Local game streaming - Does it exist already?

[neema_t]

With all this talk of the Steambox and all that stuff I got to thinking (as I'm sure tens of thousands of PC gamers already have): Is there a sort of local 'cloud' gaming option? Could I turn my PC into a single terminal gaming server so that I could connect a TV and controller to it via a LAN connection? I find I'm wanting to just sit on my sofa with a controller to play games a lot these days but obviously I can't go back to consoles now that I've seen 60fps and actual 1080p, however running an HDMI, TOSLINK and USB cable aren't viable options. I'm sure if something did exist then it would be talked about but I guess it can't hurt to ask.

Unless...

[Jesus_Phish]

You can get wireless HDMI kits that would allow you to use your PC as a PC and also to stream it to a TV so you could use it there too.

You can get them to do 1080p and I'd imagine 60fps, but there's possibilities that you might get some input lag when using a controller or a keyboard in gaming. That shouldn't really matter for single player games though unless it's something like Dark Souls. But I can't attest to how good/bad the systems are, I've heard conflicting things from people on them.

[trjp]

There are protocols intended to offer high-end remote desktop capabilities but the price would make buying a local gaming PC look cheap (they're also Windows Server-based for the most part) - you need hardware encoding/decoding and a lot of other optimisations and it probably still wouldn't be as lag-free as you'd like (probably similar to OnLive).

The cost of wireless HDMI streaming isn't insignificant and the quality over distance is poor (it's really intended to eliminate short cables IMO). I doubt a wireless 360 controller would work outside of a single room either - I'll try it later and tell you if it does ;)

[Jesus_Phish]

Wireless 360 controllers can work outside of the same room. I've done this years ago when at a friends house for a Halo 3 Lan night. We decided a fun game type would be "camera man" where one player would be a camera man and follow another player around, the other play trying to shoot enemies in third person and with no cross hairs. The guy I was following around was sat next to me, with his controller being wireless connected to a 360 up a flight of stairs in another room.

[mashakos]

there is the wired option, pretty cheap but it's wired so....
here's an example

then there is WHDI. It is a new standard that wirelessly transmits video - uncompressed video - and usb data using a 5GHz frequency band over very high distances. Typical limits are in the 150m range for these extenders. Nothing in the market yet, but you can order samples from Chinese manufacturers for a steep price ($200-$300 ballpark)
some background info:
http://www.techradar.com/news/comput...e-care-1061440

Personally I'm waiting for the WHDI wireless screen to drop in price from it's current $600 production sample price. You get HDMI and usb ransmitted wirelessly to a 1080p 10" capacitive touch screen. The screen itself has HDMI and usb output so you can either use it on it's own or as an extender. Battery life is said to be 4 hours with the screen at full brightness and running in 1080p (I'm sure it can be extended if run at 720p and dimmed). Pretty sweet high end version of the wiiu gamepad imo.

EDIT: Seems there is already a WHDI product out there - the Belkin Screencast AV4. HDMI only though. Here's a video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXyhKMadKhc

[neema_t]

So it seems that I won't be able to play PC games from a different room in the house for a reasonable price any time soon. FINE. I shall settle for playing games on the TV in the same room, this should require nothing more than a flat 15 metre HDMI cable that I should hopefully be able to run under the carpet stealthily enough for it to be totally good. I realised shortly after posting the OP that my PC is closer to the sofa than the TV is, so plugging the controller in to the PC directly made way more sense anyway.

Thank you all.

The hard part now is working out how to deal with turning Nvidia Surround on and off and switching the HDMI port on my card to the TV's cable rather than one of the monitors already plugged in to it. And I hope games won't take offence to me re-enabling the card's built in audio, I think it was causing a conflict with my Xonar DX before. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Yes, we.

[trjp]

My experience of switching sound devices (between my onboard and a headset audio solution) proved to be my undoing - it's a massive, massive, massive pain in the arse...

Most games won't remember your selected device and just use the 'default windows sound device' so you have to change it in Windows - BEFORE - you run the game.

That's not something which is very easy to do with a controller!!

One solution in your case would be if you had an HDMI monitor also and switched to that permanently - but I guess you bought a proper soundcard for a reason?

Idea: Use a bluetooth sender/receiver (or a long headphone cable alongside the HDMI cable) to send the audio split-off from your soundcard - instead of using the HDMI audio (most TVs have a 3.5" audio in but not all will pair it with an HDMI input??)

[trjp]

p.s. I tried this once and it sort-of worked for a while

http://downloadsquad.switched.com/20...ce-with-a-hot/

I just noticed this tho - might be a better solution?

http://www.40tech.com/2010/08/31/how...and-a-headset/

[neema_t]

I was thinking of a way to automate between switching Surround on and off, and I figured that if it can all be done with keyboard commands you could automate it with an Arduino Leonardo. I'm sure you could make a script too but I think it would be easier to link a Leonardo up to a physical HDMI switch so that pressing the button to swap to the TV would trigger it into running through the keystrokes needed to switch Surround off (and maybe change the resolution to 1080p? I don't know if this would be necessary or not), so maybe that same automation could extend to changing the audio device.

Edit: Having read those links, you could easily make a Leonardo press the hotkey combination for Soundswitch, assuming it works.

I'm considering ditching my Xonar, though, I bought it when I first built my PC because it was an option and I figured I might as well, understanding basically nothing about PCs at all. I use headphones so I don't really think I need a sound card, but then I think it would still be an issue if I was using the on-board sound anyway as I'd need to go from headphones, which the graphics card can't do, and HDMI audio, which the motherboard can't do.

[mashakos]

neema_t: try this utility I made:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ahvaw17xw75pf73
note that the utility has some config files so the rar file needs to be fully extracted to a drive before running the thing. Check the readme for instructions on how to use.

EDIT: If you create a shortcut to the utlity with a path to your game exe and the required parameters, it will switch audio automatically when the shortcut is clicked (and launch the game ofcourse). It's a bit tedious at first but later on you will get the convenience of auto switching with all your games/apps.