14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few moments ago, Valve announced the release of a new stable update for its awesome Steam Client for GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X operating systems.
The October 14, 2015 update for the stable branch of the Steam desktop client software brings numerous fixes for some of those annoying issues reported by users since the previous release, along with various improvements to the Big Picture Mode, In-Home Streaming, Virtual Reality Mode, and Steam Controller.
Let's start with the general fixes, as there's a patch for a crash that occurred during the launch of the application via certain installers, a fix for an X11 (X Window System) crash for GNU/Linux users that occurred when closing the client, and another fix for a startup hang issue that occurred when using the app in offline mode.
The Big Picture mode received numerous improvements in the new stable update of the Steam Client, such as the first steps in the revamping of the store for the new Big Picture interface, the implementation of a header for the Display settings menu, and support for closing the overlay after accepting game invites from friends.
Moreover, the invites section of the Friends page received some improvements, various labels are now displayed correctly when using Steam in a different language than English, a "Purchase" button has been implemented in the Library for Free-to-Play games, and an issue with the footer bar related to gamepad input was fixed as well.
In-Home Streaming and Steam Controller fixes
The Guides panel received some attention to in the Big Picture more and it will no longer slide in when attempting to activate the in-game overlay. For In-Home Streaming, the new Steam Client update improves the overall streaming performance for Wi-Fi networks and resolves an issue with the desktop capture mode for Windows.
The mode-switch bindings of the Steam Controller now work as expected, and the Virtual Reality Mode got to changes, the ability to turn off the Big Picture screensaver while the VR dashboard is running and changes to the desktop and VR mode behaviour of launching VR applications. All Steam users are urged to update their Steam Client as soon as possible using the built-in updater feature.