Blender: Steam version vs. Desktop version

[arquiguru]

What's the difference? Is there a pro or con about either? I know the Steam version updates autmatically but that's about it. Is there anything else? Can I sync my settings across computers using the Steam version?

Thanks!

[The Renderer]

Other than automatic updates it's the same.
If by "syncing" you mean via Steam cloud, then no. You can copy over your files just like with the non-Steam version, of course.

[still__alive]

Steam version:

Pros:
Faster/easier to install. Sort of.

Cons:
You lose control over which version is on your PC, because Steam forces you to download new updates automatically.
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Desktop Version:

Pros:
You retain control over when you update it.
You can get portable versions, keep them on a stick, and run them on any computer without installing.

Cons:
Slower to install. Sort of. Because of having to navigate to the official site.
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I can't think of too much differences other that those. That con of the Steam version is a pretty big con, in my personal opinion. I do keep Blender installed through Steam, but I don't actually use the Steam version. I only have it installed on Steam for quicker access to these forums and I do any Blender stuff with the desktop version that I manually maintain myself.

As for syncing settings, I don't think you can do that with the Steam version. You would have to install it through Steam then go and find any and all addons you were using and download and install them again. And you'd have to transfer any save files to the other PC yourself too.

I think the ultimate way of managing your Blender stuff would be to get a good portable USB stick or external hdd. Then download each version of Blender to this stick (both the install version and the portable version) and also have a folder where you keep every single addon you use as well. And a folder for your save files. Then you'll always have access to everything on any PC (that can read the stick, not sure about jumping across OSs) without having to download it a 2nd time.

I'm kind of doing that, although I've been poor about grabbing myself the portable versions, and my file structure or organization is sloppy and needs some cleaning up.

[arquiguru]

Thanks! I was kind of hoping that I could sync my settings across computers using the Steam version.

[still__alive]

Originally posted by ~deadhappypuppy:

Thanks! I was kind of hoping that I could sync my settings across computers using the Steam version.

That could be quite the tall order, or it might not work as well as you'd hope.

Reason being that anybody can make an addon, and host it where ever they'd like. So for example, I could make a great addon (that you just have to have ) and build my own custom website to host it. So get my addon and keep YOUR settings synced across different computers with Steam, now Steam will have to automatically go to my website and download the addon for you.

And that would be for just one addon. You could have 5, 10, or 30 addons (as many as you like really) all hosted in different spots that you'd have to automatically download to keep your settings synced.

Synchronizing save files would probably be very easy to handle, but at the same time there are already other solutions available for that - Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive - which are free.

[arquiguru]

Uh, yeah. I thought about the addons afterwards. Not a good idea.