Playing Origin off nas or server? any one got it to work?

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Makeroflostsouls

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So I have a server in my house and would like to be able to store all my games on it and play them on my gaming pc that only has a 120gig ssd in it. I got steam to work fine I just run the Program off the server on my machine and it works fine. But I can't get Origin to do this. It keeps saying I need to download the game. For some reason when I run the program off the server on my gaming rig it points to a different folder for the games. It won't let me change the folder where it looks. Also won't let me run it on my rig and point to a network attached drive either which is dumb. If I own the game and have to sign into a damn program to use it whats it matter where the damn game is installed. Has any one had any luck with this.. I can't find anything about doing it with Origin only found how too's for steam. Thanks
 
Steam somewhat more recently introduced the feature that allows you to do that, and it will likely take Origin time to catch up.
 
Wait... You bought an SSD for ultra fast speeds and are now trying to load the programs from a server or NAS? Is there a reason for this overcomplicated setup?

Depending on the server/NAS and network configuration, that will likely be slower than just having an old spinner hard drive installed locally.

Honestly, I would just stop eating cheeseburgers for a month and buy a larger SSD.
 
Capt, I think you misunderstand.

Its now possible to have really powerful mITX based small form factor gaming desktops that only have room for a little SSD wedged somewhere, and then put all your platter drives for storage on a home server.

This can mean though that you don't have space for all your games. Well, fact is that most games really don't benefit from a fast hard drive at all.

I ran into that issue with a mITX tiny HTPC/gaming rig I built, and it literally cannot fit a platter drive. I ended up just upgrading the SSD in there, but it would have been nice to be able to just load games on the NAS. With my wired PC on a gigabit switch, file transfers at least are still VERY fast, so I can't imagine it would be a problem if the tech allowed it.
 
I would need to go to a 480 ssd to load my blizzard games and my origin games on one ssd. Where I have 13tb sitting on my server granted only 5tb is free. Also I have 3 gamming ririgs in the house and it would be nice to have everything in one place so I don't have to have 3 copies on every computer. Also running games off my server you really can't tell at all .. I have a full gig network and raid 5.
 
As a poster above indicated, symbolic links will take care of this. That's what people were doing for steam until they recently enabled you to cost you install location.
 
Ducman69 said:
Capt, I think you misunderstand.

Its now possible to have really powerful mITX based small form factor gaming desktops that only have room for a little SSD wedged somewhere, and then put all your platter drives for storage on a home server.
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That's why I asked for the reason for that setup. It is an overly complicated scenario if you don't have a setup that would justify it. The scenario you listed is one of the few I would consider such an option.;)

That being said, I would still upgrade the SSD. 120GB is just to0 small nowadays. I've got a 240GB with Windows, Office, and a few games installed I use on a regular basis, but even then it is about 60% full and I would prefer to have 500+ GB.

In my opinion, the install to NAS option should be a non-permanent, backup, or last resort option, even with SFF setup. I still think the best solution is to just save up and buy a bigger SSD.

Makeroflostsouls said:
I would need to go to a 480 ssd to load my blizzard games and my origin games on one ssd. Where I have 13tb sitting on my server granted only 5tb is free. Also I have 3 gamming ririgs in the house and it would be nice to have everything in one place so I don't have to have 3 copies on every computer. Also running games off my server you really can't tell at all .. I have a full gig network and raid 5.
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Hmmm. Ok. Well I guess consolidating things isn't too bad an option. I retract my previous statement. Your server appears it will more than handle the task. The trick will be getting Origin to co-operate. Steam has the capability already. However, I think the only way to do it with Origin will be with symbolic links as previously mentioned. Even then it may not fully work. It will take a lot of time to get working right. I believe you would have to first install the program locally to get the registry setup right, then copy the files over to the server and make symbolic links as you delete the original files from the gaming computer. I personally would not invest the effort, but if you are willing to all the power to you.
 
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Filter said:
still will be slow as shell compared to the game being local and on an ssd.
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That's my concern is the real world performance the more I read, but I have the same issue. 16TB server (4x4TB in RAID0, with a 128gb SSD OS drive), and two gaming rigs, one of which does have a 240GB SSD but its already full and it is a shame not to share the same files, mods, game saves, etc. The other has a terabyte SSD, but even THAT one is almost full, lol! I need to just uninstall games I don't play all the time, but its nice to be able to play it on a whim and not have to install first.
 
For what it's worth, I have a large part of my Steam library on my Synology NAS. My laptop (where I presently seem to play games most often now) is almost always WiFi only.
For most games, the up-front load time is slow. A game that takes, say, 10 seconds on a local HDD might take 30-45 over WiFi. One example I have is the Lego games - they pre-load a huge amount of data, and the game takes about 45 seconds to get into the main menu. Once there, everything goes just fine though - no issues with gaming. Of course, changing levels and what not is likely slower, but not too bad.
I'm planning on re-doing my entire home network in the next 12 months, and also building a gaming rig. To start off, the gaming rig will only have a small SSD for the OS, and a wired connection to the NAS. I'm going to see how load times are and such there, and decide if I feel the need to spend more money on local SSD or not (the bad thing is, my entire Steam library is over 2TB, so it'll have to be at least 3x1TB SSDs). To start, I feel I'll be fine with the longer load times, and being able to sink that money into better hardware. If it becomes a real issue (I expect not, since WiFi is OK, and wired will only be orders of magnitude better), then I'll start slowly moving things to local storage.

Of course, this is on Steam, where setting up a 2nd install folder is a piece of cake. I just map a drive back to the share on the Synology and am set. Steam sees the mapped drive and allows me to set it up as an install target. No idea if Origin has a similar option...
 
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Ducman69 said:
That's my concern is the real world performance the more I read, but I have the same issue. 16TB server (4x4TB in RAID0, with a 128gb SSD OS drive), and two gaming rigs, one of which does have a 240GB SSD but its already full and it is a shame not to share the same files, mods, game saves, etc. The other has a terabyte SSD, but even THAT one is almost full, lol! I need to just uninstall games I don't play all the time, but its nice to be able to play it on a whim and not have to install first.
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when im done playing a game i back it up then store it on my server. but since i got a 1tb ssd i don't do that as much anymore.
 
timta2 said:
Steam somewhat more recently introduced the feature that allows you to do that, and it will likely take Origin time to catch up.
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Do you have a link for this? I'd love to consolidate multiple pc's steam installs to reduce patch sizes. I've often wondered when steam would introduce some sort of btsync like functionality for distributing game patches over the LAN to other machines w/o redownloading off of the internet.
 
I think he/she was referring to the feature of Library Folders. You setup Steam to download/install games to specified folders. I have two - one on my local disk, and one on the mapped network drive. On my other gaming PC, I also have the drive mapped and a Steam Library pointing to it, and it sees all of the games on it.
 
While SSDs are blazingly fast, most games cant take advantage of it.

At one time I had several games installed on a USB 2.0 external hdd. I didn't notice a big difference.
 
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