I can't seem to find anything officially on this other than it was on the roadmap since last year. If it does, how do you open it?
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Does the Epic Games Store not have an in-game overlay?
- Thread starter Jaded Alyx
- Start date
Nope. Believe it's on the roadmap.
Edit: Roadmap - https://trello.com/b/GXLc34hk/epic-games-store-roadmap
Edit: Roadmap - https://trello.com/b/GXLc34hk/epic-games-store-roadmap
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So currently, if someone has a single screen and they want to message a friend, they'd have to alt-tab (if playing fullscreen)?
Or you could pull a Nintendo and pull out your cellphone everytime you wanted to.
Sounds right, yes. Or if dual monitor play borderless window and move the cursor over.
It's under recently shipped. It only in one game based on notes and currently only for micro transactions.
Now that I look I guess I don't either explicitly but thought it was there before. Maybe it's the one labeled "Social Overhaul"? Even that one doesn't specifically mention overlay support.
My bad.
As someone who recently got a low end PC after quite some time away from the platform, the proliferation of overlays is ridic. Windows has one, and every launcher (except epic I guess) has their own. Amd also has an overlay as part of it's Adrenalin app.
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I know you're joking but Nintendo's app would actually be useful if you could message friends like the PS app, Xbox app, Steam app....I'd take an Epic app but that doesn't exist either....
That doesn't help me message an EGS friend unless they're also a Steam friend who does the same.
Turn them all off. I remember when the Windows 10/Xbox one locked your fps to 60 lol
lol, me trying to pass 60 fps with my little laptop isn't much of a danger. It's probably a good idea to turn them all off though.
I've actually appreciated the gog galaxy launcher. It seems to do a good job of showing all my Steam and Epic games and launching them for me.
yeah I guess though I don't really see any other solution right now and it's pretty easy to do.
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Yeh It's not a huge deal for me as
a). I have two screens
b). Most friends are people I know personally and can be messaged by other means on my phone etc
I just find it rather silly that such alternatives are the only real option here
True.
Though at least the Achievements look..interesting.
Yeah honestly it works really well and I do it for every launcher like Uplay, Origins, Itchio and Twitch. Only thing you need to do is make sure the launcher isn't already running so you can start it via steam.
That way you don't have to deal with any headaches regarding controller support (especially if you use a non xbox controller like the Switch pro controller or a dualshock 4)
IDK how you can expect a tiny company like Epic to have an overlay only a year and a half after they opened their launcher
I haven't yet wanted to play anything on EGS with a DS4, but when I eventually do I'm glad to know there's a 1-step solution.
Not yet.
They don't even have user profiles (TBH even GOG isn't that much better here and their profile is pretty barebones for a long time) up at the moment. In-game overlay, community/forums, user reviews, mod workshop etc., are going to take a long time.
The only drastic change I've noticed sometime ago was them adding playtime tracking and list view for titles, along with the default grid.
They don't even have user profiles (TBH even GOG isn't that much better here and their profile is pretty barebones for a long time) up at the moment. In-game overlay, community/forums, user reviews, mod workshop etc., are going to take a long time.
The only drastic change I've noticed sometime ago was them adding playtime tracking and list view for titles, along with the default grid.
As a Steam Controller user I hated ingame overlays, even Steam's even though I need it to make non Steam games work with the controller (BPM).
It was frustrating to get Steam Input to work, and to figure out how it works (frequent updates that messed up or changed things was the worst). I had to limit the amount of overlays the PC had running (riva tuner was the cause of a lot of compatibility issues with Steam Input at first, that seemed to be ironed out now), and getting anything to work with Ubisoft games because of their overlay, as well as Origin's. Now I have them all under control, I had to disable some launcher's overlay to get things working, but I think the cap of overlays must have been increased or something because I can have Riva Tuner, Steam, and Ubisoft overlay at the same time now. That or Steam Input just improved a bit to not make such a fuss about stuff.
If EGS ever get a overlay I better be able to turn it off. Now that I think about it, I remember being able to bring up the friend list in Paragon, or maybe it was just built into the game (old Epic Launcher, before Fortnite took over).
It was frustrating to get Steam Input to work, and to figure out how it works (frequent updates that messed up or changed things was the worst). I had to limit the amount of overlays the PC had running (riva tuner was the cause of a lot of compatibility issues with Steam Input at first, that seemed to be ironed out now), and getting anything to work with Ubisoft games because of their overlay, as well as Origin's. Now I have them all under control, I had to disable some launcher's overlay to get things working, but I think the cap of overlays must have been increased or something because I can have Riva Tuner, Steam, and Ubisoft overlay at the same time now. That or Steam Input just improved a bit to not make such a fuss about stuff.
If EGS ever get a overlay I better be able to turn it off. Now that I think about it, I remember being able to bring up the friend list in Paragon, or maybe it was just built into the game (old Epic Launcher, before Fortnite took over).
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I think I saw this was completed in the road map, however it's up to developers whether they want to implement it on their store page or not.
So...that's not happening I guess.
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Really? Nobody has, for example, messaged you on Steam while you're in-game and you use the overlay to bring up the chat to reply?
Never. If I'm ever communicating with someone on PC, it would be over Discord, or via text message on my phone.
A lot of the EGS games are or were DRM free, for the games that need EGS do that.
Here's how to directly link EGS Launcher required games directly.
What I do is use something like Playnite or GOG Galaxy 2.0 and use Global Steam Controller (GLoSC) as the Steam launch app, then make controller configs for each game under GLoSC's link. That allows me to play Microsoft Store games, EGS required launcher games, and anything without having to make a link in Steam. Also I get to use game organizers that work a lot better for non Steam games, even better than SteamDB app. GOG Galazy 2.0 populate my box art and update when I change the download location super fast and usually automatically. Steam is very picky with having to redo the box art and backgrounds whenever I move a game or change it's name.
Linking Microsoft Store games in Steam with GLoSC is a bit annoying with how Microsoft put games on your computer. You need some crazy !app ID and stuff.
Epic Games Store is just a downloader. It doesn't really do much else in terms of functionality. Even cloud saves barely work.
That said, I think there's probably a good third party solution on the horizon. Since the Microsoft Game Bar has allowed widgets, I feel the possibilities for overlay features are pretty much endless.
I feel like in a world of GOG, EGS, Uplay, Itch and so on, PC gamers are going to need more abstracted third party solutions to a lot of the features we've come to expect from Steam. Overlays, launchers, achievements and so on really shouldn't be tied to a store client as that just creates fragmentation. There should be some sort of third party application that treats everything equally. You see bits and bobs of it with apps like Game Bar and Playnite doing a lot of the heavy lifting for people with a dispersed library, but there's definitely more work to be done in this space.
That said, I think there's probably a good third party solution on the horizon. Since the Microsoft Game Bar has allowed widgets, I feel the possibilities for overlay features are pretty much endless.
I feel like in a world of GOG, EGS, Uplay, Itch and so on, PC gamers are going to need more abstracted third party solutions to a lot of the features we've come to expect from Steam. Overlays, launchers, achievements and so on really shouldn't be tied to a store client as that just creates fragmentation. There should be some sort of third party application that treats everything equally. You see bits and bobs of it with apps like Game Bar and Playnite doing a lot of the heavy lifting for people with a dispersed library, but there's definitely more work to be done in this space.
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Not yet.
Well ok. How about inviting someone to a game? Many games use the overlay for that too.
this seems like much more work than adding a launcher to steam. what's the advantage?
I guess I've never played a game where I invited someone where there wasn't some kind of in-game method of doing so.
I'm not suggesting they don't have a purpose, I'm just saying I've never had a purpose for them.
I use the Steam Overlay to Google search stuff instead of alt-tabbing sometimes, but for the most part I don't really touch it either unless I need to use Steam Controller Config to fix controls.
You can directly launch games, use custom artwork, generally make your library nicer-looking. It also allows custom Steam input configurations on a per-game basis rather than just having one for the launcher and that's that.
It's also more useful for people who use Big Picture, but I can see the merits of adding each individual game to Steam if you're using desktop too.
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Fair enough.
I'll say I tend to use the Steam overlay quite a lot. For chat, invites, to check achievements, to access Steam settings, Steam Discussions, the web browser when I don't want to use my phone, etc.
I don't mess with friend lists, or care about achievements, but as much as I love the Steam Controller, and it's mouse look viable touch pads, this is the reason I'm downgrading to a Dual Sense. Trying to get Steam Controller to work with so many games that aren't on Steam is annoying, doable, but annoying.
Before Steam Input I used controllers to browse the internet, play Civilization 3, and play MMORPG games that were built for keyboard/mouse. Today there are amazing game profilers but they don't support Steam Controller. I gotta break free, it helps that the Steam Controller was discontinued, and to me reWASD looks and seems a lot better (it's actually better when it comes to supporting keyboard/mouse + controllers in one config, dual joycons, layout and response of the menus. Also no BPM!!).
One day they might even find the technology to add a cart to their store. Imagine that. But I understand it's a difficult system to develop. Not many places online actually use shopping carts.
When you add just the launcher, you have to do like I do when I link a single instance of Global Steam Controller app for many games (make a custom controller config for each game, and select that config after or before launching the game, sometimes you may need to alt tab so you can see Steam Overlay), or give each game a EGS link renaming it to that game.
You'd still have to launch the game when the EGS open. This way you can just boot, and carry on without searching for the game in the EGS library, and it's controller profile is unique to it's steam library link if you do the one EGS link for all EGS games method.