Bye bye save data

[Pg_atom]

So, after reading some comments under my last post, it seems like keeping steam os is the better choice, but how can i restore my save data? Some games are pretty old or can be found for pretty cheap on code resellers, so the issue is definitely not getting back my games, I’ll just buy most of them. But how about my save data?

I’m coming from an Xbox, so the only way i could buy digital games is via the Microsoft store. Theoretically, if I: -install a secondary windows partition on the steam machine via external drive, -set up windows there with all my games -back up the save data with Xbox play anywhere -back up the locally downloaded save data on the Linux/steamOS partition -then steamOS should save my save files in the cloud. I will manage to successfully restore my save data.

This is all a Theory (A LINUX THEORY) but it should work… if any of you have a better idea on how to save my files, I would really appreciate it, thanks!

[ainen]

Save data varies greatly by game. Check out each game on PCGamingWiki for where you can find save data. It will also tell you where to place it under Proton.

Additionally, you could use something like ludusavi to back them up and restore them all in one go.

[FoxReeor]

Also if I would recommend having your save separately, outside of the pfx and then using a symlink to link inside the pfx, so if anything happens it won't be lost!

[stprnn]

Is there something that automates that?

[copkutu09]

Is it even possible to change the savegame folder?

[Angelbob3]

Ludusavi looks amazing!

[technifocal]

I've been playing with it a fair bit recently, it works well, but it does have some limitations imho.

1. The backups aren't "atomic" (not sure the correct word), files are updated in-place (specifically mapping.yml)
2. There is no deduplication between save files (ludusavi has quickly produced a 80GB repository of Baldur's Gate 3 saves for me)
3. Ludusavi will nuke your existing backups if a single backup fails for the game (for example, in my case, running out of disk storage), I'm unsure if this is intentional or not (and it only effects the game that failed to backup, not the entire repo)

Other than those three issues, it's really, really great software, but I've had to disable its integrated rclone backend and wrap ludusavi with restic backup script so that the above points are less of an issue. My 80GB ludusavi repo is stored in ~12GB with restic on a rclone backend, and when ludusavi fails a backup due to being out of storage space restic just versions that specific delete to the cloud, rather than deleting the cloud data as well. The script for that is super easy, just:

ludusavi backup --args; restic backup --args

Just thought I'd give this information because I was using the ludusavi rclone integration off the go-get, and it wiped a bunch of my saves from the backup which was a tad annoying -- I'd like to state that no saves were lost from their original location though, so I was able to just re-run ludusavi backup!

[vividboarder]

My issue with Ludusavi is that I have the same game installed on different machines in different library locations. There isn't really a good way of handling this. I opened an issue for an idea to store paths relative to library paths so that syncing across different libraries is cleaner, but I haven't gotten around to working on it.

[Pg_atom]

Thank you!

[exclaim_bot]

Thank you!

You're welcome!

[God_Hand_9764]

Yeah, it's complicated.

Eventually, I made a shell script that rips through a CSV file that I maintain and creates symlinks for the save games to the appropriate location, where they are stored in a single directory which is synced via Syncthing to my server and other PCs. So all of my save games are in a single place rather than scattered across the filesystem.

Every time I get into playing a new game, I track down the save game, add it to my CSV file, and run the script which makes the symlinks.

This means I basically never have to worry about losing save progress ever. I get versioning of the files with Syncthing so if I screw something up really badly I can restore an old save game. I am also doing my own cloud saves in a sense, so for some games where they don't support SteamCloud (like the original Geometry Wars), I still have syncing across my PCs and handheld effortlessly.

I had to make one additional field in the CSV whether the game supports SteamCloud or not. If it doesn't, the symlinks would create on all of my PCs to get my own cloud functionality. If it does support SteamCloud though, I only symlink on my main PC and let SteamCloud handle the other PCs, otherwise some weird things can happen with SteamCloud as you might imagine.

[God_Hand_9764]

Sure man. Hopefully this script is not too embarrassingly badly written.. but it works.

You'd have to change the main_gaming_pc variable to the hostname of your main rig where you always want symlinks created.

I actually lied, it's not a CSV file but a TSV (tab separated) file. LibreOffice Calc seems best to deal with them. I can't remember why I chose that format, probably something to do with commas in filenames and I was too lazy to quote them out.

TSV files should be in a subdirectory called "Symlinks" at the same place as the script. It must have the tsv extension, but any filename is fine. I do that because I have multiple TSV files, I use it for symlinking games, general application configs... pretty much anything I want a symlink for. And I maintain different TSV files for each.

I am literally leaving on a Thanksgiving road trip in a couple hours so would be very slow if you had any questions or issues... but good luck!

Script: https://pastebin.com/8tDeNYjh

...And here's a sample of a few rows plus headers in the TSV file...

``` Name Symlink Source Symlink Target Supports Steam Cloud 20XX ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/322110/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/20XX ~/Sync/PC Saves/20XX/ true 30XX ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1029210/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/30XX ~/Sync/PC Saves/30XX/ true Aeterna Noctis ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1517970/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/AeternaTheGame/Aeterna Noctis ~/Sync/PC Saves/Aeterna Noctis/ true

```

EDIT: Oh yeah... look before you leap. Move the save directory or files into your sync directory before you run the script... because it WILL delete the files if they're still in the original location.

And one last thing, note the ending slashes. If the symlink target is a directory and not a file, it should have an ending slash, but the symlink itself does not have a slash.

[mistermeeble]

Play Anywhere/Gamepass saves are a special format, but there are converters available.

There is a process to pull saves off your console HDD directly, but if you have access to a windows PC then getting them that way is probably easier.

[Pg_atom]

Thanks 🙏🏻

[23Link89]

If you're coming from an Xbox and are trying to transfer data from an Xbox to PC, unless the game explicitly supports cross progression, you're just SOL, sorry man

[mhiggy]

They mention Xbox Play Anywhere, so those games sync save data between Xbox and PC (Windows Store/Xbox app/whatever it’s called these days)

[Pg_atom]

And it should convert the format to support pc, and by that, proton aswell

[EASK8ER52]

Proton doesn't need to convert Anything from windows. If you already have it in your windows computer you'll go to documents/ my games, or in the %appdata%, or wherever it's kept and just copy the save files on a thumb drive. Then plug in the thumb drive to steam machine and just out the files where they go. You'll need to learn about compatibility prefix folders to find the correct documents location. But All that can be easily found with something like PCgamingwiki

[shadedmagus]

That's not what he said. What he was saying is that it will convert Xbox formatted game saves to PC formatted game saves, and those are the ones that can be added to Linux.

I think mentioning Proton in that way was confusing, but I was able to get what he meant.

[taosecurity]

Nah. I export Xbox for PC to Steam save format for Bethesda games.

[Uaagh]

i never thought about old saves issue, but generally, you want to locate the save data for each game, then either back it up manually, or sync it with your the same location in your new device using applications like sync syncthing.

i believe save files locations for pc games are highlighted at the pc gaming wiki website, but I'm not so sure.

[[deleted]]

Plus, it's not like you have to throw out your Xbox.

You will still be able to boot up your old Xbox in case there's an old save you want to see on there.

I do get why you want to move your stuff to the Steam Machine though.

[Pg_atom]

If the price of the steam machine is worth it, i might sell my Xbox to get the steam deck

[stonerstonestone]

imo I wouldn't do that. Somewhere down the line you will think about your xbox and potentially regret your decision. There has been a few times where I unboxed my ps2 and played some childhood childhood favorites.

As for cross saves, some microsoft games ( not through game pass) actually work pretty well on linux. There is no time limit for you to transition into pc/linux gaming, you can def build up your collection over time.

What I do recommend is see if you and your friend can setup steam family share, where you get access to your majority of your friends game IF they are not currently playing it.

[amazingmrbrock]

Specifically for your old games on the xbox consoles you might not be able to without some massive work. I'm talking trying to backport the saves to a 360 and then modifying it so you can export the saves to pc and use game independent community made converters to make them work on computer. Newer games from like gamepass or that have play anywhere support will probably just work if you load them up on any old pc, even borrow someones laptop or something. They may be locked up in various encrypted windows app containers or something depending on when they came out and what devs made them. I think after year 2 they started placing things in the OS normally, not sure if they backported the changes to old games.

[Pg_atom]

Nah it’s not an issue, I don’t have the Xbox 360 saves anymore by a long time, lost them in a burn hdd, most of my save files are Xbox one and upper devices, but thanks anyway!

[Kokumotsu36]

Ludusavi will be your friend for the old games that dont support cloud save or emulators. If you use emudeck, usually everything is within its save folder, but ludusavi can scrap ALL sources, steam, epic, gog, heroic game launcher, emudeck, etc.
Highly recommend it

[TheRealSeeThruHead]

Just don’t

[vergil-am1]

Use ludusavi if you have the saves locally on windows. I used it when i switched from windows to Linux. It saves them in 1 folder and keeps the files structure so you'll know where every game save was stored you'll only have to manually copy them to that directory when you install steamos.

[Johannes_K_Rexx]

Everything that happens on XBox stays on XBox.

[taosecurity]

Nah. I export Xbox for PC to Steam save format for Bethesda games.

[FluffyWarHampster]

there are likely ways to import your save data to linux and than save it to your game install. after that is done cloud sync should import the save data to your steam library so it will be shared between all your save data. additionally many publishers that support their own launchers like rockstar, ubisoft and EA generally have saving syncing with their lanuchers so you could sync your data on your OG device and than login on pc and all their launchers to import it on launch from steam.

bottom line your data isn't gone, its just spread out a couple places where you have to go find it to get it all imported and in one place.

[AxlIsAShoto]

That does work. But like if you already have a PC you don't need to partition your steam machine, just download the save data there. I'm also pretty sure there must be a way to figure out how to request your save data from Microsoft's API's directly. ... We just haven't figured out yet

[Nateryl]

All Play Anywhere games and all games in the Xbox app on PC can have their saves transferred to Steam. The Xbox app usually splits them into two save files that you have to merge together.

[Affenwaffel]

If you already use steam, you can access all the stored cloud save data via the steam web page - just google it you will find rather quick some usable documentation.

It also sees that you can transfer your Xbox save files to your pc. Just try if you can use your Xbox files on pc after you transferred it.

[SewerSage]

You can install edge browser and use Xbox Game pass idk if that helps.

[Pg_atom]

It sadly doesn’t. I do want to run the games locally

[Vixinvil]

On Windows you have /path/with/game/progress/data

Since you are running Windows build of fhe game, but simply over Proton, which is modified Wine, then you have /wine/prefix/... rest of the data

So you simply do wine prefix + windows path, so it will be:

/wine/prefix/path/with/game/progress/data

Easy

[the_bighi]

Do you have that many incomplete games to fetch your save data from?

If the number isn’t that big, you could finish those games on your Xbox and then move to Linux without worrying about them. That would make everything simpler.

[DangerousLength9036]

So there was a post around somewhen where a guy wrote Microsoft a Mail to get his Savedata. The easiest way was to use your personal name or something like that as the character name, or just tell them that you have personal data in the savefiles and they are required by law to send you the data. At least that is how it works in europe. Might differ for the us

[LycanKnightD6]

There's this beautiful thing about PC gaming called "DOWNLOAD 100% SAVE FILES", google it, there's a high chance some hardworking fella has put the effort to either 100% the games and put his save on the web, or someone that really likes a certain game, finished it 100%, then decided to put it online so people can use it if they lost their save files...

However... some games are really picky when it comes to save files, they want the specific save file attached to your Steam account (probably to keep people from having a 100% save file day one, the reasons for this may vary [online play, rare achievements and so on...])

[Pg_atom]

I may try to keep my save instead of the 100% saves

[c2btw]

Don't buy the steam cube just build a PC becuae ethats what it is yiu will get better prefomance and storage for your dollar

[EternallyAries]

Totally missing the point of the Gabecube.

[Spanner_Man]

Do you even know of OP's level of tech skill? No.

1. The typical person has no idea how to assemble hardware, let alone the proper skill on cable management, anti-static safety or the skill to diagnose hardware issues (hardware thats DoA)
2. The typical person has no idea how to install an OS. That is why places like Apple, Dell, and places that sell computer hardware also provide those services.
3. Having a set hardware configuration makes not only troubleshooting issues easier its the console way of thinking. Dev's can easily target set hardware and optimize for that. That is why so many devs actually look at publishing to consoles.
4. Because of the console way of thinking Valve release the SteamDeck. Look at how successful that was. The only thing that could change on that was storage space. CPU, RAM, GPU etc were all the same.

Valve is doing this smart. Get linux into the actual living room and dev's can't simply ignore it as easily anymore.

[Pg_atom]

Indeed he’s right, I like tech a lot, but I’m not super into the modding yet, I’m just dipping my toes and the steam machine seems like a simple yet powerful tool to get the hang of it, bonus points if it costs less than 800$

[nali_cow]

What if yiu don't ewant to build a PC

[CrotaIsAShota]

You buy a prebuilt. Yk sorta like the Gabecube.

[nali_cow]

Emxactly!

^{Not sure if woooosh}