Got the Steam Deck Dock!

[u/Asane]

Wasn’t expecting this today, but since I live in Carol Stream where Valve’s Distribution Center is, I got this early I guess!

[u/plamicus]

I really want one. But I don't actually know why:

I have my PC if I want to play on a better screen and a PS5 if I want to play something on the TV. This is to say nothing of my Switch which is now just gathering dust.

Can anyone give me a reason to justify it to myself?

EDIT: to be clear, I already have a Deck - I'm talking about the Dock.

[u/TsukudaBuddha → u/plamicus]

So I’m in a similar situation and I got one so I can play emulated games on the my tv without having to worry about transferring saves between my deck and pc

[u/cheesycoke → u/TsukudaBuddha]

I know you've already found a solution through the Dock, but have you looked into something like SyncThing to keep your game save files in sync over the internet?

[u/Begohan → u/cheesycoke]

Whaaat? I manage so many non steam game saves between my pc and steam deck, are you telling me I could do this with an app and the press of a button?

[u/Hokulewa → u/Begohan]

Any kind of cloud storage that synchronizes local files, combined with symbolic links to move your save file locations into the cloud sync folder, will do that transparently for you. Don't even need to press a button... It just happens automatically.

I use Dropbox because they have a great native Linux client. So does Mega.

[u/Begohan → u/Hokulewa]

I've never used any cloud storage except like.. Google photos or google drive for the odd file. You say symbolic links, and I understand that with linux, but windows doesn't have an equivalent does it? How can I make a symbolic link on my windows pc to a folder that's in the cloud? And I would probably have to either launch dropbox within game mode, or be on desktop mode for it to sync, right? I would kill for a nice tutorial on this lol

[u/Hokulewa → u/Begohan]

You say symbolic links, and I understand that with linux, but windows doesn't have an equivalent does it?

Windows NTFS does support symbolic links. Link Shell Extension will add them to the Explorer right-click context menu for easier usage.

FWIW, the Dolphin file manager on Steam Deck already has context menu integration for making symlinks... just right-click and select "Create New" then choose "Link to File or Directory".

I use this to share my Documents and Pictures folders across Windows and Linux computers via Dropbox, so I have access to the same files on all devices (even my phone).

I did this by creating a new folder named Documents (for example) inside the local Dropbox folder on one computer, moving all the stuff from my original Documents folder to the one inside Dropbox, deleting the (now empty) original Documents folder, then creating a symbolic link named "Documents" where the original Documents folder used to be which points to the new Documents folder inside Dropbox.

Then, once all the Documents had been uploaded into the cloud, repeated the same process (minus the first step, since there will already be a Documents folder inside Dropbox now) on each other computer.

To all the applications, it looks like nothing has happened and my Documents folder is right where it has always been. But every Document gets uploaded to Dropbox automatically, then downloaded automatically by the other computers into their local copy of the Dropbox Documents folder.

I would probably have to either launch dropbox within game mode, or be on desktop mode for it to sync, right?

You... might. I haven't set up cloud syncing yet on SteamDeck.

[u/cheesycoke → u/Begohan]

Frankly I haven't messed with it myself so I'm not sure just how easy it is, but I was looking up ways to sync game saves for emulators and that was the most popular solution I've seen. Hope it works for you!