Valve's Steam Link - My Thoughts

[TheCaptain53]

So my Steam Link arrived today in its pleasing box. Initial impressions were good, the packaging was so-so, everything was laid out nicely, lots of adapters for European, American, UK outlets etc etc. Ethernet cable, HDMI cable, a manual, and that's pretty much it.

Initial setup wasn't too bad.  I wish there was an actual power button on the Steam Link itself, but this is a minor complaint. I did setup using a mouse and keyboard (I didn't buy a Steam Controller) and they were recognised and usable immediately, which was nice. All I had to do was select my language, pick the PC with Steam on it, enter the code that the Steam Link specifies you enter on the rig with Steam on it, and away I went. Really simple, an idiot could do it.

The first thing I set out to do was check the settings were right in terms of the resolution, so I went to settings > Display > Resolution, and it showed an odd resolution of 823p(?), even though the monitor connected to my rig is 1440p and the connected TV is 1080p. Games were running at 1080p in-game, so I can't complain. The Steam Big Picture mode didn't look very sharp, though. Probably due to the odd resolution.

Next, I set out to hook up my PS4 controller to the Steam Link. As a side note, I opened up my PS4 controller packaging (which was new), and the cheeky fuckers didn't include a lead! Fortunately, my step-dad has a PS4, so I nicked that lead and connected the PS4 controller to the Link (I think I'll call it that from now on). When the PS4 controller was connected by USB lead, it worked immediately. I was able to control it. This is probably due to the PS4 being an X or Dinput(?) controller, much like the Logitech F710, so it was recognised and compatible. Getting bluetooth to work was a little tricker, but with the help of these instructions on /r/Steam (https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/3p07ua/psa_the_ps4_controller_works_great_with_the_steam/), I was able to connect my controller via bluetooth with relative ease. 

So, the setup is done, controller is connected, time for some games! For my network scenario, I've got my PC up two flights of stairs connected to my router via powerline. The interface of the port is 100Mbps and when I ping the router, I see a latency of approx. 3ms. Better than Wi-Fi, I suppose. Out of the other end of the powerline adapter is a patch lead into a small 8-port Gigabit switch, which is connected to the Link. All wired connections for this test, although it isn't all ethernet cable. Still, could be worse. 

 

I thought the first game I would try out would be Batman: Arkham Knight. It wasn't able to boot up properly first time, so I exited out of Arkham Knight manually on my rig. Right, second go! Press Play and...

It works! Holy shit, it works! Naturally, being PCMR, I went to the graphics options first and maxed everything out. Because of the Nvidia settings, it had to boot me out of the game, so I went back in and confirmed all settings had been changed. Yep, all good. Right, time to play!

Damn, that is one smooth console(ish). The game looked really good and the framerate, from what I could see (not so easy to tell at a distance) was a silky smooth 60 fps. I was really impressed, it felt responsive and I enjoyed myself. Some of the text was kind of hard to read. I think this is due to the expectation that you're going to use a PC on a monitor which you sit up close to, so the UI is smaller. A fair assumption, I guess. 

Arkham Knight was going to be my graphical test. I didn't want to use this game to judge latency as, even with a controller connected directly to my rig, there is a small delay from my input to when ol' Brucey boy actually moves. So, the next game on my list was Rocket League.

Into Rocket League, change graphical settings, etc etc. Again, the UI is pretty small for the reason stated above. I get into a game, holy crap, that latency. There was a noticeable delay from my input to any changes on screen. Game starts, and oh my God, it feels horrible. Rocket League was NOT a great game to pair the Steam Link with, you NEED that high responsiveness to be competitive. Oddly enough, Rocket League stuttered a couple of times, and some of my inputs weren't received (something I didn't experience with Arkham Knight). I tried with the controller connected directly to the Link, but no dice. 

After exiting Rocket League, I accidentally pressed play again, so was button mashing to try and cancel staring the game. I thought that maybe if I tried to launch a different game then it would cancel the first one, but instead, my Link froze up and I could hear the menu audio for Arkham Knight, with the screen frozen. So I went back upstairs to my rig and manually exited out of the games.

Turning off the Link was no easy task either. If you press the home button on the controller, it gives you the option to turn the Link off. So I did, but it immediately booted back up. Turned it off again, and it stayed off. But, to turn the PS4 controller off, you have to hold down R1, L1, and the home button all at the same time for 7-10 seconds, which turned the Steam Link back on. So, I just pulled the power out of the Steam Link (hence why I'd have liked to see a power button). It is possible that it could consume so little power that it could be left on all the time, but that's something I'll have to research.

So after about an hour (ish) experience with the Link, my first impressions are mixed, but definitely leaning towards the positive. I like the ability to play games on my TV without having to haul my heavy-ass rig down two flights of stairs, and then back up once I'm finished. However, some aspects of it were a little finicky. The high latency was very noticeable, with the biggest impact being in split-second reaction games (like Rocket League). I wouldn't even want to try CS:GO on the Link, that would not end well. There was the option in the settings for streaming of Fast (low latency, I assume), Beautiful, or somewhere in the middle. With the exception of the 'somewhere in the middle', these are what the options are labelled as. Next time I play around with the Link I'll have to try the other settings, hopefully it'll give me a better experience.

However, I also do not regret buying it. For all its flaws, it is only £40 (not including postage), and should get better with more updates. If you have structured cabling in your house, you'll probably have a better experience than I did. If in the end I feel it wasn't worth the purchase, hey, I only spent £40, no big deal.

I hope this was informative and will help you decide whether you would like to invest in the Steam Link or not. I believe it was worth it.

[ShadowCaptain]

Ordering mine on pay day

[TheCaptain53]

Ordering mine on pay day

I think they can be bought from Game - no need to pay for postage. :')

I'll be playing with it some more tonight and can give further impressions.

[ShadowCaptain]

I think they can be bought from Game - no need to pay for postage. :')

I'll be playing with it some more tonight and can give further impressions.

 

not bothered, ill still order it off steam im not going to game

[spexiono]

pick the PC with Steam on it, enter the code that the Steam Link specifies you enter on the rig with Steam on it,

 

Hang on, so how does the Steam Link work with multiple PCs? I'd be interested in getting one but if it can't easily switch between different linked PCs (With Different accounts)... That reduces the appeal for me quite a bit.

 

Anyone know how this would work?

[TheCaptain53]

Hang on, so how does the Steam Link work with multiple PCs? I'd be interested in getting one but if it can't easily switch between different linked PCs (With Different accounts)... That reduces the appeal for me quite a bit.

 

Anyone know how this would work?

The initial setup indicates that you can connect to multiple PCs, although not all at once. When you boot up the Steam Link, it shows a list of available PCs (in my scenario, my rig is the only one on the list). I have a second PC with Steam in the house so I can try it out for you tonight.

[spwath]

How much does it cost?

[TheCaptain53]

How much does it cost?

For me it costed £40, but the best place to check would be on the Steam website or client, go to the Store and click on the hardware tab. It'll tell you the price there.

Or, ya know, Google it. That works too.

[spwath]

For me it costed £40, but the best place to check would be on the Steam website or client, go to the Store and click on the hardware tab. It'll tell you the price there.

Or, ya know, Google it. That works too.

I couldn't find it for sale on steam, but I'm on my phone

[TheCaptain53]

UPDATE 1: I've had a little play with it today for about an hour, and to run through my testing suite is going to take longer than I thought. I'm going to have to reserve the testing for the weekend.

Also, I'm second guessing my decision of using Batman: Arkham Knight as my benchmarking tool. Anyone have another suggestion?

[projectmayhem]

I have been having trouble with my link.

So many games have been unable to start.

For some reason Steam will crash on my pc when I try to stream a game.

Also I find that I am running to my pc a lot to exit a game or click some windows prompt.

 

I hope the experience smooths out for me by next week.

[TheCaptain53]

I have been having trouble with my link.

So many games have been unable to start.

For some reason Steam will crash on my pc when I try to stream a game.

Also I find that I am running to my pc a lot to exit a game or click some windows prompt.

 

I hope the experience smooths out for me by next week.

I'm experiencing a number of those issues as well - whilst testing Arkham Knight today, I tried to exit the game but my stream crashed and the screen froze. Had to go upstairs to stop the stream and close Arkham Knight properly.

Hopefully Valve can sort out some of these issues soon enough.

[projectmayhem]

I'm experiencing a number of those issues as well - whilst testing Arkham Knight today, I tried to exit the game but my stream crashed and the screen froze. Had to go upstairs to stop the stream and close Arkham Knight properly.

Hopefully Valve can sort out some of these issues soon enough.

I hope they do.

I have tried launching a game through steam on my pc first and then connecting through the link and in certain games it helps.

Arkham Knight is always a pain though. Even just on my pc it has always had issues starting up.

[TheCaptain53]

UPDATE 2

 

So, this evening, my parents and brothers are away on some bullshit to do with their BMX racing (jk jk, they're pretty good at it), so I was ordered to stay downstairs with the dogs. Fair, I suppose.

I reluctantly did this in the past, but now I've got the Link, I thought I would try an extensive go.

The first game I played this evening was Super Meat Boy. Man, I love that game. It's so much fun.   

There was no perceptible latency during my gameplay. The In-Home Streaming quality was set to 'Beautiful', which goes ahead and allows the 30M bitrate cap. I don't know how much of that bandwidth it was using during either of the games I played because I turned the performance stats off. I'll do proper runs with a benchmarking suite a little later on to get actual numbers for you guys.

I did play a little DiRT 3, but only for like 5 minutes. Not sure how I feel about racing games on the big screen, I feel like I'm such a distance away that I can't really see what I'm doing, quite often missing the apex and not taking the corner correctly. However, before I moved to PC, I had no problem racing on a big screen, so it must be due to me racing on a monitor at a much closer distance.

The game I've mostly been playing tonight was Tomb Raider 2013. I felt like playing this after the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Seriously, I am so excited for that coming out next year.

When you first start the game, you burn yourself from the rope and get stabbed by a steel reinforcing barb (is that what they're called?). After this, you walk through some caves. This is where I started seeing some MASSIVE artifacting. At certain camera angles, half of the screen would go white. This was solved by exiting the game and setting the streaming quality at Balanced rather than Beautiful. This caps the max bitrate at approx. 21Mbps. This fixed the problems, and I played Tomb Raider quite happily for the next 4 hours.

My experience with these games on the Link, especially Tomb Raider, has given me a much more positive outlook on the Steam Link in general. I had so much fun, the comfort of couch gaming, but I had the visuals and smooth framerate of PC gaming. There are still some bugs with the Link in general, I will occasionally have a frozen screen, or I get massive lag in the main menu. This is generally resolved by a PC restart.

If you were considering getting one, buy it, along with a powerline adapter if you don't use structured cabling. Even through powerline, the latency was really low and I had a very enjoyable experience. This thing is so cheap, and I definitely think it was worth the purchase, my excellent gaming tonight has thoroughly justified my purchasing decision.

I should be able to do my benchmarking this weekend, so if anyone wants to see the numbers, stay tuned for that.

[TheCaptain53]

UPDATE 3

 

So for the last couple of days, I've been having issues with my Steam Link. I would see freezing, stuttering, only audio playing, MASSIVE input lag, etc etc. It was fine one day, and then the next, it was a stuttery mess. 

I came home from work and brought my work laptop with me to ran some tests on my LAN. I installed some powerline adapters a little while ago, but I never actually tested the throughput. I was pleasantly, getting 100Mbps consistently. So I'm happy with that.

I was toying around with the streaming settings, trying to get it to a stage where it no longer stuttered. Eventually, I tried unticking 'Prioritise Network Traffic' (I think I ticked it the other day), and what do you know, stuttering gone.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I'm just happy that it's working again. It was barely playable.

On a side note, I think I've decided against doing benchmarks. I'm not nearly experienced enough, and there are just too many variables at play. I can give general numbers from what is shown in the network performance overlay, so if you guys would like to see that, give me a shout.