5 replies to this topic

[Emetivore]

(sorry if this is the wrong forum... you have way too many subforums)

MWO is incompatible with Steam's overlay, text chat and voice chat features. That is:

1. You cannot press Shift + Tab to bring up the Steam Overlay (a feature of any game that is launched via Steam, even those that are not on Steam themselves).
2. You cannot use the text chat while in a game (see 1).
3. Voice chat through steam is BLOCKED while in-game (the only other game I have EVER seen block Steam voice chat is Legends of Norrath by Sony).

Pretty much every single game that has been published in the last several years allows the Steam overlay, text and voice chat in-game. Ergo, it is either exceptionally easy to make this work or it requires effort to make it NOT work.

Now, I have heard that the devs have trash-talked Steam previously and are generally negative towards it (which is ludicrous since it's the best thing for gaming on the PC). I'm wondering if these incompatibilities are an intentional snub towards Steam users.

SO... Is the Steam incompatibility an INTENTIONAL SNUB by the devs?

Discuss.

Also, READ THIS:
Steam compatibility has absolutely no effect whatsoever on non-Steam users, so let's refrain from the "Steam sucks" line of discussion in this thread; that's not what I want to talk about. For those millions of us that use Steam, being able to use it can make or break the game for us. Also, keep in mind I'm not talking about the devs publishing on Steam (that is another discussion), I am talking about being compatible with it if a user chooses to launch MWO with it.

[Blue Footed Booby]

It's not blocked; it's a function of how the launcher works. Not only is the launcher a separate exe (meaning Steam hooks into the wrong program) it launches with admin privileges, which borks the overlay by itself.

Google for "mechwarrior online skip patcher." Not sure how it works, but if you add a shortcut to that into Steam the overlay works fine. I just used it yesterday.

[General Taskeen]

I'm not sure why it is not working for you.

I launch the game via Steam and in-game I still get the Steam Overlay with Shift+Tab.

[Farix]

Are you sure you are binding to the client instead of the launcher?

Client: MWOClient.exe
Launcher: MechWarriorOnline.exe

[Emetivore]

Interesting... I'll try this when I get home.

I suspect this will not resolve the Steam Voice problem, but I'll definitely try it. Thanks for the tip!

[Emetivore]

"MWOClient.exe cannot be run directly. Please use the desktop shortcut (or MechWarriorOnline.exe) to launch the game and ensure it is up to date" is the message I get when I try to run MWOClient.exe.

However, the -nopatch trick worked for me to get the overlay up. Thank you BlueFoot!

Gonna try to test the Steam Voice using this tonight, though again I suspect it won't resolve this issue.

Edited by Emetivore, 31 July 2013 - 06:11 PM.