Can I have two Blender versions simultaneously on Steam?

[Ocaña]

Pretty much the question is just that. The reasoning for that desire (to be able to install two different versions or instances of Blender at the same time through Steam) would be to have it log used time (preferably separate for each installed version) and to use one vanilla and the other with BlenderBIM, an add-on which fundamentally changes how Blender works, saves files and is configured.

I use it for hobbying, but I also intend to use it for work. BlenderBIM is pretty much still alpha, but very promising - for that I would want to have a stable version and do just BIM stuff on it. For the hobby part, I'd use cutting edge versions and pray nothing breaks.

Shoutout to any fellow architects on Steam, feel free to add. Hope you're also aware of the BIM add-on - if so, please let me know!

[Hydra 262855]

No, you cannot have multiple versions installed at the same time using Steam, nor can you monitor the time spent on each individual version.

You can download and use as many versions as you want from the official Blender website, but you'll have to give up on automatic time tracking.

[Ocaña]

Originally posted by Hydra 262855:

No, you cannot have multiple versions installed at the same time using Steam, nor can you monitor the time spent on each individual version.

You can download and use as many versions as you want from the official Blender website, but you'll have to give up on automatic time tracking.

Thanks, Hydra. It's a shame though, but at least now I know.

[Lystent]

I'd like to also caution that Steam isn't the most downpatch friendly; they have to repurpose the betas system for the downpatching, but I suspect they could only have so many of those. The version I use (2.79b) was no longer on steam, the last I checked. It got auto-updated off of that version. So I ultimately had to run blender from a version I downloaded directly from their website anyways.

[Mehrshad]

Originally posted by Ocaña:

Pretty much the question is just that. The reasoning for that desire (to be able to install two different versions or instances of Blender at the same time through Steam) would be to have it log used time (preferably separate for each installed version) and to use one vanilla and the other with BlenderBIM, an add-on which fundamentally changes how Blender works, saves files and is configured.

I use it for hobbying, but I also intend to use it for work. BlenderBIM is pretty much still alpha, but very promising - for that I would want to have a stable version and do just BIM stuff on it. For the hobby part, I'd use cutting edge versions and pray nothing breaks.

Shoutout to any fellow architects on Steam, feel free to add. Hope you're also aware of the BIM add-on - if so, please let me know!

you can have all version if you want by getting them from the blender site

[butcho]

Originally posted by Ocaña:

Thanks, Hydra. It's a shame though, but at least now I know.

Why is it a shame? No Blender user with at least a bit of a serious approach to 3D will use a gaming platform for time tracking. I will never get it why Steam people are so hell bent on time tracking, plus the hassle and the whining when the next major Blender release screws all their addons again because of the auto update.

Anyways...better use an addon like "Oh My Time" to track your time inside Blender. It also saves you the hassle of dealing with the Steam version of Blender. ^^

[Lystent]

Originally posted by butcho:

... I will never get it why Steam people are so hell bent on time tracking, ...

Often, with games, I see it used as some form of gauging experience. Not that it is that great of a metric, as far as I can tell.

[Ocaña]

Originally posted by butcho:

Originally posted by Ocaña:

Anyways...better use an addon like "Oh My Time" to track your time inside Blender. It also saves you the hassle of dealing with the Steam version of Blender. ^^

Thanks for the tip on "Oh My Time", never heard of it before.
I do track time in other ways, and also I'm not "Steam people". I'm an architect that is also a gamer, and I've never used any software from Steam before, so I was just curious.

I do take criticism, of course. But when someone asks for help and I'm willing to use my scarce time to offer something, I do it in the most positive way I can - as is the norm within the comunity, as far as Reddit and Youtube have shown me.

Well I guess in the end Steam people are the worst, right? lol

[butcho]

Originally posted by Ocaña:

Well I guess in the end Steam people are the worst, right? lol

Apologies if "Steam people" sounded a bit too negative. We got a lot of discussion here in the past about time tracking and the Steam auto update funtionality screwing peoples Blender addons and other stuff so what I really intended to say was that if you want to get serious with Blender, then you should use the Website version and save yourself all the Steam troubles. ^^

[Ocaña]

Originally posted by butcho:

Originally posted by Ocaña:

Well I guess in the end Steam people are the worst, right? lol

Apologies if "Steam people" sounded a bit too negative. We got a lot of discussion here in the past about time tracking and the Steam auto update funtionality screwing peoples Blender addons and other stuff so what I really intended to say was that if you want to get serious with Blender, then you should use the Website version and save yourself all the Steam troubles. ^^

Thanks bud. I also run a separate instalation of 4.0 for BlenderBIM, as I'm in Architecture. That has shown a lot of promisses, but if changes Blender behavior substantially (changing the default workspace and the default file format) so I'm keeping them separate.

[anders１３３７]

I've got Blender 2 and 3 on separate installs outside of Steam for certain out-of-date plugins and some workflows that I'm too stubborn to re-learn in Blender 4! It's possible outside of Steam, you can have every version simultaneously if you want :D