GameStream host

Sunshine

One of the very best gaming tools we've looked at over the years is called Moonlight. This is an open source implementation of NVIDIA's gamestream technology, called GameStream, that streams Windows games to their thin-client SHIELD gaming consoles. The Moonlight client removes the need for a SHIELD and can run on almost anything, from a Raspberry Pi to a webOS-based LG TV, and it performs magnificently – much better than the equivalent Steam streaming solution. With Moonlight on a good network, the delay between your gaming PC rendering a frame and your Moonlight client displaying it, while also managing your controls and the sound, can be less than 15 milliseconds, which is enough to make the vast majority of games feel incredibly responsive. What's even more incredible is that recent versions of Moonlight are capable of streaming 4K resolutions with high-dynamic range content at 120 frames-per-second if your system and network is capable of it. The one huge downside to this was alluded to earlier: You need Windows to run the NVIDIA GeForce Experience back end.

Sunshine changes all of that. It's a GameStream host that will run on Linux and stream your game collection to a Moonlight client. It works best with NVIDIA hardware and proprietary drivers, including the CUDA components, but it can also work with Intel and AMD devices with FFmpeg for video encoding. There is quite a bit of setup involved, especially around creating the appropriate udev rules, and you will need to add your PC to the Moonlight client manually, rather than it being automatically detected. The path to each game you wish to stream needs to be then added to a configuration file. But the end results are worth it. The thumbnail will then appear in Moonlight, where you can also adjust the streaming settings to match your system's capabilities. Selecting the thumbnail launches the game and streams its output to your Moonlight client, and it works brilliantly.

Project Website

https://github.com/loki-47-6F-64/sunshine

More than a sadly underrated Mario game, Sunshine is also a GameStream host for your Linux games!