Game suspend on PC

[ChadMagnum]

I recently got a Nintendo Switch for Zelda related reasons. As a looong time PC only gamer one thing I noticed about the Switch is its ability to suspend a game and then continue exactly where it left off. I realized that the hassle of getting a game going on PC is more of a barrier to playing something than I realized. I have a lot of games that I want to play but having to go through the annoyance of loading the game itself then a menu then a save game means that I really have to mentally work to continue something. But Zelda I just turn it on and change the input and I am mid combat having a great time.

The ability to just minimize a game and pause the play time count in steam would probably be sufficient at first anyway. This would free um PC resources and drastically cut down on the barrier to gameplay that I and I imagine others are dealing with without even realizing it. Maybe eventually dumping the game memory to a file on a disk and retrieving it to continue play would be possible.

Edit: The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

[ChadMagnum]

The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

[Brian9824]

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

Which might be possible on SteamOS but not on windows because Steam can't control windows to do what you want.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

Play time will never be paused. It will always update to show the correct play time, which is how long the exe was still being run and not fully exited.

[ChadMagnum]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

Play time will never be paused. It will always update to show the correct play time, which is how long the exe was still being run and not fully exited.

:summercat2023:

Then I would have to argue that it is not truly "play" time and is merely .exe run time. My point is that it is worth looking into. What if Epic or someone else does solve it. Then the whole industry switches to a game suspension model quick start model like, oh idk, all consoles do now? I am seeing nothing but roadblock replies from people saying all the ways it is a bad idea and won't work. No one is even trying to imagine a world in which such a convenience was commonplace.

Like I said, I didn't even know how much I wanted this until I got a switch and realized how nice it is

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

Play time will never be paused. It will always update to show the correct play time, which is how long the exe was still being run and not fully exited.

Then I would have to argue that it is not truly "play" time and is merely .exe run time. My point is that it is worth looking into. What if Epic or someone else does solve it. Then the whole industry switches to a game suspension model quick start model like, oh idk, all consoles do now? I am seeing nothing but roadblock replies from people saying all the ways it is a bad idea and won't work. No one is even trying to imagine a world in which such a convenience was commonplace.

Like I said, I didn't even know how much I wanted this until I got a switch and realized how nice it is

Dynamic Cloud Sync is already a thing...

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3142949576401813669

But play time will always be registered, unless you go fully offline.

[Brian9824]

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

Play time will never be paused. It will always update to show the correct play time, which is how long the exe was still being run and not fully exited.

:summercat2023:

Then I would have to argue that it is not truly "play" time and is merely .exe run time. My point is that it is worth looking into. What if Epic or someone else does solve it. Then the whole industry switches to a game suspension model quick start model like, oh idk, all consoles do now? I am seeing nothing but roadblock replies from people saying all the ways it is a bad idea and won't work. No one is even trying to imagine a world in which such a convenience was commonplace.

Like I said, I didn't even know how much I wanted this until I got a switch and realized how nice it is

Again its not an issue that can be solved without control over the Operating System level. Something you can do on consoles or with Steam OS but not with windows.

Steam can't force windows to pause another comapnies software. Nor can they or should they be able to track what you are doing inside another companies software.

People are telling you that its physically not possible, because Steam doesn't control windows, it could only be done on their own OS which they DO control.

[Crashed]

brian9824 eredeti hozzászólása:

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

Then I would have to argue that it is not truly "play" time and is merely .exe run time. My point is that it is worth looking into. What if Epic or someone else does solve it. Then the whole industry switches to a game suspension model quick start model like, oh idk, all consoles do now? I am seeing nothing but roadblock replies from people saying all the ways it is a bad idea and won't work. No one is even trying to imagine a world in which such a convenience was commonplace.

Like I said, I didn't even know how much I wanted this until I got a switch and realized how nice it is

Again its not an issue that can be solved without control over the Operating System level. Something you can do on consoles or with Steam OS but not with windows.

Steam can't force windows to pause another comapnies software. Nor can they or should they be able to track what you are doing inside another companies software.

People are telling you that its physically not possible, because Steam doesn't control windows, it could only be done on their own OS which they DO control.

One can actually pause a process they have permission to access, but in Windows that leads to a state where you have a stuck Window. Sending unsolicited minimize commands to a game window doesn't always work well and can lead to crashes.

Game console operating systems have a more simplified and predictable UI stack and have the ability to pause and resume software built in.

[nullable]

ChadGatling eredeti hozzászólása:

The thing I am really concerned with is just pausing the play time counter. I could just go on keeping a game paused and minimized on my own and it is mostly fine. I just want my play time to be accurate. I don't want to have 4000 hours in Factorio because I just minimize it when working instead of closing it completely. It's not a huge deal just a QOL thing.

If it's me, I'd just shut the game down when not playing it. That's what I've been doing for decades anyway. Although once upon a time PC's weren't so beefy you could just have everything running in the background and not notice it, so old man habit maybe?

At any rate "play time" is in reality the amount of time the .exe has been running and it's probably not going to be more nuanced to pause and unpause accurately like you want, at least not on a Windows based system.

There's all sorts of ways you can "idle" and decide that your play time isn't accurate. I'm sure someone isn't going to minimize the game and want Valve to track active inputs to determine activity instead because the user will decide they shouldn't have to remember to pause or alt-tab out of the game.

And I'm not saying that to dismiss your idea, but just to point out that any implementation someone is going to want something different and who's vision is right? I don't think there is a right way, and play time is always going to be approximate under the best cases.

If you want playtime to be fairly accurate, for the time being it sounds like you'll just have to close games you're not actively playing.