Synchronize several PCs at once
Synchronize several PCs at once
Hey everyone... I own three PCs at home, and most of our Steam library is the same. Can we find a way to use just one hard drive instead of downloading everything separately so we can play together without the hassle?
You may have several accounts with various libraries on one device, but each account can only be used one at a time. You can link libraries across different accounts using Family Sharing, but it seems unlikely you can access both simultaneously.
I don't refer to paid game sharing. Instead, I understand the need for downloading games onto devices, which uses up a lot of storage. I can run my own server to host all the game files and play them without relying on external downloads.
So... you're really aiming to broadcast games through the network? That sounds like what you were suggesting, right? Game streaming has been one of the biggest challenges recently. The volume of data being sent in both directions is still far beyond what our regular networks can handle.
You might consider building a NAS with SSDs and configuring drive mapping across each PC, allowing games to load directly from the NAS. Each system would need around 10GB of storage, plus a dedicated switch. The overall investment would likely exceed a few thousand dollars for all components, along with possible home rewiring. A more cost-effective approach could involve purchasing larger SSDs per PC and setting up a local Steam caching server, which would reduce the need for frequent internet downloads after updates.