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Steam now allows transferring games between PCs and Steam Deck too

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In the latest Client Beta available for Desktop Steam and Steam Deck, Valve put in a new feature to help you transferring games.

If enabled in your Steam Downloads settings, you can transfer games and update files from one PC to another, or from PC to Steam Deck. Useful in many different situations like having limited bandwidth, slow internet speeds, LAN parties and you get the idea. Here's a video to highlight the feature as well as various other bits of Steam Deck / Linux news:

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The full patch notes for the Steam Deck Beta:

General

  • Fixed some issues where focus was lost after exiting a game
  • Reduced flashing in background when scrolling through games on home screen

Local Network Game Transfers

  • Added new feature that allows Steam users to copy existing Steam game installation and update files from one PC to another over a local area network, without having to download and install from a Steam content server on the internet. This reduces internet traffic and can speed up installs or updates.
  • This feature is currently only PC -> PC or PC -> Steam Deck, and both sender and receiver must be opted into Steam Beta.
  • Steam users have control over who files can be sent to: self only, friends only, or everyone. The default setting is self only.
  • More info about this new feature can be found here.

Steam Input

  • Added a loading throbber when waiting on Steam Cloud to update
  • Improved the latency of querying the workshop in the Configuration Browser and fix issues with configurations popping-in or opening the wrong tab because results weren't fully received
  • Added a loading throbber that shows while the Configuration Browser workshop query is running

Desktop Mode: Steam

  • Added UI that temporarily takes over the "What's New" section of the Library when pre-purchased games are available to pre-load or install and play
  • Added UI at startup for account selection
  • Added a "sign out" option to the main menu that removes credentials for the signed in account from the machine
  • Fixed a crash when the OS is notifying Steam that it should shutdown
  • Improved performance of games when using Steam Workshop APIs
  • Refreshed the profile games page with a new style and improved performance

Desktop Mode: Big Picture

  • Fixed issue where the old BPM on-screen keyboard would appear at the same time as the new BPM virtual keyboard
  • Fixed issue where user could not re-enter a context submenu after backing out of it.

Just for Desktop Steam, they also finally started getting the New Big Picture mode working better with NVIDIA GPUs, which has been pretty terrible in terms of performance. To be honest though, I can't tell any difference and if anything, it actually feels even worse than before.

These are also noted just for Desktop Steam Beta:

  • Fixed issue where incoming chat messages would not be delivered properly while in-game.
  • Added support for the Sony DualSense Edge controller including support for remapping of the rear buttons.
  • Fixed an issue with Steam preventing PS4 controllers from being read over DirectInput when Steam Input was disabled. Note: this was already hotfixed into the non-Beta Steam client.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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18 comments
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cookiEoverdose Feb 18, 2023
This is huge, love this built-in feature.
ElectricPrism Feb 18, 2023
This is big brain, but for real. I've thought about downloading all my games to my server and using homed, sshfs or rsync.

Typically we LAN and somebody doesn't have the files so I ssh into their rig and rsync -- but it's cumbersome and requires special knowledge of how to do all that.

I'm very impressed with Valve using "open source think" to lower bandwidth and improve user experience. Very cool.

Plus if we get a few Steam Decks here too, that sort-of multiplies traffic and the Wifi speed is certainly always slower than wired.
Klaas Feb 18, 2023
I've always wondered why they didn't implement that functionality sooner. They have to pay for the bandwidth – so it should be their priority to avoid duplicate downloads.
ElectricPrism Feb 18, 2023
Quoting: KlaasI've always wondered why they didn't implement that functionality sooner. They have to pay for the bandwidth – so it should be their priority to avoid duplicate downloads.

Maybe someone could think of any other corporate for-profit company that does this? Maybe it's just me, but I can't off the top of my head.

I think this is a cultural problem, and I'm glad Valve is wise.
hm11 Feb 18, 2023
This is BIG, specially for those in other places :)
poiuz Feb 18, 2023
Quoting: ElectricPrismMaybe someone could think of any other corporate for-profit company that does this? Maybe it's just me, but I can't off the top of my head.
Microsoft allows this (even for Windows updates).
JordanPlayz158 Feb 18, 2023
Quoting: KlaasI've always wondered why they didn't implement that functionality sooner. They have to pay for the bandwidth – so it should be their priority to avoid duplicate downloads.
I have not heard of a lot of places that have you pay for your bandwidth, so it is possible they don't (in which it would make somewhat sense to not make it a priority) but if they do then unsure
scaine Feb 18, 2023
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Quoting: ElectricPrism
Quoting: KlaasI've always wondered why they didn't implement that functionality sooner. They have to pay for the bandwidth – so it should be their priority to avoid duplicate downloads.

Maybe someone could think of any other corporate for-profit company that does this? Maybe it's just me, but I can't off the top of my head.

I think this is a cultural problem, and I'm glad Valve is wise.

Dropbox does have this option - if you tick "Lan Sync", it will broadcast for other PCs on your network (using the same account) and use them to sync data if available. Seems to work pretty well.

Purple Library Guy Feb 19, 2023
Is is just me, or does the phrase
Quoteloading throbber
sound kind of rude?
damarrin Feb 19, 2023
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyIs is just me, or does the phrase
Quoteloading throbber
sound kind of rude?
It doesn't sound rude, it sounds enticing.
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