Steam - Sharing install folder across SSD/1GbE home LAN

[Gimpymoo]

This is something I have wanted to try for a LONG time but only recently got round to getting a wired LAN setup in the home.

My setup:

Install games to Computer A:
C:\Games\Steam

Setup a network share for the "Games" folder.

Map the "Games" Folder to a drive letter (Z: for example) on Computer B.

Add "Z:\Games" as a Library folder in Steam.

That is it.

You can use Symbolic links if needed, but in this instance, mapping a folder to a drive letter did the job. If mapping a folder to a drive letter, the install folder you are wanting to share cannot be the root folder.

Anything installed to Steam on computer A is picked up on computer B.

Thus far, have tried TF2 and CS:GO and both ran fine with 3 computers on 3 different steam accounts running the same game from a single installation folder.

I expected maybe file access errors but nothing thus far, games just play fine.

If pushed, I would suggest maybe slightly longer load times, but am not certain, maybe placebo.

So far, seems a great solution if running multiple PC's on the same network, makes sense.

Will try with something Stupid like Arma 3 later.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Tried Arma 3 with two players.

Worked fine but can tell there is definitely more loading. HDD activity was going nuts.

Will test with 3 different games later on 3 computers.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Out of curiousity, other than "because I can" (which I totally get ), why would you want to do this?

Assuming it's to save money on drives, then surely any speed increase from using SSDs is offset by the loss in speed across the network? Meaning it would make more sense just to buy bigger cheaper mechanical disks for the PCs?

Good Question.

I will answer in a way which is relevant to my own situation.

Why not?

Regarding SSD over mechanical, the SSD is still faster, especially when multiple clients are reading data. A mech HDD woud bottleneck the network I would think?

If you have 4 separate steam accounts on 4 seperate computers in the house which play a lot of the same games.

Why download the same game 4 times?

Why have to download the game at all if another use as already downloaded it, it is just there.

Why update the same game 4 times?

If a game is 20GB, by not installing it 3 times more, you have saved 60GB of HDD space.

If you commonly use 10 of the same games between you at 20GB, you are saving 180GB.

 

[Gimpymoo]

I meant have a mechanical drive in each PC vs a single central SSD.

You may be saving space, but when SSD space is ~5-6 times more expensive than HDD space, unless you're sharing that data over 6+ PCs, the SSD is still the more expensive option.

Is it faster accessing an SSD over the network than a HDD locally?

Also, would this not absolutely hammer your ping if you were playing anything online? (Obviously dependent on how much the game accesses the disk whilst playing)

Since when as PC gaming been about "doing it cheaper" This has only costed a few quid for cat6 cables and a switch I already had lying around. PC's already have SSDs as any PC should nowadays.

Performance of network share from SSD vs mech drive for each PC is similar but I would say Mech load times are longer but I have nothing to back that up as yet.

There is ample of bandwidth left for game traffic.

I will test to see if SSD traffic impacts server ping.

I have no use for anything like this since my PC is the only machine to access my games. But have you considered some 10Gb NIC and some nice fast SSDs in your central store to improve throughput. Some Mellanox cards can be had for around £20-30 off Ebay.

You then need a 10Gb switch though unless you connect the PC's back to back into the separate NIC's which is not impossible but I am not sure it would be worth any effort for this purpose? Alternatively, put a FREENAS box together.

From what I have seen so far, bandwidth is not being anywhere near maximised to make me see any benefit of 10Gb networking. Maybe if more computers were sharing but then you may encounter i/o issues anyway?

 

[Gimpymoo]

You say 3 different accounts? Do these accounts own the games in question already?

Of course.

 

[Gimpymoo]

No issue with saved games or anything being overwritten by the other users?

No, and I thought there would be.

So far, has only really been multiplayer games though.

Games which utilise Cloud saving are fine as they obviously save per "account" so no problems there.

Most games save outside the Steam folder, such as "My Documents" for example so no problems there from what has been tried thus far.

I thought settings would be an issue but all working OK so far.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Assuming you're using a Windows Server box, you should look into implementing Branchcache.

How would that help?

I have it in the back of my mind that Steam have special rules if you have more than a certain number of people gaming from one IP address. Something about gaming stores, but I really don't recall more.

Steam itself has no such policy HOWEVER some individual games can and do have such policies.

 

[Gimpymoo]

You're potentially going to run into some issues in theory around files being locked by one machine and then trying to be accessed, but if it's not happening in practice then fair enough! Access performance must be horrible though. With storage so cheap I'd just have them all installed on all machines personally. Much simpler.

That is the beauty of PC Gaming though right, CHOICE
Few of us game on a PC because it is "simpler"

I did this as it is something I have had in my mind for a long time and I did it and it works, very well too.

Some may think "Meh, I bet that runs like ****" and for those who do, all I can really say is try it and see for yourself.

For gaming, the only files we write to are the settings files and they are stored locally (mainly). File lock issues are less likely to happen if they are just being read and you have assigned the correct permission on the network share.

 

[Gimpymoo]

That would only be an issue if the LAN was completely saturated and you were using that network to go online. If you were that worried about it you could use a different network to access the internet router.

It is odd you mention that as iI was thinking of using two subnets.

One for LAN traffic and another for WAN traffic.

Each system would have two network controllers with a separate switch for LAN and WAN traffic.

No idea if it would offer any benefits though as is working fine as it is at the moment.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Test out GTA 5 please, drive at 150mph through the middle of a city on a full server online with all graphics turned up high. That should stress the loading of textures, the pc cant be storing all of them in main memory I guess or on the graphics card so you are talking about a possible stress situation.
Most games preload textures, but have 4 people do that on your network and see what happens. That might be your perfect storm

That is what I like, making stuff break

I do not have GTA V though.

My games list is here:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/gimpymoo/games/?tab=all&sort=name


Any other game/scenario suggestions?

Benchmarking software perhaps? If so, which free one?

 

[Gimpymoo]

Only downside as above is I'd imagine games which stream textures a lot could become slightly worse due to access times, although less if SSDs used at one end.

I'd even thought going further and having the storage machine completely seperate. Steam's ability to use alternate folders has made this a lot more possible than in years go by. Wonder how many gaming cafes use this for CSS now! hah

I have only tried with SSD, I will test with a mech drive.

I have tried with Arma 3 being accessed by two clients from an install on an SSD and it worked fine from what I have played thus far.

You are right though, Steams native ability to support custom install locations does make it easier.

Time to find a 10GbE switch and some network controllers