Steam is not a free for all. Its not limewore or bittorrent or whatever. Its a multi billion dollar a year platform. I’m not sure where you get your info but steam personnel authenticate every game thats on there.
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Valve's 'Steam Link' App Now Available on iOS
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Steam is not a free for all. Its not limewore or bittorrent or whatever. Its a multi billion dollar a year platform. I’m not sure where you get your info but steam personnel authenticate every game thats on there.
Not to mention, how is this any different to downloading and playing games on steam normally? Only difference is you’re streaming from the PC to another device, which is done over your own network...
Turn your AppleTV into a remote Steam play box?
this is a win for the platform for sure.
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it's possible, but fairly complex.
You need to be able to pass the performance of the GPU to the VM, which usually means not having it available for the host OS.
in this case, you'd essentially need 2 GPU's.
Linus Tech Tip had a project a few years ago where they were working on 6 gamers running off a single "PC". They used UnRAID host Virtualization platform that allows for some more complex hardware passthrough than a standard VirtualBox installation can allow for.
it was a buggy mess with some interesting hardware considerations that they found (Like AMD VRAM wouldn't clear without a full reboot of the host).
For the overall complexity, it would likely be a better option just to build a 2nd gaming computer for the 2nd user.
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Steam has been around since 2003. there is no history of malware distribution. Your trust doesn't necessarily reflect reality that steam has been a robust, and reliable platform for 15+ years.
there's arguments to be made about their business models overall, But security of the platform has been tested for a long time at this point and it's considered one of the safest places to purchase games from.
So it is really just you.
In addition, installing steam on your iPhone doesn't install any games to your iPhone. It's just more of a remote control program and streaming from your existing gaming PC.
this is a win for the platform for sure.
[doublepost=1558094149][/doublepost]
it's possible, but fairly complex.
You need to be able to pass the performance of the GPU to the VM, which usually means not having it available for the host OS.
in this case, you'd essentially need 2 GPU's.
Linus Tech Tip had a project a few years ago where they were working on 6 gamers running off a single "PC". They used UnRAID host Virtualization platform that allows for some more complex hardware passthrough than a standard VirtualBox installation can allow for.
it was a buggy mess with some interesting hardware considerations that they found (Like AMD VRAM wouldn't clear without a full reboot of the host).
For the overall complexity, it would likely be a better option just to build a 2nd gaming computer for the 2nd user.
[doublepost=1558094413][/doublepost]
Steam has been around since 2003. there is no history of malware distribution. Your trust doesn't necessarily reflect reality that steam has been a robust, and reliable platform for 15+ years.
there's arguments to be made about their business models overall, But security of the platform has been tested for a long time at this point and it's considered one of the safest places to purchase games from.
So it is really just you.
In addition, installing steam on your iPhone doesn't install any games to your iPhone. It's just more of a remote control program and streaming from your existing gaming PC.
Yes, you would use 2 graphics cards, a bare-metal hypervisor, and 2 OS licenses. No big deal.
It gives you an excuse to buy Threadripper.
It is a better solution if you don't need 2 PCs.
I'm not sure it's a "better" solution
But I would have alot of fun trying to make it work. if you're just going for 2 gamers though, ThreadRipper (while fun) is probably not really necessary
Could probably get away with a 1700/2700 (x) variant as they have a decent amount of cores/threads anyways. (4 per VM would be enough for most gaming).
it's the GPU's that would be the pain. (but then again, i think that cause I use an m-ITX setup that doesn't have the room
_)It is better if you sometimes run heavy stuff and don't want another system cluttering your home.I'm not sure it's a "better" solution
But I would have alot of fun trying to make it work. if you're just going for 2 gamers though, ThreadRipper (while fun) is probably not really necessary
Could probably get away with a 1700/2700 (x) variant as they have a decent amount of cores/threads anyways. (4 per VM would be enough for most gaming).
it's the GPU's that would be the pain. (but then again, i think that cause I use an m-ITX setup that doesn't have the room
Yes, 8 core would be enough for average gaming, but I would not buy a desktop for one person with less than 6 cores, hence TR. But maybe Ryzen 3000 will feature up to 16 cores, so that could be enough for your heavy work.
Well, I don't like massive GPUs, so fitting 2 in ATX is basically trivial.
I for one have just been waiting to kick back and play the full version of Goat Simulator (the iOS version just doesn't do it justice) on my iPad while soaking my piggies in the tub! Fun fun fun!
Back in the the real-world, however, there are some great games with considerable re-re-re-replay-potential where having them available this way might be nice (I'm looking at you Dragon Age Origins!), much nicer than being tethered to a PC or even a laptop. I've used in-home streaming for quite some time for certain games, and the ability to play a few of them using my iPad as the screen is certainly welcome.
Back in the the real-world, however, there are some great games with considerable re-re-re-replay-potential where having them available this way might be nice (I'm looking at you Dragon Age Origins!), much nicer than being tethered to a PC or even a laptop. I've used in-home streaming for quite some time for certain games, and the ability to play a few of them using my iPad as the screen is certainly welcome.
Thankyou Apple for coming to your senses. And valve please bring steam link to AppleTV Already.
It was released for tvOS the same day, I believe. I found it in my purchased but not installed list after I purchased it (for free) in iOS.
I’ve been trying it out & so far it appears the steam link hardware may still be better than the Apple TV app...I still have more settings to play with.
Surely it burns more battery than playing a game that doesn't require Wifi... (yes there are a few out there...)
Games not using WiFi are still utilising the CPU & GPU to a greater extent which are far more power hungry than WiFi.
Streaming a game means all the rendering is done on the host, the iOS device will rely mostly on it’s video acceleration capabilities.
While you're right about the CPU/GPU usage not going towards rendering the game on the local device, The encoding/compression for streaming does take up a decent chunk of power / performance and will still likely cause some decent battery drain.
When I used to use my Macbook Air as a Steam client, the CPU would often sit at 50-75% usage, so there is overhead on the local device.
Overhead varies based on the system in question. If your device doesn’t support hardware acceleration of the particular stream then your CPU is doing the grunt work.
The mobile devices the steam link app supports do have hardware accelerated video decoding, so CPU & GPU usage is much lower.