I gave the new Steam UI a shot this morning and found it to be a complete mess. Not only did they take away the small icons in the games browser window, but all the text in the entire UI is now being anti-aliased, despite me having ClearType disabled in Windows 7. I know they are now using a WebKit based rendering engine for the client and in-game overlay web browsing components (replacing Internet Explorer--something I wish Stardock would do as well), but there is no way to manually turn it off in their settings. I understand that it's a beta and all, but I had to revert back to the old version until the product feels more polished.
Has anybody else tried it out?
I tried it out.
The first thing worth noting is that it is a beta, so I had a few times where it would lock up for 10 seconds or more. And they got rid of the mini-games list, which is a real bummer to me.
The good news is that it seems to be more efficient- it seems to use less resources if the game has been launched at least one time already. And it launches into the game faster as well (again, if previously been launched by the client).
I don't care for the actual UI itself, but I will say that they seem to have made the client a bit more modular. On the old UI, disabling the UI or friends list netted you no improvements in memory or performance. I've been fiddling around with it and it does use less ram if you don't use those things. This is great news to me, as I want the lightest possible client as possible (and if possible, making it solely DRM and nothing more). That way, when Stardock gets its in-game overlay running, I have the choice of which one to use for my games.
I have to say, I'm somewhat impressed. It's the first time I've really said anything good about Steam. I still consider Impulse my primary source for games when they're available, but I'm a bit more willing to buy cheap Steam games or Steamworks games (something I've been avoiding for a long time now).
I have to say it is kinda innovative in design and a great use of css, in terms of the previous version.
However, my only problem with this is the Games page. Why not keep the old games page in which it just list the games that you have, now you got to navigate around just to start a game.
Also the tools such as canceling a download isn't there anymore which I am screaming "Where the hell is the cancel button."
open up: steam.styles in Steam/resource/styles and edit to basefontbold=”Arial”.It's a beta, you need to check the forum.
Modifying the CSS styles doesn't help, unfortunately. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This is precisely the reason why I disable ClearType on every computer that I use. I only spent a few brief moments poking around in their forums this morning looking for a fix, but I'll try again later tonight and see if someone has posted a working solution.
They're using their own text AA implementation. If there's any way to change it it's going to be steam-specific.
Ah, interesting. Well then, another reason why Impulse wins Thanks for pointing that out.
My first thought was "They made it uglier. Huh."
My second thought was "Well, at least they're acknowledging the problem."
Seriously, is this the best they can do? It feels so awkward. I hope for the best, but expect...to stop using Steam, at this point.
Though I am glad it isn't using IE anymore. I really thought Stardock would end up doing that first.
Appending "-no-dwrite" to the Steam shortcut took care of the issue.
While I've hit some of the amusing bugs like 'Last played: Tomorrow' and not-so-amusing ones like 10-30 seconds of freezing by clicking on anything, I'm liking it overall. I had used the old green theme for years and the UI change itself is refreshing.
I find more that things aren't where they used to be instead of in places that I actually don't like. Downloads need to be removed from the download section when completed and there's some wonky behavior with auto-suspending them if I launch a game, even if it doesn't need the bandwidth like Sam & Max.
What I've been most impressed with so far is the turnaround time on patching. Those freezes I had on launch day were gone probably 24 hours later.
I like that they are ditching the IE rendering for webkit. So that means maybe they are looking into a mac release of Steam.
And maybe they'll make a TI-89 version of Steam! (or for the new Casios which are far superior IMO)
Now I don't know what I was talking about. Man being sick is fun!
I just got the new Steam UI Beta this morning, and I love everything about it. But then, I also love the iPad, LEGO Star Wars, and I loved Vista before 7 came out...
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