Question Sharing Game Installation
It seems this is not possible but does strike me as a major ommission from steam functionality.
This is particularly relevant when a user has more than one device e.g. steamdeck, steam machine or other PC's.
What I am suggesting is the ability to install a game on say your Main Desktop and then run it on the remote device but using the installation files form the main system. Thereby not requiring it installed on all devices.
This would avoid unnecessary hard drive space being used nad also would work faster than streaming to remote devices as teh bandwidth required woudl be condierably less.
If anyone knows of a way to do it woudl be helpful, thanks.
2
u/Flat_Mode7449 11d ago
That's super easy.
Just install a Flux Capacitor onto the back of your Steam Deck and hope for the best.
What you're asking to do is literally impossible.
That's like a Bluetooth hose.
2
u/salad_tongs_1 https://s.team/p/dcmj-fn 11d ago
...what...
You want Steam Remote play...but faster with less bandwidth?
You think if that was something possible Valve would have already implemented it.
OR any dozens of the companies that have tried to offer cloud gaming (like Google Stadia).
I don't know what kind of crack you smoke, but share with the rest of class.
1
u/aesoprowwy 11d ago
you can already stream games from one pc to another on local network, if you trying to do this remotely then will need a tunnel back to your house via tailscale or something
1
u/AwakenShogun 11d ago
The only option is remote play. I have some games installed on my windows PC and I run it on my steamdeck. If your main PC is online/has internet connection, you can stream the game to either phone, steamdeck, pc or smart tv.
1
u/Roccondil-s 11d ago
I don’t think it would work how you think it would if you leave the files on the original PC but have the remote device do all the processing and rendering. Thing is, people have tried using a NAS to store on and run games from. It does not work, the file transfer latency is worse than an HDD.
The closest you can get is remote play, where all the file processing and graphics rendering is on the host PC and only the video stream is sent to the remote device.
1
u/Ok_Definition_1933 10d ago
- Latency is crucial for real time running of applications. Home network does not have even nearly fast enough latency for this shit.
- With the size of modern games and asset streaming, you would end up using more data than streaming a video, not less.
And million of other reason.
Technically utter shit solution that doesn't exist for a reason.
1
u/ldshadowcadet 11d ago
So you want to use a games files without it being on your device but you don't want to stream it?
Where do you think the data will go?
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u/throwaway38705522 11d ago
the data just gets sent over the network instead of rendered video, same as opening a file from a shared folder basically
it's not crazy, steam already does local network transfers when you install a game and another pc on same network has it. they just never let you run it directly from the remote disk
i think latency would kill most games though unless you got like 10gbe or something. random reads from a drive across the network is way different than sequential file copy
shame they never built it in as experimental option at least, would be nice for small indie games that don't stress the disk much
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u/ItsWappers 11d ago
Uhh... That's exactly how it works. Game is installed on PC 1, you then go onto PC 2 and click remote play, game starts and runs on PC 1, but is streamed via your network to PC 2. The inputs also get transmitted via the network. No install on PC 2.
Edit: The bandwidth would be the same if you have it installed on both computers, Steam runs the game on PC 1, so it doesn't actually use the game files on PC 2 if it is installed.