The new video capture feature makes other tools unnecessary

Forget OBS, forget Bandicam and Nvidia Shadowplay. Because these external recording tools have now found a powerful competitor that has the potential to put them all in their place.

We are talking about the Steam Game Recordinga new feature of Valve's game launcher that lets you record your games directly in the app. An external application is therefore unnecessary. We’ll take a closer look at the whole thing for you.

The game recording does exactly what it promises: It records your sessions in the background. You can choose whether Steam should do this automatically or whether you want to start the recording manually using a shortcut key (Ctrl+F11 by default). The resulting videos can be viewed directly in the Steam client or in the in-game overlay.

This is useful if, for example, you miss an important dialogue and want to listen to it again. The standard length for recordings is 120 minutes; you can choose from five different quality levels. This means you don't have to worry about filling up your hard drive just because you forgot to stop the recording.

In many cases, Steam automatically detects whether there are highlights hidden in the filmed material or whether it is a menu or lobby screen instead of gameplay. Also good: Recording mode only films your gameplay, not your desktop, so you don't have to worry about accidentally sharing your anime wallpaper with the world.

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Steam – We show you the new game recording feature and how to activate it

Sharing is caring

Sharing is a good keyword, Because you can easily cut together small clips from your recordings in Steam. For example, if you want to share a particularly good kill in Hunt: Showdown with your colleagues. You can then export the clips in MP4 format and use them on social media.

The performance hunger in recording mode is surprisingly lowSince Steam is already running in the background, the internal recording takes up fewer frames and processor usage than external programs that we have to run in addition. However, we have not yet carried out any concrete measurements.

Click here to go to Steam

Currently only in beta

Of course, the new mode may still have a few small errors here and there – because it is not quite finished yet. At the moment, game recording is still in beta version and therefore not immediately available to all Steam users. If you want to try out the new mode, you must first activate beta participation in the settings. I'll show you how to do this in the video above.

With the update, Valve could have already pulled the rug out from under the feet of third-party providers such as Shadowplay and Co. The direct integration into Steam is simply too practical. You no longer have to switch programs if you want to record and edit gameplay. You can also share the clips straight away. So why use another program at all?

However, the practical recording feature is not the only big news on Steam. Because today the big Summer Sale starts, during which you can get numerous great games at absolutely rock-bottom prices.

In the link box above you will also find two other interesting pieces of news about Valve's online shop. Did you know, for example, that you could buy four American aircraft carriers for the equivalent value of all unplayed Steam games? Now you know.