Profile cloud sync

[Vimto]

I know this has been mentioned a couple of times before, but I'm asking something slightly different.

The only solution I can think of is to save my profile to my cloud drive, because carrying around a USB with my profile is pretty inconveniencing. How would I change where Distance saves my profile?

And is there a reason that Distance doesn't have a cloud sync system for profiles?

[Californ1a]

Originally posted by Atlas:

And is there a reason that Distance doesn't have a cloud sync system for profiles?

First have to know what's required to be able to implement cloud: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/cloud
Essentially, devs need to input both a max total filesize per-user, as well as a max count of files per-user. As far as I know, the big issue is the count of files, because right now, Distance doesn't impose any limits on the amount of car color schemes, custom control schemes, saved playlists, level editor maps, saved editor object groups, or even in-game profiles themselves you can have at the same time. This also means you can have tons of local leaderboard files if you play a lot of workshop maps, or if you have a ton of your own level editor maps and test them in arcade mode.

Originally posted by Atlas:

How would I change where Distance saves my profile?

You can't, it will always save to "Documents\My Games\Distance\" on Windows. But you can look into something like SyncToy if you're on Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155
This will let you set up two folders to be linked with various options on what you want to copy over (so you could leave out the workshop levels or local leaderboards, for example). Then you can schedule it to be run however often you like, so it copies the files from Distance's save directory into Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.:
https://techjourney.net/schedule-synctoy-to-run-and-automatically-and-repetitively/
Then do the same on the other PC, but set the SyncToy options to copy in the reverse direction.

[Vimto]

Hey man, thanks for such a quick response. This seems like pretty much the best solution then, given the constraints.

On the topic of maximum file-size and file count per-user, could a solution be to have an "online" profile where you have up to "x" schemes/customisations for one profile for one steam user, and a "local" profile where you can have unlimited schemes, stored locally?

[Californ1a]

Originally posted by Atlas:

On the topic of maximum file-size and file count per-user, could a solution be to have an "online" profile where you have up to "x" schemes/customisations for one profile for one steam user, and a "local" profile where you can have unlimited schemes, stored locally?

Potentially, but that would add quite a bit of complexity on top of the in-game profile system, where you'd have to somehow select which files you want to be sync'd, which means creating a whole new menu ui specifically for that, and dealing with win/mac/linux individually. It would also really suck for map authors, especially those who create a lot of maps or have a ton of saved object groups, to only be able to sync, say, 20 of their maps and/or object groups instead of all of them.

[Californ1a]

Steam Cloud is enabled now:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/distance/announcements/detail/2910976689286693752

[Vimto]

Thanks for the update, do you know how this would affect my other system that I use to play distance? I have a slightly different progress on there, so would System 1 override System 2 with S1 data next time I'm on S2?

[Californ1a]

Whichever one you open the game on (and then close it, to start cloud sync) will be the one uploaded to steam cloud. I believe if you then try to go play on the second pc, steam checks your local save files against the ones in the cloud, compares them, and asks which one you want to use if they don't match, then whichever one you pick will be the one carried back into steam cloud.