Can I use steam link without a controller?

[Mark]

Steam Link seems ideal for what I want to do i.e. play Train Simulator in the living room while it's running on my PC upstairs.

However I *really* don't want to have additional kit such as controllers or keyboards lying around the living room - I currently play train sim using an XBox controller emulator on my iPhone and this works perfectly for me.

I don't mind at all getting a controller to go through the initial setup process, but once that's done is there a way to dispense with that completely so I can power on the Steam Link and have it go to streaming the PC without having a controller of any sort plugged in?

Thanks!

[KStrike]

Hello,

how is you intention to control your Steam Link without a gamepad, keyboard and mouse? A mind control support is not (yet) invented and supported.

[Mark]

As I say, I can control my PC through the remote mouse app on my iPhone and play the game through the Xbox controller emulator on my iPhone. I don't even need to use the keyboard and mouse when at my PC.

[KStrike]

Ah I see ;) Then it should be no problem to control it this way too (as long as your phone has a good connection to your Wifi network) . I have already tried a mouse emulation with my Wifi network without any problems. So I guess any other input emulation with your phone should be possible.

[Mark]

Cheers. My question is mainly when you power it on (which I could do from a remote plug from my iphone too!) Does it go immediately to the PC screen (Desktop or big screen mode) or does it require some confirmation step which would need a controller plugged in.

[KStrike]

That would be the only problem. In the Steam GUI (after you have switched it on) you need to click on your host PC. There is no automatic login. So I guess you need something like a hardware input device for that.

[Mark]

Originally posted by Koala:

That would be the only problem. In the Steam GUI (after you have switched it on) you need to click on your host PC. There is no automatic login. So I guess you need something like a hardware input device for that.

Many thanks for that. For now that rules it out unless I can think of a way to get past that startup screen. Which I can't think of just at the moment - all the remote access through phone things depend on having an app installed on the receiver end which obviously you can't do with Steam Link.

[Xanibear]

Yes just plug in dongle/usb and you get full keyboard and mouse support. It has 3 usb ports. Keyboard/Mouse/Controller

[DirtyCamper]

Originally posted by Mark:

Many thanks for that. For now that rules it out unless I can think of a way to get past that startup screen. Which I can't think of just at the moment - all the remote access through phone things depend on having an app installed on the receiver end which obviously you can't do with Steam Link.

There is nothing obvious about that, since you can install apps on the link. It might actually be a simple thing to emulate a keyboard press using uinput on the link. Maybe even by having an autorun script that runs scripts from usb device.

But I don't think that's up your alley to do that :-).

[Mark]

I don't mind a bit of coding / scripting, is there any documentation on that?

[flood_ping]

Originally posted by Mark:

I don't mind a bit of coding / scripting, is there any documentation on that?

Here you go https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamlink-sdk =)

[WolfEisberg]

Is your phone hooked up physically to your PC? If no, can you still control your computer with that phone app if you were in another room? If yes, then you should be able to just use your app like you normally do. I can use my mouse/keyboard on the PC and see what my mouse/keyboard are doing through the Steamlink.

[Mark]

Yeah I can control what happens on the PC quite easily using various phone apps. But it seems that the issue is that I have to select the PC from a menu in the Steam Link using some controller before I even get to the PC screen

[Krombs]

You actually can. Its really stupid imho that SL needs that single click to actually work.
Im running SL w/o any plugged device (my x360 gamepads are plugged on my pc) so i had the same issue, until i found the solution: the app True Mouse/KB (for android) by z2 Software. Its a paid app and it requires root, but from my preliminary tests, it works.

[Leif]

Originally posted by Mark:

As I say, I can control my PC through the remote mouse app on my iPhone and play the game through the Xbox controller emulator on my iPhone. I don't even need to use the keyboard and mouse when at my PC.

Couldn't you use a Bluetooth XBox controller emulator on your iPhone to control the steam link?
The Steam Link supports Bluetooth as far as I know.
Maybe this one works:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gamepad-use-phone-as-pc-xbox-360-controller/id1068596931?mt=8