sad part. Can't take your games elsewhere if you get fed up with it.

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It is better, but I found myself asking "Is this really the best they can do?" It feels like a hack job to me.

I'm expecting to just stop using Steam.

I hope everyone understand the idea of beta and dedicated feedback forums, right? No?

Beta: Not the finished product

Beta: You may have to reinstall Steam or some games

Beta: Some things may not work

Beta: Some things may be ugly

If you're going to stop using Steam over that then I don't know what to tell you aside from don't ever beta test anything.

Also, thanks to the person who suggested the disable directwrite parameter for Steam. I'll try that out.

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I hope everyone understand the idea of beta and dedicated feedback forums, right? No?

Beta: Not the finished product

Beta: You may have to reinstall Steam or some games

Beta: Some things may not work

Beta: Some things may be ugly

If you're going to stop using Steam over that then I don't know what to tell you aside from don't ever beta test anything.

Also, thanks to the person who suggested the disable directwrite parameter for Steam. I'll try that out.

Public beta:

May not be finished, but is generally usable and usually comparable to the final product.

Yes, I perfectly understand. I just don't actually care. I don't know what to tell you other than I'll beta test whatever the hell I feel like. Steam has needed an overhaul for ages and it does do some things I very much wanted, so they get props for actually doing it. I just expected better.

And of course I won't stop using it for the games I already own on it, that would be silly. But for future purchases...well, there's always sales. Other than that, I prefer other options.

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I haven't installed it yet, not feeling like beta testing anything right now on my fairly new build where everything is working as expected. I'm a little suprised at all the griping but a certain percentage of people can always find something to gripe about. :sleep:

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I haven't installed it yet, not feeling like beta testing anything right now on my fairly new build where everything is working as expected. I'm a little suprised at all the griping but a certain percentage of people can always find something to gripe about. :sleep:

Yeah, I can. Your hair sucks. ;) Inherent irony that you're griping about people griping.

When it's a product millions of people use every day and hasn't changed visually in over five years, of course not everyone is going to be happy with those changes.

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