TLDR: Is there anyone who knows how well game streaming from a Linux computer to a Moonlight client works?

Oh, you didn’t stop reading after the tldr? Ok, here’s my life story.

Long time ago I was an avid Linux user and I still have a tender spot for the OS. Gaming under Linux was just a dream but as the end of the century came close (yes, I’m that old), ID released a Linux port of Quake II, and then came a flurry if titles that I still have boxes editions of; Civilization:CTP, Myth II, Soldier of Fortune etc.

Nowadays I use Windows for most things - also of course gaming too. My setup is a big (and pretty noisy) computer in my bedroom, and in the living room I have a fanless HTPC and run Moonlight to stream the games from my main computer (the streaming support built into Steam does not work quite as well, but it is a backup I guess).

Anyone knows if I could do this if I switched back to Linux? On the windows computer I enabled Nvidia Shield, but I get the impression that isnt supported under Linux. How well does Sunshine work?

      • Tersevs@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Sure, but I’m no expert - I’m very much in “learning mode”.

        Sunshine is a drop-in replacement of Nvidias GameStream server which (under windows) can be enabled in the GeForce Experience application. This is run on the gaming computer and captures the screen and audio.

        Moonlight is the replacement on the client. In my case, I run this on the small fanless PC in the TV room where I want to play the games (and sometimes on my Android phone just for fun).

        Once both programs are running on the same network (a high speed wired connection is recommended even if I run it over wifi), the Moonlight client detects the Sunshine server and if you click on it, you get a four digit code that you must enter into the Sunshine config interface (web based) to authorize the pairing (this only needs to be done once).

        Then - just like steam link - the client sends the keyboard, mouse and gamepad inputs back to the Sunshine server, while audio and video are sent to the client. Everything pretty much works out of the box except gamepads which required an additional driver on the server.

        It seems that both Sunshine and Moonbeam supports even non-Nvidia GPU.

        I’ve been using Moonlight for years but I’m still working out a few minor kinks in Sunshine. It works as good as the original server on Quake II (2023 remaster) and Red Dead Redemption 2, but under Quake II RTX the framerate is stated as 60 but looks more like 30 on the client side.

        • bgtlover@linuxrocks.online
          1·
          1 year ago

          @Tersevs awesome, thanks for the explanation! I wanted something like this for a long while, especially since I usually game in weird places which are far from the computer. Also, I looked on flathub, and both apps are on there, even the server. Why would run the server as a flatpak, I don’t know, but I know it’s there, so yeah, gonna try this now.

  • heartsofwar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I can’t comment on the Nvidia Shield / Moonlight, but I have been streaming games from my Linux server to my family room TV and master bedroom TV since 2017 using a variety of Steam streaming enabled devices (Steamlink, Rpi 4 / CCwGTV).

    By far the best combination I have found is to have the Linux server Ethernet (wired) to the router and the SteamLink 5Ghz WiFi (only device on 5Ghz). With this setup, I have played games like Rocket League, Dark Souls 2, Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2, Diablo 4, Path of Exile, Diablo 2 Resurrected, Cities Skylines, Stellaris, Crusader Kings 2 & 3, and more…

    The Rpi4 / CCwGTV seem to have some added display latency that just doesn’t work well; its manageable, but not long-term or for time sensitive games like Rocket League / Dark Souls…

    Most notably in the last year I switched from an Nvidia 1080TI to an AMD Radeon 7900 XTX; the VA-API based streaming is not as good as Nvidia NvEnc / NvDec, but it is good enough that I’m willing to overlook it considering the other Nvidia issues I was experiencing are all now gone / fixed due to having a properly Linux supported GPU.

    The only major issue I had to overcome actually was my linux server was headless and Nvidia drivers allowed injecting a custom EDID via the X-config, but AMD doesn’t allow this without a ton of effort; so, I just purchased an HDMI headless dongle that tricks the computer which is what Windows users have to do.

    You might want to tell us more about your setup so we can help determine if you might have some environment issues that are causing less than optimal performance.