Steam "Display" Latency over Gigabit

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

Does anyone (whose in the Beta) know about what the "Display" latency is? From what I can tell, the ping between my two computers in separate rooms (150ft ish) is 0.2 ms, the render time on the server is around 12.5ms, but the Display latency hovers around 50 making FPS games a tad bit difficult. This is the case when using AC wireless and using Gigabit ethernet. Is there a fix? I can't seem to find anything that relates. Everyone else who has posted has a bad wireless router or is using 10/100mbit/s ethernet cables, but that's not my case I imagine. My network is barely hitting 60mbit/s when using 1080p @ 60fps from what I see.

Host Computer: i5-3570k (4.6GHZ) and GTX 780
Client-side: i7 4800mq and GT765M

[MDuh]

I think display latency is the decoding time so it's probably on the client side fault. not network nor host

[Not sure, just a hunch]

[l_j_0]

Well I thought it was the decode time at the client side, well atleast that seems to be the slowest part of streaming for me. The decode time just seems to hover at 50ms, which is nearly 5 times the encode time. Which just seems wrong.

Host Computer: i7-2600k @ 3.6Ghz 16Gb Ram HD7870 GPU
Client Side: Asus Zenbook, Intel Core i5-2557M

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

I'm almost certain that decode time is on the client end, but that doesn't explain why some people are saying they got their "crappy" computers to work really well when my $1500 laptop takes 50-70ms. I might as well just run the game natively as I'll actually reasonable frame time

[Alex Atkin UK]

Have you checked the log files in Steam on the host machine?

SteamVideoTrace.txt shows exactly how much time the encode/decode processes take.

[slouken]

Display latency is the total time from when the game says "display this" and the client says "display this". It includes time doing capture, encoding, network transmission, decoding and uploading to the client video card.

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

Thanks for both of your replies. I checked the file a few minutes ago and didn't see it, but it's definately obvious that it's encoding and decoding that take up the largest amount of time (~15ms each). Is there anyway to reduce this amount of time? This is by far the best streaming service out there because the quality of the video is amazing and 60fps feels amazing!

[slouken]

The easiest way to reduce encoding and decoding time is to reduce resolution. You can also reduce bitrate to wherever you're comfortable with the picture quality.

If you haven't already switched the game to the resolution of the client, that's a great first step.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Good to know, although having the game running at 1080p when outputting to a 768p laptop can also have its advantages as its effectively another level of antialiasing.

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

Does bitrate affect encoding and decoding time? And I do agree about the higher resolution streaming. My mac has a 768p screen and I've never seen half-life 2 look so good

[slouken]

Yep, bitrate significantly affects encoding and decoding time.

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

Do you happen to have any idea as to why integrated graphics (Intel 4600) would be faster than a seperate GPU (GT765M) at decoding in a laptop?

[l_j_0]

Intels quicksync is amazingly fast, its the fastest decoder/encoder out there. So while iGPUs suck at gaming generally, when tasked with video playback they are very efficient.

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

I understand the client side better now, but I'm kind of curious whether or not you could run a headless server with this. Could it work if the only video that was leaving the GPU would be sent over the network?

[l_j_0]

Not currently, Linus tech tips did a video on this. The host side has to have an equal or higher resolution than the client side. As the game is "played" on the host computer, then streamed with input from the client side.
This is said video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIL71Q6eJ2Y

[ThisIsHarryDamnit]

I'll make sure to check the video out and thanks for all the insightful information. Looking forward to watching the progression of this software.