14 DAY TRIAL // Valve today offers Steam client version 04.21.2014 for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux computers with specific changes for each platform in part, as well as general tweaks and enhancements. The update is available from the application itself on your computer.
Some of the general changes noted by Valve include support for regional EULAs, improved caching of leaderboard API requests, improved handling of warnings on unrecognized links in chat, fixed installing games from older retail discs, improved keyboard accessibility in block/unblock success dialog, and much more.
Other fixes apply to removing empty sub folders after game updates, SteamGuard UI problems preventing login in rare configurations, launching games dialog getting stuck in “Preparing to launch...” state, installed apps detecting content updates, and the inability to install games or force updates outside the auto-update time window.
An issue involving repeated attempts to apply pending updates to a game that is currently running is also addressed, according to Valve.
On the Mac, the update improves initial startup time when launching Steam and fixes crashes with newer games when launched from Steam OS X client.
Big Picture changes include loading the correctly-localized EULA, fixed progress percentage displayed for items that are queued for download, fixed UI for pre-loading games, and a login help support page for retrieving forgotten passwords and account names.
The Virtual Reality Mode option has been moved to the View menu, while the –vr command line option has been removed. According to the developers, “This will only appear if SteamVR is installed and if a supported HMD is detected.”
Switching from desktop mode to VR, then back to desktop and into Big Picture is now possible, and the client now detects when an HMD has been plugged in after Steam has started.
Steam will now open only the VR window and not the normal Big Picture window when running in VR mode, and the log files for VR have been relocated under the Steam client install directory.
Windows-specific changes include improved Steam overlay compatibility with 64-bit games (particularly helpful for Windows 8.1 gamers) and fixed hang that occurred when opening the in-game overlay.
Linux gamers will be glad to learn that the client has been updated with steam-runtime for Ubuntu 14.04 compatibility, as well as to address bugs and to add support for setting voice input device in Big Picture.