If you're capturing gameplay, OBS has to run on the same GPU as the game. Having said that, using NVENC on the same GPU that you're gaming on does not add more load to the GPU, since NVENC uses a dedicated hardware encoder separate from the rest of the graphics processing, so getting a second GPU entirely for encoding won't help anyway.
Steam In-Home Streaming is an ideal way to stream gaming content from your main gaming rig, to a lightweight, low-power and importantly cheap client system in your living room. To test this out, you'll require some specific kinds of hardware, some dubious hardware acceleration techniques, as well as some tests on your network.It has full controller detection support, so if you plug in an XBox 360 controller into your client machine, it will detect that as your input.Hardware RequirementsFirst off, hardware requirements.
While it is possible to get this system running on just about anything, for the most ideal 1080@60p performance, you're going to want a good set of hardware, capable of allowing hardware encoding on your gaming rig, as well as decoding on the client machine. This can all be done with software encoding but it's simply too slow unless you're running an i7.For Gaming rig processors, you're going to want an i5 from just about any architecture, as long as it supports DXVA hardware encoding, or Intel's QuickSync. Baseline it needs to support H.264.
Obviously the games you want to play are going to jump on this hardware too, so bare that in mind.On the Client machine, any modern dual core pentium is ideal. Most of them support QuickSync and DXVA, are low power, and more importantly cheap! You can purchase something more meaty, like an i3, for stronger more reliable decoding during streaming if your budget allows, but another i5 for the client machine feels like a bit of a waste. The Pentium I tested with managed a solid 59FPS during testing on [email protected] can check for QuickSync support on any Intel product page. For Graphics cards, the current iteration of SIHS supports both AMD and NVidia, but the AMD encoding and decoding is a little rough for a fair few users.
For best results, I ignored both, and set the encoder and decoder to Intel QuickSync or DXVA encoding with the processor. If you want to use a GPU encoding method, I strongly recommend an NVidia GPU for this purpose.You can decode on the client machine with an NVidia GPU as well, but Intel's iGPU with QuickSync is exceptional at decoding H.264. Why spend the extra money?Network RequirementsWhile wireless is a possibility, it's not advisable. Most users are running direct cable, and those who can't are running through PowerLine adapters. I managed an almost flawless experience with AV200 PowerLine units. There was a fair amount of 'Network too slow' errors in some cases, but it was few and far between.
As such I've ordered some Gigabit AV600 adapters to alleviate that issue in future. That seems to be the baseline for flawless operation.For those that want to test the wireless option, and see what possible situations a wireless setup will work, see the wireless SIHS thread here:and if you can, submit your data too.Obviously all of this is subject to input lag as well as general response time issues, but in my SteamStreamLog it was rarely above the 50ms mark, which is not bad considering most of the servers I've joined for various online games have a similar amount of delay.Software RequirementsEnsure you've installed all DirectX9, DirectX10 and DirectX11 Libraries. These are required for hardware acceleration.SetupThe intial setup is extremely simple and easy to do. Simply install Steam on both the Gaming rig and the Client machine, and log into them both on the same network.Go to Settings In-Home Streaming and tick Enable streamingFrom this area, I recommend you defaulty select the Balanced option under Client options. Into the Advanced Client Options set the Limit bandwith to Automatic (recommended). After all my testing with bandwidth settings, it seemed to be the best. DO NOT set it to unlimited, as for some obscure reason it just bloats the network connection and causes some major lag.
If you have a solid Gigabit backbone running to each node on the network, feel free to try it out.Set the Limit resolution to whatever your Client machine is hooked up to. In my case it was a 1080p TV.Also tick Enable hardware decoding to kickstart the NVidia, QuickSync or DXVA decoding, again, as it's vastly quicker and superior in this instance to software.Only untick Hardware encoding/decoding if using an exceptionally strong CPU on both Host and Client (i7, 8350)For general monitoring and troubleshooting, tick the Display performance information box. QuickSync GuideIn order to enable QuickSync encoding and decoding, you'll have to follow some steps. First off, go into the BIOS of both Host and Client machines and ensure the iGPU is enabled even if you're primary display adapter is PEG. Also enable the virtualisation, and all other iGPU options available in your BIOS. This is important, as we're going to create a virtual display adapter to force QuickSync on.Once you've rebooted, ensure you have the most recent Intel HD Graphics driver.You can obtain that here:Once you've updated and installed, reboot both machines with their updates iGPU driver.Once you're on your desktop of the machines, Right Click the Desktop and click Screen Resolution.
All the hard rendering work is done on the gaming PC.And no, it works with dedicated GPU's. It's the encoding and decoding that I prefer running on the iGPU's, as it's a separate chip that doesn't affect system performance.Basically my i5 and 970 upstairs are rendering my game at 1080@60p. My i5 iGPU is then encoding the video output and sending it down to my client. The Client's Pentium iGPU is then decoding that video and outputting it to my TV.I use the Intel iGPU for encoding because it doesn't affect my processors performance or my GPU's performance. It's just a dead weight that never gets used. I really would like to use In-Home-Streaming. But on my side I am not able to get the machines visible in the device list.
Host (Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit) doesnt see the Client (Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit) in the cabled LAN. I have removed any software like VirtualBox and removed unused network connections like VPN and also removed Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 completely from my host PC. On the client and host I have desabled the firewall.
I have checked that only Steam is using port 27063. I have no further idea what else I can change to use this feature.Maybe you can help me? I really would like to use In-Home-Streaming. But on my side I am not able to get the machines visible in the device list. Host (Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit) doesnt see the Client (Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit) in the cabled LAN.
I have removed any software like VirtualBox and removed unused network connections like VPN and also removed Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 completely from my host PC. On the client and host I have desabled the firewall. I have checked that only Steam is using port 27063. I have no further idea what else I can change to use this feature.Maybe you can help me? Thanks for your quick reply. It was always possible in my Windows network that both devices could see each other very well and could exhange data, videos, music etc.
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Also the devices where already in a home group. The only problem was that the Steam Clients could not see each other. But now I have made a test and deactivated the cable LAN controller of the client pc (Win 7) and used a wifi adapter and it works. This means the LAN network controller causes this issue. So I have made some settings on the LAN adapter which not helps. After I searched for the newest driver for it and found version 7.46.531.2011 for the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller it works perfect. Hope this helps others who have similar issues.
This means it can be also a driver for the network card which works perfect in the LAN but can cause such problems. Even if it sounds strange. This article has been a great help, Thanks!Listed below is the current setup for my steam stream. I've managed to get this working fairly well, except for some stuttering and network latency spikes 100ms.
This is really weird because the Gigabit 'network' I have set up is a crossover cable between the host and the client. There should be no latency spikes at all on such a connection.
I have a really old iMac that has a nice screen (24', 1920x1200) that I wanted to use for playing games. Its old Core 2 Duo and ATI Radeon HD 2600 are too weak to play most modern games, and is limited by the weak selection of Mac games. So now I can run Fallout 4 on my 9 year old iMac. However the network lag is occasionally causing some pretty serious stuttering. How should I begin troubleshooting this?
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