I have The Sims 4 on Steam and I play through it.I am able to run the game through Steam, while Origin launcher is active in background.The game launches and runs fine, however, the Steam Overlay does not show up or run. I have lost the ability to check the Friends tab, taking screenshot and tracking the play time.Plus, I also have another issue with Origin In-Game.In Origin, I have disabled Origin In-Game from "Application Settings" and also individually from the game library (Right Click the game cover>Game Properties>Uncheck "Enable Origin In Game for The Sims™ 4 Digital Deluxe"But when I run the game, it still shows Origin In-Game notifications and I can open it with Shift+F1, despite the fact that I already disabled it from settings as mentioned.So now, I need solution on how to enable Steam Overlay and completely disable Origin In-Game for The Sims 4.

"No one is blaming the customers. However, when a feature works for most people and doesn't for only a few, the issue clearly has something to do with the affected players' systems."I'd love to add on to this point that most people don't even want Origin or its overlay in the first place.

@azfar90my Does the Steam overlay work in other Steam games? If you own any, please test. Please also change the key binding for opening the Steam overlay; by default it conflicts with a Sims 4 key binding. You can use whatever keys you want, but try a couple different combinations that (to your knowledge) don't do anything else on your computer.

I tested with Mass Effect Andromeda, Battlefield V, Need For Speed and Mirror's Edge Catalyst, whether with default key binding or even custom binding, I can open the Steam Overlay like normal and Steam can even track that I play those game where its says "Running", except for The Sims 4.

@azfar90my I tested myself just now, and I can also bring up the Origin in-game overlay even with it disabled and with Origin in offline mode. If I click on any of the options though, I get an error. So it seems that the overlay itself doesn't get disabled, just all of its features. For Steam, please double-check that its in-game overlay is enabled specifically for Sims 4. It's possible Steam disabled it by default at some point, especially since it conflicts with the key binding for first-person mode. If that's not the issue, can you bring up any elements of the overlay while you're playing? Alt-tab back to Steam, click View, and choose a couple of the windows. I know it's not as convenient, but I'm curious whether this works or not.

@puzzlezaddict I have changed the shortcuts on both Origin and Steam that has no conflict and still no Steam overlay, and Origin In-Game still persists.I also have tried "Clear cache" method, moved The Sims 4 Steam folder to somewhere else, performed a "Repair" or "Verify Integrity", ran with or without Admin mode, and still the same.I do noticed there's a folder called "__overlay" in TS4 Steam folder (and also with some other EA games folder as well), with overlayinjector.exe and steam_api inside. I don't know if there's something about it, but I tried to delete and download it back through Repair function and does not seem to make any differences.

The Sims 4 Steam has no Steam Overlay and disabling Origin In-Game issue.

31 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my Does the Steam overlay work in other Steam games? If you own any, please test.

Please also change the key binding for opening the Steam overlay; by default it conflicts with a Sims 4 key binding. You can use whatever keys you want, but try a couple different combinations that (to your knowledge) don't do anything else on your computer.
azfar90my
4 years ago
I tested with Mass Effect Andromeda, Battlefield V, Need For Speed and Mirror's Edge Catalyst, whether with default key binding or even custom binding, I can open the Steam Overlay like normal and Steam can even track that I play those game where its says "Running", except for The Sims 4.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my I tested myself just now, and I can also bring up the Origin in-game overlay even with it disabled and with Origin in offline mode. If I click on any of the options though, I get an error. So it seems that the overlay itself doesn't get disabled, just all of its features.

For Steam, please double-check that its in-game overlay is enabled specifically for Sims 4. It's possible Steam disabled it by default at some point, especially since it conflicts with the key binding for first-person mode. If that's not the issue, can you bring up any elements of the overlay while you're playing? Alt-tab back to Steam, click View, and choose a couple of the windows. I know it's not as convenient, but I'm curious whether this works or not.
azfar90my
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict I have changed the shortcuts on both Origin and Steam that has no conflict and still no Steam overlay, and Origin In-Game still persists.

I also have tried "Clear cache" method, moved The Sims 4 Steam folder to somewhere else, performed a "Repair" or "Verify Integrity", ran with or without Admin mode, and still the same.

I do noticed there's a folder called "__overlay" in TS4 Steam folder (and also with some other EA games folder as well), with overlayinjector.exe and steam_api inside. I don't know if there's something about it, but I tried to delete and download it back through Repair function and does not seem to make any differences.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my Okay, but again, can you manually bring up the individual elements of the Steam overlay, as described?

If you feel like experimenting, you can also move the overlay folder you've described and try to play without repairing the game. I have no idea what will happen, but it's easy enough to restore the files if something goes wrong.
azfar90my
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict That one seems fine. I can Alt Tab and click any of that from Steam Window. But still, there's no Steam overlay enabled when in the game, which means Steam won't track the playtime and I can't take the screenshots.
To know if overlay really works in the game or not, if I can bring it up in the game with shortcut key, then it works. Here's an example:
In Mass Effect Andromeda, after launching the game, I can see the Steam notifications at right bottom side, I can bring the overlay and able to take screenshots. Plus, the Steam also able to track the playtime and the library will show that it's "Running".
And here's The Sims 4, I have it running by executing from Steam, or even from Origin launcher itself. But the game overlay never shows up and Steam does not think that it's "Running". That means, Steam Overlay definitely does not work, along with playtime tracking and screenshots feature.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my Thanks. I was wondering if the other features that make up the overlay were somehow blocked or not working, but apparently that's not the case.

I'm still wondering what would happen if you deleted the overlay folder you found in the game's program files. It does sound like the kind of thing that would supercede the Steam overlay with Origin's version, and as you've noted, you could always repair to put it back.
azfar90my
4 years ago
@puzzlezaddict I already did, and nothing's changed. If I would make a guess, there might be some issue with .dll file to bring up the overlay, specifically for TS4 game only that EA can fix it. And if they can fix the Origin In-Game issue as well, that would be great too.

I don't know if other Steam players able to have Steam Overlay in-game or not. If you or any other players can confirm that it works, I would like to know too.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my I'll ask around, and if anyone can test or has information about this, they or I will get back to you.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
4 years ago
@azfar90my Someone else mentioned that the option to enable the Steam overlay was grayed out for Sims 4, although they didn't currently have the game installed. Is it grayed out for you too? Click on Sims 4 in your Steam library, click the gear icon on the right, choose Properties, and the option should be listed under General.

I checked my currently-not-installed Steam games, and the option to enable the overlay was clickable for all of them, so I don't know why Sims 4 would be different. But please do take a look.