Steam Cloud

[user100056]

Describe the project you are working on

A game.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

No way to save projects to the Cloud without using a version control system.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

I want Steam Cloud to be added for the Steam version of Godot, it would be really helpful and you wouldn't need a version control system.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

(not related)

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

(not related)

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

(not related)

[AThousandShips]

Converted to a discussion because there were no concrete implementation details

[Mickeon]

It should be theoretically possible to back up editor settings onto the Steam Cloud, but for user projects that's a whole other story. Individual projects may need to be in a common folder, the .godot folder would have to be stripped out when uploaded to the cloud, and problems may arise when Steam Cloud's size limit is reached.

Keep in mind "the cloud" isn't the only reason to use a Version Control System. The ability to have continuous backups is more important, in my opinion.

[AThousandShips]

Indeed, VCS is not really for backup, it's for having a history that you can go back in granularly, using VCS for pure backup is very inefficient

[user100056]

Setting up Git is really annoying and I don't want to use Github.

[sockeye-d]

You've got a GitHub account, so at this point you can do

winget install GitHub.cli
# get a new instance of your shell here once it's done installing
cd C:\Path\To\Godot\Project
gh auth login
git init .
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
gh repo create 
# follow the prompts and say you want to push an existing repository, and also that you want to push existing commits

It's not too difficult

[Meorge]

No way to save projects to the Cloud without using a version control system.

You can certainly save your project folders to a cloud service like Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc.

it would be really helpful and you wouldn't need a version control system.

I'm not sure if I would consider "you wouldn't need a version control system" to be a point in favor of anything. Having version control is great for being able to view previous versions of your code and pinpoint where an issue may have been introduced, and when you have remote VCS set up (like GitHub, Gitlab, etc) it doubles as a backup system in case your local machine goes down or you just want to work on the same project on multiple computers.

Aside from little throwaway "scratchpad" projects, VCS is a good thing to have. When people try to actively avoid it, it feels a bit to me like if someone said they wanted to remove the brake pedal from their car so that they can get to their destination faster. Sure, that might work, but you're also opening the door for things to go very very wrong 😅

[Calinou]

Configuring Steam Auto-Cloud with a dedicated folder that projects can be put into is probably the way to go for this. It's probably safe to do for editor settings right now.

That said, I echo the above comments and worry that adding Steam Cloud support may lead to people using it as their only means of backing up their projects. Version control is much better for this as it actually keeps a version history and allows for branching, while Steam Cloud does neither.

[Meorge]

To play a little devil's advocate, from what I've heard the Steam version of Godot auto-updates by default, causing people to unexpectedly upgrade the version of the editor they're using for their project despite "best practice" being to stay on one version or make a conscious decision to upgrade. So I guess there is precedent for the Steam version encouraging development decisions that aren't generally considered "best practice".

[user100056]

Yeah, I guess it isn't worth adding it.