[teeedubb]

Steam Launcher
This add-on will launch Steam in Big Picture Mode, with the option to close/leave as is/minimise Kodi and when Steam BPM is exited (either by quitting/minimising Steam or returning to the desktop) Kodi will restart/maximise. It works with Windows, Linux (SteamOS included), Android and OSX (With OSX Kodi will only restart after quitting steam completely). Running pre/post Steam scripts can be configured via the addon. A nice bonus is Steam also comes with a full featured web browser that can be controlled with a game pad or remote and plays back flash content.
 

Settings:
General:

• Quit Kodi: Options are Yes, No and Ask.
  
• Minimise Kodi: Select whether or not to minimise Kodi and not quitting Kodi.
  
• Set the paths for both Kodi and Steam.
  
• Force kill Kodi after X seconds (0 to disable)
  
• Launch Steam in desktop mode. This relies on detection of the Steam executable and will only reopen Kodi once Steam has exited completely.
  

Advanced:

• Delete and update add-on system scripts on next run - delete the system scripts out of the profile://addon_data directory and copy them from the addon install directory the next time the addon is run. This is handy if you want to go back to the default scripts or if the bundled scripts have been updated. This setting is set to disabled (to default) when run once.
  
• Configurable timeout for the "Busy Dialog" after running addon. Set to 0 to disable.
  
• Run Kodi in portable mode (as far as I can tell OSX/Android don't support portable mode and on OSX enabling this will cause Kodi not to restart).
  
• Suspend Kodi's audio before running Steam. If the addon is configured to not quit Kodi audio will be resumed after Steam BPM has been exited.
  
• Toggle script update notification.
  
• Toggle program file location checks for Steam and Kodi.
  
• Toggle check for the program 'wmctrl' (Linux only): Checks for the program wmctrl and whether a window manager is running, which is required in most scenarios, eg it is not required when using SteamOS with Kodi in its own session. Only disable this option if you are sure you don't need wmctrl or a window manager.
  
• Custom path for scripts: Set a custom directory (instead of Kodi's userdata folder) for the addon to house its scripts. The addon will copy the scripts to this folder when if they do no exist
  
• Run commands pre/post Steam. The addon will wait for the commands to finish before continuing, running the scripts in the background can be accomplished at the operating system level.
  
• Parameters to pass onto the Steam executable.
  
• Custom Steam window title for non-English Steam installs. Needed to detect when Steam has run. You will need to install AHK v1 and run WindowSpy to retrieve the correct window title.
  

Customisation:
The scripts used by this addon can be customised to suit your needs, they reside in the kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.steam.launcher/scripts folder. They are copied into that directory from the addon install directory on first run and can be set to not be over written with updates. In either steam-launcher.ahk or steam-launcher.sh the line steam.launcher.script.revision=001 is what the addon reads to determine if the scripts are up to date, set it to 999 for custom scripts the you don't want overwritten.

Linux users:
In the vast majority of use cases Linux users need a window manager running (openbox, unity, kde etc) and the programs 'xdotool' and 'wmctrl' installed.

Issues:
If you have a problem with the addon, post your Kodi debug log (wiki) and the output of the command in the log file after the entry script.steam.launcher: attempting to launch: when run via a command prompt.

Useful tips:
Steam, Linux and Lirc.
Speeding up Steam and installing on a SSD.
SteamOS + Ubuntu
Steam Launcher with KODIbuntu 14.
Steam Launcher with XBMCbuntu 13.
Kodi and SteamOS
If Steam BPM is losing focus on start up in Windows
Windows Store Kodi and Steam Launcher


DOWNLOAD

Previous version's

For automatic updates you can install my repo. Code can be found on GitHub. Addon installation instructions can be found here.

Version 3.4.1 is the last version that will work on Kodi 18. Version 3.2.3 is the last version that was tested on Kodi 17 - newer version may work, but are not supported. Version 3+ is only compatible with Kodi 14 - Helix, for XBMC Gotham and Frodo the latest compatible release is v2.2.0 here.. Frodo users - while v2.X.X works with XBMC12, the method the add-on uses to give on screen error notifications is not compatible. Apart from the pre/post Steam scripts not found notification, every other time there is a error notification the add-on exits anyway.

If you like this addon you can help support my Steam addiction

[DJ_Izumi]

As Steam Big Picture Mode now has a 'Exit Steam' option which truly shuts down Steam rather than minimizing to tray, is it possible to reconfigure this program to leave XBMC in the background and then switch back to XBMC once Steam is exited? I have Advanced Launcher doing this right now but I'd like to go to Steam directly has I have no interest in launching anything other than Steam and going back to XBMC.

[teeedubb]

Yes its possible. Open the zip file and edit default.py and in the second line remove

taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe &&

. But launching games and emulators over xbmc has always give me problems - xbmc accepting controller inputs while games are playing, games/emulators having no sound, xbmc not getting focus on game exit and xbmc using a significant amount of cpu. Do you not get this problem?

I would try changing the second line in default.py to this

os.system('taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && E:\Steam\steam.exe -bigpicture && timeout 1 && C:\path\to\XBMC.exe')

to have xbmc killed, steam launched and when exited xbmc is relaunched.

[inque54]

I tried running your script but for some reason nothing is happening.

I tried to check via task manager and steam doesn't seem to load. I have already also input the path of my steam.exe on deafault.py

I'm using Win 8 64bit also btw

[teeedubb]

Does the command within default.py work when run from the command prompt?

[inque54]

Does the command within default.py work when run from the command prompt?

Oh you mean running it on command prompt? I'm not sure on how to run default.py on cmd, it's just giving me message that it couldn't run

I might be doing something wrong though? Apologies on being such a noob!

[teeedubb]

Yeah, open xbmc, un-fullscreen xbmc with the / button and press the windows button, then type cmd, enter.
Now use your version of commands contained in default.py inside os.system(' '), for example, if I wanted to test it from the command prompt i would type in

Code:

taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && E:\Steam\steam.exe -bigpicture

[DJ_Izumi]

Yes its possible. Open the zip file and edit default.py and in the second line remove

taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe &&

. But launching games and emulators over xbmc has always give me problems - xbmc accepting controller inputs while games are playing, games/emulators having no sound, xbmc not getting focus on game exit and xbmc using a significant amount of cpu. Do you not get this problem?

I would try changing the second line in default.py to this

os.system('taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && E:\Steam\steam.exe -bigpicture && timeout 1 && C:\path\to\XBMC.exe')

to have xbmc killed, steam launched and when exited xbmc is relaunched.

Keeping XBMC in the background doesn't seem to make any noticeable influence on game playback on my machine, A8-3870k with 16GB RAM. I run XBMC in true full screen so it minimizes to the background. I stripped your script down a lot however, I was already using a batch file with nircmd to have Windows do a force focus back to XBMC when Steam closes. I actually just cut your script down to do nothing but execute that batch file. I found one hangup that you may want to specify in your first post however: You don't JUST need to write in the location of Steam in default.py, you ALSO need to do it with 8.3 file name conventions.

c:\program files (x86)\steam\steam.exe is no good for example, it has to be c:\progra~2\steam\steam.exe or else your script only tries to execute 'c:\program' and stops there. Once I figured this out and figured out the 8.3 conventions, it worked fine. I imagine you didn't notice this yourself because your steam location uses folders/filenames with only 8 characters and no spaces.

[teeedubb]

Thanks for pointing that out. Since the first post I changed my setup so steam was on the ssd with the game data on a hdd and ran into the same problem, but got around it by putting quotes around the command. So now the command within default.py looks like

os.system('taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture')

Ill update the first post with this info.

[inque54]

I was able to run the script on command line and it ran Steam!

But when I tried to launch it via XBMC, nothing happens, apart from quitting XBMC.

Edit: Might as well paste my 2nd line of default.py

Code:

os.system('taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture')

[teeedubb]

Does

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture

Launch steam from the command prompt?

[inque54]

Does

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture

Launch steam from the command prompt?

Yes it does

[teeedubb]

Does

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture

Launch steam from the command prompt?

Yes it does

Hmmm strange - the individual parts of the command work... there are no error messages printed on screen? the only thing I can think of right now is that the timeout command is no t used in win8. I've only used this with win7, I will setup steam on my win8 laptop and test it out.

[inque54]

Okay thanks for taking the trouble!

Edit:
No errors found also btw. It just closes XBMC and doesn't do anything afterwards

[teeedubb]

I copy and pasted your command from above

taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -bigpicture

and it works as should when run from a command prompt.. and I saw that System Shock 2 is on sale..very tempting...

Not really sure why it isnt running.. Id be looking at why steam isnt running from the command line or for another way to run steam.

Also you dont have steam already open (even the tray icon) when running the command do you?