Combine with Family Sharing?

[Dreigo42]

First, let me lay out my senario. I have a powerful Windows Desktop with my Steam Account and games. My wife has her laptop and her steam account with her games. Would it be possible (if not now, in the future) for her to stream games from my PC at home without signing in as me if she was "allowed" access to my library? That way she wouldn't have to download and install all of my games that she wanted to play and would probably get them in better quality as my PC is more capable. The downside being that it would only work when she was home and not let's say at school.

[Christen]

Yes, these two features are designed to work together. She will need to be logged into both machines in order to stream between them. She can stream your shared games assuming you've authorized both her and the computer where the games are being run.

[Dreigo42]

Awesome! That is going to be really cool to see. But she wouldn't be able to stream my games from my machine to hers using her account while I'm logged in on my machine? If that's the case, is there some kind of "guest" login that happens while the library is being shared?

[bendotcom]

When streaming you must log in to both ends yourself. In this case, your wife would have to log in to Steam on your desktop to stream from her laptop.

You can authorize either machine for sharing in that case (her laptop or your desktop) and since she is logged on to both she'll be able to borrow your library. The games won't have to be installed on her laptop.

[Dreigo42]

It would simply recognize the install on my machine and allow her to launch it?

[KinoTheMystic]

Log onto your steam account on her laptop. Authorize it so your games are shared to her account/laptop. Then, she would have to log onto her account on your computer so she can start the stream. She would be able to see all of your games on her laptop and start streaming any installed games that are installed on your computer.

[EarthBoundX5]

Is there plans to expand this to not require the shared user to log into Steam on the host machine? Or would it be possible to sign into 2 Steam accounts on a single machine.

My scenario is a bit similar, but different. I want to build a new gaming PC, but not replace my Desktop. I'd prefer to essentially make a "Steam In-Home Streaming Server".

Now the problem expands upon the girlfriend/wife/family member with a different account, but authorized to share the library.

It's not feasible to ask that every family member wishing to utilize this "Steam In-Home Streaming Server" RDP to the machine just to switch users logged into Steam. It seems like an unnecessarily complicated step for the average user.

To combat these type of situations, are there plans to build further upon combining the features of In-Home Streaming and Family Sharing?

[Dreigo42]

That's what I'm hoping to see. Where it gets to the point where they pick a game to stream from thier list of games (either thier's or a shared library) and just click stream. Once they can see it in thier list they should be able to stream it from any network PC where the original owner or themself is logged in. Let's be honest. The ways to exploit a system like this are extremly small and ultimately useless. You can't stream over the internet and the host PC can only play one game at a time (either local or stream). The only thing that annoys me is that the library is shared in its entirety. So if she is playing a game that I shared locally on her machine (say F1 Race Stars) I can't play GRID 2 on my machine without kicking her off. That's really my only other gripe. Honestly, if they can make it where only one person can play an individual game at any given time, that would be perfect.

[EarthBoundX5]

Originally posted by Dreigo42:

So if she is playing a game that I shared locally on her machine (say F1 Race Stars) I can't play GRID 2 on my machine without kicking her off. That's really my only other gripe.

THIS TOO!

It's a bit annoying, and that's just a problem with family sharing period.

Both fantastic features to finally get in Steam; and giving the benefit of them being "new". Here's hoping this feature requests will be implemented within the next year at least.

[Akahadaka]

Yep, just run into the same problem with my wife's laptop. Both accounts have purchased copies of the game, we'd just like to be each be able to stream from the desktop pc turned media/game server without have to physically go find its keyboard and change Steam users. Even to RD in and change users everytime one of us wants to stream seems like way too much effort.

Any thoughts given to simultaneous game streaming from one machine? Modern builds should be able to handle older (e.g. strategy) games no problem.

Thanks for the 2 features, they're pretty wicked. Would just love to have them working together.

[Kolbaar]

Good comments, thanks for bringing this subject up. Unfortunately I can not see steam getting around this issue without putting a team on to make a "home server" type software. For those of us that have a dedicated system on the network, that would be awesome! It could be done but a subset software would be needed for account management on one main system that held all family accounts. I hope this gets added by the time they come out with the MAC port for the in_home sharing. My Xmas present perhaps?

[SUiCiDE]

it's a 3 year old thread but it seems it's still not working properly.

obviously, steam already has every features to accomplish what OP or other users wants.
'in home streaming', 'library sharing', 'fast user switching with bpm' are they.

to build a shared steam streaming server for multiple in house users, you need these features and they already are, and works great separately. (thanks valve, anyways)

problem is, you can't get all 3 of these features work together because you can't get 'user switch' when 'in home streaming'.

you still can combine 'in home streaming' with 'library sharing' or 'library sharing' with 'user switching' but it's only half-baked solutions compared to console experiences.

I don't know if this works altogether when you stream to a pc client, but it won't work when you stream to a steam link or any other low powered streaming devices like android ones.
I think this makes no sense considering why valve developed steam link.

dear valve, can we get a better, console like, lounge suitable, couch gaming experience?

[Cr@n1um]

Bumping this back up to the top. This situation is becoming more common as people get dedicated VR machines. That machine is now my most powerful machine in the house and has become my dedicated gaming rig for VR as well as non-VR games. My son has a laptop and I've shared my library with him, however, his laptop is not powerful enough to play a lot of the games, but in-home streaming works great.

For now I'm using Nvidia GameStream with Moonlight Streaming as a work-around, but it would be really nice to just be able to use Steam.

It would be *REALLY* nice if any games that are shared via Family Library were ALSO available to stream for that user.

[Kedryn]

I want to add what i think its a bug.
I also have a server with games and gpu power. I've been streaming to other pc in home for years. Now i've created an account for my son, and gave him a pc.

I shared my library with him, and activated the Family View in his pc.
BUT
When i add games from his library to the Family View, everything works as intentended.
When i add games from MY library to the Family View, then i switch to it, they disappear.

Why?