You can open desktop mode inside of gamemode, just like any other game or application. I find it easier to use most desktop apps this way instead of adding them individually to steam.
To do this, download this script. Save it as a script and make the script executable. Finally right click the file and “add to steam”.
Some important notes with this: You can’t exit steam while running the desktop this way, so apps that require closing steam (like steam rom manager) won’t work. There are also a few apps that do weird things, like cryoutilities shows up super tiny this way. But generally most everything works.
Is this your script? I’m a little hesitant about running a random script without knowing what it does (not that it looks particularly complex!), but also very keen to try it out!
Script seems fine to me. But good on you for being skeptical about running random scripts.
Given that SteamOS isn’t a particularly private/secure OS I’m not running anything with personal info on it anyway so it’s not really a huge concern. And yeah as you say the script looks fine, just calling stuff that’s already there rather than reaching out to the internet or installing anything new!
No, you can see the GitHub profile of the creator from the link.
I’ve been using it since last November without issues.
Can you open game mode from the desktop mode that you opened in game mode though?
The desktop mode is running like an app or game, if you hit the steam button the left hand steam menu will open up and let you switch to a different game, go to the home screen, etc.
If you hit the return to game mode shortcut while inside the nested desktop mode, it’ll just exit desktop dropping you back into your home screen or any games you currently have open.
With the recent updates in stable, the reverse is also possible, you can run the gaming mode (big picture mode) in desktop mode. Not all features will work, but you do get most of the convenience of gaming mode navigation, with the capabilities of the desktop mode in the background.
My understanding is that game mode and big picture more aren’t the same thing. Game mode is running Wayland and Gamescope, allowing you to get much better performance compared to desktop mode, which is still using Xorg with KDE.
Correct, proper game mode is a Wayland session running steam big picture mode with exclusive special features baked in. That’s why I said you don’t get all the features, but you do get a mostly similar UI experience.
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They aren’t, but doing this opens up desktop mode as a nested Wayland desktop giving it the advantages of Wayland, and since steam deck uses game scope to put each game into its own Wayland session it plays nice with steam and shows up as a normal game.
I’ve finally got round to actually running this and I don’t seem to have any control other than the touchscreen. It’s there some trick to getting the touchpads and buttons to control the desktop?
It runs just like any other steam game, so you’ll need to set a desktop friendly control scheme from steam input.
I’d recommend doing the default web browser one. It has both mouse control, scroll wheel control, and several other useful keybinds.
Right you are, I think I managed to just not apply the layout correctly, cheers!
