[SOLVED] Game sharing while Using Wallpaper Engine?

[ВаttlingNebulа]

Me and my brother share my library to play games on our laptops separately. Now if I buy Wallpaper Engine and start using it as my wallpaper, I'm assuming my library is in use all the time. Will I then be able to share my games when the wallpaper engine is in use but I'm not gaming?

[Lithurge]

So long as it's minimised to the system tray Steam doesn't count it as a running program even with the wallpaper active. In fact it works without Steam running at all. What you can't do if Steam isn't running is use the engine's Workshop browser to add new wallpapers.

[Tim]

After you have installed a bunch of wallpapers you like, you can actually also force Wallpaper Engine to be in "no-steam" mode so that you can use it without having to worry about interfering with your brother's Steam usage. We have described on how to do that here in the "Completely disable Workshop / Steam integration" section:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/2/1354868867716405952/

[ВаttlingNebulа]

Cool! Thanks for your responses! :D :) @Lithurge & @ultio

[Lorentz Factor]

This is still a problem. Utilities should not be limited to the one per account usage, eg. if I'm running a game via steam on Nvidia Now, my local pc should still allow the use of utilities I purchased on steam. I can understand not allowing it to run on multiple systems, however utilities have a completely different contextual usage than games, it makes no sense to limit my usage of it. There's a number of other utilities that have this issue as well and none of them should. The whole class of software should be excluded from this. This is why DRM is garbage, it takes control of something we've paid for out of our hands. I also understand the need for it to protect IP, but that doesn't work, not at all. It just places undue stress on the owners who purchased the utilities.

With the advent of cloud gaming and it's requirement to use an external server to log into ones steam account, this needs to be addressed. Sure, I can go through a lot of steps to make it work, but I should not have to. I buy through GOG if I have the option these days. But then, I also have a lot of software on steam, so I can't distance myself from it either, nor am I willing to pay twice.

[Biohazard]

Originally posted by Lorentz Factor:

...

What exactly are you doing that this is an issue?

Most utilities on Steam don't handle this at all, sure, but Wallpaper Engine does not connect to Steam unless you actively browse for wallpapers. If you just have it in the background then it doesn't connect to Steam, the background process has no idea about Steam. So you can have Wallpaper Engine as a background on your computer but log into Steam and play games from the cloud.

[Lorentz Factor]

Originally posted by Biohazard:

Originally posted by Lorentz Factor:

...

What exactly are you doing that this is an issue?

Most utilities on Steam don't handle this at all, sure, but Wallpaper Engine does not connect to Steam unless you actively browse for wallpapers. If you just have it in the background then it doesn't connect to Steam, the background process has no idea about Steam. So you can have Wallpaper Engine as a background on your computer but log into Steam and play games from the cloud.

It has been sometime now, but the issue at hand is that WPE is always running on my machine, if my brother is using my family share, he could not play games because it considered wallpaper engine to be a "game" running, and you cannot play two DIFFERENT games at the same time via family sharing, you have to play nothing on the primary machine, and the family share can then play, but having to disable wallpaper engine is... meh. I have not tried it recently, but it is a core steam issue, and needs be addressed.

[(笑)]

Originally posted by Lorentz Factor:

Originally posted by Biohazard:

What exactly are you doing that this is an issue?

Most utilities on Steam don't handle this at all, sure, but Wallpaper Engine does not connect to Steam unless you actively browse for wallpapers. If you just have it in the background then it doesn't connect to Steam, the background process has no idea about Steam. So you can have Wallpaper Engine as a background on your computer but log into Steam and play games from the cloud.

It has been sometime now, but the issue at hand is that WPE is always running on my machine, if my brother is using my family share, he could not play games because it considered wallpaper engine to be a "game" running, and you cannot play two DIFFERENT games at the same time via family sharing, you have to play nothing on the primary machine, and the family share can then play, but having to disable wallpaper engine is... meh. I have not tried it recently, but it is a core steam issue, and needs be addressed.

Wallpaper Engine should not be considered in-game unless you have the Wallpaper Engine UI open to browse the Steam Workshop. You can subscribe to as many wallpapers as you like and then disconnect Wallpaper Engine from Steam and continue to use it without interfering with your brother as the developers stated: https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/steam/ingame.html#completely-disable-workshop-steam-integration

[butcho]

Originally posted by Lorentz Factor:

This is still a problem. Utilities should not be limited to the one per account usage, eg. if I'm running a game via steam on Nvidia Now, my local pc should still allow the use of utilities I purchased on steam.

This is a Steam problem since like forever. I use some tools I purchased on Steam for sound enhancement and system monitoring and cannot even start anything else when using the same Steam account on my cloud PC. I have to close these tools on my main rig otherwise I cannot start a game or even Wallpaper Engine. Sucks big time and Steam should change that but it's Steam so one can always dream....haha. ^^