Cloud Sync for Game Settings

Hi GGG team,

I’d like to suggest adding cloud sync for game settings, like graphics options, display mode, engine, and keybinds, saved directly to the player’s account, similar to online loot filters.

A friend of mine plays Path of Exile through GeForce NOW, but every time the game restarts (for example, after changing the renderer or resolution), all settings are lost. This makes it hard for him to optimize performance, since he’s stuck with the defaults.

It would be really helpful if:

Game settings were saved online and linked to our account.

And more importantly: when changing any settings in the in-game menu, even those that require a restart, the selected option is saved online before the restart.

That way, cloud players wouldn’t lose their settings and could properly configure the game, even with restart-required changes.

Thanks for reading and for the great work on the game!

So, I can think of two reasons I dislike this suggestion;

• There are a non-zero number of GeForce Now users. There's also a non-zero number of users who, for one reason or another, play Path of Exile at least semi-regularly on multiple devices. If implemented crudely, this would be a disaster for them as the game "remembers" the previous system and attempts to enforce illogical settings on the device currently being used. I'm not even sure which one of these two groups is larger than the other...
• I believe brilliant ideas are simple - and directly address the issue they are designed to mitigate. Seeing a tiny subset of users have a problem and suggesting that a change be forced on all users regardless of whether they want it violates this principle. GGG are in control of the default production config file that gets created by the client. If the one generated on GeForce Now systems is not suitable for those systems, GGG should make the appropriate adjustments so that this is no longer the case. That's a far tidier solution - and, thus - at least in my mind, a better one.

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the perspective, and I agree with your second point. Ideally, GGG could coordinate with GeForce NOW to make the default production_Config.ini better suited for that environment.

However, I don’t fully agree with the first concern. The idea wouldn’t be to force sync settings across every device by default. That would indeed be a bad experience. Instead, it could simply be an optional toggle, something like "Enable cloud settings sync" that users can choose to enable or disable based on their needs. That way, those who play on multiple systems or cloud services can benefit from a consistent setup, while others won’t be affected at all.

Right now, due to how cloud computing works, some important settings get reset frequently. For example, my friend plays through GeForce NOW and every time he logs in, the language reverts to one he doesn’t use, because the local settings file isn’t persistent. Even basic things like graphics renderer, resolution, or keybinds get lost. An opt-in cloud sync could really help with this.

I think the goal isn’t to disrupt existing workflows, but to offer an optional quality-of-life feature for those who need it.

configuration profiles is not a rocket science and yes it would be useful to "save" a config profile; Whether one wants to "load" a config profile later, is up to the user.

Theres no need to talk with nvidia or GeForceNow or anyone, all one needs to do is save settings to a text file with optional ability to also load from a text file.

This text file is stored thus with the account in cloud, thats it. If the user fudges his settings by loading his desktop settings on his nintendo, its his problem and there can be a nifty revert-to-default switch.

"

Homplo#1248 wrote:

However, I don’t fully agree with the first concern. The idea wouldn’t be to force sync settings across every device by default. That would indeed be a bad experience. Instead, it could simply be an optional toggle, something like "Enable cloud settings sync" that users can choose to enable or disable based on their needs.

I appreciate your position; I just don't foresee it happening in a million years, unfortunately. If you were posting this on the forum for, say, Blizzard's Battle.net Desktop App, then sure - absolutely. I'd be right there with you (and I'd have confidence in them).

The first online game I got into in a big way was the original Guild Wars. They had built a preview feature into the game so that you could see how something would look before equipping it / applying it, whatever. This wasn't for the cosmetic MTX they sold - as there were none - this was just something they thought would be a nice QoL fix. You could use it before, say, applying dye to armour (yeah, I know) that you had bought for in-game money. GW was released 20 years ago.

Path of Exile 1 entered open beta in 2011, has a business model that revolves around selling pretty pixels (with some stash tabs on the side), and GGG's best-effort approach to showing how they look is... "here's a YouTube video XD." Now, don't get me wrong - I am a fan of Eben, who as an individual does solid work on these types of videos. But as a company? WTF, GGG.

It is utter insanity there's no "Ctrl + Click the MTX to view it on your character" kind of functionality in Path of Exile 1 after 14 years of updates. This is their core business model - and, at this point, I don't know if I'd ever consider what they do an MVP. Back in the day it made sense given their resources, but today it is shameful. Also - refunds (to points) are far from being a guarantee, as well.

Yeah, it'd be cool if a team of five people at GGG were given 6 months and told to knock the ball out of the park on cloud sync functionality, but that's not who they are. If they do anything at all, it's going to be the most contemptuous low-effort addition that technically ticks the box of what had been asked for. And honestly - in that context, I'd rather they just didn't bother.

For a recent example - if you'll forgive the cross-link, I recently posted a thread about how now the game nags you on launch if you're not running the latest driver version. Except... 1) ~75+% of people have Nvidia GPUs, 2) Nvidia's latest driver is a disaster on most GPU models, 3) the nagware baked into PoE has no kind of driver version blacklisting intended to avoid encouraging people to update to problematic driver versions, and, 4) there's not so much as a "don't show again" checkbox. It's half-baked, ill-conceived, needs serious work - and won't be looked at again for years.

Giving GGG ideas is a very dangerous thing to be doing.