According to Steam, Game Recording is designed with the goal of taking as little computer resources away from the game being played. It does this by taking advantage of NVIDIA and AMD GPUs to remove most of the performance costs of creating video recordings. The company does add that if Game Recording is run on a system without one of those graphics cards, the systems CPU is used to create video recordings which may cause a noticeable performance impact, such as on a Steam Deck or other handheld device.
Steam Game Recording will capture gameplay footage of games played through the Steam Client. It includes features such as:
- Record. Background Recording mode, which continuoulsy saves to a players preferred drive, and never exceeding specified duration and storage limits. On Demand Recording mode with manual start and stop mode is also available.
- Replay. This mode is useful for things such as seeing what went wrong when a players character died, or recalling something mentioned by an NPC earlier in a game.
- Clip. This feature keeps only the video that matters to the gamer, with Steam offering lightweight tools to make it easy to find and clip gameplay footage.
- Share. Gamers will be able to get their videos from where they want them. One-click share to a friend in chat, or posting the best moments on social media of a game for the world to see. Steam adds this will also easily send footage from a Steam Deck to a PC, or mobile device as well.
Since June, Steam has also added several new features, including:
- Game specific settings.
- Quick capture hotkey options.
- Advanced export options.
- Session View – A new way to view footage in the new Recordings & Screenshots manager with game-specific tags and data.
As to what Steam Game Recording will record, it will capture gameplay footage of games played through the Steam Client. It will not capture video of a desktop, or other programs. Gamers have the option to choose to include the audio from other programs, such as a voice chat program. Steam does warn players using the Game Recording built-in system to be respectful of others and to abide by the Steam Subscriber Agreement and the Steam Online Conduct Rules.