All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
ETHREAL1 3 Sep @ 4:05am
Currently running game identification on Linux
Hello,

On windows you can query the windows registry for a steam registry key to determine if and what game is running via it’s steam game ID. And as an extension to this you can make scheduled tasks to trigger off if this key changes, and to what.

The native version of steam on Linux does not seem to have this information available to external services. I may just be missing something but there does not seem to be a way to gather or trigger off this information.

Reasons this wanted;
1. The ability to trigger actions such as enabling game capture, changing input remapping profiles, so on based on if and or what the currently running game may be.
2. The ability to detect if a steam game is running to prevent actions from occurring such as sleep, screen blanking, software updates, the like.

So please add some means by which to preferably trigger off of the currently running game. A simple file that contains the currently running game ID, a way to task inform steam and ask, something… please…
< >
Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
milon 17 Sep @ 5:42am 
I'd love to see this too! I have to do a lot of manual re-configuring on my system for the same reasons.
#1
milon 17 Sep @ 5:43am 
FWIW, I've been looking into ~/.steam/steam/steam.sh to see if there's a way to work it out on my own. No dice yet - let me know if you figure something out!
#2
Thermal Lance 17 Sep @ 5:46am 
If you want to prevent your computer from going to sleep. May I recommend you look up Caffeine. It's a useful tool for that.

If you use KDE plasma. IIRC you already got a button for it.
#3
ETHREAL1 17 Sep @ 1:17pm 
Originally posted by Thermal Lance:
If you want to prevent your computer from going to sleep. May I recommend you look up Caffeine. It's a useful tool for that.

If you use KDE plasma. IIRC you already got a button for it.

Yes, but I want a means to Automate it. On windows this was easy as I could just make a scheduled task trigger off a steam registry key for the currently running game. Steam on Linux does not seem to expose this information anywhere. That’s what I’m asking for.
#4
Thermal Lance 17 Sep @ 1:18pm 
Originally posted by ETHREAL1:
Originally posted by Thermal Lance:
If you want to prevent your computer from going to sleep. May I recommend you look up Caffeine. It's a useful tool for that.

If you use KDE plasma. IIRC you already got a button for it.

Yes, but I want a means to Automate it. On windows this was easy as I could just make a scheduled task trigger off a steam registry key for the currently running game. Steam on Linux does not seem to expose this information anywhere. That’s what I’m asking for.
Aight.
#5
ETHREAL1 17 Sep @ 1:24pm 
At the moment the only way to do this seem to be to have a looping script that reads all the manifest files over and over again and compares that to a database of run time. If the runtime for a given game changes every scan it’s running. But this has a LOT downside including a performance hit, only works for one install directory, constant disk activity and slow response to change…
#6
Ben Lubar 17 Sep @ 8:12pm 
Originally posted by ETHREAL1:
At the moment the only way to do this seem to be to have a looping script that reads all the manifest files over and over again and compares that to a database of run time. If the runtime for a given game changes every scan it’s running. But this has a LOT downside including a performance hit, only works for one install directory, constant disk activity and slow response to change…

Can't you just read the child process list for the Steam client?
#7
ETHREAL1 18 Sep @ 12:52am 
Originally posted by Ben Lubar:
Originally posted by ETHREAL1:
At the moment the only way to do this seem to be to have a looping script that reads all the manifest files over and over again and compares that to a database of run time. If the runtime for a given game changes every scan it’s running. But this has a LOT downside including a performance hit, only works for one install directory, constant disk activity and slow response to change…

Can't you just read the child process list for the Steam client?

I looked into this already, some game yes, some no… some get launched as independent processes. Not to mention you would have to have your own database of the process name of every game you run, which also can change with game updates.
#8
< >
Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
Per page: 1530 50

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
Date Posted: 3 Sep @ 4:05am
Posts: 8
Start a New Discussion

Discussions Rules and Guidelines