Playing non-Steam games via Steam Big Picture

[crainorama]

hey guys - I've been looking in to how to move out of the PC lair and into the living room to play. I'm an XBOX guy, but have plenty of PC games. Steam Big Picture is mentioned a number of times as a great option once I'm connected to the monitor in the living room.

My question is this: how does Big Picture handle games that aren't Steam games. E.g. I'm playing Guild Wars 2 now. Will Big Picture just "know" it's on my PC or would I just boot it up from my desktop and play just like I used to?

Thanks!

[Tev]

Big Picture is just an UI; it shouldn't have an issue with your non-Steam -games (although how well they work is entirely subjective to the case anyway.)

Although, unless you're playing Guild Wars 2 with a gamepad (I really doubt that), then I'd stick to the default UI for that game.

[crainorama]

Thanks Teutep.

I got that it's just a UI. I guess my question is really more how to you add game libraries behind the scenes. So, the Steam games I own would be one "library", games on my PC would be a second. Is there a way to define all that so that one UI has visibility on all my games.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Tev]

NOTE: This all has to be done on the Steam -client.

• Steam for Windows
  
• Steam for Mac
  
• Steam for Linux

If you play on the same device in the livingroom, just adding non-Steam shortcuts via Add a Game -> Add a Non-Steam Game should be enough.

If you attempt to play them on another device; then it needs them either installed and applied in the former method; or you'll have to stream the gameplay from the default device to the latter.

This (the streaming) can be done by signing on your account from both the computers, enter the game on one and your Play -button should be replaced to 'Stream' on the other computer.

[crainorama]

Thanks!