Steam patch adds remote game downloads
You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your home computer while stuck bored behind your desk at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Yes, Steam remote downloads have now officially launched in the regular client.
You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your computer at home by loading up your web browser at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Valve introduced remote downloads in a beta build earlier this month, but the feature was officially patched into the regular Steam client yesterday.
To download a game remotely, simply log into the Steam Community site in your browser and poke around your games library. The PC you're downloading to needs to be turned on and online, obviously, and you need to be logged into Steam Friends too. One imagines this will be added to the Steam mobile app soon too.
Yesterday's patch also added support for redeeming the newly-launched Steam Wallet gift cards, and a smattering of fixes.
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Shacknews
replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Steam remote game downloads launch.
You may, this very day, start downloading a Steam game on your home computer while stuck bored behind your desk at work, to have it ready to go when you arrive back home. Yes, Steam remote downloads have now officially launched in the regular client.-
or you could just remote desktop to your home computer and do the same thing
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If you think remote desktop is complicated and only techies know how to do it, you need help. RDP is fucking simple to set up and to use and logmein and similar shit are widely available too.
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RDP:
1. Enable RDP on home computer
2. Write down IP Address. Hope your ISP doesn't change it.
3. Open ports on router to allow outside access to it.
4. RDP into your IP address
5. Wait for your desktop to show up
6. Navigate to Steam
7. Tell Steam to install game
Steam Remote Game Downloads:
1. Click on icon to remotely download game
2. I dunno, maybe there's a confirmation prompt?
You're channeling Linux zealot levels of retardation if you're making the argument that something is stupid because you had an unnecessarily complicated routine in place to do it already.
Not to mention that my workplace blocks RDP so I couldn't do it even if I wanted to.-
Enabling port forwarding and/or DMZ is not exactly the simplest of tasks for a large majority of the steam clientele
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It is you, good sir, who is completely out of touch with what is "complicated" to your average user.
To use RDP you need to open ports on your router; that along makes it 1000x more complicated than an average user could do. -
mmm.... no.
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I use LMI all of the time, but I expect 99.9% to favor this new option over the a remote connection.
Why would you even post this?
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or you could have a baby, train him to navigate steam, and just call him up to do the same thing
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but then you have to train a baby to answer the phone, and that takes too many steps. :)
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not if he is an evil baby genius.
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What makes you think he won't download dinner date instead then?
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How about adding a remote application launcher from an android phone too??
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he asked for a remote application launcher. not the ability to launch games in steam.
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I think he's asking for the ability to launch Steam remotely. So I guess if you don't have Steam open, you can open it remotely to be able to start downloads. Personally I just leave it running all the time... the more likely case is that my computer is hibernating/sleeping while I'm at work.
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Yikes...you leave it running all day? Not me. Shut down whenever its not in use. You dont leave a car running in your driveway each night do ya?
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you misunderstood me. I always have Steam running when my computer is on. However, each night I put my computer into sleep mode at night and while I'm at work, so I wouldn't have access to the system to remotely install games.
However, unless you're being sarcastic, comparing a computer running all day to a car running in the driveway is a terrible comparison. A lot of people do actually leave their computers on all day. -
How do these posts exist on a site like this?
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So you can launch a game when you leave work and by the time you get home 15 minutes later, the unskippable cutscenes for nVidia, publisher, distributors, etc will be over.
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It could serve as a pseudo 10-ft interface for an HTPC until (hopefully) Valve releases an official one.
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I would like to select a game from my commute to have running for me when I get home. If they're gonna give us the ability to select which games to download, why not also give us the ability to start them for when we get home from work?
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Eh - this is a little different imo. If I have limited game time at home (family life / adult responsibilities)- i'd love to not waste that while the game downloads. Especially when there's a sale that pops up in the middle of the day from a price-war between Amazon and another digital distributor, or a Steam sale.
Definitely would be a bonus if you could initiate the download using the mobile app, given I can purchase titles on Steam using it (fantastic for steam sales).
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Cool feature but the need to have the PC turned on all the time kills it for me.
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I really can't swing that. If it could wake up from sleep or something to do it then maybe but to have it fully powered up all day just so I can maybe download a steam game is extreme.
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There's literally no reason for my computer to be on all day when it's not in use. There's no benefit to it whatsoever.
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This is how we know electricity is too cheap.
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Yes, it would be an incredibly minor benefit, one not nearly worth the cost.
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I have a separate NAS serving media, other than that the other two things are legitimate just nothing I do. Except that I don't place very high priority at all on seeding.
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I saw it figured on a website that depending on your cost for power it was only a dollar or two a month.
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Of course that's just what a website would want you to think! Damn self-serving websites...
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I think I remember seeing that the cost of electricity starting up a PC versus leaving it running is a wash (kinda like how starting and stopping a car engine repeatedly burns as much or more gas than just leaving it idling)
Also hard drives are like airplanes - when they're in flight they're good it's those takeoffs and landings that are rough. The wear and tear on a drive starting and stopping over and over is probably a wash compared to just leaving it spinning indefinitely. And at this point in time they're still more reliable than an SSD (though not nearly as fast of course)-
But I'm not starting and stopping my PC over and over. If I'm at home, the PC is on and stays on. If I'm leaving for more than three hours or when I go to bed, I turn it off.
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I have my machine mining bitcoins and folding all day.
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Even for people who don't think they have a use for it at first glance, consider that it gives you the ability to plan ahead and leave your PC on during a specific day when you know a game you will be buying is coming out. Buy it, tell your home computer to download it, have it ready for when you get back. That's one day every once in a while that you will appreciate its convenience, and many days the zealots who jumped you in this thread will enjoy having it.
Obviously you didn't attack the feature as being pointless simply because you, personally, don't think you'll take advantage of it, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm going out of my way to defend its usefulness. I just wanted to point out that it may be something that will be nice for you after all.
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this is amazing
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Holy god Audiogalaxy was amazing.
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