[V1.63 - Launcher] Regions inaccessible with cursor on Steam Machine

Hi,

I am trying to play Xenonauts on my Steam Machine but while controlling the mouse cursor with the Steam Controller using the Keyboard and Mouse configuration, the on-screen cursor used to press Play Xenonauts in the launcher cannot access the interactive elements of the launcher. It's like there's an invisible, mushy fence around the Play button as well as the other buttons and drop-down menu. I say 'mushy' because it doesn't completely block the cursor, but rather whenever the cursor tries to land on those elements, it gets pushed back out near-instantly. I was able to get into the game once by flinging the cursor into the 'Play Xenonauts' button region and quickly pressing the 'A' button on the controller before it got pushed back out, but haven't been able to get such lucky timing since that one instance.

If no one has a Steam Machine to replicate this bug, it might be possible to replicate by installing the SteamOS packages on Ubuntu using this PPA. I suspect it has something to do with the way Big Picture Mode works on the SteamOS compositor.

I've passed this to the coder who did the Linux port to have a look at, but I'm not sure at this stage whether supporting the Steam Machine is feasible. Hopefully it can be resolved for you but I suggest you stay within the 2-hour window where you can get a Steam refund for the game if we can't get it working for you!

Thanks for your response. I have actually owned the game for a long time, maybe even before release, I can't remember. In any case I was an early supporter so a refund at this point would be silly!

In my latest attempt, I was able to get the cursor into the region needed to press Play and hit it to get into the game. However if the cursor leaves that whole window (say, by going to the area on the left), it becomes a 'Steam Big Picture' cursor rather than the game's small black-and-white cursor, and then at that point it may get locked out of the window region on the right. So it might be a SteamOS issue, I'm not sure.

A workaround that shouldn't require any real effort, and would actually unilaterally improve the experience for Steam Machine owners (since they are after the 'console experience'), would be to have two options for launching the game. The first option would launch straight into the game using the current settings, skipping the launcher. The second option would load the launcher, allowing you to load mods and change the resolution, buggy though it may be, but at least the buggy part would be optional that way.

I understand what you are saying about not supporting Steam Machines, but I don't think it would be a good business decision. So far, your Linux desktop sales have no doubt been larger than your Steam Machine sales since Steam Machines were only just released last month. But Linux desktop market share isn't going anywhere anytime soon; Steam Machines, however, have a lot more potential. If PC game developers like you work together to create a console-like experience utilizing what's now available in the PC gaming ecosystem (i.e., Steam Hardware + SteamOS), you will be collectively opening yourselves up to the console market without having to deal with the financial and technical burden of creating separate Xbox/PlayStation ports. If you do end up making a Xenonauts 2 I hope you will keep this in mind!

So I implemented a new launch config for the game on mac and linux that may help work around the launcher issues. You now have a "Skip Launcher" option when playing the game. That will just run the game with the settings you have setup in previous runs of the launcher. Let me know if it works for you. Thanks.

Yep just saw the update today and tested it out. Works perfectly. Thank you!!