Steam In-Home Streaming - A Solution to Linux Gaming?

Communities Gaming
1

Now I'm sure most people here are familiar with what Steam In-Home streaming offers; a low latency remote connection to your computer so you can stream games to another machine.

Now what some people I think haven't thought of is that the client (the computer receiving the stream) doesn't have to be running the same OS as the server (the gaming rig). Which of course means you can do this madness!....

Screenshot from 2015-04-07 14:50:32.png789x671 380 KB

(Yes, that is Tomb Raider 2013 running on an ancient Dell running Ubuntu)

Now on to the idea.

So let's say, for instance, you have two machines. A high-powered workstation/gaming computer and a mid-range laptop running Linux.

You setup Windows 7/8 (whichever you prefer) on your gaming machine. You enable Remote Desktop (for setup) and install the Steam Client and enable In-Home Streaming. On the Steam Client you also add any non-Steam games to the launcher (which Steam In-Home Streaming can also work with!).

So now, when you boot up that Linux powered laptop and login to Steam you see a list of games you are able to stream from your gaming machine. But that's not all.

We can now add Software to steam as well. Want to run Office 2013 in Linux? Throw it on your gaming machine and have Steam allow you to stream it to your laptop!

Now, now, you may be asking "but I want to use my gaming mouse/keyboard/monitor!" to which I suggest this, a laptop dock:

Thinkpad X200 dock.jpg1000x1000 93.8 KB

Simply place down your laptop in to it and you have a full desktop machine.

So we're about to cross the streams. We're going to cross the streams of a laptop we use for work and a desktop we use for play. What's an advantage of this?

Well, since the desktop will be used for almost exclusively games it will be a lot harder to 'fuck up' as it were. Thus less reinstalls and therefore we won't have to dilly about moving save games from one place to another and losing them. You set it all up and keep it running for years, like a console...

Of course, this is merely an idea.

There are many I'm sure which would scoff at such an idea, unable to cope with higher latency. They should remember, there is nothing wrong with running games on the Linux machine. 1/4th of the Steam library is on Linux RIGHT NOW with that growing on a week by week basis. This is merely a solution to those games we want to play on Linux, but cannot.

If enough people are interested I will do such a blog/video log of myself setting such a thing up. Please comment below if you think I should, or for that matter should not.

1 Like
2

It not a weird idea at all. Isn't this exactly the idea behind the low end Steam Boxes (running Steam OS) and Nvidia Shield (Running Android)?

3

Steam In-home streaming only works if you're on the same network (hence "In-home" streaming). So, if you already have a powerful gaming desktop, why not just play your games right on that desktop PC? You getting full resolution and no latency.

I understand the appeal of in-home streaming from the perspective of wanting to play your games on your big TV in the living room with a controller for the console-like experience and having your entire PC gaming library on-tap. I also get that it can be good/useful to have access to all you games and stream them to a laptop else-where in the house if you don't want to be tied down to playing in the living room or in front of your desktop PC.

But I don't see the point of in-home streaming to a laptop as a primary means of playing your games. I'm not quite sure I understand what you're trying to explain here. Is it that you're simply trying to use Steam in-home streaming as a method of remote desktop functionality?

4

To play it directly on your desktop you'd need to plug it in to a monitor and have a mouse and keyboard plugged in to it.

Like asking, why have a media server when you can just play the media on the server? It's a media server for games :)

Also the great thing in my opinion about Steam In-Home streaming is that you can pick and choose. You can install every game in your multi terabyte library to one computer and streaming them, or you can pick and choose and have for instance Counter Strike on your laptop to reduce latency but still stream Assassins Creed from your gaming PC.

5

Oh, so what you're trying to do is basically create a NAGS (network attached gaming system) which you link into via Steam In-home streaming client and game-away on what ever device you choose (TV, laptop etc.). Is that a more correct description/analogy?

6

NAGS.

I guess so.

7

In that case, I'm very curious to see how this works out. :)

Keep us posted on your progress.

8

In theory this sounds like the coolest set up I've ever heard of, but to do this effectively, you would have to have multiple PCs, which could be an issue for the people with less dosh. Playing counterstike on a laptop is definitely not optimal framewise; to be pushing 60fps with a laptop makes me question how you spend your money. With maybe an older desktop, throw a in some bare bones parts, get some on sale and you could make playing through streaming and on system work.

9

I'm using the example of a laptop because it's probably more likely for someone to own a laptop and a desktop than two desktops.

Personally I have a Thinkad X200s as my laptop. It's a business laptop from 2008 so it's no beast, but it's decent so it should show how much power you do need to run In-Home Streaming. If it can't run it I'll see how it runs streaming from one desktop to another.

Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source aren't difficult to run, Intel HD Graphics shouldn't have any trouble running them decently.

10

Right now my main gaming rig is running with no displays/monitors. Instead, my displays are all hooked up to my Linux machine - which can still stream games from the main rig.

However, one problem I've encountered is that when no display is hooked up to the main/host PC, it doesn't know what resolution to run the game at. Even if I set the target streaming resolution to 1080p, I get no image (only audio) and some other games that bring up the settings menu prior to launching, the option to choose the resolution is not available/greyed out.

So it seems, for now anyway, that you need a display running on the host PC in order for the In-home streaming to work properly.

Just some food for thought...

11

not sure if people know but there are hdmi/dvi-d wireless connectors . . . and wireless extenders for wireless devices like keyboards, mouses ... so if you have large house no problem to "stream it to your tv" and play them games at full rez. (for everything else, there is plastic fibre)

12

Those are expensive and may even produce more latency than an ethernet connection from one PC to another.

13

I have a really poor quality video somewhere of me streaming BL2 to my RPi B if anyone wants to see it.

If I can find it that is...

14

true, expensive. Still it'd say it works somehow comparing to software based rttp streamers.