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Steam: now has working beta of in-home streaming capability for games and apps

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40hz:
In beta and by invitation - but working quite well: Steam In-Home Streaming.



Welcome to Steam In-Home Streaming

Steam In-Home Streaming a way for people with good home networks to seamlessly play their Steam games between two computers anywhere in the house.

This feature will be available for early feedback in an upcoming beta test. Beta participants will be randomly selected from members of this group, so join, have fun, and stay tuned for more details!
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Linux to Linux...Windows to Windows...Windows to Linux and vice versa? Ok, this is seriously cool:

Q & A
November 20, 2013 - slouken   

Q: Is this like other game streaming services I've heard about?
A: No, you are in complete control over the hardware on both ends and the network between them. There is no data center, no subscription, and it's completely free!

Q: Will this be fast enough for me to enjoy my favorite game?
A: This depends on your hardware, networking configuration and how fast you want it to be. It's free, so try it out and see!

Q: Can I use this to stream games across the Internet?
A: The feature is optimized for home streaming and Internet streaming is currently not supported.

Q: Can someone use my computer while I’m streaming a game from it?
A: No, your computer is dedicated to running the game and input is coming from both the remote client and the local system. It would be very confusing if someone were trying to use the computer at the same time.

Q: How do I get selected to participate in the beta?
A: We will be randomly selecting beta test participants from community members who have joined the Steam In-Home Streaming group

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The Linux Action Show did a live demo of it in this episode. Fast forward to the 30:30 mark to skip the earlier show segments if you're not a Linux person.

Or watch via YouTube here:



 8)

Deozaan:
Sounds awesome!

I get the impression from the video that they've never used Steam before. They're pointing out some features as if they were new to Steam, or specifically for the streaming, but that's how things have worked on Steam for years.

But very cool!

40hz:
^They've tried to make the LAS more newbie friendly at the request of many of their viewers. The old LAS, with cofounder Brian Lunduke, was definitely "sink or swim" if you weren't already familiar with the topics or technologies being discussed.  Their newer IT-oriented TechSnap show is much more geek if you're looking for something catering more to the pro.
 8)

40hz:
This does raise an issue that's being discussed in the Linux game dev world: Will Steam's In-home Streaming finally remove any motivation to develop native games for Linux? If you can develop for Windows, with its vastly larger userbase, why spend money porting to Linux at all? Especially now that a nix user can be told: "Just stream it from a Windows box"?

It's an interesting question. And a very real concern since the economics favors not porting. Many nix users who are diehard game fans already (of necessity) keep some flavor of Windows in house purely for gaming purposes. They either have a separate game box, run Windows in a VM, use a copy of CodeWeaver's CrossOver, or can dual boot into it. So the serious (i.e. buying) gaming crowd is already there.

Yep...very interesting question.

kamahl:
This does raise an issue that's being discussed in the Linux game dev world: Will Steam's In-home Streaming finally remove any motivation to develop native games for Linux? If you can develop for Windows, with its vastly larger userbase, why spend money porting to Linux at all? Especially now that a nix user can be told: "Just stream it from a Windows box"?

It's an interesting question. And a very real concern since the economics favors not porting. Many nix users who are diehard game fans already (of necessity) keep some flavor of Windows in house purely for gaming purposes. They either have a separate game box, run Windows in a VM, use a copy of CodeWeaver's CrossOver, or can dual boot into it. So the serious (i.e. buying) gaming crowd is already there.

Yep...very interesting question.
-40hz (February 05, 2014, 07:56 AM)
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The people who are capable of streaming aren't the target market for porting games to Linux.  If someone has a Windows box to stream off, chances are they'd be willing to use that box for the game anyway.

Porting games to Linux has two major targets:  People who have no Windows machines (Or none that are gaming capable), and the potential market of the SteamOS boxes.  This second one is a huge market by it's very nature [Simplifying PC gaming to a level that Console owners are used to].  The people who buy a SteamOS box are doing so because the Can't/Won't/Don't want to set up a gaming PC.  This means they don't have a machine to stream off, and will be stuck with games that have been ported to Linux.

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