Valve announced today that the team will continue to provide support for Steam Deck, adding a new Dynamic Cloud Sync feature to the Steam Cloud. This feature allows players to seamlessly switch between Deck and PC while playing, without having to worry about quitting the game on Steam Deck.
Users are expected to frequently pause on Steam Deck without quitting the game, which is also common when using other handheld gaming devices. With Dynamic Cloud Sync, if they choose to play the game on another device, be it a PC or another Steam Deck, their progress will remain the same.
With Dynamic Cloud Sync, Steam will automatically upload any modified save game data to the cloud before the device goes to sleep, and users can then resume the game on any PC, laptop or another device. Steam will also automatically download all save game changes when the user wakes up the Steam Deck back.
This feature is not required to allow players to enjoy your games on Steam Deck, but we recommend that you take advantage of this feature to give players the best experience possible. Even if “Dynamic Cloud Sync” is not enabled, Steam will track changes to save game data on the Steam Deck.
However, if the user suspends the Deck while the game is running and then tries to resume the game on another device, they will be prompted to go back to the Deck first to close the running process, or if there is no recent save Continue with game progress.
This feature is free to use but is not automatically applied: the developer must manually enable it for the game in Steamworks, and use some new APIs.
How to enable Dynamic Cloud Sync
Most games are already using the Steam cloud system for cloud save, this feature is part of this Steam cloud system. There are three steps.
- Your game needs to integrate the “Dynamic Cloud Save” API. This way, the game can handle changes to the cloud-managed file within the game session and indicate to Steam that the file has been modified. The new API makes this process relatively straightforward.
Detailed instructions: Click here
- Publish an updated build of the game that includes the integration.
- Enable this feature in the Steamworks settings.
On the Steamworks settings page for a given product, hover over the Applications tab and select Steam Cloud. Tick the “Enable Steam cloud sync on system suspend and resume” checkbox.