Little, GUI-less server as client

[ITA - Jack]

Hello!

I'd like to know if it'd be possible to run In-Home Streaming with, as client, a little Intel Atom fanless server (obviously with inputs and audio/video outputs). The server is actually x86, but it doesn't have a graphical interface (because it's very CPU/memory limited).

In few words: does the Steam client require a graphical interface? Is there a headless one?

Thank you

[yayuuu]

I don't really know what do you mean.

If you want to have a headless Host PC then it's possible and I'm using it like this. I have a Intel Xeon E3 1230 v3 and G-Force GTX780 without connected monitor, mouse or keyboard, with installed windows 7 and Steam. I have few games installed on this PC and I'm streaming them to my laptop, which is MSI GT660 with i5 and GTX285M.

However I have used this manual
https://rumorscity.com/2013/12/06/how-to-create-dummy-plugs-for-your-graphics-cards/
to make my headless server detect monitor.

If you want to make a headless client, then I don't know what would be the reason to do it. You need the screen to actually see the game (unless you want to only stream controls to your host PC, but there should be better ways to do it.

[ITA - Jack]

That's quite different. A headless server means no GUI at all, not no graphical output. I've actually got a multimedia server I've built by myself and that I already use to play movies and listen to the music, but it has no GUI as it's completely useless (running Linux of course).

I've digged a little bit and I found there is SteamCMD, but AFAIK it doesn't support (yet?) In-home streaming...

[yayuuu]

Steam like steam, but games require GUI to run.

[ITA - Jack]

I'm sorry, you don't get my point: the server is not the host.

[Dandalf]

I get what you mean Jack. As far as I understand though, the way in-home streaming currently works, it does require a GUI and cannot run headless. I don't have any hard data but when you look at the machine that's doing the heavy lifting while another client is streaming from it, you can see that it's actually running the game, but in a weird "thin" way. To stream a game in a headless way, the game itself would need to have the in-built ability to run as a headless server - which almost no game does, since the very idea of local streaming is brand new.

At the end of the day Steam is just a layer that helps you play games that have been coded separately, so it has to use "tricks" to provide this streaming service. If true headless game-streaming ever becomes available (and I think it will one day), the first games to offer it will undoubtedly be Valve's own Source-based games, which it has free reign over and so can be a pioneer. We might even see this functionality in Source 2 :)

[Dandalf]

Actually I've just seen I've answered the wrong question, but I'll leave that answer there in case anyone else is wondering. You're asking if the *client* can stream headless. This is much more doable, *especially* since Steam-OS is linux based, which makes me imagine that the GUI layer valve have put on top is just a decoration and the program is running on command line anyway.

Keep in mind that Valve know this and have already cut out a lot of the overhead associate with windows when it comes to Steam OS. Therefore if you stream games to a client running Steam OS, you should get better performance than if you stream to one running Steam installed on Windows. So it would definitely be a better idea for a low power machine like your Atom box. Depending on how Valve have implemented their GUI layer on SteamOS, you may be able to access the command line and uninstall it in the same way you'd uninstall Gnome or Unity. Or maybe you could come at it the other way, and install a bare-bones headless linux, then install steam via command-line, though I don't know how possible this is. Sorry I can't help further, but maybe I've given you a direction to aim your search in :)

[ITA - Jack]

Thanks Dandalf :) yes, SteamCMD actually exist, but unfortunately it doesn't support (yet?) the streaming feature. I think the SteamCMD was mostly created for running servers in any case.

I thought I'd install SteamOS on my box, the problems are various though:

1. SteamOS is designed to run the games, not to be a mere streamer
2. SteamOS requires 500GB+ of HD (I actually have 60 :P )
3. SteamOS requires at least an integrated GPU (I doubt the Atom has one)
4. (most importantly) I'm actually hosting home services on that machine, I couldn't simply wipe it.

I saw there are some Raspberry Pi projects out there, but they require a nVidia 6xx+ video card to run (I actually have a 560 GTX Ti which still rocks, but it's not enabled to stream)...

[da.schizzle]

What OS is you Atom System running right now?

I got Steam working in a CHROOT ubuntu system, running on top of openelec.
It needs arround 2-3 GB of Disk space i guess, without any localy installed games.

If the Atom GPU has hardware encoding and atleast some opengl support it should be able to run Steam fine.
I have Steam BPM running on a AM1 System with no problems this way.

I wouldnt mind getting rid of BPM though. I use XBMC as GUI for everything on this system, only steam streaming depends on the Steam GUI. Which doesnt run that smooth.
Streaming works fine tho and even any 2D Indie Game i tried (at 720p)

Hope they add a way to launch streams from the commandline in the future!

[dubigrasu]

Interesting and cool idea.
So displaying the video stream directly in the framebuffer, the same way mplayer can use fbdev for playing files without X.
Maybe some day :)