The local transfer feature just added is a very poor implementation of this idea.

[TONKAHANAH]

Why are you so against giving us options?

just give me a UI option that says "copy from local PC" , scan the local network, show a list of available PC's/steam accounts, give me a list of available games to copy over from each pc, then provide a "transfer now" button.

why does the client have to go out to steam servers to have steam servers contact the other client PC on the LAN network?? Just let me copy it as is, then give me the option to do a file integrity check after if I want that.

I just tried it on my PC. Arch linux pc on my network, steam deck on the same network. Tried to download High on Life which is installed and update to date on my PC. My deck didnt even appear to try and find the local content, it just went right to the download, no option no indicator that it is going to try and search for local files or even a message about not finding local files, nothing.

this is just bad. What if it did actually work but I didnt want to get it locally from my desktop because.. idk my desktop is currently processing other things and I dont want it being accessed? Or maybe I know that this PC has some net issues and the data will likely be corrupted and I just want a clean copy from the steam public servers? how do I stop it from forcefully downloading from the local PC?

stop making automatic functions with zero options. Just add the UI options for me to choose the PC and games I want to transfer from via my local network, dont try to tack it onto the already perfectly normally functional download process.

Am I crazy? I dont feel like this concept should be that complicated. Just give me the options to do what I want to do.

this feature was so highly requested so we can avoid having to manually go through networked file directories and copy/paste folders over a network, but we still want the control of choosing how and when things are transferred locally or over the internet making this feature completely useless and im still going to have to use filezilla to transfer folders manually over sshfs cuz this feature is completely tone def from what was wanted/needed from this feature request.

[TONKAHANAH]

update.

I just tried it again with Dota 2 (a linux native game, does it not work with non-native titles?)

the ONLY indication was a popup on the Desktop that said files were transferring from this PC.

I didnt initiate the download from the Desktop so why is the prompt showing from there? why isnt the deck showing me where its getting the files from??

this isnt just POOR... this is BAD..

this is NOT the featre we asked for, this is just using local PC's as a cache server.

for the love of god at least just make it a drop down for the games Install button the same way games have the Stream option from local devices. just add the "transfer from PC-NAME" option. Dont change the way a current function works (basic downloads), just add the new function with this own UI option, dont take the option away from me.


edit: another update.

this stops the transferring PC being able to also download anything from steam. My desktop is more than capable of doing multiple network transfers at the same time. This has to be one of the worst feature roll-outs i've seen from steam.

im disabling this feature entirely, Valve you dropped the ball big time with this one.

It also seems to be affecting my download ability on the entire network in the same fashion downloading from the public server does, something a filezilla directory transfer DOESNT do. Its like you intentionally made this bad.

[Shoryukenfan]

It's a beta feature for testing. Calm down dude.

[SYSTEM GLITCH]

Things get a little funny with what you desire. Moving a game locally is easy enough, since the file structure is in tact, but expecting Steam to discover each games install quirks is asking too much. The main files from ..steamapps\common is simple, but there is no way for Steam to know if a game is saving it's config files to another directory or not and there is no universal standard, so developers toss that stuff all over the place making a mess on our PC's.

A fresh install guarantees all the files paths are associated with the game and it works. What you want is nearly impossible for Steam to implement without games being broken.

It would be wonderful, yes, but it is also a pipe dream and not in the slightest bit an issue with Steam. Sorry my man.

To add why it won't happen... the increase in support tickets would offset any advantage being provided. Yes, we can verify the integrity, but most Steam users are simply too ignorant to know these things and they would be flipping out and blaming Steam for not working properly, wasting the time of support staff who should be helping on things Steam is responsible for. Most people are not the advanced users we are. I'm with you though, the more options the better, but on this I understand the thought process behind not implementing it.

Overall redownloading the game is a small price to pay considering the alternative chaos that would ensue.

And besides, this is something you can do yourself if you really wanted to anyways, assuming your network is set up properly.

[TONKAHANAH]

Originally posted by SYSTEM GLITCH:

A fresh install guarantees all the files paths are associated with the game and it works. What you want is nearly impossible for Steam to implement without games being broken.
.

I dont think you understood what I was suggesting cuz you missed my point entirely.

im not suggesting moving your entire "state" of the game as its installed on that system, im not sure where you got that idea. It doenst have to be every link and proton prefix, just the main game folder that downloads to the ~../steamapps/common. Its a standard directory that can be copied over into any system, its the game directory as the developer provided it, it can be copied to a windows client or a linux client (unless its a linux native in which case it wont work on a windows pc obviously)

I just want a user interface option that lets you choose the game you wish to copy and the pc to copy to/from. instead we just got a game cache server built in, thats not really the same thing.

I do this via filezilla all the time, it works totally fine, once you copy that folder to the new system, go into steam, you start the download, steam proceeds to "check existing files". i was just hoping valve would intelligently include a similar function that made sense in the graphical user interface. Instead they built it into the download function and adding obscurity to an already perfectly functional download system.

and quite frankly I think they definitely could sort out how to migrate protonprefixes, they aint that deep but thats not what I was suggesting.

[martinooo]

The LAN transfer feature is part of the download system because it supports incremental updates too and not just initial installs. So if you download a huge game update on one PC, the other PCs & SteamDecks can automatically download that update from there and saving you a bunch of Internet traffic.

[TONKAHANAH]

Originally posted by martinooo:

The LAN transfer feature is part of the download system because it supports incremental updates too and not just initial installs. So if you download a huge game update on one PC, the other PCs & SteamDecks can automatically download that update from there and saving you a bunch of Internet traffic.

updates to the game dont go some where different, they go to the main game folder so that doesnt make sense. If the copy of the game on my desktop is up to date, the copy I'd transfer with filezilla would be the latest version and I wouldnt need updates.

[alamoscouts]

Use nitroshare; way more stable and in the end; faster; and it doesn't drop the transfers constantly like this garbage steam version.