The network streaming experience

[Aw_Ginger_Snapz]

So I wanted to make this thread to ask anyone if they would be willing to use the game streaming features provided by steam in home streaming (or steam link), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Would you be willing to stream through your network?  What hardware would you pick? Do you have an experience to share?

 

I wanted to see if I am the only person who thinks that this concept is cool.

 

Here is a summary of my experience with Steam  in home streaming, as well as the attempt made by Xbox.

 

Steam in Home Streaming:

About 6 months ago, I had my wisdom teeth removed and was immobile from my main floor couch for a few days. Naturally I became very bored and wanted to play some games on my PC, yet I wanted to just lay back on the couch. After gaining the strength to move, I went to my basement and moved my gaming desktop closer to the router and configured Steam in Home Streaming. I then connected my potato of a laptop to the wire I had on the main floor near the couch that I wanted to lay on. (specs down below) Launching GTA V was relatively easy. However, I noticed quite a bit of latency and input lag. I went back to the basement and decided to plug in a second Ethernet cable to my desktop and create a network bridge with the two connections. I then tried to stream COD Black ops 3 on my laptop. This approach worked remarkably well. There was no noticeable input lag and the stream looked beautiful. It's hard for me to say where the bottleneck occurred in this situation.

 

Laptop specs: AMD A10 (5720M?) @ 2.90 Ghz (overclocked though AMD overdrive), 8 GB of ddr3 1600Mhz, 250Gb SSD by Kingston, Integrated graphics, 1080p display.

 

 

Xbox:

After buying Ryzen at launch (worth it), I replaced my previous PC that was a mix of server/workstation parts, and a GTX 1070. After two weeks, I attempted to update the bios so I could get better performance. Unfortunately, the update failed and I had to put up with Asus and their terrible RMA service. (Seriously, Asus needs to fix their shit) While my board was being repaired, I dusted off my Xbox one and decided to try console games again. Keep in mind that the Xbox one is the reason I switched to PC. However, I still had fun playing Halo 5 with my cousin who is also a PC gamer. It was hard to take the Xbox back down to the basement after I received my motherboard back because it was so much bloody fun. So I decided to hook my Xbox to my router and try streaming through the Xbox app. Configuration was easy enough. After getting to the dashboard, I launched Halo 5 and got into a Warzone match. The image quality was worse then what it would have been if I played natively to the console. After loading into the match, I immediately noticed the gigantic amount of input lag. Halo 5 was nearly unplayable. The bottleneck was clearly the Xbox. However, now that I think of it, it begs the question. Is the hardware the bottleneck or is the software the bottleneck? Even with a single ethernet connection, Steam in home streaming worked very well.

 

 

What do you think?

Would you be willing to have a powerful workstation elsewhere and stream to a less powerful computer?

What improvements could be made?

 

Share your thoughts or stories in the thread.