On June 26, Steam treated its tens of millions of users to a very nice surprise: a new feature called Steam Game Recording which, as its name suggests, allows you to record and share video clips of your games. on the fly.
It’s only a beta at the moment, but the system already seems pretty robust and packed with interesting features. It is obviously possible to start a recording by pressing a predetermined key — but that’s not all!
Background recording
There is also a tool called Background Recording which will no doubt remind something of GeForce Experience regulars, among others. For those who are not familiar with it, this is a feature that constantly keeps track of the last few minutes of gameplay so that it can be saved later, after an interesting action has taken place. For example, if you have just scored a spectacular ace in a game like Counter-Strike, all you have to do is press the dedicated key to save the contents of this video memory.
This is a very useful feature in this kind of competitive game where simply sacrificing a few tenths of a second to start recording manually can mean defeat, but also in any other title where it is difficult to anticipate the most exciting moments. Additionally, this also avoids having to record an entire gaming session, which is often not practical in terms of storage.
A clip creation tool
Once a video is recorded, you can then extract the desired sequence using a clip creation tool. It notably includes a special timeline which benefits from native integration with certain games. To take the example of Counter Strike, each elimination or defusing of a bomb will be indicated using an icon. The player will not need to watch everything to find the desired sequence.
Valve has also planned a sharing tool which allows you to post each clip on your Steam profile or on any other social platform. Alternatively, it is also possible to export a video in mp4 format to create a compilation, for example. Finally, Steam Deck owners will be delighted to learn that Game Recording also works on Valve’s handheld console.
How to enable recording via Steam?
As mentioned above, this tool is still in the beta stage at the moment. To benefit from it, you must therefore carry out a small, quick manipulation. From the Steam home page, start by navigating to the Settings menu and then the Interface tab. There you will find a Client Beta Participation menu, where you will need to select one of the two Beta versions — it doesn’t matter which one.
Steam will then restart to apply these changes. After a short update, go to the Settings menu again, then this time to the Game Recording tab.
All you have to do is select manual or background recording, choose the recording duration and the desired quality, and possibly modify the destination folder and shortcut that suits you.
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