Connecting via Remote Desktop once kills the streaming capabilities

[Phil]

So after my last failed attempt I tried another setup:

Powerful PC as host (this time with a connected screen) and my laptop as client. First I tried Civ5. Didn't work and got no message why it failed. So I connected with the Remote Desktop and noticed a dialog with something about EULA crap. After removing that I tried again: nothing. Tried another game: nothing. Tried the next once: Nothing.

Then I noticed what was wrong: When I connected via Remote Desktop I was logged out of the current local session on the host computer and therefore couldn't start any games anymore.

So I changed rooms and logged myself in again and tried again. Civ 5 worked. After a short session (which was really nice, just the intro didn't work) I tried the next game (Tropico 4): Didn't work and no info why. So I tried another game (Crusader Kings 2): Didn't work and again no message. So I tried Civ 5 again: Didn't work. So I walked back to the host and saw the problem: Some idiotic dialog about failing to sync with the cloud...

Well, this is annoying. Up to now I see no real advantage as I have to walk to the host all the time, keep the monitor hooked and turned on which is quite the wasted power (and distracting for other people in the room).

The Streaming should also work if no monitor is hooked on and if you are not logged in. Also it shouldn't fail because of Steam's own dialogues (EULA, Updates, Cloud-sync etc.).

[Bloodred]

You're asking for video games to work without a device for video output connected, I believe it's safe to say that pretty much nobody develops games thinking of that scenario. Steam doesn't even really have anything to do with it.

I've posted in your other thread about how other people are faking monitors, you could try that. You can also set Windows to auto-login and you can get to any windows (or even the login screen) using TeamViewer or something similar instead of the built-in remote desktop which messes with the user session. It's not ideal, but workable.

[wiplash2000]

I think Phil's point about it not failing for Steam's own dialogue windows is a valid point - these should certainly be taken into consideration or forwarded via the pipe when Streaming is enabled.

As for having to fake monitors etc., again, that seems like something that should be built-in to the steam-client to compensate.

Both of these sound like basic new-feature/enhancement requests for in-home streaming to work seamlessly for the masses.

[Phil]

@Bloodred
I have read your replies and while they might work for some people most of us are not that tech savy. And even if those problems persist it would at least be the proper way to inform the user about the problems. Especially such basic things like "Uh, guy, you need your monitor" or "Uh, you need to be logged in! You aren't anymore!". Also creating a fake display for games to use shouldn't be that hard for Steam to do.

[Bloodred]

I'm not sure how "basic" using a virtual monitor is or if it would work at all since the actual graphics card with its own proprietary drivers needs to know about the virtual screen to render to it and again, that doesn't really have anything to do with Steam. The problem isn't getting a virtual screen, it's getting a virtual screen on your actual graphics card with no support from the GPU driver (that I know of).

I have seen some solutions that straight-up use virtual graphics cards to provide a virtual screen, but obviously you can't play games on those and pretty much everything I've ever tried was either unstable or had severe drawbacks (like not even Aero would work, since there was no hardware acceleration on a virtual GPU).

My point is that it may be impossible or highly impractical to do something like running games with no screen, for reasons that have nothing at all to do with Steam.

There is a different solution I can see if you have a CPU that can do it, make a Windows VM, use PCI-E pass-through to give it a graphics card and stream from the VM. This would be much more complicated to set up than sticking 3 resistors in a VGA connector and trying that out though.

As for the dialogs popping up, I agree that something needs to be implemented to deal with those. Personally I would like to just have the option to stream the desktop and map some controller inputs to the mouse/some basic keys and just use those to deal with whatever unexpected thing pops up.

[Xander]

Use Splashtop instead of Remote Desktop. It doesn't log you out and is free to use over a LAN. Works perfectly when you have to fix something for streaming. Steam should really just let you remote in without needing a game...

[Phil]

If a VGA-Adapter with three resistors is enough to fool the card my naive expectation is that the card should be able to fake a display without that adapter.

[Dudeinco]

+1 for Splashtop - it's what I use.

[Hasney]

Originally posted by Phil:

If a VGA-Adapter with three resistors is enough to fool the card my naive expectation is that the card should be able to fake a display without that adapter.

Right, but you'd probably have to ask the GPU manufacturers for driver support for this more than anything. If this feature takes off, they may well do that anyway,

[Revilo]

Can I just throw this out there (bearing in-mind that I have not tried this beta thing yet)? I have a dual monitor setup and in-order to use my screen for my Sky box and Raspberry Pi I bought a 3-way HDMI splitter. As this is always on (due to the external power plug) I have noticed that my computer is happy to send the signal to the screen when it isn't turned on (based on my other monitor staying in dual screen mode)... could a cheap HDMI splitter be an option for fooling the graphics? Please don't waste your money if you don't feel this would work though. BTW I am using MVP control panel to make use of the Gen 4 i7 graphics along with my 6770. I output from the internal graphics port and use the dedicated for games.

[Steelfrog]

Originally posted by Revilo:

Can I just throw this out there (bearing in-mind that I have not tried this beta thing yet)? I have a dual monitor setup and in-order to use my screen for my Sky box and Raspberry Pi I bought a 3-way HDMI splitter. As this is always on (due to the external power plug) I have noticed that my computer is happy to send the signal to the screen when it isn't turned on (based on my other monitor staying in dual screen mode)... could a cheap HDMI splitter be an option for fooling the graphics? Please don't waste your money if you don't feel this would work though. BTW I am using MVP control panel to make use of the Gen 4 i7 graphics along with my 6770. I output from the internal graphics port and use the dedicated for games.

It sounds like you're looking for a switch rather than a splitter. Splitters are usually used to - as their name suggests - split or duplicate a singular signal to multiple devices or screens. In short, splitters are for out-going video while switches are for input.

[Revilo]

Originally posted by Kofad:

Originally posted by Revilo:

Can I just throw this out there (bearing in-mind that I have not tried this beta thing yet)? I have a dual monitor setup and in-order to use my screen for my Sky box and Raspberry Pi I bought a 3-way HDMI splitter. As this is always on (due to the external power plug) I have noticed that my computer is happy to send the signal to the screen when it isn't turned on (based on my other monitor staying in dual screen mode)... could a cheap HDMI splitter be an option for fooling the graphics? Please don't waste your money if you don't feel this would work though. BTW I am using MVP control panel to make use of the Gen 4 i7 graphics along with my 6770. I output from the internal graphics port and use the dedicated for games.

It sounds like you're looking for a switch rather than a splitter. Splitters are usually used to - as their name suggests - split or duplicate a singular signal to multiple devices or screens. In short, splitters are for out-going video while switches are for input.

Yep, sorry, used the wrong word... it is a HDMI 3-way switch (unbranded).

[Bloodred]

Originally posted by Phil:

If a VGA-Adapter with three resistors is enough to fool the card my naive expectation is that the card should be able to fake a display without that adapter.

The card is a piece of "dumb" hardware, it can't do anything by itself without software (aka driver) support. Yeah, I'm sure it's possible to implement virtual screen support in the drivers, but that means AMD and NVIDIA have to do it.