Best solution for playing PC games across two PC's over a network

[Nvidiaguy07]

Sorry the title is kind of misleading, but basically this is my problem:

Ive been on a PC game buying spree over the last month with all the sale that have been happening. I have my main PC in my room, that I play games on, and I also have a PC in the living room, that will be poweful enough to run all the same games (once i upgrade mine to IVB, and move these parts over to that PC.)

My first plan was just to backup all games to an external, and then recover them on the other PC. Problems are that this takes up a crapload of space on both PC's.

Secondly, I made the mistake of buying some games through different services (i like having everything on steam, but some games didnt activate. So I have games from: Steam, Origin, Amazon, and now gamefly.

Would it be possible to play the game from the install folder across a network? Its wireless at the moment, but im going to be connecting the computers with a wired connection very soon.

I worry about problems coming up when using download services and stuff like that though. And will my keys not work on both my PC's?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

two PCs == buy two licenses. Except maybe for steam, dunno if it will let you install same games on two PCs.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

two PCs == buy two licenses. Except maybe for steam, dunno if it will let you install same games on two PCs.

I'm positive steam let's you install wherever. Until now, i only used steam, and had all games on my laptop and pc.

I'm pretty sure thats the point of having origin/steam, so if you ever lose your dvds, you can download them again, or have them installed on multiple pcs.

 

[heymrdj]

You can install Steam games wherever you want so that they are ready to go on any system you normally use. That's why, however, even offline play requires online access. Steam makes sure that you're only logged on to one system at a time to discourage sharing.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

You can install Steam games wherever you want so that they are ready to go on any system you normally use. That's why, however, even offline play requires online access. Steam makes sure that you're only logged on to one system at a time to discourage sharing.

but my question is: do i need to install these games on each computer? or is playing it from a networked folder possible?

I ask because my game collection is growing to be pretty large, and having that much space taken up by games on two computers is much more than just using one computer to hold all the games.

It gets complicated when steam and origin become involved. Im guessing if it were just an installed game, it wouldnt really be that much trouble.

 

[heymrdj]

but my question is: do i need to install these games on each computer? or is playing it from a networked folder possible?

I ask because my game collection is growing to be pretty large, and having that much space taken up by games on two computers is much more than just using one computer to hold all the games.

It gets complicated when steam and origin become involved. Im guessing if it were just an installed game, it wouldnt really be that much trouble.

I would go this route:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Make a network share on your one system out of your SteamApps folder, and then map that network share on your other system as a drive. With it having a letter (I recommend Z, then you can just point Steam to Z:

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I would go this route:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Make a network share on your one system out of your SteamApps folder, and then map that network share on your other system as a drive. With it having a letter (I recommend Z, then you can just point Steam to Z:

Will try it. One question, is the speed of the network going to affect the gameplay at all? I know some games like battlefield 3 (even though not on steam) have trouble even when played off of a 7200rpm drive, so i can just imagine how much worse a network would be.

Would this create any conflict when signing into steam on the different pc's? I just dont know what would happen if steam were open on the first computer, and then the networked computer tries to access that same folder and apps. Could it cause any problems? I have a wired connection btw.

For now im just backing the games up, and then I have my steam folder mapped as Z on the other computer. Then i just restore the game i want to play. Not as elegant as id like, but it works i guess.

 

[heymrdj]

I might have a chance to try it this weekend, not sure if i will or not. But I can't see the issue, if you have a gigabit network it can send data faster than your 7200RPM drive can support. As for conflict, shouldn't cause issues. Steam will be installed on each system, it's only the games themselves that are stored in a central location. So steam will start on another started system, but won't log you in because you're logged in elsewhere. No different than having two systems with the same steam account in the first place.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

ah i see what you mean now. i thought you were talking about actually running the .exe from the networked drive. But your saying have steam installed on both, and then just have steam choose one folder to play games from?

I guess i misread the link, but i thought steam, and the steamapps all kind of have to be ran out of the same steam folder.

I may be completely wrong about this, but i might only have a 10/100 ethernet connection. Is this possible? Just seems like HD transfers are faster than network speeds...

 

[heymrdj]

Now that i think about it a better way is to probably map a hard drive, install steam to that mapping (so intead of default use like Z:/Steam) and then put a shortcut to that steam executable on each machine. That way it won't autostart, you can launch it on the computer you want to launch it on, and everything will stay in sync between systems

And yes HD transfers are faster than 10/100 however other than possibly longer level loads I don't think there will be an issue with general game play, though this can vary by game. I still would recommend gigabit over 10/100.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Now that i think about it a better way is to probably map a hard drive, install steam to that mapping (so intead of default use like Z:/Steam) and then put a shortcut to that steam executable on each machine. That way it won't autostart, you can launch it on the computer you want to launch it on, and everything will stay in sync between systems

And yes HD transfers are faster than 10/100 however other than possibly longer level loads I don't think there will be an issue with general game play, though this can vary by game. I still would recommend gigabit over 10/100.

did this, worked perfectly! Im just concerned about speed. Right now, teracopy shows when i transfer a file from one 7200rpm drive to another its about 60mb/s, when transferring over the network, its 10mb/s.

Not sure what my cable is rated at (5? 5e? 6?), but im using a pretty new router WNDR3700 i think, and my motherboard on mine is a DS3L, and the other PC is a M2N-SLI deluxe. Gotta figure out where my bottleneck is.

for me, this is just all the more reason to have all my games in steam. Just makes it that much easier.

One more question: I have about half my steam games downloaded and installed on my main pc, and then i used to laptop to download the rest at school so i didnt kill my data limit (comcast).

Id the best way to move these all to my main PC to back them up on that computer via steam and then restore them? Or can i just copy the game data from steam\steamapps\common?

And since i do play some games in origin and then some games without a client, is there a similar solution there? Im gonna try installing the origin client on the other PC, and then pointing it to my mapped network drive.

Any problem you see arising by using this system?

And thanks again!

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

@heymrdj, recently, i have to enter the code almost every time i change PC's. Is this happening to you?