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Steam Link App Finally Available for iOS and tvOS
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
Nope! You can link it to your iPhone. It doesn't work as an MFi controller, but the Link app knows how to utilize it as a general bluetooth device.
Only if you're in reach of the host PC, you cant pair one with the Apple TV
I wonder why the app supports Steam Controller but not Xbox One or PS4 over Bluetooth. License / copyright issues?
Because the Steam controller is flashed as a keyboard in the firmware which iOS can detect and pair with, while Xbox One/PS4 use their own input methods
The "being flashed as a keyboard" thing is only relevant to get iOS to pair with the Steam controller, after that the Steam Link app itself can write its own, for lack of a better word, drivers to deal with all the analog/touchpad stuff.
iOS doesn't know what XInput is, which is why an Xbox One controller doesn't pair.
This is my understanding, anyway.
My Xbox one controller responds all the way from my upstairs office so I'm going to try this again.
The app doesn't let me set the audio to anything other than Stereo. I have a Sony 7.1 sound bar connected to an LG OLED via ARC. Any ideas?
The app doesn't let me set the audio to anything other than Stereo. I have a Sony 7.1 sound bar connected to an LG OLED via ARC. Any ideas?
Man, really wish I could just sync up a standard game controller with my Apple TV. I'd like to give this a whirl but I don't want to invest in a $50 controller I don't need.
If your house is wired for ethernet, you can buy a cheap usb to Ethernet extender and move your Xbox adapter downstairs. I use one so my main pc can be in the equipment room and send it's signal to every 4K hdr screen in the house, and have usb extenders running to every room I need them in.
Steam Link will only send sound via LPCM which your ARC will not pass other than stereo
You can stream external games in general so yes, that should work.
I'm having the same issue. I'm trying to play Hades but it isn't running as smooth as I'd like. Any to clues on what to do?
Was going to say, how does this work? I didn't know you could use controllers on an iPhone
Companies who want to make peripherals for iphone/ipad etc have to get license from Apple by joining the MFi ("Made For iOS" products) program. With the license, they get the API from Apple to developer game controller for the iphone. In another word, if game controller is MFi certified, it is usable on iphone.
Most of the popular game controllers such as Steam controller, MS and Sony controllers are not MFi certified.
If I am not wrong MFi doesn't have L3/R3 integration until few months ago, so most of the MFi controllers in the market right now doesn't support L3/R3.
It won't work in iOS games since it's not MFI certified, but Valve released a firmware update for the Steam Controller which added Bluetooth support, and that works with the Steam Link app.
Is there a way to adjust transparency of the overlay? I started playing Headliner and I totally don't need a physical pad for that but having those outlines and colored buttons prominently overlaid is a bit distracting to say the least. I know you can adjust the size and position but haven't found a setting for transparency.
The app supporting the Smart Keyboard would be swell too. I need to figure out where to drop feedback.
Otherwise: super happy with the app.
The app supporting the Smart Keyboard would be swell too. I need to figure out where to drop feedback.
Otherwise: super happy with the app.
I've been trying to play point and click games with the mouse mode, and it's got this deal breaking thing where wherever you stop the mouse it acts as a click instead of just stopping. Is there a way to fix this?
I was able to spend some more time with this, and I'm really impressed with how well it works. Image quality is great (50mbps HEVC), games play just as you'd expect with a Steam Controller, and latency is about the same as a typical TV or non-gaming monitor - so it's perfectly playable
I've been testing with faster-paced games and have not run into any problems caused by streaming vs playing locally.
I was able to get a full-screen resolution working on the 11" iPad now, since it's not 4:3 like the rest of them:
The issue was that custom DSR resolutions will crash the video driver badly if either the horizontal or vertical resolution are below your monitor's native resolution.
I knew that you couldn't use a custom resolution which was lower than your monitor's native in both dimensions, as that would crash the driver immediately, but 2388x1668 was working fine on the desktop with my 3440x1440 display since it still had to downscale the image due to the height. But it crashed the driver as soon as I tried to run anything 3D.
Unfortunately that means the solution is to create a DSR resolution in the same aspect ratio, but matching the longest resolution of the monitor - 3440x2400 in this case.
3440x2400 has almost exactly the same requirements as rendering at native 4K, which is too much for my GTX 1070 in many games. Even when testing older games like DiRT 2, it was unable to hold 120 FPS absolutely 100% of the time.
Seeing games rendered at that resolution on such a high density display does look really good though - especially if it's something where the demands are low enough that it does still run at 120 FPS.
If a game renders at the window size in windowed mode, you can also use "hotsampling" to run in the correct aspect ratio without having to render at such a high resolution.
I set up a preset in DisplayFusion which resizes a window to 2388x1668 - which works well for games that support this, and you could easily use something lower resolution than that if you aren't concerned about rendering at native resolution since it's a smaller display.
You may have noticed another issue that appeared when using this resolution instead of a 16:9 or 21:9 resolution, which would be letterboxed: the app doesn't tell the home bar to fade out, so it's always present over the game.
I don't know if it affects all games, but it seems that streaming is forcing games to run with real double-buffered V-Sync.
Typically most games use triple-buffered V-Sync on NVIDIA GPUs no matter what you select these days, but when streaming via Steam it seems to force it. That means the stream will drop to divisors of the refresh rate. If you have a 120Hz device that is 120, 60, 40, 30, 24, 20. If you have a 60Hz device that will be 60, 30, 20, 15 etc.
I tested this by limiting a game to 72 FPS and it would run at 72 for a moment, then drop to 60, go back up to 72, and repeat, resulting in bad stuttering. In that case, I had to either reduce the settings so it would run at a constant 120 FPS, or limit it to 60 for a consistently smooth experience.
Hopefully this can be fixed, as it's quite a step back when you're used to G-Sync, or even a high refresh rate monitor using unlocked frame rates.
I've been testing with faster-paced games and have not run into any problems caused by streaming vs playing locally.
I was able to get a full-screen resolution working on the 11" iPad now, since it's not 4:3 like the rest of them:
The issue was that custom DSR resolutions will crash the video driver badly if either the horizontal or vertical resolution are below your monitor's native resolution.
I knew that you couldn't use a custom resolution which was lower than your monitor's native in both dimensions, as that would crash the driver immediately, but 2388x1668 was working fine on the desktop with my 3440x1440 display since it still had to downscale the image due to the height. But it crashed the driver as soon as I tried to run anything 3D.
Unfortunately that means the solution is to create a DSR resolution in the same aspect ratio, but matching the longest resolution of the monitor - 3440x2400 in this case.
3440x2400 has almost exactly the same requirements as rendering at native 4K, which is too much for my GTX 1070 in many games. Even when testing older games like DiRT 2, it was unable to hold 120 FPS absolutely 100% of the time.
Seeing games rendered at that resolution on such a high density display does look really good though - especially if it's something where the demands are low enough that it does still run at 120 FPS.
If a game renders at the window size in windowed mode, you can also use "hotsampling" to run in the correct aspect ratio without having to render at such a high resolution.
I set up a preset in DisplayFusion which resizes a window to 2388x1668 - which works well for games that support this, and you could easily use something lower resolution than that if you aren't concerned about rendering at native resolution since it's a smaller display.
You may have noticed another issue that appeared when using this resolution instead of a 16:9 or 21:9 resolution, which would be letterboxed: the app doesn't tell the home bar to fade out, so it's always present over the game.
I think I have found the cause of this now that I'm trying to run games at 3440x2400.
I don't know if it affects all games, but it seems that streaming is forcing games to run with real double-buffered V-Sync.
Typically most games use triple-buffered V-Sync on NVIDIA GPUs no matter what you select these days, but when streaming via Steam it seems to force it. That means the stream will drop to divisors of the refresh rate. If you have a 120Hz device that is 120, 60, 40, 30, 24, 20. If you have a 60Hz device that will be 60, 30, 20, 15 etc.
I tested this by limiting a game to 72 FPS and it would run at 72 for a moment, then drop to 60, go back up to 72, and repeat, resulting in bad stuttering. In that case, I had to either reduce the settings so it would run at a constant 120 FPS, or limit it to 60 for a consistently smooth experience.
Hopefully this can be fixed, as it's quite a step back when you're used to G-Sync, or even a high refresh rate monitor using unlocked frame rates.
It seems to depend on how the game handles input, as I've seen some where dragging does not also send a click. Hopefully it's something they can fix, or there is another workaround for it - possibly tools people have developed for playing these games on touchscreen devices?
Works really well, even with remote play! The quality can be iffy if you're away from your home network, but the latency is really impressive with a good wifi connection!
Only problem is when using it, it seems like steam has a tendency to crash when leaving BPM. Which you can't do anything about if you're away from home unless you have parsec or chrome desktop running already.
Only problem is when using it, it seems like steam has a tendency to crash when leaving BPM. Which you can't do anything about if you're away from home unless you have parsec or chrome desktop running already.
I really want to use my steam controller with my iPad for this, but in order to update the controller and enable the Bluetooth, I need to connect it by USB. Problem is that Steam won't recognize it via USB on either my PC or my Mac, and after browsing the internet, I have not found a solution
Sounds like it could be a bad USB cable.
If you've replaced it already, maybe try entering/leaving the Steam client beta and see if that makes a difference.
Say I bought a Steam controller but only had a 2017 Macbook Pro to stream games from...is this even worth trying? Like for say, playing games like Hyperlight Drifter or L4D2?
The Mac should be able to handle those games just fine, so I don't see why not.
You could try it with touch controls just to check that everything is working beforehand.
I'll try getting in/out of the beta. That's a suggestion I haven't seen yet. Appreciate it!
The bigger issue you're going to have is that both the streaming device (Macbook) and the target device (iOS) are wireless. Generally you want at least one of the devices to be wired to help with latency.
The target device is actually a wired Apple TV 4k...but I think your point still stands either way.
iPad Pro user here, streaming from Steam on Windows 7. It's janky as fuck, requiring a lot of messing with the active window on desktop before the app recognizes what you're doing (otherwise it gets stuck on a static image of the game you just launched...which is very unhelpful). But after some fiddling, I can comfortably read my VNs using touch controls for the mouse.
I, on the other hand, have had zero issues. Everything worked perfectly with no fiddling required. Pairing my Steam Controller was a breeze, switching resolutions works just fine, launcher windows show up with no problems etc.
I've tried Civ VI out on it, and it's superb! The way it handles mouse input is better than Moonlight, so it feels a lot more natural to use. I don't think I'd recommend the touch screen for more fast-paced games, but games that require less precise control, or use just the mouse, are probably great. Streaming quality is fine, too, though that is obviously dependent on your home network more than anything else.
How does the app handle Gamevice controllers? Does it just add little touch screen buttons for L3 and R3? I think I could probably live with that...
Yeah, I'm not sure why it's difficult on my end, but my home network's good enough to work with it. It's a clever way to stream my desktop to tablet as well, which means I can play PC-only games as old as Tsukihime in bed now. It seems like I have to start Steam Link through the app, then alt-tab from Big Picture on desktop to an unrelated app (can't be the game), then the app automatically follows the desktop cursor to wherever it goes active. Otherwise, upon launching the game and switching to its process window, the iPad stream freezes and only updates (as a static image) when I exit and re-enter the app.
My PS4 Pro and PC are both wired to the same router, but I can stream Steam games flawlessly at high resolution and with no visual issues/noticeable input lag. It is flawless other than the occasional compression artifacts.
How come PS4 remote play is unplayable with laggy input? Does Sony just have a worse implementation/compression? Is the limitation in the PS4 hardware? The difference is night/day.
Can anyone recommend a high quality clip that allows me to clip my iPhone to the Xbox controller?
This is possible by using a regular Xbox/DS4 pad connected directly to your PC. Depending on the distance between your bedroom and your PC.
How come PS4 remote play is unplayable with laggy input? Does Sony just have a worse implementation/compression? Is the limitation in the PS4 hardware? The difference is night/day.
Can anyone recommend a high quality clip that allows me to clip my iPhone to the Xbox controller?
This is possible by using a regular Xbox/DS4 pad connected directly to your PC. Depending on the distance between your bedroom and your PC.
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So - bit of a bump here but the beta for IOS 13 is out. I've updated my ATV, pairing ps4 controller works a dream. But in the steamlink app, to mapp the PS4 controller is impossible because the inputs still act like the TV remote and either backs you out or restarts the app. So actually using a ps4 controller seems impossible right now until they fix the steamlink app. Anyone tried and had success?
No apparently, it's the same. Guide is assigned to system actions on a system level.
From the last few posts of this thread :
(It took me ages to figure it out)