in-home streaming: PC to PC - steam streaming microphone not working

[MacGrubR]

Hello!
I have two windows computers I'm trying to stream between using steam. It works beautifully except my microphone is not passed to the remote machine. I've verified it works locally (Logitech G930), but the remote computer is not detecting any input through the "Steam Streaming Microphone".



Client computer is Running Windows 10 Professional x64

Host is headless (no monitor) and running Windows Server 2016 Datacenter. Windows remote audio is turned on.



Like I said, everything works (I can remotely play at 60fps with game audio). I ran into an issue trying to play with friends where my mic wasn't working, and it's turned into a much larger headache than I expected. Does anyone have any advice?

[MacGrubR]

Can't for the life of me get this working.
I tried two other headsets, same deal. I have a logitech g930 and g430, neither is redirecting the microphone properly. I installed virtualhere on my desktop and the client on the remote computer. I'm able to redirect the device, but still nothing.

I did a test just now from my laptop to my desktop on my home LAN and microphone redirection simply doesn't work. Does anyone have this working?

I even tried setting up a dummy discord account on the remote computer and doing some magic to route the call audio to a logical input device and still no dice. I don't even know what to try anymore.

[MacGrubR]

Found out the gain was too low for my laptop to desktop streaming. Cranked it up and could barely hear it. The same was not true for the headless server. What's odd is the default recording device on my desktop at the time was a different input. If I set it to the steam microphone or disabled all inputs except the steam microphone it would not work.

I'm not sure it matters, but I'm trying to get this working to my ec2 instance. I don't understand why audio would pass but not microphone input. I wish steam had better documentation or logging related to this. What few logs there are aren't terribly helpful on the microphone side.

[MacGrubR]

Ah, just found this:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/4f86b136-1a04-4fec-bf75-5d7d575dc9fd/ws-2019-microphone-issue?forum=ws2016
Could be related to the OS. I will test later after work

[DaJanko]

Did you get it to work? Having the exact same problem.

[KaySHE]

Hi MacGrubR, have you found any solution to this? I have the exact problem, what I have realised is that in my windows 10 sound, it does recognise steam audio and microphone. Audio (indicated by green bars) moves up and down but the microphone doesn't move! But no luck so far here.

[MacGrubR]

@dajanko
@B3rL1n
Nah, never did figure it out. I reached out to steam to see if there were anymore advanced logs I could find, but I got a generic "not supported" response.

[Salvie]

I'm having the same issue and got the same response from support. Here's the text of what I sent:

Description: The Steam Streaming Microphone is not working on my Remote Play host.

Expected behavior: Steam Remote Play transmits my voice to and from the game on the host computer for game-based voice chat (NOT Steam voice chat, though that doesn't work either).
Observed behavior: While the Steam Streaming Speakers device seems to function normally, and even outputs audio over my headset connected to the client, the Steam Streaming Microphone device does not send my voice input to the remote computer.

Steps to reproduce:
1) Open Steam build 1595977781 on Apple MacBook Air 7,2 running OSX 10.14.6 ("streaming client")
2) Open Steam build 1595977781 on Google Compute Engine custom machine (8 vCPU, 32GB RAM) running Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter 10.0.14393 ("streaming host")
3) Connect Plantronics C3220 USB Headset with Microphone to "client" USB-A port
4) On "client" machine, navigate to System Preferences > Sound > Input and select Plantronics C3220 USB Headset as default input device
5) On "client" machine, navigate to System Preferences > Sound > Output and select Plantronics C3220 USB Headset as default output device
6) Launch a game with in-game chat support (e.g. Hell Let Loose, Battlefield V, Squad) via Steam Remote Play
7) Await game load
8) Observe game launches properly in Steam Streaming Client window on "client"
8) alt+esc within the Steam Streaming Client to reach "host" desktop
9) Navigate on "host" Windows desktop to Control Panel > Sounds
10) In Sounds > Playback dialog, select "Steam Streaming Speakers" as default
11) In Sounds > Recording dialog, select "Steam Steaming Microphone" as default
12) Return to game on "host"
13) Observe sound plays correctly over Plantronics headset earphones
14) Test voice - observe in-game voice does not get transmitted to other players
15) On host, alt-esc to desktop again; navigate to Control Panel > Sounds > Recording
16) Validate "Steam Streaming Microphone" is set as default
17) Speak into the microphone
18) Observe green bar next to "Steam Streaming Microphone" does not move, indicating that sound is not being transmitted to the device via Steam Remote Play Client

Additional context:
- The Remote Play client is the machine I've submitted the ticket from and should be available in the SystemReportDetails attached to this ticket.
- The Remote Play host is a Windows 2016 Server instance running an Nvidia P100 GPU. The full dxdiag output is attached.

[markio]

I've been messing around with my Steam Remote Play setup to get the microphone working from PC to PC, but I think it just isn't supported.
It only works when using the Steam Link app on mobile (you can enable it in the settings easily), but it looks like the normal Steam client doesn't support it, as it doesn't have any options for it.
So, for anyone looking at this in the future, the Steam Streaming Microphone doesn't work from PC to PC.

UPDATE: Valve has made an official Steam Link app for Windows that works just as well as the mobile app. I've tried it and the microphone works. Here's their post with the download: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/8/3105764348181505385/