Steam - Local Network Game Transfers

[J37]

A few months ago Steam released 'Local Network Game Transfers'.

This is a bit of a unique setup, but so far, I've found it to be quite useful. I think this setup would help people that have less than gigabit internet. I have a media PC that runs 24/7 which I use mostly for Plex and remote access from work. I setup Steam on my media PC (using my main Steam account details), downloaded all the games I intend to play / will eventually play / might play etc. Which comes to around 2TB worth of games.

Setup Steam on my gaming and media PC to 'Allow transfers to/from my own devices', meaning that if I have a game downloaded on my media PC, my gaming PC will pull the download from there. If I don't have it on my media PC, it'll pull the download from the net (duh).

To get to the benefit of this... I don't like leaving my gaming PC running all day and only when I intend on using it. Downloading via the network is only limited (from what I can tell) by your hosts (media PC in my case) CPU and your network speed. In the testing I've done, I can fully max out my gigabit network and have seen other guys get far higher speeds (faster CPU's and 10GB networks). This means I can download a game while I am at work/out via the 'Steam phone app' to my media PC and when I get home I'm able to download at gigabit speeds to my gaming machine. Again... this is a unique setup, but something that's been really useful so far. If you bought a game now, want download and play it now this is obviously redundant.

A side note: Assuming someone wants to try this... my media PC has a 9600K in it, with default settings I was only getting 55-65MB/s download speed on my gaming PC. Installed 'Process Lasso' (on my media PC) and applied the below settings which allowed me to max out my network speed and download at 110-115MB/s on my gaming PC (the download speed is constant). I've also selected 'Bitsum Highest Performance' in Windows, although I'm not sure if that helped. Last thing to note, from what I've gathered online. Steam games are 'packaged' differently by developers meaning your host CPU might struggle to transfer one game (effecting your download speeds) while other games 'unpack' more efficiently (higher download speeds) - so far I haven't noticed much deviation in download speeds, although something worth noting.

Process Lasso - Steam
CPU Priority: Always > High
CPU Affinity: Always > Deselect CPU 0, but leave the rest selected
I/O Priority: Always > High

 

[valiente]

Excellent setup and definitely recommended - Even to just prevent downloading the same game twice (Children both with PC's) - Even Steam Deck...

I also have a similar setup - Running Steam headless Docker Container which also runs my main Steam Account.

One thing I took a step further was allowing friends and family sharing as well - This way someone in the same house, on a simple laptop can Game over the Network.

The game runs on my server (GPU Passthrough), within the Steam headless and only the UI elements and inputs are streamed over the network (LAN strongly recommended)

This also works quite good for remote streaming to my Living Room TV, however the controller is a problem as my server is now very far away from the Living room.

 

[J37]

Excellent setup and definitely recommended - Even to just prevent downloading the same game twice (Children both with PC's) - Even Steam Deck...

I also have a similar setup - Running Steam headless Docker Container which also runs my main Steam Account.

One thing I took a step further was allowing friends and family sharing as well - This way someone in the same house, on a simple laptop can Game over the Network.

The game runs on my server (GPU Passthrough), within the Steam headless and only the UI elements and inputs are streamed over the network (LAN strongly recommended)

This also works quite good for remote streaming to my Living Room TV, however the controller is a problem as my server is now very far away from the Living room.

That's awesome!

I'd love to get a 10GB network to see how far I could push my 9600K, but man, its so damn expensive.

 

[severthevoid]

Never saw the update, started downloading some stuff to have on my laptop while the power was off.
Needless to say I saw the speed and thought "damn MWEB really stepping it up".
Honestly though, a really useful addition to steam especially for family's/ Unidorms / cohabs.
When you see features like this, it just makes the divide between steam and their competitors look even wider.

 

[BearZA]

Excellent setup and definitely recommended - Even to just prevent downloading the same game twice (Children both with PC's) - Even Steam Deck...

I also have a similar setup - Running Steam headless Docker Container which also runs my main Steam Account.

One thing I took a step further was allowing friends and family sharing as well - This way someone in the same house, on a simple laptop can Game over the Network.

The game runs on my server (GPU Passthrough), within the Steam headless and only the UI elements and inputs are streamed over the network (LAN strongly recommended)

This also works quite good for remote streaming to my Living Room TV, however the controller is a problem as my server is now very far away from the Living room.

I've had luck in the past with a smart TV, plugged the controller into the TV when I used remote play, and worked fine.

 

[McCleavage]

Been really enjoying this feature while living with my brother.