Is there any way to automatically add recently installed Steam games without user interaction?

[Bri Bri]

I'm setting up LaunchBox / Big Box to be a replacement front end for Steam's big picture mode. I still have big picture mode accessible from Big Box in case I want to use Steam to purchase a new game, but I'd like to launch my Steam games from within Big Box.

I'm familiar with how to add Steam games to LaunchBox, but my goal in setting up this system is to provide the "console" experience, meaning everything is done with a controller and in a 10-foot interface, and using it requires no pointing and clicking, no typing, no use of a physical mouse, and no use of a physical keyboard. So the process of importing new Steam games runs afoul of that -- it involves switching to Launchbox's desktop UI and doing a whole bunch of pointing and clicking.

So I'm wondering if there's any way I can have LaunchBox automatically add new Steam games? Basically it would do what using the Steam importer would do with all default options. I know I could probably use AutoHotkey or something like that to automate this, but I'm wondering if there's a more elegant way to handle this.

[neil9000]

Unfortunately i don't believe this is a option at the moment. I agree with the sentiment of the idea, but a no mouse interface is off the cards as how would you set it up?

[Zombeaver]

I'm not aware of any way to do this via some automation other than something like AHK or at least some form of external tool to make your controller send mouse/keyboard inputs.

[Bri Bri]

4 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Unfortunately i don't believe this is a option at the moment. I agree with the sentiment of the idea, but a no mouse interface is off the cards as how would you set it up?

Of course I'm okay with using a keyboard or mouse to set things up, but I'm hoping certain things can not involve a keyboard or mouse, like adding Steam games since I can buy the game only using a controller and big picture mode.

Anyway, it's sounding like I'll need to use AHK to pull this off.

[Zombeaver]

Honestly you'd be better off either making a plugin or asking for someone to make a plugin to do it. That's probably going to be a safer bet than AHK in this specific situation. I think you could do it with AHK but it'd likely be complicated and messy.

[Bri Bri]

46 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

Honestly you'd be better off either making a plugin or asking for someone to make a plugin to do it. That's probably going to be a safer bet than AHK in this specific situation. I think you could do it with AHK but it'd likely be complicated and messy.

I considered writing a plug-in but I don't think the LaunchBox API provides an interface for the "Import Games from Steam" wizard or more generally looking up games in the LaunchBox database and downloading metadata and artwork and all that. (Do correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Zombeaver]

I honestly couldn't tell you whether or not that's accurate. Maybe @Nielk1 could chime in here.

[Nielk1]

There is my SteamTools plugin but I need to do some work on it.  It talks to the Steam client directly using an older SteamAPI, so it is more effective than the native LaunchBox Steam game importer and can catch Source and GoldSrc mods.  The plugin currently has a bug with the "Install With Steam" BigBox menu command and I need to just remove that command, but everything else in the plugin *should* still work.  It also sometimes leaves it's "Carbyne Steam Interop Server" running in the shell, but it has an icon and an exit option in it's right click menu.  Basic, it's a beta plugin.  It doesn't have automatic adding of installed games but it does have automatic hiding/unhiding of installed/uninstalled games (and if you have Premium it adds a custom field that you can use to make a plugin listing installed Steam games only instead).  Sadly I have not implemented any metadata logic into it yet, which can be a pain since LaunchBox will incorrectly match Windows games very often.  I will try to get a new version of it out in a few days just in case it's broken, but I should be working aside from the aforementioned 2 bugs.  I could look into automatically catching new installed games.

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by Nielk1

[Bri Bri]

On 9/20/2017 at 8:46 PM, Nielk1 said:

There is my SteamTools plugin but I need to do some work on it.  It talks to the Steam client directly using an older SteamAPI, so it is more effective than the native LaunchBox Steam game importer and can catch Source and GoldSrc mods.  The plugin currently has a bug with the "Install With Steam" BigBox menu command and I need to just remove that command, but everything else in the plugin *should* still work.  It also sometimes leaves it's "Carbyne Steam Interop Server" running in the shell, but it has an icon and an exit option in it's right click menu.  Basic, it's a beta plugin.  It doesn't have automatic adding of installed games but it does have automatic hiding/unhiding of installed/uninstalled games (and if you have Premium it adds a custom field that you can use to make a plugin listing installed Steam games only instead).  Sadly I have not implemented any metadata logic into it yet, which can be a pain since LaunchBox will incorrectly match Windows games very often.  I will try to get a new version of it out in a few days just in case it's broken, but I should be working aside from the aforementioned 2 bugs.  I could look into automatically catching new installed games.

This is fairly impressive! I could see how this would be a starting point to create a plugin that does what I'm looking for. If you get it pulling metadata, maybe at some point I could make a pull request?

[Nielk1]

@guygizmo I welcome pull requests.  Be aware that some of the dependencies, like my Steam4NET fork can be a bit hairy.  I have been thinking about moving all this stuff to a "company/group" page on github to move it away from the unrelated projects as it's starting to span a few repositories.  I also need to work out some bugs in my context and stuff.  Quite proud of the fact it works though, especially dealing with the 64 vs 32bit issue.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Nielk1

[Hexxxer]

1 hour ago, Nielk1 said:

@guygizmo I welcome pull requests.  Be aware that some of the dependencies, like my Steam4NET fork can be a bit hairy.  I have been thinking about moving all this stuff to a "company/group" page on github to move it away from the unrelated projects as it's starting to span a few repositories.  I also need to work out some bugs in my context and stuff.  Quite proud of the fact it works though, especially dealing with the 64 vs 32bit issue.

Sweet, I really like the looks of your add-on