No more downloading twice
A new Steam feature allows you to transfer games between machines using your local network. If you’ve got a game installed on your desktop PC, and you want to play it on Steam Deck for example, you can now transfer it between the machines without having to re-download any files.
Valve announced the feature on Twitter via the official Steam Deck account. “Local Network Game Transfers are great for Steam Deck owners, multi-user Steam households, dorms, LAN parties, etc. No more worries about bandwidth or datacaps when all the files you need are already nearby,” says a followup tweet.
This Steam support page offers more of an explanation of how it works. When you try to install or update a game on Steam, Steam “will first check if there are other PCs running Steam on your LAN (local area network) that could transfer the needed game content to you directly.”
If such a PC is found, it will transfer as much of the files as possible across your local networkrather than downloading them from the internet. If the connection drops, Steam will revert to using Steam’s content servers as before.
Transfers only currently work between PCs, or from PC to Steam Deck, and both sender and receiver must be opted into the Steam Beta. Transfers are also limited to “self only” by default, meaning local transfers will only happen between machines signed into the same Steam account. This setting can be amended to include other users on your Steam Friends list, or any other user connected to your local network.
This sounds pretty cool to me, particularly for those users who live with data transfer caps or shaky internet. It certainly sounds better than that time I had to use Steam’s game backup feature to spit out a multi-part archive, burn those parts to umpteen CDs, then reconstruct them one-by-one on an internetless laptop.
There are a handful of other fixes in the latest patch notes.
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A new Steam feature allows you to transfer games between machines using your local network. If you’ve got a game installed on your desktop PC, and you want to play it on Steam Deck for example, you can now transfer it between the machines without having to re-download any files.
Valve announced the feature on Twitter via the official Steam Deck account. “Local Network Game Transfers are great for Steam Deck owners, multi-user Steam households, dorms, LAN parties, etc. No more worries about bandwidth or datacaps when all the files you need are already nearby,” says a followup tweet.
This Steam support page offers more of an explanation of how it works. When you try to install or update a game on Steam, Steam “will first check if there are other PCs running Steam on your LAN (local area network) that could transfer the needed game content to you directly.”
If such a PC is found, it will transfer as much of the files as possible across your local networkrather than downloading them from the internet. If the connection drops, Steam will revert to using Steam’s content servers as before.
Transfers only currently work between PCs, or from PC to Steam Deck, and both sender and receiver must be opted into the Steam Beta. Transfers are also limited to “self only” by default, meaning local transfers will only happen between machines signed into the same Steam account. This setting can be amended to include other users on your Steam Friends list, or any other user connected to your local network.
This sounds pretty cool to me, particularly for those users who live with data transfer caps or shaky internet. It certainly sounds better than that time I had to use Steam’s game backup feature to spit out a multi-part archive, burn those parts to umpteen CDs, then reconstruct them one-by-one on an internetless laptop.
There are a handful of other fixes in the latest patch notes.
Rock Paper Shotgun is the home of PC gaming
Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.
Follow topics and we’ll email you when we publish something new about them.
We’ll send you an email whenever we (or one of our sister sites) publish an article on this topic.
You can manage your preferences here .
Graham Smith
Contributor
Graham used to be to blame for all this.
Please enable JavaScript to see comments.
The Great Below is an Inscryption-style horror game that could be a metaphor for nuclear waste disposal
Moonlighter devs’ next game has you build Lego-style fortresses and defend them against waves of horrors
Quietly moving indie gem Spirit of the North was like Journey but with a fox, and it’s getting a sequel soon
Gangs of Sherwood, aka Robin Hood filtered through Warhammer’s grimdark lens, has been delayed almost a month
Dungeons of Hinterberg’s mix of Zelda-like combat and puzzles with Persona’s social links looks irresistible
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion will be free to keep from Epic next week
Fortnite's original map will make a return next week
Diablo 4 is free to play this weekend via Battle.net
The latest video game jobs on GamesIndustry.biz
Rock Paper Shotgun is owned by Gamer Network Limited, a ReedPop company and subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions Limited.
© 2023 Gamer Network Limited, Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom, registered under company number 03882481.
All rights reserved. No part of this website or its content may be reproduced without the copyright owner’s permission.
source