Steam is adding a built-in gameplay recording tool to its client, allowing you to capture and share clips more easily and it’s now available in beta.
According to the announcement, the recording feature will not only work with the PC client but also support Steam Deck.
Today we’ve launched Steam Game Recording into Beta. This is a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, that works on any game on Steam.
Learn more here: https://t.co/H5z6Reykmx pic.twitter.com/koDAjyUeAe
— Steam (@Steam) June 26, 2024
With the tool, you will be able to continuously record gameplay clips in the background or manually turn on recording via a hotkey. Furthermore, you can limit the file size and adjust the maximum quality and length for recording.
There are also features called Steam Timeline and Event Markers for our mark key moments, and your recording even reads in-game information – for example, the heroes in Dota 2 or the current state of the game, from waiting in the lobby to actual battle. Developers can also utilize its SDK and API to code in-game events for the recording.
Accessible via the Steam Overlay, you can also quickly replay and watch the last seconds of your gameplay with ease.
The announcement also reveals that there are many ways to save your footage, from saving it natively to creating a temporary link to an MP4 video.
Valve also highlighted various other elements on why you should use the built-in recording tool instead of third-party software like OBS or NVIDIA Shadowplay.
For one, Valve claims that the tool is engineered for performance, and minimizes CPU usage by using dedicated video encoding hardware of AMD or NVIDIA GPUs.