Game streaming is similar to video streaming, but it is interactive and controllable. This concept isn’t new, and in fact, there are a few game streaming services available now. They are decent, but not all games are available. For me, I built my own machine to stream anything I own.
Is it overkill? Absolutely. To make this setup work, an NVIDIA card is required. My first desktop has an AMD card in it so no good. In the end, I built another one just for streaming. The total cost was almost 2k because GPUs are expensive lately. If I get a cheaper card, this can cut this cost down quite a bit.
How does it work? I can say that it feels like you can play the game locally on the machine. The lag is minimal. I compared it with my monitor, but I couldn’t see any lags. Moonlight is the software I use for streaming. It is the open source implementation of the NVIDIA Gamestream, and it runs on everything.
Once the device is paired with the desktop, it is ready to play. However, how to launch games? I see a controller and the Steam Big Picture mode. You can launch steam and the big picture after Windows boots up. Steam allows you to add anything, but sometimes, steam may introduce some controller issues. When it happens, there is an option somewhere to turn steam stuff off.
The overall experience is great, but there are some minor issues.
There will be black bars on most devices, and it breaks the immersion. It can be fixed by sketching the screen, but it isn’t ideal. I ended up buying the Odin handheld for streaming and retro gaming. I will review it once I receive it.
Another issue is the controller layout. I recommend using the Xbox layout instead of the Nintendo one. However, you can flip the ABXY buttons in the settings. It can be annoying when controls are inverted. I simply cannot play it properly if the buttons are just wrong.
In the end, I can play my games on any device within the WIFI range. It can work remotely if I open up a port for it, but I am lazy to do it. This setup only works with a fast and stable Internet. I can say that it is better than my GPD Win 3 because there are no heating issues and fan noises. The playtime lasts much longer because all the computation is done on the desktop.
The Win 3 still have some advantages because it is more reliable and no Internet is needed. Let’s see what will happen. Gaming nowadays is never the same as before. The Odin is something I am very interested in. If it has 5G connectivity, it can potentially stream anything while having the ability to play emulators locally.
More games.