SteamLauncher

[ZombieLegion]

Was excited to try this since most of my PC integration is through steam anyways. Sad to see that it just crashes when I try to run a game. I don't see any automatic loading of games or anything in the settings either. Hopefully they can get this back up and running again. Seems like an awesome idea.

[Drakorex]

Any hope of this ever getting fixed?

The only work around I can figure out is by launching Launch Box FROM Steam, with the plugin turned OFF. Doing this launches every game/emulator under "Launch Box" meaning you must make a separate profile for each game and swap out to the correct profile for each game instead of each game having its own unique profile and using it on load. And because Launch Box is seen in Steam as its own "game" you must open a game from Launch Box, from Steam, and set Launch Box's controls to your Desktop Layout which must be saved under Templates, in order to seamlessly operate Launch Box with controller. And God forbid if you don't switch back to Desktop Layout before quitting a game.

 

Edited May 3 by Drakorex

[AbbieDoobie]

I'm still holding out hope this will be fixed, but at this point I've given up on launchbox and use other methods to manage my library. I just cannot possibly fathom giving up the flexibility of steam input and the overlay.

[Drakorex]

I'm not sure if its frowned upon to ask, but are there any other front ends that offer a similar function?

[HTPCei]

At this point, I think it's probably ok to discuss other options.. If nothing else it shows we're missing it, and would love for it to return at some point, if possible...
Unfortunately, it seems/seemed like a bit of a battle to keep this working, given the frequent changes to Steams code, (although I am kinda speculating from Lahmas posts, I have no Idea how any of this works) 

I've looked into alternatives a little, but if it's per-game settings you want, without filling your steam library up with roms like I think this: https://steamgriddb.github.io/steam-rom-manager/ does,
then nothing really compares to Steamlauncher when it's working correctly... 
Emudeck for Steam Deck might be the closest, (currently setting mine up, scraping library, then will test and update asap),
Emudeck is based on Emulation Station Desktop Edition, which runs on Windows.. not sure if you can access the Steam integration without running Steam OS though..

If it's just the overlay you want, maybe try this: https://github.com/Alia5/GlosSI

GloSsi worked last time I tried, few years ago now probably, but the github page does seem to warn of deprecated dependencies, no updates for 9 months, so the project may be unsupported now, or been superceded..
As I said, nothing I've come across quite replicates Steamlauncher functionality, would be great to have it working again, Launchbox ain't the same without it..

[haradooku]

I would expect something like this to be an inherent feature to the LaunchBox/BigBox software, especially premium (considering a user was able to devise and implement the plugin alone in the first place lol).

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, haradooku said:

I would expect something like this to be an inherent feature to the LaunchBox/BigBox software, especially premium (considering a user was able to devise and implement the plugin alone in the first place lol).

LaunchBox features are generally community driven.  "Generally", in that the developers come up with some pretty good ideas in their own.  I believe there's a feature request on the Feedback page for this.  So if it's something you really think should be added, be sure to upvote it.

If I had a nickel for every plugin I created that its intended "feature/use" subsequently got implemented into the official LaunchBox, I'd have 10¢ over the course of 6 years.  lol

[haradooku]

On 6/10/2025 at 6:23 PM, JoeViking245 said:

LaunchBox features are generally community driven.  "Generally", in that the developers come up with some pretty good ideas in their own.  I believe there's a feature request on the Feedback page for this.  So if it's something you really think should be added, be sure to upvote it.

If I had a nickel for every plugin I created that its intended "feature/use" subsequently got implemented into the official LaunchBox, I'd have 10¢ over the course of 6 years.  lol

That's true, we should all do our party to bring attention to features that we desire as a userbase/community. I admire plugin creators very much because they share their talents with the rest of the community and increase the awesomness of LaunchBox/BigBox.  I don't know what plugins you've made but I'm still very much grateful for your contribution (despite the features not being officially implemented).  

Something I've noticed is this plugin being the most popular on this section of the forums, with nearly 200k Views over 860 replies. Do you know if the developers come to this section of the forums often? 

[JoeViking245]

24 minutes ago, haradooku said:

Do you know if the developers come to this section of the forums often? 

Possibly. If even that.  But TBH and to be fair, (and this is just my guess...), they're not going to spend time following a 3rd party plugin thread.  If for some reason it's broken (case in point), it's not theirs to fix.  Conversely, if it's working, why $pend the time thinking about implementing the feature it's already providing?

Hence the Feature Request page.

 

42 minutes ago, haradooku said:

I don't know what plugins you've made

That's a shame.  

43 minutes ago, haradooku said:

I'm still very much grateful for your contribution (despite the features not being officially implemented).

Thanks.  As far as them not being officially implemented, makes no matter to me.  It's just a hobby. 😎  And really, the only different between a plugin and an implemented feature is... "who's going to fix it when something changes?". 

[C-Beats]

1 hour ago, haradooku said:

Do you know if the developers come to this section of the forums often? 

I can't speak for the rest of the team but I generally have the forums activity feed up and refresh it whenever I'm waiting on a build to finish. There's very little on the threads I don't at least know is being talked about. I saw the discussion on this thread but don't have much to really add. We made the plugin system so that requests that sit pretty far away from our development path can still be completed by dedicated individuals willing to take the task on for themselves. This plugin is one such use case.

I don't make decisions about what does or doesn't make it into the app so don't take the following as "set in stone"

This plugin fills a niche that sits well outside of anything I could ever see us adding into the application. I'm not sure why we would build a feature into our front end to inject our data into another front end / storefront so that you can use that instead. You can utilize Steam controls without adding games into Steam so I'm not really sure what we'd be helping you with regarding that setup/configuration either. Also as the plugin dev has found third parties change crap often so we wouldn't be able to consistently give a quality service related to it with the way the product is currently built. As we move to make more and more things tied to plugins we can update outside of the normal release schedule that may deaden some. Even now EA imports are broken and took me over a week to find a way to get them working again (be on the look out in next beta) and that's a function integral to OUR front end. Having to do that all for a niche use case in another frontend/game library software just doesn't sound like the best use of time and would greatly distract from features and improvements to OUR product directly.

I do admit though this plugin has grown quite a bit since it first broke on the scene so I may not be understanding the full desire of the people using it, which is why we often suggest you put it in a feature request that does a good job condensing the 44 PAGE thread into something a bit more easily digestible format to work as a TLDR for those deciding what to build and when.

This is why we love our plugin dev's. No one wants to be told "NO!" and these fine folks do a great job delivering a lot of more niche features and functionality our small team just can't really justify the time on (whether we want to or not). It's always nice to see the community banding together and helping each other out in ways we just don't have the bandwidth to do ourselves.

[HTPCei]

8 hours ago, C-Beats said:

This plugin fills a niche that sits well outside of anything I could ever see us adding into the application. I'm not sure why we would build a feature into our front end to inject our data into another front end / storefront so that you can use that instead. You can utilize Steam controls without adding games into Steam so I'm not really sure what we'd be helping you with regarding that setup/configuration either. Also as the plugin dev has found third parties change crap often so we wouldn't be able to consistently give a quality service related to it with the way the product is currently built. As we move to make more and more things tied to plugins we can update outside of the normal release schedule that may deaden some. Even now EA imports are broken and took me over a week to find a way to get them working again (be on the look out in next beta) and that's a function integral to OUR front end. Having to do that all for a niche use case in another frontend/game library software just doesn't sound like the best use of time and would greatly distract from features and improvements to OUR product directly.

I do admit though this plugin has grown quite a bit since it first broke on the scene so I may not be understanding the full desire of the people using it, which is why we often suggest you put it in a feature request that does a good job condensing the 44 PAGE thread into something a bit more easily digestible format to work as a TLDR for those deciding what to build and when.

This is why we love our plugin dev's. No one wants to be told "NO!" and these fine folks do a great job delivering a lot of more niche features and functionality our small team just can't really justify the time on (whether we want to or not). It's always nice to see the community banding together and helping each other out in ways we just don't have the bandwidth to do ourselves.

Thanks for the response, I kinda thought that would be the position from Launchbox Devs about something like this, which is completely understandable...
For me, when it was working as intended, Steamlauncher added a few features I liked, mostly while using BigBox in my use-case..

it allowed for editing and saving game/rom-specific steam input controller settings (without needing to add all roms into steam), as well as having access to the steam overlay, and all it's functions; chat, browser, music etc..
It also (optionally) showed your steam friends what you were playing (useful for netplay/multiplayer), and had a few other options under the hood, for launching non-ROM games (like Brutal Doom .bat's.. again, without adding to steam), editing platform/emulator names..
 

8 hours ago, C-Beats said:

You can utilize Steam controls without adding games into Steam

Can you tell us more about this? I've tried a few things previously, but so far I haven't found anything that allows for per-game settings, without adding to steam library.
Thanks

[C-Beats]

3 hours ago, HTPCei said:

Can you tell us more about this? I've tried a few things previously, but so far I haven't found anything that allows for per-game settings, without adding to steam library.
Thanks

I was referring more to the global setting or "Desktop Layout". Regarding per game you're likely right in that you'd have to do that. Not really sure I understand why you'd use Steam though and not the emulator. For standalone games there are several tools out there that can remap controller inputs and have it detect games to change the layout. I use x360ce in my cab but I'm sure there are other/newer contenders.