Steam beta update adds a new Big Picture view, screensavers, and a little treat for desktop Steam Machines

Look upon my Recently Played's key art and despair

There’s a new Steam client beta update out, and for SteamOS devices like the Steam Deck or Steam Machine – or just the Windows client's Big Picture Mode – it’s meaty one, features-wise.

First up is a new "Big Art" view for the home screen, which ditches the news and store recommendations while lowering the game carousel to present a lovely, clear view of each game’s key art. That’s available for both Big Picture Mode and Gaming Mode on the Deck/Machine, as is the freshly added option to enable a built-in screensaver.

By default, this displays a rotation of that same game artwork, with the option to sprinkle in some of your personal screenshots. Mine tend to be of glitches and amusing STALKER 2 NPC names, both of which lack the calming quality a good screensaver should have. I’m therefore sticking to the other preset, a retro-style bouncing Steam logo, which has the added benefit of reaffirming my belief in a worthwhile existence whenever it boings perfectly into a corner.

Valve’s patch notes also explain, briefly, how to add your own custom screensavers via file directory fiddling. I’ve thus far been unable to get one of Bryan Braun’s soothing CSS‘savers up and running, but then I never had any luck with SteamOS’s custom boot animations, so at least there’s precedent for my misfortune.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

The update’s more utilitarian tweaks are good too, particularly for SteamOS kit. The Compatibility tab in a game’s Properties menu, for instance, now immediately shows which Proton version is currently helping it run; this previously required opening up a "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" sub-option. Potentially handy, if you’re flicking through Experimental and Proton GE versions in search of a compatibility fix.

There’s also a new toggle – and an overdue one – to force SteamOS to boot into Desktop Mode by default. Surely a must-have if you’re employing a Steam Machine as a literal, mouse-and-keyboard desktop PC, and maybe even an occasional timesaver for Steam Deck users trying to wrangle a tricky non-native software installation.

It's worthwhile stuff, this, and probably all bound for Steam’s stable branch after a spell in the beta client. If you want in on the latter, it’s open to everyone: just head to Settings > Interface > Client Beta Participation on the desktop app, or Settings > System > Beta Participation on SteamOS.