Separate games folder for Steam? Why not?

[Exploder]

Hey dudes and dudettes.

Back in October, I had to download and install this silly program called Origin to play BF3. Seemed kinda silly to have another client required to play specific games but oh well.

Anyway, I discovered something amazing. Basically, you can have your Origin games installed wherever you want, separate from the program itself, and even on a different hard-drive altogether! This is perfect for people with SSD's who keep their programs and OS on the SSD while using a HDD for games and media.

But as you all know... this is not possible with Steam, and it absolutely BLOWS MY MIND. Why??? Will Valve ever add such a feature? I don't want to rely on external programs to do such a thing because I don't want any issues/problems in the future since it's not really offically a supported feature yet.

Anyone got some insight on this one?

[Arimanthos13]

Well, I disliked Steam when I had to move 20gigs of gajmes to an HDD. But you know what, This also helps lower download and load times since games are right with the launcher and files (Origin UI is slower than STEAM UI if you installed out of directory). Also, you can run steam games without steam (save for valve games) whilst Origin is required to be running for an origin game to run.

[Washell]

Originally Posted by Arimanthos13

Also, you can run steam games without steam

Most people complain that you can't, except for a handful of titles.

[Arimanthos13]

I've run all my non-valve games through steam. That means no running Portal, Half life, TF2, or CS amongst others. But to name a few I've run without steam:
Fable 3
Sequence
Age of Empires Online
Bastion (but no online features)
Sonic Generations
Sonic and Sega all star racing
Deus Ex and Human revolution

[crunchyfrog555]

Originally Posted by Exploder

Hey dudes and dudettes.

Back in October, I had to download and install this silly program called Origin to play BF3. Seemed kinda silly to have another client required to play specific games but oh well.

Anyway, I discovered something amazing. Basically, you can have your Origin games installed wherever you want, separate from the program itself, and even on a different hard-drive altogether! This is perfect for people with SSD's who keep their programs and OS on the SSD while using a HDD for games and media.

But as you all know... this is not possible with Steam, and it absolutely BLOWS MY MIND. Why??? Will Valve ever add such a feature? I don't want to rely on external programs to do such a thing because I don't want any issues/problems in the future since it's not really offically a supported feature yet.

Anyone got some insight on this one?

It's not possible with Steam as standard, but as a PC gamer it almost essential that you have a utility called GameSaveManager.

Obviously, it's primary function is to collate all your game saves which are dotted around your PC for easy backup. However, there is a great function in it called "Steam Spreader". You can move your individual game folders about as you wish, and it'll handle all the symbolic links, etc for you.

I have my games installed across 4 drives for convenience.

[Pheace]

If I wanna move games from my Steam folder to my HDD I just use SteamMover. It's really totally simple, takes no effort at all.

[Exploder]

Originally Posted by Pheace

If I wanna move games from my Steam folder to my HDD I just use SteamMover. It's really totally simple, takes no effort at all.

But what happens when you tell Steam to defrag/revalidate/whatever? What about gamesaves? Is it 100% safe to use such a program for that?

[Arimanthos13]

Originally Posted by Exploder

But what happens when you tell Steam to defrag/revalidate/whatever? What about gamesaves? Is it 100% safe to use such a program for that?

Game Saves are saved outside Seam directory (save for Valve games) so you'll be safe.

[Knight of Pi]

You may be interested in looking at this post:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1138731

Using this method it is possible to have Steam and games installed on a conventional hard drive, with commonly used games installed on a second drive/raid array/SSD.

Just looking over it quickly, it doesn't seem too hard and accomplishes what you are looking for.

[crunchyfrog555]

Originally Posted by Knight of Pi

You may be interested in looking at this post:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1138731



Just looking over it quickly, it doesn't seem too hard and accomplishes what you are looking for.

It is relatively simple, but what's simpler than using a using a utility like GameSaveManager where you specify the current location, then location where you want it to end up, and that's it?

[Washell]

Originally Posted by Exploder

But what happens when you tell Steam to defrag/revalidate/whatever?

It does just that without problem. Tools like SteamMover work at a level that's transparent to the Steam client. So as far as it knows, it's still in the same place.

[Ettanin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

Use this to make <Steam_root>\Steamapps pointing elsewhere you desire.

[Exploder]

Originally Posted by Knight of Pi

You may be interested in looking at this post:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1138731



Just looking over it quickly, it doesn't seem too hard and accomplishes what you are looking for.

Ah, that's really handy. Thanks dawg!

[Exploder]

So, did we ever get an offical response on something like this? Would be nice to know if they ever considered it.

[FreemanForPrez]

Originally Posted by Exploder

So, did we ever get an offical response on something like this? Would be nice to know if they ever considered it.

A while back one of the Valve people replied to one of these (numerous)threads and kinda sorta implied that with the new code they were working on it might be possible to maybe consider thinking about possibly doing something that may or may not resemble a fix for said situation.

On the bright side, you can do screenshots and upload them directly to facebook.