int APIENTRY WinMain( ... )
While writing the dump is easy, getting readable stack traces requires you to upload the corresponding .pdb symbol files to the Steamworks backend every time you upload a new build to Steam. If you forget this step, the crash reports will be useless binary garbage.
simplifies this by leveraging the Steam client’s existing infrastructure to ensure the report actually makes it to the cloud instead of dying with the game. Microsoft Learn Summary Table: SteamAPI_WriteMiniDump at a Glance Description Primary Goal Capture and upload crash data to the Steamworks dashboard. Data Captured Call stack, registers, and exception codes. Pre-requisite SteamAPI_Init must have succeeded. Customization Add comments via SteamAPI_SetMiniDumpComment Currently supports 32-bit Windows.
Ensure your project's .pdb (symbol) files are loaded. This allows Visual Studio to map memory addresses to function names and line numbers in your code. SteamAPI WriteMiniDump
Here is a practical example of how to hook SteamAPI_WriteMiniDump into a standard Windows structured exception filter.
: A pointer to the Windows EXCEPTION_POINTERS structure containing the processor context record.
: The exact sequence of active function calls leading to the crash thread. int APIENTRY WinMain(
MessageBox(NULL, "Failed to initialize Steam API.", "Error", MB_OK); return 1;
: Specific identifiers for the type of error (e.g., access violation).
What or language wrapper are you using (e.g., Unreal Engine, Unity/C#, raw C++)? simplifies this by leveraging the Steam client’s existing
If exceptions still crash without triggering your handler:
Instead of implementing the complex Windows API calls required to write a minidump manually ( MiniDumpWriteDump ), Steam provides a single wrapper function. It handles the file creation and internal stream management for you.
To use this, you typically set up a using _set_se_translator in your WinMain . A. Create the Handler Function This function runs when a crash occurs.