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Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 8:50am

Problems streaming PC to Deck

Been a while since I did this, now trying it on my new OLED Deck. When I stream in the default mode (Moonlight or Steam), game mode I believe it's called, it gives me a lot of slow connection errors and the experience is pretty cruddy. When I switch to desktop mode, so far it's been flawless, the thing is it's harder to edit controls and I can't see battery %.

I prefer Moonlight since when it's working to me it seems to have lower latency. Any way to get Moonlight to work as well in game mode as it has in desktop mode so far?

I've tried using big picture mode in desktop mode so that I can see battery %. The thing is, the Steam and ... button menus usually make the sound like they're opening, but don't actually open, so I can't get easy access to edit controls this way like on game mode. And when I close the stream, it sits on a black screen, and if I press B to abort game, nothing happens. So while desktop so far is working well for stream quality, it has things missing from if it were working just as well in game mode.

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Showing 1-15 of 15 comments

Mahjik Apr 9 @ 9:21am

Just a few questions to try and understand what's going on.

Have you streamed "games" to other devices in your household before? i.e. are you sure your wifi is strong enough to support game streaming or is this the first time you tried to use Remote Play?

What settings do you have on the Deck for "Remote Play"?

One thing I will say that seems to still be an issue with the OLED is the wifi connection after waking up. If you use the suspend/hibernate function most of the time (who wouldn't), then what I've seen is that my connect is unable after waking. What I do is go into Settings and disable wifi for a few seconds and then re-enable it. This refreshes the connection.

As far as Sunshine/Moonlight, there is a Decky Loader plugin that can be used for Game Mode:

https://github.com/FrogTheFrog/moondeck

Just keep in mind when using Decky Loader, SteamOS and Steam Client updates can break Decky Loader causing you to reinstall it.

Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 9:25am

Originally posted by Mahjik:
Just a few questions to try and understand what's going on.

Have you streamed "games" to other devices in your household before? i.e. are you sure your wifi is strong enough to support game streaming or is this the first time you tried to use Remote Play?

I used to stream from PC to LCD Deck, I believe I had to go into desktop mode for best connection quality there as well. I'm streaming from my PC to my bedroom and it's 4 bars wifi, but when in game mode, I can be on the couch right by my PC and modem, so 5 bar connection, and it will still have issues until I switch to desktop mode

Originally posted by Mahjik:
What settings do you have on the Deck for "Remote Play"?

When doing Steam streaming, I have tried software and hardware, HEVC on and off. I've tried the lowest quality mode (I believe performance) and it can still act up. It's like sometimes it is doing literal 0MB/s connection to the stream when in game mode.

Originally posted by Mahjik:
One thing I will say that seems to still be an issue with the OLED is the wifi connection after waking up. If you use the suspend/hibernate function most of the time (who wouldn't), then what I've seen is that my connect is unable after waking. What I do is go into Settings and disable wifi for a few seconds and then re-enable it. This refreshes the connection.

I don't usually do sleep mode, all this recent streaming has been from powering on from being completely off.

Originally posted by Mahjik:
As far as Sunshine/Moonlight, there is a Decky Loader plugin that can be used for Game Mode:

https://github.com/FrogTheFrog/moondeck

Just keep in mind when using Decky Loader, SteamOS and Steam Client updates can break Decky Loader causing you to reinstall it.

I will give this a try.

Last edited by Evilnapkin; Apr 9 @ 9:28am

Mahjik Apr 9 @ 9:41am

I stream daily since Madden 25's Anti-Cheat doesn't work on SteamOS. The main issue I've had is just the lack of consistency of wifi from waking the Deck.

The game I am streaming, I have set to the Deck resolution (i.e. I never play it on the PC). So I have the following Remote Play settings:

Video - Balanced
Audio - Stereo
Bandwidth Limit - Auto
Framerate Limit - 60
Resolution Limit (Auto, but the game is already set to 800p on the host)
Hardware Decoding - Disabled
HEVC Video - Disabled
AV1 Video - Disabled (by the OS since it doesn't work yet)
Low Latency Networking - Disabled

My wifi is the ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12.

EDIT: Also, yes, Moonlight/Sunshine is better than Remote Play if you can use it. It just has limitations depending on the host. For me, I've run into those limitations. I could work around them but it's more trouble than it's worth right now.

Last edited by Mahjik; Apr 9 @ 9:42am

Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 10:07am

I couldn't get Moondeck to work. I got it connected to my PC and the button to launch a game using it on the Deck, but it would launch the game on PC then just show black screen on Deck and eventually show the thing saying Steam menu or B to abort game.

Trying your settings now.

Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 10:55am

Hmm so I wasn't getting connection quality warnings, but without hardware decoding there's a lot of artifacting going on. And when I turn on hardware decoding, it'll stutter every few seconds. I'll try playing around more with the settings of Moonlight to see if I can get that stable in game mode. Worst case I go back to streaming on Moonlight through desktop mode, losing easy access to some features but at least stable and high quality image.

Mahjik Apr 9 @ 12:03pm

If your host is either:

a. Running higher resolution
b. Running higher frames

You could get artifacts or instancing. Is the host running in either of those scenarios?

Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 12:39pm

Host is native for its main display which is 1440p. I have it capped to 90fps for streaming to OLED.

Last edited by Evilnapkin; Apr 9 @ 12:40pm

Mahjik Apr 9 @ 1:38pm

Originally posted by Evilnapkin:
Host is native for its main display which is 1440p. I have it capped to 90fps for streaming to OLED.

What happens then is that you are reliant upon the protocol for Downscaling. Its not the same type of algorithms as Supersampling which is why it's advised to stream at the resolution of the target device or close to it.

Citizen Cook Apr 9 @ 2:19pm

Remote play has never worked for me on Steam or PlayStation. I always get lag. And i have 300mb/s download and 30 upload.
Even when everything is wired up between PC and PlayStation it lags.

Evilnapkin Apr 9 @ 5:32pm

Originally posted by Mahjik:
Originally posted by Evilnapkin:
Host is native for its main display which is 1440p. I have it capped to 90fps for streaming to OLED.

What happens then is that you are reliant upon the protocol for Downscaling. Its not the same type of algorithms as Supersampling which is why it's advised to stream at the resolution of the target device or close to it.

Hmm... I can probably get it working with the game I'm currently playing (Pathfinder 2). But for example Dead by Daylight, you can't change the fullscreen/borderless fullscreen resolution, only for windowed. And I know there are other modern games that are like this. So I'm probably stuck having to figure things out with Moonlight. Which isn't so bad. If I have to do desktop mode, not a big deal except for when I'm first getting a game's controls customized, and then I'm always by an outlet when streaming, so not seeing battery % isn't an issue if I'm always plugged in.

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Evilnapkin Apr 11 @ 12:42pm

Mahjik, when you stream without issues is it to LCD or OLED? I'm reading OLED has higher speed wifi but worse stability, and seeing a lot of people reporting issues streaming after moving to OLED from LCD. I streamed for about an hour on my LCD without issue. Then went to OLED and it turns out desktop working was just placebo, it can get slow connection warnings there too.

#11

Mahjik Apr 11 @ 1:17pm

Originally posted by Evilnapkin:
Mahjik, when you stream without issues is it to LCD or OLED? I'm reading OLED has higher speed wifi but worse stability, and seeing a lot of people reporting issues streaming after moving to OLED from LCD. I streamed for about an hour on my LCD without issue. Then went to OLED and it turns out desktop working was just placebo, it can get slow connection warnings there too.

I'm using an OLED. I do have a LCD, but that has been put away since my OLED arrived (ordered it on the first day it became available so that's been over a year now).

If you look at my profile, every hour listed for EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL 25 has been streamed to my OLED Deck.

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Evilnapkin Apr 11 @ 2:11pm

Ah. At this point for me, it's between spending $150CAD to get set up for a powerline to plug in by ethernet where I am when streaming to my Deck, or returning my OLED for a refund (if that's even possible). I'll do more testing on my LCD. But so far it seems to be an issue with just my OLED. I have a good gaming PC, so playing anything demanding straight off the Deck hardware just feels like a waste. Main reason I got it was to be extra lazy with streaming while laid out, and 90fps in Dead by Daylight makes the skill checks way easier. But not when it keeps stuttering due to connection issues.

Powerline should solve it, since when I plug the OLED directly into the modem by ethernet and sit on the couch there, it hasn't had any issues.

I've also noticed my LCD has 5 bar wifi in the room I want to be in when streaming. My OLED is only 4.

Last edited by Evilnapkin; Apr 11 @ 2:19pm

#13

Mahjik Apr 11 @ 2:43pm

The wifi chip on the OLED is not the same as the LCD. It's been pretty finicky with some wifi routers. I haven't had any problems, but I know others have with their routers. I know my wifi setup isn't common and I'm not suggesting anyone buy what I have.

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