Games with launchers

[GrimWolf]

After playing around with big picture I am very impressed, though one minor annoyance are games that have their own launchers that pop up prior to the game itself. I would very much like to see big picture bypass launchers (or have an option to do so), so that you can go right into the game with minimal to no mouse use needed.

[月読]

some games support adding -launch the the command line in order to skip the launcher, but in many cases there is nothing steam can do, short of adding keyboard to controller emulation, which i have no doubt they could be doing at some point, but at the moment the priorities are elsewhere.

[DieKatzchen]

In the case of Bethsoft games all we need is some way to click "Play"

[Christen]

We're working on this! Thanks for testing, GrimWolf.

[Gravy All Over]

I'm glad to see a response to this. Launchers probably have to be the most frustrating aspect of big picture

[Terin]

That's great to hear that you're working on this. Something along the lines of scripting or recording an automated start for certain games, to get them working with a controller? Or whatever you could do to get Skyrim and such straight from Big Picture. Thanks!

[n3mir0th]

It's great to hear you are working on this. Although I'm not sure if there's much you can do without game devs adopting to this, too. To fix the launcher issue, game devs would probably have to emulate the gamepad for the launcher itself, or get rid of launchers all together. Or gamepads (hint: Valve's upcoming gamepad) could have updated drivers to generally work inside the OS (now how cool would that be with Windows 8 Metro UI? That would make Win8 worth it!). Or create a Steam API that game devs could use and integrate their launchers natively into Steam (+1 for this!). Or I could get a job in Valve because I have all these cool ideas :D

[fnTR8R]

Is there any update on this? I'm playing on a mac, trying to use a controller and the launcher seems to be preventing me from doing so. I've read around and tried the -NoLauncher in the properties menu but no joy.

[guidodogg]

This need a list right know, games and workarrounds. For instances, Skyrim, Saint's Row the Third, Batman Arkham City, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

[n3mir0th]

I think they are actually integrating those launchers into Steam BP menus like I mentioned earlier. I can't remember which game it was, but in BP i would get a popup with "Launch" and "Settings", where the latter would run the launcher. They just need to make this happen for all games, which takes time.

[XKLBR]

i agree with Guidodogg... i would love to see a list of games with launchers and possible workarounds... i bought a logitech k400r keyboard specifically because of this issue... i hate having the mouse lying around, especially when i am playing a game like batman, which i would never use a keyboard and mouse for.

n3mir0th - just today i experienced a menu popup like the one you are talking about. It was with Virtua Tennis 4. I had the option to Launch the game or to go into the Settings.
I hope this will be implemented into all games releases.
Also i have found GFWL implimentation to be extremely annoying... having steam bp and then the games for windows live overlay ontop of all that is too much... im a minimalist and this kills the experience. alas it is a small price to pay for awesome games, but still annoying.

[Booger]

n3mir0th eredeti hozzászólása:

I think they are actually integrating those launchers into Steam BP menus like I mentioned earlier. I can't remember which game it was, but in BP i would get a popup with "Launch" and "Settings", where the latter would run the launcher. They just need to make this happen for all games, which takes time.

Sonic and All-Star Racing Transformed does this. The launcher is part of BP and says "Play SASRT" and "Configure". A lot of games do this now, so hopefully others will follow soon.

I wish BP could find a way to integrate the stupid GFWL/UPlay logins so I don't have to get a keyboard out everytime I play Dark Souls or Batman. I realize this will NEVER happen...but I can dream.

[eumrcs]

It's great to know that they are working on this, although is seem like A YEAR with no progress here.... I'm also worried about the third parties interfaces, like GFWL and UPLAY and ORIGIN... is there a way to bypass these in the BIG PICTURE interface?

[XKLBR]

I think this is limited to on a game by game basis. The launcher issue may eventually be eliminated when SteamOS is released.

[n3mir0th]

Another game that now works after several updates is The Witcher 2. While it doesn't have an integrated menu, it's launcher now works with the gamepad and you can choose to either launch game or close launcher. The GFWL problem is still there, and becomes so annoying that you have to hit the home button twice each time..

[XKLBR]

Thanks for the update. When I get the chance Im going to try the Witcher 2. I'd like to at least see the implementation