[SilverWolf]

I just tried out Kodi, and it looks great for video and music. It has a Games section, but it seems there is currently no library for it.

Most of the discussion I've seen on here seems to be about retro game emulators and such. I don't have any emulators, but I would love to be able to launch all my existing non-emulator games through Kodi, like an open-source version of Steam's Big Picture Mode (minus Steam's controller configuration, of course).

It would be great if we could make a movie-style library for games, that simply launches them either directly (in the case of standalone/GOG games) or through their respective launchers (in the case of Steam/GOG/Uplay/... games). In this case Kodi wouldn't be storing any actual game files themselves, but just a reference to the game installation, so storing artwork and such wouldn't be a problem. Steam and GOG could also provide perfect scraper source material, should we need more information than the game files themselves provide.

I'm thinking the existing movies interface would be perfect, except launching the game instead of playing a video. I have very little Kodi addon-development experience, so I don't know the best way to go about this -- would a plugin be suitable?

[garbear]

The reason I never finished a game library (despite trying two separate times) is the database code in Kodi is in poor shape. For now, plugins can be used to achieve a game library, and they have the benefit of being able to launch external programs. Launching external programs probably won't be a feature that lands in core, because we have no control over controller mapping or ways to return to Kodi.

[Wintermute0110]

@SilverWolf Some people use AEL LNK launchers to play their Steam games, use Google and search the forum. Also, there is an addon that scans your system and adds your Steam games. AEL 0.10.0, now being coded, will support Steam games natively.

[steve1977]

@SilverWolf Some people use AEL LNK launchers to play their Steam games, use Google and search the forum. Also, there is an addon that scans your system and adds your Steam games. AEL 0.10.0, now being coded, will support Steam games natively.

Just Steam or all gamestream games? Does it allow to return easily from the game to Kodi?

[Wintermute0110]

Just Steam or all gamestream games?

Both. The Steam launcher only makes sense on a Windows machine, where your Steam installation will be scanned and games added to a AEL launcher. Gamestream support is being coded by Chrisism and I think is works well although the current version in master is VERY unstable.

Does it allow to return easily from the game to Kodi?

I think so, TTBOMK. Note that the launched application or game needs to be mediacenter friendly, that is, totally controllable with a gamepad so you can close the app and return to Kodi.

[steve1977]

Thanks. So, 0.10.0 will include native gamestream support? Without the need to open the steam app, which I'd like to avoid. Idea is to see the games in Kodi and launch them directly (not via steam launcher).

The issue is that some games don't have an exit button, so I am wondering how I can exit the games back to Kodi?

[Wintermute0110]

Thanks. So, 0.10.0 will include native gamestream support? Without the need to open the steam app, which I'd like to avoid. Idea is to see the games in Kodi and launch them directly (not via steam launcher).

Yes, but keep in mind that I do not have Steam nor Gamestream, the support is being coded by Chrisism. I am not able to give you all the details.

The issue is that some games don't have an exit button, so I am wondering how I can exit the games back to Kodi?

Not sure if the Gamestream protocol has some functionality to exit the game...

[Kriven]

In the past I used to load Steam games into Kodi as "movies" and create a custom node to split them out from regular movies. I used a .bat file as an external launcher which would check to see if the game was still running every five seconds. If it found that the game was closed, it would exist Steam and call Kodi back into focus. You could try that if you wanted to. The time required to get it up and running was a little too much for me. Maybe someday. For the moment I've settled on going back to Big Box and launching that from within Kodi using an add-on.

[zbuzanic]

I'm using AEL (great addon) for emulators and installed games (steam/battle/epic/etc.) but I have wireless keyboard and mice + media center remote with some binds that will close/exit emulator or game instant. That requires some fiddle with configuration in the start, but it is working fine for few years now, hoping retro will integrate one day all AEL festures. Before I was using ROM colection browser but it was abandoned (oh I see now malte ressurected it).

[dmakk]

In the past I used to load Steam games into Kodi as "movies" and create a custom node to split them out from regular movies. I used a .bat file as an external launcher which would check to see if the game was still running every five seconds. If it found that the game was closed, it would exist Steam and call Kodi back into focus. You could try that if you wanted to. The time required to get it up and running was a little too much for me. Maybe someday. For the moment I've settled on going back to Big Box and launching that from within Kodi using an add-on.

I'm doing something similar with Advanced Emulator Launcher now, and it was very time consuming to setup. If you're willing to put the work in, you can manually get your game library to that point. All of the major PC game launchers I use allow launching via browser protocol. Because of this I setup .bat files with links to launch the game ID. This is a lot easier for me to maintain and rebuild since they aren't dependent on the install location. Artwork was a different story, since I wanted textless fanart and boxarts with no logos. I like where it's at artwork wise and .bat file wise today, but I'm now working on .nfo files.

[HYPERIONzoom]

Launching games directly from Kodi would be nice. It would standardise the HTPC experience as well as collect all your games in one list rather than the current environment of fractured collections over the many disparate launchers.

Automatic scraping is a must for me. I've already wasted years of my life on other labour intensive frontends and I can't go back to that!

+1 from me.

[jlordon]

Steam is pretty much the missing element for me. I've got this Kodi stick which runs Librelec. Has anybody had any luck getting Steam to work on a minimal OS like Libre/Core/Open?

[JustinC]

I just tried out Kodi, and it looks great for video and music. It has a Games section, but it seems there is currently no library for it.

Most of the discussion I've seen on here seems to be about retro game emulators and such. I don't have any emulators, but I would love to be able to launch all my existing non-emulator games through Kodi, like an open-source version of Steam's Big Picture Mode (minus Steam's controller configuration, of course).

It would be great if we could make a movie-style library for games, that simply launches them either directly (in the case of standalone/GOG games) or through their respective launchers (in the case of Steam/GOG/Uplay/... games). In this case Kodi wouldn't be storing any actual game files themselves, but just a reference to the game installation, so storing artwork and such wouldn't be a problem. Steam and GOG could also provide perfect scraper source material, should we need more information than the game files themselves provide.

I'm thinking the existing movies interface would be perfect, except launching the game instead of playing a video. I have very little Kodi addon-development experience, so I don't know the best way to go about this -- would a plugin be suitable?

I think it would not be a problem to use Kodi to create Game libraries but it would be difficult to make a referencer in kodi to play the games out of kodi.
So far kodi does not give any option to refer to an external application and then return back to kodi.
Also. I have tried to make Games in kodi two times and failed at it.

[Wintermute0110]

I think it would not be a problem to use Kodi to create Game libraries but it would be difficult to make a referencer in kodi to play the games out of kodi.
So far kodi does not give any option to refer to an external application and then return back to kodi.
Also. I have tried to make Games in kodi two times and failed at it.

Kodi games library will probably never support Steam because it is very platform specific and involves the launching of external applications. Addons, however, can serve the same functionality as a games database in the core.

[Jachin99]

It actually is possible to create a list of steam games and launch them from Kodi but because there is no dedicated database you won't get much metadata. I at least got a box cover. AEL will let you create a database of steam games and depending on how you set things up you can either launch them locally or stream them. It's honestly a lot of work and you have to really want it to succeed. I have two Kodi boxes and one launches games locally through AEL and the other streams them.