Multiple input support

[Dogeruff]

Im curious to know if In-Home Streaming will support multiple inputs, for example could i stream serious sam 3 to another computer, plug two controllers into the target device, and have splitscreen work?

[fearlessfrog]

I would think that would work fine, i.e. in the following scenario:

- The host has Serious Sam installed.
- The client has Serious Sam co-op split screen set up and streamed to it.
- The client's input devices are used to control the stream (i.e. two xbox controllers via the wireless adapter).

The client will just enumerated the dxinput controllers and stream on whatever to the host, so basically if the base game supports multiple controllers / split screen etc then it should work.

In theory it may be possible to have two windows open on the client, i.e. one of the stream from the host and one of a local game for 'local' coop on games that don't support it. I'd imagine they'd be focus issues of which controller is grabbed per window though (plus Steam not allowing the same game to run twice from a library) but it might be worth an experiment. Maybe something that runs outside of Steam, i.e. let the client run the non-steam version and connect to the host running as both a client and server, and then stream the host's display to the client.

[bendotcom]

Multiple gamepads on the streaming client are supported.

Local gamepads (on the host that you're streaming from) are hidden from the game.

[fearlessfrog]

Is that how it will be changed later in the beta, as currently the host when streaming seems to take my Xbox Controller input just fine?

I just fired up Proteus to check, and from a windows host to a mac client, a wired xbox controller on the host controls ok (as in either the client or the host can control). Maybe if two window's boxen then the controller is disabled on the host?

[slouken]

If there is a controller on the remote computer, that will be available to the game.
If there is a controller on the local computer that will be available to the streamed game, and will prevent any controllers on the remote computer from being visible to the game.

e.g. if a game is being streamed from computer A to computer B
if there is just a controller on A, it will be seen by the game.
if there is just a controller on B, it will be seen by the game.
if there is a controller on A and on B, the one on B will be seen by the game and the one on A will not.

[fearlessfrog]

Ah, cool - thanks, makes sense. That's actually pretty handy for me, in that the range of my wireless Xbox controller is pretty good (between office and family room), so it saves having to move the receiver unit dongle to the client with the big TV.

[danzan]

I guess having the controller on the host computer (the one that is running the game) will improve latency?

[fearlessfrog]

Originally posted by danzan:

I guess having the controller on the host computer (the one that is running the game) will improve latency?

Yes, but a tiny amount in some experiments so far. On a wired (gigabit) connection, I typically see latency broken down something like this:

0.08ms Input
18.1ms Game
14.2ms Display

The Display figure varies the most, as I guess it encodes deltas of what's being rendered and stuff, while the input stream back seems a proportionally a very small amount of the overall latency.

[Coolinger]

By controllers, do you mean any input device or only gamepads? Like, is it possible to use mouse/keyboard from HTPC but gamepad from gaming rig?

[fearlessfrog]

Originally posted by Coolinger sigmaker:

By controllers, do you mean any input device or only gamepads? Like, is it possible to use mouse/keyboard from HTPC but gamepad from gaming rig?

Yes, or rather both the client and host mouse and keyboards seem enabled at all times for me.

[Coolinger]

Thanks for the info :)

So just for the record, my setup is finished, I am just waiting for the beta access!

[Crunkmaster Joe]

Originally posted by slouken:

If there is a controller on the remote computer, that will be available to the game.
If there is a controller on the local computer that will be available to the streamed game, and will prevent any controllers on the remote computer from being visible to the game.

e.g. if a game is being streamed from computer A to computer B
if there is just a controller on A, it will be seen by the game.
if there is just a controller on B, it will be seen by the game.
if there is a controller on A and on B, the one on B will be seen by the game and the one on A will not.

You're contradicting yourself. In the first paragraph, you state that a controller plugged into the Host machine will prohibit a controller plugged in to the Client from working.

Then, you give an example, with "computer A" being the Host and "computer B" being the Client. You then state that a controller on "computer B" will prohibit a controller on "computer A." That's the opposite of what you said before.