Headless Gaming-PC Guide

Hey,

writing this down for other people who might find this useful. I recently build a setup in my home for gaming from the couch without having your computer directly connected or even in the same room, or if your computer is just a server in some closet.

Requirements:

• A PC with a Windows and Nvidia Gamestream working, sorry folks this is an Nvidia only guide
• Raspberry Pi or similar device that can run linux/chrome/windows/mac
• very good WLAN connection, but preferably 100mbit or Gigabit ethernet connection for both devices
• VGA Adapter (DVI to VGA or Displayport to VGA)

Setup your server like a normal windows desktop computer. Activate the Streaming option in Geforce Experience (Settings -> Shield) if there is no Shield option on the left then reinstall Geforce Experience. Make sure you are not making these settings via RDP because Geforce Experience seems to hide or disable some features while connecting via Remote Desktop.

There is no need for special software Steam is probably a good idea because Big Picture is pretty nice to have. What is annoying about windows or gamestream is that you need to have a screen connected otherwise it won't work. Some guide recommend a software called powerstrip, which I tried and had no success with, some recommend a little HDMI plug that acts as a monitor but it's pretty expensive IMO for like 40 euro in my country. I followed this guide instead because I had an adapter lying around https://macminicolo.net/blog/files/build-a-dummy-dongle-for-a-headless-mac-mini.html

After some unplugging, replugging and changing the resolution while having another screen connected you should be able to connect to your server by using this software on your phone, other pc or whatever it's just for testing purposes http://moonlight-stream.com/ While pairing to your server you will have to attach a screen again and probably disconnect your adatper, because RDP sessions seem to kill the nvidia dialog again. I haven't tried teamviewer yet, this might be a nicer option for the future if it works.

Install the moonlight software mentioned earlier on your device of choice, mine is a raspberry pi 3 just simple running vanilla raspbian with GUI. On my Pi after installing the software I can simply run

moonlight pair 

and it should find your server running gamestream. Enter the pin shown in the console on your device back on your server, maybe try teamviewer or attach your monitor and detach the vga adapter.

I setup my pi to just launch into moonlight, so I just added

moonlight stream 

to my .bashrc you can add option such as -1080 to only stream in 1920x1080 the default is 1280x720 at 60 fps. Just type

moonlight 

to find out more about the options in moonlight.

So, that's it. You can use a lot of other devices as clients instead of the raspberry pi the Nvidia Shield should also work great. I have a Xbox 360 controller just attached to my raspberry pi and it worked straight out of the box.

If you have any questions be sure to ask me!

Submitted by gempir | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016