Steam Gets New Big Art Mode, Screensavers and Major Big Picture Improvements

Valve has rolled out a new Steam Client Beta update featuring a major visual upgrade for Big Picture Mode, including a new Big Art Mode, customizable screensavers, performance improvements and several quality-of-life changes.

Big Art Mode Gives Steam a More Visual Home Screen

The biggest addition is Big Art Mode, a new option designed to make the Steam home screen much more focused on game artwork.

Instead of putting most of the attention on traditional menus and information, Big Art Mode gives your game library’s artwork a more prominent place on the screen. This could be particularly nice for players using Steam on a TV, handheld PC or console-style gaming setup.

Big Art Mode can be enabled by heading to:

Settings > Home > Big Art Mode

Valve has also added a Personal Calendar to the Recommended tab, giving players another way to keep track of games and activity from the Big Picture interface.

Big Picture Mode Finally Gets Screensavers

Another interesting addition is a new screensaver system for Big Picture Mode.

Players can choose between several different options:

• Game artwork slideshow – Displays artwork from recently played games alongside recent screenshots.
• Bouncing Steam logo – A retro-style screensaver featuring the Steam logo bouncing around the display.
• Custom screensavers – Users can manually add their own screensavers for a more personalized setup.

The artwork slideshow should work especially well for living-room PCs and Steam Machines, effectively turning an idle gaming display into a showcase of your library and screenshots.

Steam Is Getting Faster Too

The update isn’t only about visuals. Valve has made several improvements behind the scenes, including better Steam startup performance and improvements to Steam Input performance.

Game Recording and the Steam in-game overlay have received fixes as well.

Linux users are also getting some attention, with Valve improving download performance on Linux alongside changes to Proton and compatibility tool selection.

The update introduces new SteamOS compatibility warnings, which should make it easier for users to understand potential compatibility problems before launching games.

Remote Play Gets a Small but Useful Change

Valve has also changed how Remote Play handles app downloads.

Steam Remote Play will no longer require users to enter a PIN simply to download an application, removing an unnecessary step from the process.

Other fixes included in the beta address issues involving controllers, screenshots, Vulkan games and Steam reconnecting following server maintenance.

Big Picture Mode Keeps Getting Better

Steam’s Big Picture interface has become increasingly important as PC gaming expands beyond traditional desktop setups.

Devices such as handheld gaming PCs and SteamOS-powered systems have made controller-friendly interfaces much more relevant, and Big Art Mode appears to be another step toward making Steam feel at home on a large TV.

The addition of custom screensavers is a smaller feature, but it’s exactly the kind of customization PC gamers tend to appreciate.

For now, these changes are part of the Steam Client Beta, meaning Valve can continue testing and adjusting them before potentially rolling them out to everyone.

With Big Art Mode, game artwork screensavers, faster startup performance and more SteamOS improvements, Valve is continuing to make Steam feel increasingly like a complete console-style gaming platform — without taking away the flexibility of PC gaming.

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