Steam Link Anywhere Will Let You Stream Your PC's Games On the Go (pcgamer.com) 37
Valve is expanding its Steam Link game-streaming feature in a big way with Steam Link Anywhere, a new service that will allow you to stream your Steam games from your computer to anywhere in the world through Steam Link hardware or the Steam Link app. From a report: Steam Link Anywhere is an extension of Steam Link that will enable users to connect to their PCs and play games from anywhere (thus the name), rather than being limited to a local network. It's compatible with both the Steam Link hardware and app, and will be rolled out automatically (and freely) to everyone who owns the hardware with beta firmware installed, the Android app beta, or the Raspberry Pi app. You'll also need to be enrolled in the Steam client beta, and have the latest version installed. Assuming you've got all that covered, you'll see an "Other Computer" option on the screen when searching for computers to connect to via Steam Link. Select that, follow the instructions, and you'll be set. Valve didn't provide specific network requirements but said you'll need "a high upload speed from your computer and strong network connection to your Steam Link device" in order to use it.
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So games with all of the fun turned off?
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I agree. I can't see how it could possibly have ANY chance of working as advertised UNLESS the user managed to satisfy ALL of the following requirements:
* 5mbps uplink, absolute bare minimum.
* Expensive router. Most people have NO IDEA that if they have internet connectivity faster than 50mbps down and 5mbps up, their own router/access point is likely to be their network's single biggest chokepoint.
* Good (or better) quality gigabit switches, with proper wiring. The majority of cheap "gigabit" switches can'
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Yes / No. This isn't such a difficult requirement at all.
a) the venn diagram of people likely to use steam link for gaming on the go from their PC and those who have a modern PC overlap greatly. Any previous gen graphics card can do H.265 encode in hardware so if you have a GTX 1xxx or an RT 5xx or greater you're good to go.
b) people who give a crap about gaming are likely to have a cable / fibre connection anyway, and that doesn't change the fact that this still would work great on WiFi in your own house.
Netflix can pull off high-quality HD with a 4-6mbps link budget because it does offline non-realtime multi-pass compression. Attempting to pull off a similar stunt in realtime is another matter entirely. It's ~80% of the reason why we didn't get to have 1080p60 in ATSC1.0... back in the 1990s
O
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The problem with realtime compression via ANY codec is that you lose your ability to use B and P frames unless you add at least 16.67ms of additional latency to delay transmission by at least one frame. After all, you can't predict the content of a frame that doesn't actually exist yet. Any time there's a radical scene change that can't be delta'ed from one or more earlier frames, you're going to end up with a mangled frame or ten, because ultimately, if your link rate is 6mbps, you're transmitting 60fps, t
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A gave a shot to the steam link at home. And essentially, you can forget it over wifi. So good luck getting it to work on the go; where network connectivity is typically terrible.
In the future, I could imagine that steam would be bundled on smart TVs that you find in hotel rooms and if they have decent internet and are wired to the network, that it could work.
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A gave a shot to the steam link at home. And essentially, you can forget it over wifi.
I tried steam link at home, and it worked fine on WiFi. Maybe you've done something wrong. It's not going to work on g, but it works fine on n (it worked for me), and should work fine on a.
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Maybe you should fix your horrible WiFi network. I use it just fine. No discernable lag as far as I can see on either of my networks, even the room with some questionable coverage is still playable.
Competes with casual mobile games... (Score:2)
I don't see this working out. There's no way that the latency would allow for a playable game under any conditions.
It probably will not work for the twitch-style games, but there's plenty of more casual games, turn-based, RPGs, simple platformers, retro-remakes, etc. that latency would be manageable. These are also the sort of games that do well in mobile markets already. If you check Steam's library you'll find many games that are also available on iOS/Android stores and customers have to choose one or the other platform. Now Steam is both platforms. At the very least it helps retain customers in the Steam sphere, who
Input laggy demos anywhere! (Score:2)
This is actually a decent form of shared demos - in the sense that you get access to the full experience, but sort of a artifact-and-lag-laden version of the game that your friends don't have to pay for.
Not so great for strategy games and turn-based RPGs - but a decent additional option.
Kind of inherently precludes any multiplayer as-is though, since you'd still logically need multiple copies, and I don't think they'll let you map multiple controllers to exist on multiple PCs simultaneously - likely won't e
Anywhere! (Score:3)
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Your comment cites an article on the website cultofmac.com. The website cultofmac.com blocks users of Firefox Tracking Protection. Tab closed.
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Gawd people, why the negativity? (Score:4, Interesting)
Steam Link hardware went on sale for around £3 the other month. They're not asking for much here. I'm happy with the announcement, whether I intend to make drastic use of it or not.
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Gawd people, why the negativity?
Because this technology's real purpose is stronger drm, anything regarding streaming or 'games as a service' technologies is them trying to perfect trapping software inside the internet and drip feeding you encrypted files so you don't own anything. But I bet you're one of the stupid masses who don't remember how steam was something nobody wanted in 2004 and the last 20 years of videogame history on the PC was the rise of the stupid masses getting internet and how that fucked up gaming by enabling the stup
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> Because this technology's real purpose is stronger drm
Care to explain how that is? There is no additional DRM above having the game in your library. In case you missed it, YOU are streaming from YOUR equipment to some of YOUR other equipment. Valve isn't locking anything else down harder, they're helping you play your stuff wherever instead of having to be sitting in front of your computer. Nothing to purchase, nothing to incrementally transact.
> But I bet you're one of the stupid masses who don