Can I hack Steam game recorder

Lounge Linux lounge
1

I was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to use steam game recorder to record other than steam games, specifically the desktop.

2

Since (afik) the recorder works through the Steam overlay, it can record any application which can show the overlay (e.g., by adding a game to steam). So I could imagine that you could hack together a “game” that shows the desktop, add it to your library and then record it. (No idea if that actually works.)

But I feel that at that point you’d be better off just using dedicated screen recorders like OBS.

3

From a quick search I would say no. One of the first things I saw was this under the link to its homepage before I clicked and this is from the actual page.

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4

“So I could imagine that you could hack together a “game” that shows the desktop, add it to your library and then record it. (No idea if that actually works.)”

Sounds like something like that would work. An app that consists of a transparent layer, and some common game files for steam to find so that it thinks the transparent layer is a game. Not that the game files really did anything else…

5

I don’t know the usecase you’re aiming for. But wouldn’t it be easier to just install OBS to record your screen?

6

If I could program I would try just because. I would need a steamworks account to access the steameorks api. Then I would need to integrate api into transparent layer. Hehe, and once steam saw what I was doing they would shut me down!

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7

Just to be clear. Do you want to be able to record the desktop?

Maybe i don’t understand the question.
There are several applications to record an application, a part of the desktop or the whole desktop.
I use simplescreenrecorder for this.

  • Select window can be used to select the window you like to record.

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8

It used to be possible but really tricky, not sure how it is now, but if u wanna run something you could try just running it as a non-steam game.