Filter library by required specs

[Mal]

It would be cool if there was a toggle in one's steam library that would only show games that the current machine you're on meets the official min specs to play.

Clarification: The feature I'm suggesting here would not be used to inform purchase decisions. The idea here is that people who already have multiple purchases, multiple computers and already know which computers are capable of handling which games would have a quick and convenient method of searching through their library.

[Brian9824]

Please use the search, there are a slew of reasons why it will never be an option.

[Mad Scientist]

You should know where your hardware lines up in performance compared to the minimum and recommended specifications for the game.

Even YT has videos of a CPU, GPU, and performance in games depending on the games settings, which you can use to estimate your systems performance.

This has been suggested many, many times and the answers remain the same.

[Mal]

I'm specifically talking about the library. Multiple machines and whatnot.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Mal:

I'm specifically talking about the library. Multiple machines and whatnot.

Go to the library.
Click on the Store Page for a game.

Compare what it asks for vs what you have. They're not going to add something that could bring liability to their platform should performance not align for one user when others may have ok performance.

If you're doing multiple machines; install only games on each PC that can handle it, don't install games it can't handle so the one that has it installed is the one that can actually run it.

[Mal]

I suppose that would achieve the same thing over time, once everything one knows a system can handle is installed on said system.

[Mal]

I do wish there were a simple option that didn't get into the whole "my system meets these reqs and i can't play it /cry" dealy.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Mal:

I suppose that would achieve the same thing over time, once everything one knows a system can handle is installed on said system.

You should always know your specs especially if you're going to buy a game, let alone attempt playing on multiple machines.

Originally posted by Mal:

I do wish there were a simple option that didn't get into the whole "my system meets these reqs and i can't play it /cry" dealy.

Which is exactly why they don't make this; if they said it would, the legal stuff would hit the fan.
Different users can also have vastly different performance even with similar hardware, depending on what they have running, settings, power, temps, overclocks etc.

[Mal]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Originally posted by Mal:

I suppose that would achieve the same thing over time, once everything one knows a system can handle is installed on said system.

You should always know your specs especially if you're going to buy a game, let alone attempt playing on multiple machines.

Right, but I'm talking about games that I already own (library.) And usually purchased to play on an r7+2070 setup. I could create a custom filter for "games that run well on an intel uhd 620", etc. And that's a fair solution. But it takes time which could've been spent playing said game(s).

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Mal:

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

You should always know your specs especially if you're going to buy a game, let alone attempt playing on multiple machines.

Right, but I'm talking about games that I already own (library.) And usually purchased to play on an r7+2070 setup. I could create a custom filter for "games that run well on an intel uhd 620", etc. And that's a fair solution. But it takes time which could've been spent playing said game(s).

Well it is a store, research before buying.
Other than that, you have a 14 Year old steam account, I'm sure you can figure it out even with the aforementioned use of YouTube. Not everything will be handed to you, often you'll need to do the most basic research.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Mal:

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

You should always know your specs especially if you're going to buy a game, let alone attempt playing on multiple machines.

Right, but I'm talking about games that I already own (library.) And usually purchased to play on an r7+2070 setup. I could create a custom filter for "games that run well on an intel uhd 620", etc. And that's a fair solution. But it takes time which could've been spent playing said game(s).

The problem is the only way to know if a game plays well on your PC with its unique combination of hardware, software and drivers is to actually play it. Steam has no idea how well the game will run as they didn't make it.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Mal:

I do wish there were a simple option that didn't get into the whole "my system meets these reqs and i can't play it /cry" dealy.

It's the holy grail. But the problem with system specs is complex.

1. There isn't actually a standard
   
2. Developers often don't put the most comprehensive information in them.
   
3. Specs for a random game don't list all the possible hardware, and you still need to know approximately that hardware X is better or equivalent to hardware Y.
   
4. Even roughly equivalent hardware may not always yield equal results in all cases.

Aside from that, when a game lists hardware as the minimum what does that mean?

1. Does minimum mean that anything even a smidge weaker won't even launch the game?
   
2. Does it mean the game will only run at 30FPS @ 720p on low settings?
   
3. Does it mean the game will run at 30FPS @ 1080p at medium settings?
   
4. Does it mean it will run at whatever settings you think is acceptable for minimum?
   
5. Is it just some hardware level the developer doesn't want to support beyond?

People run games below the minimum requirements all the time too. So what should you go by? People are bound to complain if the system tells them they can't run the game, but they can actually run it pretty well according to their tolerances.

And the root causes for this mess aren't going away. There's going to be ten thousand hardware combinations that can run a game. Developers will be able to test like a dozen of them at best. It makes it really hard (impossible) to be comprehensive and detailed and accurate in the way most people would expect for system designed to what you're asking. And even then people will have opinions about how crappy it is any time they disagree.

[Help Lu7ky is 13 and pregigante!]

Sorry if any of this has been mentioned but there are also many instances where games just have problems. I know for some reason when I play a certain factory game I get huge memory leaks and it just progressively gets slower, taking longer to close and to sync each time (that or it is not being done regulariy) though I have the specs to run it on ultras.
This is a little silly as mentioned some games can be run and some cannot. If you mean purely what you already have in your library, lets just say a large portion of the world if they have a PC have ONE personal PC. I have several in the house and unless you have one in win 3.1, one in win 95 and a few from win 7 or 10 there is no point as this feature will not be widely used.

[Cathulhu]

Again, liability will not make this possible.
Valve does not want to be sued by customers who are angry because the game does not run properly on their PC despite Steam requirements checker telling them it should.

Additionally, Valve does not want to be sued by developers and publishers who are furious because they lost sales because their requirement checker told customers the game can't run on their current computer despite the fact it actually does.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Mal:

I do wish there were a simple option that didn't get into the whole "my system meets these reqs and i can't play it /cry" dealy.

Thing is, that's NEVER going to happen anyway.

The foundation is something that won't ever get done. THere are just WAY too many variables in system configurations and software installations to be able to offer anything like a definitive line in the sand.

Not only is there the liability question, but simply put if they can't offer than minimum SUGGESTED requirements and recommended requirements on any game on sale, you're not going to get anything approaching better for something like this.

Sorry, but it's completely unworkable.


Your best option is to do this manually, as you are best placed to know your own setup.

[Supafly]

Doing it for a users library = no difference to on the store. If it can't be accurate and usable for one it can't be usable for the other. Oh and if it worked for our libraries it could also work on the store.

Not going to happen. IF Valve gets it wrong users would ♥♥♥♥♥ at Valve because of it and I guarantee there would be plenty of times an automatic system would get it wrong.

Until devs and pubs utilise the same basis for quality/performance of games no system stands a chance of working.

Minimum can mean
720p, low settings,30fps max
720p low settings 30fps..still dips to 20fps minimum
720p low settings locked 30 fps
720p, medium settings,30fps max
720p medium settings 30fps..still dips to 20fps minimum
720p medium settings locked 30 fps
1080p, low settings,30fps max
1080p low settings 30fps..still dips to 20fps minimum
1080p low settings locked 30 fps
1080p, medium settings,30fps max
1080p medium settings 30fps..still dips to 20fps minimum
1080p medium settings locked 30 fps

or any other combination. Hell devs don't even use the same basis for their own games. Minimum in gameA could be 720p, low settings,30fps max where as gameB could be 1080p low settings locked 30 fps.

Even a single dev can't be consistent with their own products how the hell is any automatic system supposed to be accurate assessing 10,000's of thousands of games from thousands of different developers?

Oh and MS tried it and as you can see it no longer exists because it never worked.

TLDR: to have your games seperated by your system do it yourself. Yes it'll take some time now but once you set the ground work it'll be quick for each new product you add. No automated system is ever going to do what you want accurately.