There should be an option to disable animated backgrounds.

[sasha]

Edit: As some commenters say, this can also help with some people who have epilepsy (Because a few avatars/backgrounds include a lot of flashing). With that consideration in mind, it would be nice if the theoretical toggle also applied to profile artwork, avatars, and avatar frames too.
And even if it's not as bad as with me, it's still a waste of resources that could be used on something that actually matters.

I have a nvidia GPU and I use linux, therefore none of the major browsers (Including chromium, which is what steam uses) support hardware video acceleration, which makes my CPU usage spike to 100% & become really unresponsive whenever I open a profile that has an animated background.

Example: https://streamable.com/twq9t1 (Steam is using the first 3 cores, firefox & the screen recorder are using the 4th core)

I would really like an account-level setting (So I don't have to manually set it every time I sign into steam from a browser) that stops animated backgrounds from playing.

[Mikoto]

Unless your specs are REALLY old, then I dont see how this is actually happening. The load from these backgrounds is completely minimal.

Hopefully someone more tech savvy can help figure this one out because this just feels like a symptom of another issue.

[sasha]

@Kai I already stated what the issue is, and I have zero doubt in it. I've used linux for >3 years, and have had a lack of hwaccel that whole time. -- Because nvidia & google (The people who made chromium, which powers steam's built-in browser) don't care about linux the drivers on my system don't support hardware video acceleration in anything but native video players (mpv, vlc, etc)
The options for steam are: work with chromium to add vdpau support (unlikely and very high-effort), use a really low-quality video (will rather ruin the point of having a background in the first place), have an option for not playing animated backgrounds and just showing the first frame, not care, or something else that I haven't thought of.

I know that my hardware is rather low-end and old, but the issue is the drivers, not my hardware. And the only driver that works with decent performance on pascal (and newer cards) isn't open source, so the community isn't able to patch in proper vaapi support.

My cpu is irrelevant to this discussion, but I have a GTX 1050 2GB & an Intel G4560 (2c4t, 3.5GHz 2017).

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by gk:

My cpu is irrelevant to this discussion, but I have a GTX 1050 2GB & an Intel G4560 (2c4t, 3.5GHz 2017).

That's entirely relevant and would explain a lot. That specific dual core CPU even if from 2017 really is basic use only, even the integrated capabilities is hardly better than a GT 610.

[sasha]

I didn't really come here to argue, but again, I know that my hardware is crap.
I also know where the issue lies because I've been using this hardware for 4 years, and this software for 3.5 years so I have quite a lot of experience.
Video accel is something that should be handled by the GPU, therefore the CPU is irrelevant to my CPU being utilized, and due to bad drivers my GPU cannot do vaapi hardware video acceleration (which is what browsers use, vdpau is what my GPU uses), which again, is where the issue lies.

Also, I'm not using the iGPU so I don't see the relevance in bringing that up?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by gk:

Video accel is something that should be handled by the GPU (and therefore the CPU is irrelevant to my CPU being utilized), and due to bad drivers my GPU cannot do hardware video acceleration, which again, is where the issue lies.

A quick several second search came up with how to resolve

You could use the browser version using a beta/dev build with a certain patch which would resolve your issue, which is apparently in a 4 month old article in regard to this exact issue. The individual that made the article had ~86% go to ~7%.

The use of linux usually implies troubleshooting ability. Took me seconds to find two different resolutions.

Originally posted by gk:

Also, I'm not using the iGPU so I don't see the relevance in bringing that up?

To emphasize the overall poor performance of the CPU regardless of any GPU you attempt to utilize with it will be bottlenecked by the CPU for almost everything.

[sasha]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

The use of linux usually implies troubleshooting ability. Took me seconds to find two different resolutions.

Yep, and I've tried a vast majority of them. I would appreciate if you could link the articles you found though. I've probably already read them, but I am open to seeing if there are methods I missed.
If you combine all the hours I've spent searching & trying ways to get hardware accel in browsers, it would turn out to be weeks.

[Tito Shivan]

TBH It's something I wouldn't mind, just out of convenience.

I'm a nostalgic and I liked the Steam forums better as they were in SPUF where one didn't even have an avatar (Except Valve Staff/devs/mods)

[Crazy Tiger]

Sounds like a good option to have, yes. For backgrounds, avatars and frames, yes.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

I'm a nostalgic and I liked the Steam forums better as they were in SPUF where one didn't even have an avatar (Except Valve Staff/devs/mods)

Tsk, rose tinted glasses.

Couldn't resist, Tito.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Couldn't resist, Tito.

Oh sure they are... The thing is to be aware you're wearing them (And I look fabuolus in them)

I've always hated those forums which allowed users to have profile signatures without any standard, which ended up becoming a visual mess like the offspring of VBulletin and MySpace.

That said I'm an old fart who never liked Youtube and anything to do with youtubers and streamers either. So I'm well aware I'm in a minority.

Unfortunately I see such a toggle so unlikey to be implemented as Valve implementing a 'no-cosmetics' TF2 toggle. Selling visual customizations and allowing people to disable them at the same time isn't a good business.

[sasha]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Unfortunately I see such a toggle so unlikey to be implemented as Valve implementing a 'no-cosmetics' TF2 toggle. Selling visual customizations and allowing people to disable them at the same time isn't a good business.

Sadly I agree. I do think that pausing animations (or at least, pausing until you hover over ala discord) is a decent middle-ground, but I do understand that valve may be reluctant to do it.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Couldn't resist, Tito.

Oh sure they are... The thing is to be aware you're wearing them (And I look fabuolus in them)

I've always hated those forums which allowed users to have profile signatures without any standard, which ended up becoming a visual mess like the offspring of VBulletin and MySpace.

That said I'm an old fart who never liked Youtube and anything to do with youtubers and streamers either. So I'm well aware I'm in a minority.

Unfortunately I see such a toggle so unlikey to be implemented as Valve implementing a 'no-cosmetics' TF2 toggle. Selling visual customizations and allowing people to disable them at the same time isn't a good business.

You mean those boards where people put all kinds of banners, links, smileys (not emoticons, I'm too old for that), colored texts that were unreadable, gifs and such nonsense in the signature? Yeah, those were annoying.

And you're certainly not alone, I too am not the biggest fan of streamers. I do use Youtube but I merely have some playlists on there. And half of them have missing items because suddenly they're not available for show in my country anymore.

But I agree about the unlikely addition of a toggle. Not just for what you mentioned, but also because Valve doesn't always seem to like to provide toggles.

[The End]

Originally posted by gk:

There should be an option to disable animated backgrounds.

Would be nice to have
The more a user is able to customize their personal experience on the platform the better imo.

[Dylldophlo]

Yes, please let’s turn off these animations in the Client, it causes unnecessary CPU usage and thus uses unnecessary energy.
The client's CO² footprint is not exactly environmentally friendly.
Also, not everyone has a 100k internet connection and it sucks.

I will probably have no choice but to start the client in minimal mode in the future.
And decide to buy games elsewhere.
I've always enjoyed using the Steam Client, but now I make a purchase decision independently of the client.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -noverifyfiles -no-browser +open steam://open/minigameslist

[Psymon²]

am in favour of an option to turn them off.
including the animated avatars and borders.

[Dylldophlo]

A long time ago...
Some clever minds developed extensions for web browsers in order not to download animations or to play them only when they are clicked.
I would also like to deactivate the non-animated backgrounds in the shop or the library.
Some of them are not insignificant sizes.