Steam Link to allow streaming over the Internet?

[WereCatf]

The diminutive, ARM-based box that allows one to use Steam's in-home streaming-system, the Steam Link, has received new beta-firmware with an exciting new feature:

Quote

Changes in build 688:

• Added support for Steam Link Anywhere, now in early beta

Steam Link Anywhere allows you to stream games to your Steam Link from any computer running Steam, as long as your computer has good upload speed and your Steam Link device has a good network connection.

What this means is that you could e.g. have your PC running at home, you grab your Steam Link - box with you and go visit a buddy and now you can play some game that only you own, or perhaps your buddy ain't got the hardware to run the game, or any similar situation. Personally, I've been wanting to try this for years: I travel to the other side of the country a couple of times a week and can't bring my desktop with me, so being able to stream games that my laptop can't handle would be nice. Also, this feature will almost certainly come to the Android-app later on as well, so one could e.g. play some slow and heavy RPG and/or turn-based strategy -- my favourite genres -- on an Android-tablet while on-the-go.

 

One has to remember a couple of caveats: you really need lots of upload-bandwidth and low latency between in-country networks. An Internet-connection both on the sending and on the receiving end should probably also be uncapped, because streaming eats a whole lot of data. Just going by a hunch, but I doubt this will be good for fast-paced games and really only work well with slower titles, like e.g. those RPGs/turn-based strategies I mentioned above.

 

My take:

I know a lot of people have tinkered around with all sorts of workarounds for doing this for a good while already, but it seems that it's always been kind of a hit-and-miss with frequent issues. Official support for streaming over the Internet has been a long time coming and it may very well be an attempt by Valve to attract some attention back to Steam, away from e.g. the Epic Games Store. This new feature also won't be anywhere near a workable thing for most people due to low upload-speeds, datacaps, latencies and all that, so I would hazard a guess it'll at best be a niche-thing. Still, I welcome any features that make gaming better in general, and, as is common with Valve, all for free.

 

Links to the forum-post and an Ars Technica-article:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/3362406825533023360/

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/valve-takes-in-home-streaming-out-of-the-home-with-steam-link-anywhere/

Edited March 15, 2019 by WereCatf
Noticed that Ars Technica has picked up on this as well

[Bananasplit_00]

Based on the experience I have with in home streaming to my phone, this is going to be garbage for anything higher paced than a card game 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Based on the experience I have with in home streaming to my phone, this is going to be garbage for anything higher paced than a card game 

I could counter that with my experience, which is that even fast-paced games like e.g. Battlefield V work beautifully on my phone, tablet and laptop.

 

I would hazard a guess that your problems lie with your router and/or WiFi-connection and not with the Steam in-home streaming-system itself.

[SydneySideSteveSomewheres]

Sounds like GeForce NOW there is a waiting list for it, but even then it is currently only in the United States and Europe. You need that high bandwidth as you said, optical most likely although 5G mobile might cut it (in the US).

 

 

 

Link:

GeForce NOW waitlist

[Bananasplit_00]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I could counter that with my experience, which is that even fast-paced games like e.g. Battlefield V work beautifully on my phone, tablet and laptop.

 

I would hazard a guess that your problems lie with your router and/or WiFi-connection and not with the Steam in-home streaming-system itself.

I'm using Ubiquity stuff and internal network speed is gigabit, connected to the 5GHz and its still really meh. Quality is good but there is noticeable latency I wouldn't want to play any shooters with 

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, SydneySideSteveSomewheres said:

Sounds like GeForce NOW there is a waiting list for it, but even then it is currently only in the United States. You need that high bandwidth as you said, optical most likely although 5G mobile might cut it (in the US).

Hm, I should possibly try that myself. I've only ever tried Geforce Now with the games being streamed from NVIDIA's own servers, not from my PC, and for that it's worked perfectly well. Streaming from one's own PC is somewhat of a different proposition, so I might give it a go later today.

[SydneySideSteveSomewheres]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Hm, I should possibly try that myself. I've only ever tried Geforce Now with the games being streamed from NVIDIA's own servers, not from my PC, and for that it's worked perfectly well. Streaming from one's own PC is somewhat of a different proposition, so I might give it a go later today.

You need to jump on the waitlist as it is in free BETA, for me that took only a day for the code. So long as you can get a good latency, something I obviously will not have from the other side of the globe!

[WereCatf]

Just now, SydneySideSteveSomewheres said:

You need to jump on the waitlist as it is in free BETA, for me that took only a day for the code. So long as you can get a good latency, something I obviously will not have from the other side of the globe!

Like I mentioned, I have already used it for streaming games from NVIDIA's servers, ie. I am already in. I've been in for a long time now, just simply because I have the NVIDIA Shield TV -- all Shield TV - owners get instant access to the beta.

[SydneySideSteveSomewheres]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Like I mentioned, I have already used it for streaming games from NVIDIA's servers, ie. I am already in. I've been in for a long time now, just simply because I have the NVIDIA Shield TV -- all Shield TV - owners get instant access to the beta.

From the FAQs

"...SHIELD owners can activate beta access on-device."

So you still might need an activation code though? You do get free games as Shield owner...noice!

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, SydneySideSteveSomewheres said:

From the FAQs

"...SHIELD owners can activate beta access on-device."

So you still might need an activation code though?

No, it was pretty much just clickety-click.

[strajk-]

I've actually been doing this for a while with a VPN to my home network, pretty good, if you have the connection speed for it on both ends.

Input Lag is obviously an issue, but that really didn't matter for me for games like Football Manager, Civilization, MMOs (PvE), Crusader Kings and other games that don't really require huge reaction times.

 

I welcome this option, have a RaspPi Zero that works as a WoL Server to wake up certain rigs in my network whenever I need them while I'm away, so being able to use them for gaming was a blessing in boring family meetings or stays at hotels, great experience with my Surface Pro.

[williamcll]

3 minutes ago, strajk- said:

I've actually been doing this for a while with a VPN to my home network, pretty good, if you have the connection speed for it on both ends.

Input Lag is obviously an issue, but that really didn't matter for me for games like Football Manager, Civilization, MMOs (PvE), Crusader Kings and other games that don't really require huge reaction times.

 

I welcome this option, have a RaspPi Zero that works as a WoL Server to wake up certain rigs in my network whenever I need them while I'm away, so being able to use them for gaming was a blessing in boring family meetings or stays at hotels, great experience with my Surface Pro.

Same here, I use moonlight streaming over A VPN from my router. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

21 hours ago, WereCatf said:

The diminutive, ARM-based box that allows one to use Steam's in-home streaming-system, the Steam Link, has received new beta-firmware with an exciting new feature:

What this means is that you could e.g. have your PC running at home, you grab your Steam Link - box with you and go visit a buddy and now you can play some game that only you own, or perhaps your buddy ain't got the hardware to run the game, or any similar situation. Personally, I've been wanting to try this for years: I travel to the other side of the country a couple of times a week and can't bring my desktop with me, so being able to stream games that my laptop can't handle would be nice. Also, this feature will almost certainly come to the Android-app later on as well, so one could e.g. play some slow and heavy RPG and/or turn-based strategy -- my favourite genres -- on an Android-tablet while on-the-go.

 

One has to remember a couple of caveats: you really need lots of upload-bandwidth and low latency between in-country networks. An Internet-connection both on the sending and on the receiving end should probably also be uncapped, because streaming eats a whole lot of data. Just going by a hunch, but I doubt this will be good for fast-paced games and really only work well with slower titles, like e.g. those RPGs/turn-based strategies I mentioned above.

 

My take:

I know a lot of people have tinkered around with all sorts of workarounds for doing this for a good while already, but it seems that it's always been kind of a hit-and-miss with frequent issues. Official support for streaming over the Internet has been a long time coming and it may very well be an attempt by Valve to attract some attention back to Steam, away from e.g. the Epic Games Store. This new feature also won't be anywhere near a workable thing for most people due to low upload-speeds, datacaps, latencies and all that, so I would hazard a guess it'll at best be a niche-thing. Still, I welcome any features that make gaming better in general, and, as is common with Valve, all for free.

 

Links to the forum-post and an Ars Technica-article:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/3362406825533023360/

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/valve-takes-in-home-streaming-out-of-the-home-with-steam-link-anywhere/

My question is: Can steamlink stream to a Chromebook (that does not support the playstore).