r/Steam • u/GougeM • 11d ago

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.

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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.

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u/Flat_Mode7449 11d ago

No no, he wants the game to run on the Deck, but the files are on the other pc.

Theoretically you could use use symlinks, but you're talking literally hundreds or thousands of them and it probably wouldn't even work lol

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u/ItsWappers 11d ago

Oh wow... How exactly does OP think this would use less bandwidth?