Now limited to 30mbps?

[TheJFK]

I have been extensively using steam in-home streaming as my default way of playing Steam games for about a year now. I have a gigabit network with a dedicated gigabit switch and my computers are well set up for the tasks. The host is on Windows 10, previously 8.1 and client on Windows 10/Steamos, depending on my mood.

Since my network setup is so ideal for the task, I've been using the "beautiful" setting and "unlimited" bandwidth on the client side for decoding. It's been working great with very low latency and very good quality. However, as of about a week ago, I've noticed a huge drop in streaming quality with colours washed out and compression artifacts. The stream is still fast and reliable, just a drop in quality. I did notice that where once my estimated bandwidth was around 600mbps and varying around that point it was then limited to 30mbps and was rock-solid limited to that point. I verified that my settings were set to unlimited, but 30mbps was the hard limit.

I solved the problem by opting out of the beta and all was back to normal. However, last night the changes were pushed to the stable client (I presume) and the issue is back. Is this something anybody else is noticing? Can I get back my high-quality unlimited stream? My network can push at least 10x what the new hard limit is and the quality is suffering from it. I suspect this has something to do with the imminent influx of Steam Link users and preventing complaints of latency issues on less-than-ideal network connections :(

[Saftle]

The fix does not have an affect on the performance overlay. It will still show 30 no matter what. It even says that on the reddit thread, at the top of the page.

[Saftle]

You also need both files, not just the one copied on the thumb stick.

[Damage Inc]

Автор сообщения: Saftle

You also need both files, not just the one copied on the thumb stick.

I have the 3 files on the thumb drive. I will try again and ignore the overlay but I am not seeing much of a difference.

[henryg]

We are still working on the Steam Client side of the networking code. There may be a problem with bandwidth estimation at the moment. I would suggest opting in to the Steam Client Beta to receive fixes as soon as we make them, or you can wait for the next full release of the Steam Client, which should happen a little bit before the start of retail sales for the Link.

[TheJFK]

Автор сообщения: henryg

We are still working on the Steam Client side of the networking code. There may be a problem with bandwidth estimation at the moment. I would suggest opting in to the Steam Client Beta to receive fixes as soon as we make them, or you can wait for the next full release of the Steam Client, which should happen a little bit before the start of retail sales for the Link.

Thank you for an update on the issue! I'll be standing by at the ready for the update. I wouldn't even mind a hard limit to 30mbps if it actually were 30mbps, since actual results have been closer to 15mbps. Hopefully some fancy fixes come soon and all is well :)

[ichigo1381]

Автор сообщения: henryg

We are still working on the Steam Client side of the networking code. There may be a problem with bandwidth estimation at the moment. I would suggest opting in to the Steam Client Beta to receive fixes as soon as we make them, or you can wait for the next full release of the Steam Client, which should happen a little bit before the start of retail sales for the Link.

Thanks henryg. Waiting for the update then.

[darth-joker]

I think i have a solution to network cap... i do not know if this work on steam link because i don't have one yet :(

my systems.

Host machine: desktop

Windows 7 x64
Phenom II X2
8GB
Geforce gts 280

Client machine: laptop

Windows 7 x64
AMD E2-3000m
4GB
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6380G

Both system have gigabit ports, of which are hardwired through a gigabit switch using cat 5 eathernet.

please fallow all the steps for the solution to work correctly

first: change your in home streaming setting on both systems (host and Client) to the fallowing.

.client options:
tick Balanced

.Advanced host options:
untick enable hardware encoding,
untick prioritize network traffic

.advanced client options:
limit bandwidth to 30mb,
limit resolution to 852x480 (480p)
and untick enable hardware decoding.

Now exit steam.

rest of solution is quoted from loler_SK

"loler_SK

now what you have to do is manually edit the steam settings file in any text editor and set the bit rate to any desired value. I've set it to 100000 (100Mbits) and it works great, real stream bitrate is around 80 Mbits and video quality is GREAT.
Steam setting file can be found in:

"c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\xxxxx\config\localconfig.vdf"

and the value you have to change is called
"BandwidthLimitKBit" "100000" (for 100Mbits).

So close the steam app, find your settings file, change it, launch steam and enjoy the high quality streaming again.

To steam developers: Please let us choose bitrate higher than 30Mbit, if we have hardware/network for it. It's year 2015, 30Mbit is a joke, Gbit lan and AC routers are standard for many users. Thank you for your hard work anyway.

PS: do not change your steam client settings afterwards, or your bandwidth settings WILL get overwritten."

Being that i have a gigabit network i changed

"BandwidthLimitKBit" "30720" (30 Mbits ) to "BandwidthLimitKBit" "838861" (820 Mbits) AKA (0.80 Gbits) I decided not to use all my network bandwith in case my daughter wants to watch netflix while i am playing my game.

Now the last step is to set both system to operate in offline mode.


This next part is optional however i have found it to beneficial in increasing my streaming performance

optional
(disconnect the wire from your router/switch that conects to the internet thereby creating an in home network with now outside interference

Example. I disconnected my switch (my host ant my client are wired through my switch) from my comcast all in one tripple play router (All my wireless devices have internet access throught my comcast router) Now my daughter can still watch netflix on her wii

Also you can at this point disable any firewalls and ativiruse programs to freeup more processing power. thay are not really needed at this point being that you have a closed network)

this is what i have found to work for my setup.

[Ryu]

None of the hints tried above worked for me. Also, I pretty much doubt this is a nvidia driver issue. Before the steam update, it was working fine with no problem. After the STEAM update, things got broken. And why people still think it is a nvidia driver problem? If you disable the hardware encoding and things go back working doesn´t mean it's nvidia encoding fault; if your software are making the wrong "calls" to the driver things won't work.

[fatSki]

I just got home and tried this, it doesn't seem to work for me unfortunately. It looks like the streaming_settings.bin is being applied as the Bandwidth Limit options is blank as described, however the streaming_log still shows a limit of 25000, so it looks like the 2nd part of the fix, stream_settings.txt, isn't being applied for some reason. Anybody any ideas?

[darth-joker]

Автор сообщения: Frozenheart

None of the hints tried above worked for me. Also, I pretty much doubt this is a nvidia driver issue. Before the steam update, it was working fine with no problem. After the STEAM update, things got broken. And why people still think it is a nvidia driver problem? If you disable the hardware encoding and things go back working doesn´t mean it's nvidia encoding fault; if your software are making the wrong "calls" to the driver things won't work.

I dodn't know about everyone else but i have never use hardware encoding with my video card i also cant use hardware decoding. if i enable eather one none of my game wil stream above 1 FPS

Автор сообщения: fatSki

I just got home and tried this, it doesn't seem to work for me unfortunately. It looks like the streaming_settings.bin is being applied as the Bandwidth Limit options is blank as described, however the streaming_log still shows a limit of 25000, so it looks like the 2nd part of the fix, stream_settings.txt, isn't being applied for some reason. Anybody any ideas?

after yesterdays update i started haveing issus streaming again. found out that i need to untick prioritize network traffic in Advanced host options

P.S. are you using a steam link because i cannot find streaming_settings.bin or stream_settings.txt anywhere on my pc

[Greg]

Same issue here, spent 2 days trying to fix it. Didn't fix it.

Estimated Bandwidth : 30mbps regardless of wired, wireless, 5ghz or 2.4ghz. Disabling the hardware encoder "fixes" the problem, but thats ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Edit: My bad - Working great with the localconfig fix above. I expected my estimated bandwidth to change but my stream is now pushing 100 mbit.

Though I will take this time to point out there is a reason valve isn't pushing 100 mbit streams. at 80-100 mbit my display latency increased from 12ms to 35ms.

[fatSki]

For anyone struggling to get the Steam Link fix working, there was a typo in the original post and one of the filenames was wrong. The post has now been updated and the fix is working perfectly for me. The Link can't handle too high a bitrate for decoding, 35000 to 40000 is the sweet spot for me, but even this gives very noticeable image quality improvements. I'm much happier with my Link now :)

[MasterMind]

Автор сообщения: loler_SK

Ok guys, I finally found a solution for this issue. Until the steam developers fix this hard-limit bug, you can use this workaround:

As you know, you can set "30Mbps" as the highest bitrate in the steam client settings. "Unlimited" does not work with HW acceleration enabled. So what you have to do is manually edit the steam settings file in any text editor and set the bit rate to any desired value. I've set it to 100000 (100Mbits) and it works great, real stream bitrate is around 80 Mbits and video quality is GREAT.
Steam setting file can be found in:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\xxxxx\config\localconfig.vdf"
and the value you have to change is called "BandwidthLimitKBit" "100000" (for 100Mbits).
So close the steam app, find your settings file, change it, launch steam and enjoy the high quality streaming again.

To steam developers: Please let us choose bitrate higher than 30Mbit, if we have hardware/network for it. It's year 2015, 30Mbit is a joke, Gbit lan and AC routers are standard for many users. Thank you for your hard work anyway.

PS: do not change your steam client settings afterwards, or your bandwidth settings may get overwritten.

Wow thanks alot...I can also confirm that making this change in the config file fixes any hardware encoding issues i've had, no more flickering video when encoding is enabled on the host...quality seems better too

[Kain]

I'm also experiencing this issue
After the update today Dark Souls is unplayable

[G3na5ide]

Very boring but.... me too! (Win7 64bit i5 4460 GTX960 NVidia hardware encoding streaming to an Ubuntu 14.04 on a Celeron 1007U using Intel VAAPI hardware decoding.) Any updates? We've seen some stable client releases, but the beta still doesn't seem to have this fix? :(