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f13.net General Forums => Steam => Topic started by: Baldrake on May 31, 2014, 08:58:39 AM



Title: Steam streaming
Post by: Baldrake on May 31, 2014, 08:58:39 AM
Has anyone else tried this? I've put a fair bit of time into trying to get this to work to stream from my Alienware box to my Macbook Pro.

I can see great potential, but it's a death of 1,000 cuts.
  • If your PC goes to lock screen, streaming won't work. I have not found a way of disabling this on Windows 8.1.
  • If Steam needs to restart (new download), it won't work.
  • If your game pops up a local dialogue box (e.g., first time install, patcher asks your permission to run, Windows firewall wants permission), it won't work.
As it turns out, my PC is in my basement, and my Macbook is in my home office two floors away, so just going and fixing the problem each time is a pain. These problems can't be solved by remote desktop, since that knocks the PC back to lock screen (see above.) At least I'm getting fitter running up and down the stairs.

Recommendation - unless your two computers are right next to each other, don't bother. And if they are right next to each other, why are you using streaming in the first place?

I have to imagine this will work much better on a Steambox, since they will be able to control all the crap that stops streaming from working properly.


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: KallDrexx on May 31, 2014, 09:11:09 AM
I've been using this since it was released, and I routinely ping-pong between this and splashtop for my remote gaming needs.

My biggest piece of advice is to install splashtop streamer and client.  You don't need to pay for it (unless you want to do stuff remotely from outside your lan) but splashtop is very useful for knocking yourself out of a lock screen so steam has visual access.  It also makes it easy to quickly access steam if steam's being a whiny bitch, can't connect, or anything. 

Steam streaming is crisper and less laggy (and less video artifacts in my experience) than splashtop (and it also works much better for mouse-look games) but not all games work with steam, in which case you'll want to use splashtop for remote gaming.  Having both is really the best way to keep yourself from running into any corner cases with either.

Also side note, you can use steam to remote desktop.  To do so add Notepad.exe as a non-steam game on your server computer.  When you stream notepad press f1 and viola, you get access to your desktop.


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: proudft on May 31, 2014, 05:34:39 PM
I use it to stream stuff to my crummy Mac laptop, and I've been amazed at the lack of input lag.  Marvel Heroes and Borderlands 2 are both basically flawless for me, and I'm someone who is fussy about net lag, so it's gotta be like 20ms or less.  It's pretty neat technology.


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: pants on June 01, 2014, 07:28:08 PM
I've had good success with this.  I agree that any time something pops up on your main PC, streaming sucks - so you want to make sure any popus or other programs aren't running or are silent or whatever.  But with that caveat, running to my HTPC in the loungeroom over wireless (!) playing Marvel Heroes has been great.


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: apocrypha on June 01, 2014, 10:57:20 PM
If they can sort out the various problems then this'll be great, definitely. I've been using it to stream Lego games to the media PC in the living room when we've got friends over, works great.

Another problem I've had is that the game doesn't close on the streaming PC when you exit it on the receiving one, but that might just be Lego games :p


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: Ironwood on June 02, 2014, 02:43:26 AM
Puzzle quest and other little games on my Surface.

It's a great thing.


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: Baldrake on June 04, 2014, 08:00:25 AM
KallDrex, splashtop works really well - much better for troubleshooting than windows remote desktop which I was using previously. Thanks for the link. I was able to run Medieval: Total War without trouble. The Secret World does not work. It's a very cool tool when it works!


Title: Re: Steam streaming
Post by: Azazel on June 21, 2014, 07:22:40 PM
Puzzle quest and other little games on my Surface.

It's a great thing.


I read this thread a couple of weeks ago and then promptly forgot about it. A few days ago I was installing some small games onto my Surface Pro and was like "why the fuck are all of my installed games showing up here?" I then figured out that it was that streaming thing and ended up playing XCom for an hour or so... no problems at all.