Tweaks for streaming non-Steam games (Guild Wars 2 in particular)?

[[toj.cc]Tek7]

Has anyone had any success streaming non-Steam games? It's theoretically possible, but I understand it's not supported and not a priority.

Nevertheless, the thought of streaming Guild Wars 2 from my desktop gaming rig to my laptop is intriguing enough for me to at least ask.

Streaming Natural Selection 2 (probably the most resource intensive game in my Steam library) to my laptop worked much better than anticipated, so I'm very excited about the possibilities. Even if I can't get non-Steam games streaming, I'm very pleased with this feature so far.

[Hughmanhorn]

Swtor works great. The game ran 30-60fps @ 1080p max settings. (Host=2600k and a HD7870)
(Client = AMD X3 and a HD5550) In order to get it to work I had to give Steam and the Swtor launcher Admin. rights. Hardly any input lag, but since it is a MMO that does not mean much.
Edit: Going to try again tonight with the new Stream build.

[neona]

I was previously able to stream gw2 when it was possible to disable to overlay, but they force it on now, which just freezes gw2. Before you could turn the overlay off and stream it with it windowed.

I am, however, still able to stream the wildstar beta, so that's nice.

[bendotcom]

Messaggio originale di EricJD:

All I get when I try to stream a non-Steam game is a box that says "Stream launch failed: Couldn't connect to the remote computer." The game appears to launch fine on the host PC, but Steam just throws this error on the client.

What game was that? Do you know if it used some kind of wrapper/launcher to invoke the game? Usually the problem you describe is caused when the "game" exits immediately. For example, you add Chrome as a non-Steam game while using it as your primary browser. When you try to stream it, a new Chrome launches just long enough to ask the original one to open a new browser window and exits. Steam just thinks it was a verrry short game. If the "exe" of your non-Steam game is some kind of link (like Steams own "steam://...") it's very likely that's the problem

[slouken]

You're welcome :-)

[davew_uk]

@EricJD - I found that after adding a non-Steam game to your library I needed to restart Steam on the host PC otherwise I'd get that message when trying to start a stream on the client.

[bendotcom]

Messaggio originale di davew_uk:

@EricJD - I found that after adding a non-Steam game to your library I needed to restart Steam on the host PC otherwise I'd get that message when trying to start a stream on the client.

I can't reproduce that problem by simply adding shortcuts and launching them. Are there other steps to hit the problem? Does it only affect certain non-Steam games?

[davew_uk]

I'm not sure. Since I got into the habit of always restarting Steam on the host before testing a new non-Steam game on the client, I don't get the problem any more. I added a whole bunch of PS2 games running in PCSX2 this way.

[C O R P S E Y]

Were you ever able to get Guild Wars 2 to work? I run into the same problem, and I'm GUESSING it has to do with GW2's login launcher. Update this thread if you ever figure it out!

[OldSkoool]

Had issues with sw:tor, as per here:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/540731691267920272/

[TheMasterR]

Messaggio originale di CrimsonKing:

Were you ever able to get Guild Wars 2 to work? I run into the same problem, and I'm GUESSING it has to do with GW2's login launcher. Update this thread if you ever figure it out!

I was able to play gw2 - quite well, over Wi-Fi 1366x768 @ around 60 FPS.
(i have a crappy laptop, running linux - 1.4ghz intel su CPU, and a ati 4330 GPU, and a rly good intel wifi card :P)

To stream it I did the following.

1. on the stream server set Guild Wars 2 - to borderless window (required otherwise steam wont pick it up!) - quit gw2 after you set it.

2. So, in order to start the stream I connected from my laptop to the Lague Of Lengends client (you can use another program/game that you can minimize once the stream starts), and once the stream started and I got the lol client on screen I simply minimized it, thus I got steam to stream my full desktop of the pc.

3. Once you are in full desktop simply launch gw2, and play it. (remember beforehand to set GW2 to run in windowed borderless mode, otherwise steam wont pick it up since you are starting the stream session on League of Legends / or another game/program you decided to open)

- This workaround works for other games as well. Also you can use different software, web browsers, etc.
- Also for some games, turning the steam overlay off helps.
- I hope I was clear enough.

(PS: please let me know if this works for you as well)

[C O R P S E Y]

TheMasterR, this totally worked! I was able to get GuildWars 2 working great!!! Thanks a lot man. I'm looking forward to wednesday, when a wireless keyboard / mouse arrive in the mail XD

[TheMasterR]

Messaggio originale di CrimsonKing:

TheMasterR, this totally worked! I was able to get GuildWars 2 working great!!! Thanks a lot man. I'm looking forward to wednesday, when a wireless keyboard / mouse arrive in the mail XD

I am glad it worked for you aswell. Cheers, and enjoy playing on the big screen ;)

[[toj.cc]Tek7]

I was able to get GW2 running using a similar trick, but it lagged so badly as to render the game almost unplayable. :(

[OldSkoool]

Messaggio originale di TheMasterR:

Messaggio originale di CrimsonKing:

Were you ever able to get Guild Wars 2 to work? I run into the same problem, and I'm GUESSING it has to do with GW2's login launcher. Update this thread if you ever figure it out!

I was able to play gw2 - quite well, over Wi-Fi 1366x768 @ around 60 FPS.
(i have a crappy laptop, running linux - 1.4ghz intel su CPU, and a ati 4330 GPU, and a rly good intel wifi card :P)

To stream it I did the following.

1. on the stream server set Guild Wars 2 - to borderless window (required otherwise steam wont pick it up!) - quit gw2 after you set it.

2. So, in order to start the stream I connected from my laptop to the Lague Of Lengends client (you can use another program/game that you can minimize once the stream starts), and once the stream started and I got the lol client on screen I simply minimized it, thus I got steam to stream my full desktop of the pc.

3. Once you are in full desktop simply launch gw2, and play it. (remember beforehand to set GW2 to run in windowed borderless mode, otherwise steam wont pick it up since you are starting the stream session on League of Legends / or another game/program you decided to open)

- This workaround works for other games as well. Also you can use different software, web browsers, etc.
- Also for some games, turning the steam overlay off helps.
- I hope I was clear enough.

(PS: please let me know if this works for you as well)

Does this work with games that have mini launcher windows? (I don't know if GW2 does or not...)

Did you pick LoL because it's a non-steam game?

Also, doesn't this make your steam client show that you're playing a different game? (might cause issues when your friends want to try and join you)

[TheMasterR]

Messaggio originale di oldskool75:

Does this work with games that have mini launcher windows? (I don't know if GW2 does or not...)

Did you pick LoL because it's a non-steam game?

Also, doesn't this make your steam client show that you're playing a different game? (might cause issues when your friends want to try and join you)

1. This is a work-around that allows you to launch certain games that can`t be launched directly from steam-stream. (basically you force steam-stream to stream your whole desktop, not only the game window, and this way you are able to start another game, that normally steam-stream has issues with. The game must support windowed mode, otherwise the steam-stream can`t pick it up)
1.2. And GW2, has a pre-launcher that patches the game. (probably that`s why steam-stream can`t pick it up directly)

2. I picked League Of Legends at random, because it works with steam, and has a pre-launcher window, that you can easily minimize.
2.1. You can just as easily start a stream with another program that you can minimize, say, internet explorer. You simply add as a non-steam game internet explorer, and you start streaming it. Once you minimize the internet explorer window, you reach your full desktop, and you can proceed into launching another app.

3. Steam shows you are playing the first game that you launched, in my case League of Legends. (or the program you firstly chose to stream. This is because your steam-stream sessions is based on the first program that your launch)