Splash Videos

Splash Videos

SteamShell supports either a black splash screen or an mpv-powered startup video splash.

Why mpv

mpv is used because it’s reliable for fullscreen playback and scaling across different resolutions and display setups.

Key settings

Common options in [Splash]:

• Mode=Black or Mode=Video
• VideoPath=...
• Mute=true/false
• PlayFullDuration=true/false
• SafetyMaxMs=... (fail-safe maximum time, not padding)
• TopmostGuardMs=... (keeps splash above other windows during boot)
• ForceSDR=true/false (prevents HDR/Dolby Vision mode switching)

SafetyMaxMs explained

SafetyMaxMs is a hard timeout so the splash cannot hang forever if playback fails. Set it longer than your video duration.

Steam’s own Big Picture startup movie (optional override)

Steam Big Picture Mode plays its own built-in startup movie when BPM launches. Steam doesn’t provide a clean UI toggle to fully disable it, so if you’re using SteamShell’s splash video you may want to silence Steam’s movie to avoid “double splash” behavior.

Workaround: override with an empty bigpicture_startup.webm

Steam supports UI overrides via uioverrides. If you place a replacement file at the path below, Steam will use it instead of the built-in movie.

Target path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\uioverrides\movies\bigpicture_startup.webm

Steps

1. Create these folders if they don’t exist:
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\uioverrides\
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\uioverrides\movies\
2. Copy the provided blank WebM file from this repo: (Click Link below or go to the extras folder)
   • bigpicture_startup.webm
3. Paste/overwrite it at:
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\uioverrides\movies\bigpicture_startup.webm
4. Restart Steam (fully exit Steam, then relaunch).
5. In Steam Big Picture Mode, go to:
   • Settings → Customization
   • Find the Startup Movie option and select the new blank bigpicture_startup.webm entry (it should appear after the override is in place).

Note: this is inside Program Files, so you may need Administrator permission to create folders / copy the file.

Debug overlay

If enabled (depending on build), the splash can display basic status/errors to help diagnose playback issues.