Big Picture Mode broken after update

[No]

I use Big Picture Mode so that I can control Steam purely with a controller and exit one game and launch a second game with only a controller.

After the update the new Big Picture Mode had several issues and no longer could even do that today.

After exiting my first game my controller no longer even worked - I could not get it to do anything. Later I found out that I had to click with my mouse on the screen to get it to work again, like it had deselected Big Picture Mode and put it in the background or something after exiting it with my controlller.

There were no button prompts on screen like in the bottom right corner until I clicked on screen with my mouse.

The other issue was clicking Menu in the bottom left corner just made the screen go blurry but nothing showed up.

I messed around with this for a long time and ONE of the times I clicked menu the buttons did show up, but they disappeared when mousing over them.

I tried it again later and never got the buttons to show up again. My mouse cursor changed when mousing over where I saw the buttons were the one time I saw them, like they were there, but just invisible.

Please fix this, hopefully by tomorrow. Big Picture Mode worked fine until you messed it up. This isn't a "I don't like how it looks" type thing, this is a "You just broke Big Picture Mode" type thing.

[No]

I was able to click the buttons for Menu even when they were invisible btw. Obviously an issue they need to fix but at least I was able to find a way to finally exit Big Picture Mode.

Really hoping they fix it tomorrow so it can actually function like it used to so you can control Big Picture Mode purely with a controller again, like it's supposed to...

[No]

More info - the game I launch first has a pop up box appear that I have to either click or press spacebar to exit before the game launches.

This was no issue with Old Big Picture Mode, but there might be some issue with New Big Picture Mode where clicking or using the keyboard when launching a game messes it up for your controller and makes it not work with a controller anymore when exiting that game.

[No]

Other piece of info is that there was a Frame Rate counter in the corner when using New Big Picture Mode today.

I thought that might be because this is a new feature that Big Picture Mode can now show the Steam Frame Rate counter.

Other possibility is that it somehow wasn't considering it Big Picture Mode because of some issue and was only showing the Frame Rate counter because it was considering it launching the game from normal Steam.

I definitely was using Big Picture Mode, just not sure if the Frame Rate counter is new for it now - it was never possible before.

[xhail]

similar problem here, but for me the new UI is a big black screen with a side menu that only occasionally makes an appearance as a side bar -- on the bottom of which is a 'Power Button' which i made the mistake of pressing thinking it would turn off the new UI, but instead rebooted my whole PC

there are several games i can only play by using Big Picture to integrate my controller with a client, and if BP is going to remain in this state i shall be looking for refunds


~


completely unrelated; nice Selvaria avatar, No

... but Marina is best girl

[xhail]

according to the article, "You can still use the old mode by running Steam with the '-oldbigpicture' command-line option. "

https://www.pcgamer.com/at-long-last-the-steam-deck-ui-has-replaced-steams-big-picture-mode/

[xhail]

found the method on another site:

Assuming you use windows, find your steam shortcut in your start menu if it's pinned there, or find it on the apps list on the start menu.

Right click, then click open file location. You'll see the steam shortcut in windows explorer, then right click that and choose properties from the context menu.

Under the shortcut tab, look where it says "target". At the very end of that line, add a space and -oldbigpicture.

Exit steam, then make sure to open using that shortcut. They say they will eventually end support for -oldbigpicture, so enjoy while it lasts

[Drakelstorm]

I was able to use big picture by pressing alt+enter to make it windowed and then alt+enter again to get it back to full screen. Have to do that every time I enter big picture mode atm. Also it seems that trying to change any controller configuration outside of big picture results in the library screen turning black and the only way to fix this is to exit steam completely.

Hope they fix this soon as I really don't use big picture mode but now it's necessary in order to change any controller settings for a game.

[No]

Yeah, I heard about the possibility of forcing it to run old Big Picture Mode. Thanks for the detailed steps on how to do that, xhail. Not sure I want to since it's probably not a good permanent solution, hoping they fix it.

I heard people say they had this new Big Picture Mode in an optional Beta opt in before releasing it. Seems mind boggling to me that they can release it in this broken state for who knows how many of their users.

I'm not sure if it's only happening for people with OS's other than Windows 10 and they didn't test it thoroughly enough or just don't care about people other than Windows 10 users.

I'd be extremely disappointed and shocked if that's the case and hope they fix it for everyone. Will continue to test it for now, also considering putting in a support ticket soon.

Also did they not even test new Big Picture Mode with a controller? That's the point of it. If you can't exit a game with a controller without it breaking and being unable to recognize the controller anymore that's ridiculous.

[No]

Today when playing it basically had the same issues. But when I exited the first game I was playing I was able to control it with the controller.

I checked the menu and it was invisible again.

I decided to test launching my 2nd game, it launched, I closed it, and I was immediately unable to control it at all with my controller again.

When I came back and tried using the keyboard and mouse the keyboard ALSO was unusable and did nothing until I clicked with my mouse. After clicking on the screen it brings the new Big Picture Mode to the forefront again I assume and button prompts appear again like in the bottom right corner, that were not there until clicking with the mouse. Again, it is breaking constant controller usage with this new mode. And the invisible menu is clearly messed up also.

New info, when exiting the 2nd game and being unable to interact with the controller anymore when I came back and clicked on screen it said "Abort Game" in the bottom right corner at first instead of the usual other 2 options. I clicked back to the main menu of Big Picture Mode and then went back to the game again and the "Abort Game" option was gone and it had the 2 normal options there again.

Like it was confused that it thought the game was still open even though it wasn't, which might be causing it not to be able to interact with the Big Picture interface.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Drakelstorm:

I was able to use big picture by pressing alt+enter to make it windowed and then alt+enter again to get it back to full screen. Have to do that every time I enter big picture mode atm. Also it seems that trying to change any controller configuration outside of big picture results in the library screen turning black and the only way to fix this is to exit steam completely.

Hope they fix this soon as I really don't use big picture mode but now it's necessary in order to change any controller settings for a game.

For me it only works in windowed.
(Doesn't matter if Hardware acceleration is on or off)

Once i alt enter again to make it fullscreen i get a still afterimage of how the BPM looked before i maximized it again.

(old BPM works perfectly fine tho)

[siweter]

Where is now ANTI DEADZONE function for gamepad stics in new big picture mode!? I cant play without this setting! :(

[Snuggles]

I'm having the same issue of my controller not working when exiting games in big picture mode. I also have a bug where exiting big picture mode changes my Friends status to offline.

[hammercraft]

I try to use the new BPM along with my steam link on android and when I try to launch my browser or a non steam app it shows me a screen with the steam logo loaded but does nothing else, when I press alt-tab the app does indeed load but steam never put it on top of big picture.

It's very annoying.

Im going back to the old big picture, this new BPM is so buggy.

[No]

@snuggles
Yeah I have that issue too like I said when exiting games and my controller not working anymore to control Big Picture Mode.

Last night I tried changing the new Big Picture Mode to a smaller windowed window before running my 1st game by pressing ALT + enter, like people said works above and it worked a little better but still clearly had issues.

I was able to control New Big Picture Mode after exiting my 1st game and launch a 2nd game with my controller, but the "Menu" column that pops up on the left side when you click/open it was still bugging out. It wasn't 100% invisible for me like it usually is 99% of the time when I try opening it in Full Screen, it was semi-visible with it disappearing in and out when scrolling over the options.

So clearly messed up still, but seemed to work a little better in Windowed Mode.

Does anyone know - is there any way to permanently set New Big Picture Mode to Windowed in Settings somewhere? Or do you have to manually press ALT + Enter every time to force it to windowed?

[xhail]

[small update] -- using the command line method i detailed above

seems if you reboot your PC, you need to go through the process again