When I finish work I want to sit on my sofa and play
Nowadays I work from home, and I agree - I don’t want to sit on my desk after a long day of sitting on my desk. Guess what though, I don’t have to, even when using a PC. My Steam Deck allows me to play everywhere, and with a single cable it connects to my TV and I’m playing.
But what if the game is too heavy for the Deck, or I want the ray tracing and 120 FPS of my expensive gaming PC? I just turn on my TV, I choose the Moonlight app, and I click play. That’s it. My computer automatically opens Steam Big Picture, everything is already updated, I grab my controller and I’m gaming. In fact, I would bet a beer or lunch that I can boot a game on my setup faster than a Xbox Series console, if we are both launching a game for the first time rather than resuming from suspend.
Latency in Moonlight is extremely dependant on your setup. Most people are aware of having a good connection, preferably with both client and host using CAT6 cable. But you also need a good encoder and decoder.
For instance, using my GTX 1660 Super as the encoding GPU and my Snapdragon 888 Android phone as the decoding device, I had 14 Ms of latency.
Using my RTX 4060 Ti as the encoding GPU and my LG C1 HEVC decoder, the latency is 8 ms.
Using the same RTX GPU as the encoder, but my Steam Deck as the decoder, latency is 2 ms. Or in other words, so fast I can’t even notice it’s streaming and not native.
It’s definitely worth trying out, even at 8 ms on my TV this is faster than the delay a regular old Xbox controller would have, and the quality is impressively good.
Ok but most of my games use Quick Resume so I am playing in under 15 seconds. To be honest the Switch has taken the crown for picking up where you left off since 2017.
I’ve used Moonlight but prefer not to stream really. Would be interested in how the latency is these days.
In the past I’d have said PC all the way but these days I’m glad both options exist. Biggest draw to the PC for me is mods. Would be tempted to make a dedicated SteamOS box next gen.
Ok but most of my games use Quick Resume so I am playing in under 15 seconds.
I just timed my setup, takes 35 seconds to boot my most recently played Steam game. So yes, double your time… But also less than a minute, less than what it takes me to take a glass of water or something.
Would be interested in how the latency is these days.
It varies a lot depending on the setup, some can be quite bad. Mine is got 8 ms of latency. Considering the Xbox Series controller operates at 20 ms of input latency, I don’t see that as a major issue.
Would be tempted to make a dedicated SteamOS box next gen.
There’s a loooot of fun to be had in building small form factor PCs nowadays. Unlike a decade ago, you can now find really nice cases, very low profile coolers, and GPU models that are very thermally efficient. Though again, with a cheap CAT6 cable, you can also just build a thin client to decode Moonlight for you and you won’t even know it’s streaming - things improved a lot recently.
Nowadays I work from home, and I agree - I don’t want to sit on my desk after a long day of sitting on my desk. Guess what though, I don’t have to, even when using a PC. My Steam Deck allows me to play everywhere, and with a single cable it connects to my TV and I’m playing.
But what if the game is too heavy for the Deck, or I want the ray tracing and 120 FPS of my expensive gaming PC? I just turn on my TV, I choose the Moonlight app, and I click play. That’s it. My computer automatically opens Steam Big Picture, everything is already updated, I grab my controller and I’m gaming. In fact, I would bet a beer or lunch that I can boot a game on my setup faster than a Xbox Series console, if we are both launching a game for the first time rather than resuming from suspend.
How is the latency in moonlight? Thinking about trying it
Latency in Moonlight is extremely dependant on your setup. Most people are aware of having a good connection, preferably with both client and host using CAT6 cable. But you also need a good encoder and decoder.
For instance, using my GTX 1660 Super as the encoding GPU and my Snapdragon 888 Android phone as the decoding device, I had 14 Ms of latency.
Using my RTX 4060 Ti as the encoding GPU and my LG C1 HEVC decoder, the latency is 8 ms.
Using the same RTX GPU as the encoder, but my Steam Deck as the decoder, latency is 2 ms. Or in other words, so fast I can’t even notice it’s streaming and not native.
It’s definitely worth trying out, even at 8 ms on my TV this is faster than the delay a regular old Xbox controller would have, and the quality is impressively good.
Ok but most of my games use Quick Resume so I am playing in under 15 seconds. To be honest the Switch has taken the crown for picking up where you left off since 2017.
I’ve used Moonlight but prefer not to stream really. Would be interested in how the latency is these days.
In the past I’d have said PC all the way but these days I’m glad both options exist. Biggest draw to the PC for me is mods. Would be tempted to make a dedicated SteamOS box next gen.
I just timed my setup, takes 35 seconds to boot my most recently played Steam game. So yes, double your time… But also less than a minute, less than what it takes me to take a glass of water or something.
It varies a lot depending on the setup, some can be quite bad. Mine is got 8 ms of latency. Considering the Xbox Series controller operates at 20 ms of input latency, I don’t see that as a major issue.
There’s a loooot of fun to be had in building small form factor PCs nowadays. Unlike a decade ago, you can now find really nice cases, very low profile coolers, and GPU models that are very thermally efficient. Though again, with a cheap CAT6 cable, you can also just build a thin client to decode Moonlight for you and you won’t even know it’s streaming - things improved a lot recently.