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Utilities Examples

This section describes common usage patterns for the Utilities feature.

Utilities are primarily used for environment checks, diagnostics, Steam time, build information, and Steam-level language or region data.

All Utilities nodes are synchronous.

Checking Whether Steam Is Available

Use Is Steam Running to check whether the Steam client is currently running.

Use Is Steam Initialized to check whether the plugin successfully initialized Steamworks.

A common startup flow is:

  1. Call Is Steam Initialized.
  2. If true, enable Steam-dependent functionality.
  3. If false, disable or hide functionality that requires Steam.

These checks are useful during development, troubleshooting, or when the game can run in environments where Steam is unavailable.

Reading the Current App ID

Use Get Steam App ID to retrieve the App ID reported by Steam for the current process.

This is useful for:

  • Debug menus
  • Logging
  • Verifying that the expected Steam application is active
  • Troubleshooting App ID configuration

Runtime Mode Detection

Use:

  • Is Steam In Big Picture Mode to detect Steam Big Picture
  • Is Steam Running In VR to detect whether Steam reports the application as running in VR

These checks can be used to adapt UI or gameplay presentation to the current runtime environment.

Steam Server Time

Use Get Steam Server Time when your game needs Steam-provided time rather than relying only on the local system clock.

The function returns a Unix timestamp.

Typical use cases include:

  • Daily rewards
  • Cooldowns
  • Time-limited events
  • Diagnostics

Use Get Steam Server Time Offset to retrieve the difference, in seconds, between Steam server time and local UTC time.

This can be useful when comparing Steam-authoritative timing with the local machine clock.

Build Information

Use Get Steam Build ID to retrieve the Build ID of the currently installed Steam application build.

Typical uses include:

  • Debug menus
  • Crash reports
  • Support information
  • Telemetry
  • Displaying the installed build version to testers

The Steam Build ID changes when a new build is published and installed through Steam.

Steam Language

Use:

  • Get Steam UI Language for the language used by the Steam client UI
  • Get Steam Current Game Language for the language currently selected for the game in Steam

These values can be useful when selecting an initial language or comparing in-game localization settings with Steam preferences.

User Country

Use Get Steam User Country to retrieve the country code reported by Steam based on the user's IP address.

This value can be used as contextual information for region-aware behavior, analytics, or UI defaults.

Do not treat it as a precise physical location.

Important Notes

  • Utilities nodes are synchronous
  • Steam-dependent utility values require Steam to be initialized
  • Steam server time is preferable to local system time when Steam-authoritative timing is required
  • Steam language values reflect Steam settings, not arbitrary in-game overrides
  • DLC functionality is documented separately under the DLC feature