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I've lost my gaming rig and been toying with the idea of renting an AWS Linux box with a graphics card to play video games on. The one thing I haven't figured o

by kqr 4y ago

I've lost my gaming rig and been toying with the idea of renting an AWS Linux box with a graphics card to play video games on. The one thing I haven't figured out is how to best control it from my laptop. Could this be it?

cyber_kinetist 4y ago
Doesn’t the Steam client support streaming via Steam Link? (Or maybe you’re playing some non-Steam games?)
- kqr 4y ago
  Non-steam games. Though technically I should be able to start them through steam, I would like to keep the setup simpler: copy over binary and resources, ./game. That way I can set it up with a small shell script or Ansible playbook from scratch, and I don't have to rely on Amazon-specific file system images and such. (So I can quickly switch to a different provider if I find a cheaper/easier option.)
  - solardev 4y ago
    Shadow.tech is more what you want then. It's a lot easier to set up, and a lot more affordable, than a GPU VM on big cloud. It's basically a Windows VM with protocol optimizations (so, for example, your mouse cursor isn't lagging)
shitcoder 4y ago
A lot of people these days reccomend Parsec. However bear in mind that it is closed source. Personally I was using it to play it takes two with friends and it worked pretty well.
guipsp 4y ago
This may help you: https://github.com/parsec-cloud/Parsec-Cloud-Preparation-Tool https://github.com/parsec-cloud/Parsec-Cloud-Preparation-Too...
- kqr 4y ago
  Looks neat! I was hoping to get away without a Windows instance, though...
na85 4y ago
That seems like an okay situation if you don't play games that are sensitive to input latency and if you hate money.
- kqr 4y ago
  I'll have to evaluate what the input latency is like -- I'm not that sensitive and I have a good connection to a central location. But I suspect anything above 50 ms would be difficult to live with. I don't hate money but I love the space and freedom from not having a physical rig at my desk slightly more than money. (Also worth mentioning that I have like an hour a week for video gaming at most.)
  - calgoo 4y ago
    Yea I have moved to using GeForce now and am loving it. The one issue I have and that I want to test moonlight for is using mods. I’m even looking at setting up thin clients at home for the wife and myself and just have remote desktops available using moonlight or similar (don’t want to use vnc or Remote Desktop).
    - kqr 4y ago
      Yeah, visual-enhancing mods is in this case the reason I would like something beyond my laptop integrated GPU.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Counterpoint about the input latency: on a proper internet connection I was able to play competitive shooters just as well as I do now locally. Agreed about the money aspect of it, though surprisingly it's not the hardware that costs the most, it's AWS's price-gouging on egress bandwidth.
  - pineconewarrior 4y ago
    "Just as well" is very relative here. For people who are truly competitive 100ms is enough to create a massive disadvantage against someone of similar skill.
Nextgrid 4y ago
You don't really need this. I've done it with plain Windows VMs, Steam (it has a streaming capability) and a VPN to make it appear as if it was on my LAN (Steam will only stream over LAN). It is super expensive (you pay as much for bandwidth as you do for the actual hardware) but it works well if you have a good internet connection (wired Ethernet backed by real fiber - DSL or HFC won't cut it).
solardev 4y ago
You'd be ripping yourself off and paying more money for an inferior experience. Just subscribe to your choice of GeForce Now, Stadia, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PSNow, Amazon Luna, or Shadow.tech. Most of them cost between free and ~$15/mo and handle all the infrastructure and optimizations for you, along with game library syncing, multi-platform support, cross-save and sometimes cross-play, etc. My suggestion is GeForce Now because it has the best GPUs and supports both Steam and Epic and doesn't lock you in to a third party lib the way Stadia does. And Google seems to be giving up on consumer Stadia anyhow. Shadow.tech is an actual Windows/Steam VM (but much cheaper than AWS) if you want full control (along with the PITA of having to update Windows, Steam, and your games all the time... something the other services take care of transparently). Renting GPU hours and running it yourself actually ends up costing a LOT more, last time I checked. Nvidia subsidizes their own service while Amazon has to upcharge you.

by kqr 4y ago

cyber_kinetist 4y ago

Doesn’t the Steam client support streaming via Steam Link? (Or maybe you’re playing some non-Steam games?)

kqr 4y ago
Non-steam games. Though technically I should be able to start them through steam, I would like to keep the setup simpler: copy over binary and resources, ./game. That way I can set it up with a small shell script or Ansible playbook from scratch, and I don't have to rely on Amazon-specific file system images and such. (So I can quickly switch to a different provider if I find a cheaper/easier option.)
- solardev 4y ago
  Shadow.tech is more what you want then. It's a lot easier to set up, and a lot more affordable, than a GPU VM on big cloud. It's basically a Windows VM with protocol optimizations (so, for example, your mouse cursor isn't lagging)

shitcoder 4y ago

A lot of people these days reccomend Parsec. However bear in mind that it is closed source. Personally I was using it to play it takes two with friends and it worked pretty well.

guipsp 4y ago

This may help you: https://github.com/parsec-cloud/Parsec-Cloud-Preparation-Tool https://github.com/parsec-cloud/Parsec-Cloud-Preparation-Too...

kqr 4y ago
Looks neat! I was hoping to get away without a Windows instance, though...

na85 4y ago

That seems like an okay situation if you don't play games that are sensitive to input latency and if you hate money.

kqr 4y ago
I'll have to evaluate what the input latency is like -- I'm not that sensitive and I have a good connection to a central location. But I suspect anything above 50 ms would be difficult to live with. I don't hate money but I love the space and freedom from not having a physical rig at my desk slightly more than money. (Also worth mentioning that I have like an hour a week for video gaming at most.)
- calgoo 4y ago
  Yea I have moved to using GeForce now and am loving it. The one issue I have and that I want to test moonlight for is using mods. I’m even looking at setting up thin clients at home for the wife and myself and just have remote desktops available using moonlight or similar (don’t want to use vnc or Remote Desktop).
  - kqr 4y ago
    Yeah, visual-enhancing mods is in this case the reason I would like something beyond my laptop integrated GPU.
Nextgrid 4y ago
Counterpoint about the input latency: on a proper internet connection I was able to play competitive shooters just as well as I do now locally. Agreed about the money aspect of it, though surprisingly it's not the hardware that costs the most, it's AWS's price-gouging on egress bandwidth.
- pineconewarrior 4y ago
  "Just as well" is very relative here. For people who are truly competitive 100ms is enough to create a massive disadvantage against someone of similar skill.

Nextgrid 4y ago

You don't really need this. I've done it with plain Windows VMs, Steam (it has a streaming capability) and a VPN to make it appear as if it was on my LAN (Steam will only stream over LAN). It is super expensive (you pay as much for bandwidth as you do for the actual hardware) but it works well if you have a good internet connection (wired Ethernet backed by real fiber - DSL or HFC won't cut it).

solardev 4y ago

You'd be ripping yourself off and paying more money for an inferior experience. Just subscribe to your choice of GeForce Now, Stadia, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PSNow, Amazon Luna, or Shadow.tech. Most of them cost between free and ~$15/mo and handle all the infrastructure and optimizations for you, along with game library syncing, multi-platform support, cross-save and sometimes cross-play, etc. My suggestion is GeForce Now because it has the best GPUs and supports both Steam and Epic and doesn't lock you in to a third party lib the way Stadia does. And Google seems to be giving up on consumer Stadia anyhow. Shadow.tech is an actual Windows/Steam VM (but much cheaper than AWS) if you want full control (along with the PITA of having to update Windows, Steam, and your games all the time... something the other services take care of transparently). Renting GPU hours and running it yourself actually ends up costing a LOT more, last time I checked. Nvidia subsidizes their own service while Amazon has to upcharge you.