Mame/other emulators & Steam's Big Picture Mode

[Garrett]

I've just recently got round to trying Big Picture Mode & am loving it so far.. my perch in front of the monitor suddenly seems much less comfortable

If any of you guys have experience of running emulators like Dolphin, PCSX2 etc & particularly Mame (best version/frontend for controller & filters?) via Big Picture Mode I'd appreciate some guidance.. I've asked on Steam, but help isn't forthcoming.

Cheers.

 

[pmprog]

I've tried Big Picture mode, and it runs really badly on the PC that's connected to the TV. Slow and unresponsive.

I couldn't find any options to launch non-Steam programs, which was another reason I discarded it. I imagine they'll have to add it though if they are serious about it - Though with a browser built into Steam, maybe they won't citing "What could you need outside of Steam?".

 

[TrashyMG]

I've tried Big Picture mode, and it runs really badly on the PC that's connected to the TV. Slow and unresponsive.

odd Big Picture seems to run fine for me on my setup and it's on my 5 year old desktop using the Linux version of steam on top of that AMD proprietary drivers which are not the best for Linux. Have my desktop hitched up via HDMI to my DLP projector at times running 1080p

 

[thatgui]

No Steam user, so just a wild guess: Afaik you can "import" non Steam games in your steam library, couldn't this be done for an emu too ?

 

[elwing]

You can create "Shortcut" of non steam game in steam if that's what you mean, it works for emu too... not sure if they are visible trough Big Picture... and I suspect you can't stream them to your steammachine...

 

[pmprog]

You can create "Shortcut" of non steam game in steam if that's what you mean, it works for emu too... not sure if they are visible trough Big Picture... and I suspect you can't stream them to your steammachine...

Okay, so I didn't know you could already do that... Ignore half my post
As for my device - it's an Acer Revo3600 with an Atom processor. It's not a proper desktop per-se. It's a nice unit, but lacks a bit of oomph.

Newer Nettops, like this one have started having i3 and i5's in, which look quite nice, not sure I can justify half a grand to upgrade the machine though, as whilst it's not super powered, it does most of the tasks I want, and doesn't have a huge power footprint

 

[Fzero]

I've tried Big Picture mode, and it runs really badly on the PC that's connected to the TV. Slow and unresponsive.


I couldn't find any options to launch non-Steam programs, which was another reason I discarded it. I imagine they'll have to add it though if they are serious about it - Though with a browser built into Steam, maybe they won't citing "What could you need outside of Steam?".

Do you have 2 PC's? One that is better spec than the one connected to your telly?

Because if you do, you know they recently added that feature where your secondary machine [the one connected to your telly] can use the power of your main machine remotely... That would result in a better experience

You can create "Shortcut" of non steam game in steam if that's what you mean, it works for emu too... not sure if they are visible trough Big Picture... and I suspect you can't stream them to your steammachine...

I have Hyperspin added to my Steam shortcuts, and a whole load of other games, like all the games I get from GOG, I just create nice shortcuts to them and they all run fine through Big Picture mode.

...The only issue is that 'sometimes', some games pop up a little dialogue box which the [ok/cancel] buttons of can't be using my xbox controller... So I have to get up, go to my computer to click it with the mouse, then back to the sofa for Big Picture play

Take a look at this too, about setting an emu target shortcut to a rom, then adding that to Steam:

 

Spoiler

RE: Dolphin with Steam
Don't use a .bat file. I figured out a way to get the overlay to work. I posted it on another forum in case someone needed it. Here it is:

Wii/GCN games on Steam WITH Overlay


First thing you have to do is add the Dolphin emulator to the Steam library as a Non-Steam game.


Next you go into the properties of the emulator through Steam. Just right click it in the Steam menu then click on "Properties"


Where it says Target change it to something similar to this:


"E:\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe" /e "F:\Gamecube\Double Dash.iso" /b


The first part is the location of the application for your emulator. The /e lets the emulator know to run this .iso when it starts. The second file location is the .iso you want the emulator to run and the /b closes the emulator when you exit the game.


After doing all that the game should work perfectly with Steam!


To do multiple Wii games on Steam simply make a copy of the application (not a shortcut) and repeat the process with a separate .iso


PM me if you have any questions, I am glad to help anyone out.

From: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-dolphin-with-steam?pid=274348#pid274348

 


Also, ICE might be of interest....

http://scottrice.github.io/Ice/

A nice project.

On a side note, here's what I do for my non-steam games which I load into the Steam library.

I add the little fold in the top-right corner so I can see at a glance those games of mine which are side loaded

 

[pmprog]

Do you have 2 PC's? One that is better spec than the one connected to your telly? Because if you do, you know they recently added that feature where your secondary machine [the one connected to your telly] can use the power of your main machine remotely... That would result in a better experience

Yes, I have my gaming PC upstairs and the Revo attached to the TV downstairs. I do know they can stream, I have tried it - which works okay, but streaming only occurs *after* you select a game to load. So it wouldn't affect the Big Screen mode.
I've not tried connecting my xbox controllers downstairs to see if they play upstairs yet, not had chance