When a game crashes, SteamAPI can call WriteMiniDump to save debugging information (stack trace, memory state, etc.) into a .dmp file. This file is often sent back to the developer via Steam's crash reporting system.
is a "legacy but reliable" tool. For developers shipping 32-bit Windows titles, it provides an effortless way to monitor game stability without building a custom crash-reporting server. However, modern 64-bit projects should look toward more robust, cross-platform alternatives like C++ implementation example of how to hook this into a Windows exception handler? Steam Error Reporting (Steamworks Documentation) SteamAPI WriteMiniDump
bool WriteMiniDump( uint32 uStructuredExceptionCode, void* pExceptionInfo, uint32 uBuildID ); When a game crashes, SteamAPI can call WriteMiniDump
He traced the writes back to an old service: a scheduled maintenance agent that handled telemetry compression. The agent had been written years ago and left to its own devices, an appliance forgotten in the attic. It had used a legacy API to mark dump files as “sealed” while it compressed them. Sealed files were briefly inaccessible. If the sealing overlapped with a crash, the minidump routine would fail to write — unable to claim the file, unable to leave its testimony. For developers shipping 32-bit Windows titles, it provides
To implement this feature, developers typically follow these steps: Initialize Steamworks SteamAPI_Init() at the start of the game. Hook Exceptions : Use a Win32 exception handler, such as _set_se_translator , to intercept unhandled exceptions. Generate Dump : Inside the handler, call SteamAPI_WriteMiniDump . You can also use SteamAPI_SetMiniDumpComment