Changes in build 882: Fixed 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth controller disconnection when using the 2.4GHz dongle Last edited by slouken; 23 Oct, 2023 @ 10:43pm
Use Steam link to stream to phone; use phone to stream the picture to your TV. Should be easy with the Rokus since Roku uses Google’s streaming system that’s just part of Android. I’ve done this and it’s passable with games that don’t require super fast response times (like TBS games instead of FPS).
Might be possible with an iPhone too but I don’t have one to have needed to figure this out 😅
Valve being a cool company might be true and all but I think there’s also the real reason that steam makes money by selling games, and making it easy for users to stick to gaming (with steam) ensures ongoing income. Imagine someone who now loves gaming on TV but being annoyed by their broken steam link - what are they going to buy next? A PlayStation and years without a game sold to them.
I bought one during the clearance sale for the price of shipping, assuming that it would be abandoned but maybe still useful as a low-power linux server. I guess I ought to set it up and take advantage of it.
Thanks, Valve, for not letting these things become instant e-waste.
I thought this too, but unfortunately in terms of modding and general use they are very limited, afaik. When I looked into it, it boiled down to: There’s an sdk to develop stuff for it and you can get root access but good luck trying to replace the os or anything like that.
That being said, this is what I remember from ~2 years ago, so if it can be customised more now, please let me know. I kinda bought 2 in hopes of being able to do that :D
I thought you could literally install sunlight/moonlight on it and have an even better experience. I never got around to trying after it got recommended to me
It seems to be more for if you actually want something that makes use of the screen and gamepad input and then you can launch it from the UI. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamlink-sdk
Honestly, I wouldn’t bother replacing the OS. It’ll more than make up for the cost in labor to just buy a raspberry pi and install the steam link software on it. The steam link hardware is not nearly beefy enough to do anything interesting with.
I just let mine be a little magic box for couch gaming.
It’s got little bits in it that connect to the network and handle basic encryption and such. Over time, those libraries will all have small bugs fixed in them, and it’s important enough to update them that it’s worth updating the device, regardless of any other changes to make sure it can keep talking to the steam client on the computer and stuff.
I just read in Wikipedia that Valve is privately helded.
There must be something magical in the fact that they don’t need to feed their shareholders with mountains of cash every quarter, and actually focus on their customers, as happened in this post.
True, private companies are generally more focused on customer satisfaction, but that can suddenly change, for instance when the owner dies, and the new owners don’t share the same ideals.
Private companies have a certain single point of failure built-in by having often just one or sometimes a small number of owners.
Nobody really knows what will happen when Gabe dies.
I just hope that valve becomes a worker cooperative… That would be the most stable form of company that probaly stays focused on customer satisfaction long term, since workers tend to favor providing long-term profits via good service instead of short term gains, for high frequency traders.
It’s addictive. We regulate other addictive things like cigarettes, no reason we shouldn’t put guard rails on gambling. We already do, but I think we’ve got to the end regs in a few areas.
Every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve either had to head downstairs to the PC to fix something or had terrible lag and artifacting making it unusable for even turn based games like Xcom…
But I still love that little box. I’ve got two of them and I have Steam Controllers to pair with them but I’ve never had luck with them. Wired, wireless, no luck.
Every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve either had to head downstairs to the PC to fix something or had terrible lag and artifacting making it unusable for even turn based games like Xcom…
That’s not normal. While Steam Link is a bit older by now and as a result there are constrains like streamed resolution, your problems look more likely connected to your network than Steam Link itself. Digital Foundry talked about PlayStation Portal recently which also includes a two minutes chapter about best practices that apply to other game streaming devices as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEoo_gbOBYo
Have you tried Moonlight? It’s an open source streaming alternative software that you can install on Steam Links, streams using Nvidia’s GeForce Experience as the broadcasting part and Moonlight receives it.
Moonlight was a better alternative a few years ago when I tried it but I just built more computers. I’ve got three towers in the same room at this point, not to mention the Switch and Steam Deck. If I’m ever far enough away from video games to make me consider streaming them, I’m usually too lazy to bother.
I love the concept of them, but I’ve never had an enjoyable experience on mine. Always lag, host client crashing, or some other crap stopping me from playing.
This is on a Cat 6a network too. Never had it on wifi.
Ive had lag once using the Raspberry Pi variant and that was due to using a poor quality usb cable, it was under powering the unit. Aside from that it’s been surprisingly fast on ethernet and WiFi.
Try installing https://moonlight-stream.org/ on the Steam Link. Uses Nvidia’s GeForce Experience to stream from your PC; works a lot better in my experience.
Can concur. The hdmi cable to my living room broke, and I tried steam link on my shield but it was way too much input lag. With moonlight however I cannot tell the difference anymore, it honestly feels as direct as having it connected via hdmi. This is with direct pc - cat6 - router - cat6 - shield though.
It’s fine for games that don’t require super fast reflexes. I played 99% of Final Fantasy X on mine. The only things I needed to move to my PC for were the (infamously difficult to begin with) races. The Persona games also ran fine on it. But it’s worth noting that all of those are turn-based, so I’m not worried about a noticeable slight input lag. I absolutely wouldn’t use it for something like a shooter or fighting game where reflexes matter.
My fiancée actually prefers when I use my Steam Link, because it means we can cuddle on the couch while I play. So she doesn’t feel like gaming is coming “between” us like it does when I’m at my PC and she can’t snuggle up next to me.
I used to have really fucking bad sporadic lag, (I would dip to less than 1FPS for probably 15-30 seconds at a time, every 5-10 minutes) but a recent-ish update (in the past few months, though I can’t remember exactly when) fixed that. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any weird network traffic on my end that was causing it; It was just the Steam Link failing to keep up every now and then. But whatever they did in that update resolved things, because it’s rock solid these days.
I was able to play crash Bandicoot 1-3 on my steam link with steam controller and I was having no problem to run diamond times on hardest maps. I wouldn’t play counterstrike or dota on steam link, but I almost never had delay problem with my steam link… it’s interesting how many people had different experiences. I was even raiding classic wow on steam link.
I actually got very mixed results with mine. Ultimately the app version is just more stable for some reason. I did get periodic lag, but interestingly I had the most problems with graphically intense games. Steam link has absolutely no problem, if my PC can run it smoothly it looks great on the app too. But on the hardware version it struggled to keep up and I got periodic crashes. Weird.
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And what are those updates?
Are they adding new features? Patching security? Fix bugs? Or just update their DRM with new encryption codes?
Here you go.
Latest update is 2021. My steamlink updates everytime i power it on, its like the updates are not persisted anymore.Edit: i was dumb.
Nope. Scroll to the bottom where you’ll see when the page was last edited. Near the end of last year.
I stand corrected, my apologies. I was just looking at the post dates.
Looks like last update was Oct 23
Man, I love Valve.
This post got me to dig mine out after all these years.
After literally 99 updates, I got it running and again and played some games from the couch. It was a good time! I don’t know why I packed it away.
Valve needs to update this little dude, but they never will, of course.
Most smart devices have steam link streaming built in now…which is sadly why they retired the hardware
deleted by creator
Assuming you have an android phone:
Use Steam link to stream to phone; use phone to stream the picture to your TV. Should be easy with the Rokus since Roku uses Google’s streaming system that’s just part of Android. I’ve done this and it’s passable with games that don’t require super fast response times (like TBS games instead of FPS).
Might be possible with an iPhone too but I don’t have one to have needed to figure this out 😅
Lmao the lag in that setup has to be ridiculous. Like you mentioned, tbs games and other slow games only lol
Yeah, support for it was cut for my TV sadly. I’ve got the device, but apps are convenient and don’t involve running wires.
Oh yeah, that’s a fair point.
I have one of these that I never use. Good to know they’re still getting updates. I do have a potential application for mine in the near future.
Mine never worked very well. I’m assuming it’s very dependent on which GPU you have.
Had much better results with Moonlight and Sunshine.
I could not get either to work. Then discovered my root issue was my firewall so have up.
Valve being a cool company might be true and all but I think there’s also the real reason that steam makes money by selling games, and making it easy for users to stick to gaming (with steam) ensures ongoing income. Imagine someone who now loves gaming on TV but being annoyed by their broken steam link - what are they going to buy next? A PlayStation and years without a game sold to them.
Oh, I have one of those laying around somewhere. Need to get a power adapter for it. Or I guess a USB to barrel adapter would do?
I bought one during the clearance sale for the price of shipping, assuming that it would be abandoned but maybe still useful as a low-power linux server. I guess I ought to set it up and take advantage of it.
Thanks, Valve, for not letting these things become instant e-waste.
I thought this too, but unfortunately in terms of modding and general use they are very limited, afaik. When I looked into it, it boiled down to: There’s an sdk to develop stuff for it and you can get root access but good luck trying to replace the os or anything like that. That being said, this is what I remember from ~2 years ago, so if it can be customised more now, please let me know. I kinda bought 2 in hopes of being able to do that :D
I thought you could literally install sunlight/moonlight on it and have an even better experience. I never got around to trying after it got recommended to me
You can and it is great! https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt
Why would you need sdk? It’s literally linux box. Just use GCC.
It seems to be more for if you actually want something that makes use of the screen and gamepad input and then you can launch it from the UI.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamlink-sdk
Thanks for link. Seems like regular buildroot for crosscompilation. I’m more wondering if it is using X11, wayland or KMS/DRI.
On the first glance seems to use dri. Basically linux box.
I meant that I ought to use it for its intended purpose after all.
(But yes, I would still like the option of replacing the OS.)
Honestly, I wouldn’t bother replacing the OS. It’ll more than make up for the cost in labor to just buy a raspberry pi and install the steam link software on it. The steam link hardware is not nearly beefy enough to do anything interesting with.
I just let mine be a little magic box for couch gaming.
That’s amazing! I wonder what things are left to polish or update 🤔
It’s got little bits in it that connect to the network and handle basic encryption and such. Over time, those libraries will all have small bugs fixed in them, and it’s important enough to update them that it’s worth updating the device, regardless of any other changes to make sure it can keep talking to the steam client on the computer and stuff.
That’s actually really awesome.
Uh! I gotta find mine and try this! Thanks!
Same! That thing is so useful.
But…but…vAlve doEsNt suPpoRt iTs haRdWare
It depends what you mean by support. They made the Steam Link for 3 years and have not made it for 5 years.
I’ve never seen people say this, but if they do, fuck em
I just read in Wikipedia that Valve is privately helded.
There must be something magical in the fact that they don’t need to feed their shareholders with mountains of cash every quarter, and actually focus on their customers, as happened in this post.
True, private companies are generally more focused on customer satisfaction, but that can suddenly change, for instance when the owner dies, and the new owners don’t share the same ideals.
Private companies have a certain single point of failure built-in by having often just one or sometimes a small number of owners.
Nobody really knows what will happen when Gabe dies.
I just hope that valve becomes a worker cooperative… That would be the most stable form of company that probaly stays focused on customer satisfaction long term, since workers tend to favor providing long-term profits via good service instead of short term gains, for high frequency traders.
Gabe-AI, it’s the only one I’d trust to run Valve. We need to preserve his personality starting today!
Twitter (sorry, X.com) is also privately held now so it’s not always a happy story :/
Ofc not, what you need to show is a public company that does not fuck over customers
Fun fact, they used to be public but Gabe took it back private after realizing how shitty it was having to answer to shareholders.
That’s an interesting piece of info
Easy answer. Valve prints money.
And the fact is they still make a mountain of cash every quarter, just by focusing on their customers.
“Win-Win” for the win!
but what about the latest investment fad like AI or NFTs? Won’t they think of the poor scammers?
I don’t know about that. They run one of the most predatory examples of gambling in gaming.
The new EU ruling really brought to light how big of a problem the CS:GO gambling is.
Is gambling really that bad though? It’s voluntary. Valve isn’t forcing you to buy keys or cases if you don’t want them
Same argument could be made for Heroin that is illegal as fuck.
It’s addictive. We regulate other addictive things like cigarettes, no reason we shouldn’t put guard rails on gambling. We already do, but I think we’ve got to the end regs in a few areas.
8 years later and I still haven’t used it once
Every time I’ve tried to use it, I’ve either had to head downstairs to the PC to fix something or had terrible lag and artifacting making it unusable for even turn based games like Xcom…
But I still love that little box. I’ve got two of them and I have Steam Controllers to pair with them but I’ve never had luck with them. Wired, wireless, no luck.
That’s not normal. While Steam Link is a bit older by now and as a result there are constrains like streamed resolution, your problems look more likely connected to your network than Steam Link itself. Digital Foundry talked about PlayStation Portal recently which also includes a two minutes chapter about best practices that apply to other game streaming devices as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEoo_gbOBYo
Have you tried Moonlight? It’s an open source streaming alternative software that you can install on Steam Links, streams using Nvidia’s GeForce Experience as the broadcasting part and Moonlight receives it.
https://moonlight-stream.org/
Moonlight was a better alternative a few years ago when I tried it but I just built more computers. I’ve got three towers in the same room at this point, not to mention the Switch and Steam Deck. If I’m ever far enough away from video games to make me consider streaming them, I’m usually too lazy to bother.
https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine works for AMD/Intel/Nvidia :-)
Unfortunately the NVIDIA part isn’t open-source. With that said, for what they are, products like Moonlight and Parsec actually are really good.
Agreed. I prefer Parsec where available but Moonlight gets better performance on my Android TV box.
I use mine all the time. It’s a great peice of hardware
I love the concept of them, but I’ve never had an enjoyable experience on mine. Always lag, host client crashing, or some other crap stopping me from playing.
This is on a Cat 6a network too. Never had it on wifi.
Ive had lag once using the Raspberry Pi variant and that was due to using a poor quality usb cable, it was under powering the unit. Aside from that it’s been surprisingly fast on ethernet and WiFi.
Try installing https://moonlight-stream.org/ on the Steam Link. Uses Nvidia’s GeForce Experience to stream from your PC; works a lot better in my experience.
Can concur. The hdmi cable to my living room broke, and I tried steam link on my shield but it was way too much input lag. With moonlight however I cannot tell the difference anymore, it honestly feels as direct as having it connected via hdmi. This is with direct pc - cat6 - router - cat6 - shield though.
It’s fine for games that don’t require super fast reflexes. I played 99% of Final Fantasy X on mine. The only things I needed to move to my PC for were the (infamously difficult to begin with) races. The Persona games also ran fine on it. But it’s worth noting that all of those are turn-based, so I’m not worried about a noticeable slight input lag. I absolutely wouldn’t use it for something like a shooter or fighting game where reflexes matter.
My fiancée actually prefers when I use my Steam Link, because it means we can cuddle on the couch while I play. So she doesn’t feel like gaming is coming “between” us like it does when I’m at my PC and she can’t snuggle up next to me.
I used to have really fucking bad sporadic lag, (I would dip to less than 1FPS for probably 15-30 seconds at a time, every 5-10 minutes) but a recent-ish update (in the past few months, though I can’t remember exactly when) fixed that. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any weird network traffic on my end that was causing it; It was just the Steam Link failing to keep up every now and then. But whatever they did in that update resolved things, because it’s rock solid these days.
I was able to play crash Bandicoot 1-3 on my steam link with steam controller and I was having no problem to run diamond times on hardest maps. I wouldn’t play counterstrike or dota on steam link, but I almost never had delay problem with my steam link… it’s interesting how many people had different experiences. I was even raiding classic wow on steam link.
I actually got very mixed results with mine. Ultimately the app version is just more stable for some reason. I did get periodic lag, but interestingly I had the most problems with graphically intense games. Steam link has absolutely no problem, if my PC can run it smoothly it looks great on the app too. But on the hardware version it struggled to keep up and I got periodic crashes. Weird.