Is it possible to game on a remote machine?

dgingeri

dgingeri

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Dec 5, 2004
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OK, here's what I want to do. I have a good gaming desktop (Core i7 4790k, GTX980Ti) and a slow (Core i5 5200U, integrated graphics) laptop, both Windows 10 Pro. I would like to be able to game (World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online) using my laptop to remote control my main desktop when I'm traveling. The latency might be tough to deal with, but not as tough as the slow laptop graphics. Is this possible?
 
While i'm not any expert, I'd think the added lag from the notebook to the desktop to the server then back is gonna ruin your experience more than just using the laptop.
 
It is, but likely won't be very enjoyable. Whenever I remote into my server at home from my work machine at the office there is a noticeable lag even when doing the most simple tasks. I created a VPN between the two machines that encrypts traffic which likely impacts the experience.
 
I believe someone tried putting something like that out in the market.. like nine or ten years ago.. clearly hasn't gone far, but they tried.
 
infin@ said:
It is, but likely won't be very enjoyable. Whenever I remote into my server at home from my work machine at the office there is a noticeable lag even when doing the most simple tasks. I created a VPN between the two machines that encrypts traffic which likely impacts the experience.
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I don't need it to be enjoyable. I don't need to run raids or even dungeons while using this. I just want to be able to do the daily chores for each game: research and doff missions in STO and champion quests and AH activities in WoW.
 
dgingeri said:
I don't need it to be enjoyable. I don't need to run raids or even dungeons while using this. I just want to be able to do the daily chores for each game: research and doff missions in STO and champion quests and AH activities in WoW.
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Then yes, that will be possible with some remote desktop software. The OS you are running has said software built in (RDP). You will have to create a VPN between your laptop and home router, this will allow you to open a remote desktop session to your home gaming machine from you laptop over any internet connection. I use Openvpn personally, there are others. There are also some third party remote desktop applications that might be better suited for what you are trying to do, Nomachine would be my recommendation. My advice would be to play around and see which setup provides the best experience.

This can be tricky to setup, RemoteFX which is also built into Windows 10 pro can be configured to enable directX based games to be streamed over RDP. OpenGL games you may be SOL. There are some third party streaming apps out there though.

update...

Got a gaming session working from the office a few minutes ago using Nomachine, its free and much easier to setup than RDP. Happy gaming.

https://www.nomachine.com/
 
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I have a pfsense router, so openvpn should be easy to set up. I haven't tried it before because I didn't think I needed it. I have also used NoMachine, but I hadn't considered it for this purpose. That sounds good. Thanks.
 
I am in the middle of looking into this for a slightly more complicated project but have a few cents to throw in. As was mentioned above you can try to use steam's built in streaming feature. There is also an opensource project that takes advantage of Nvidia's streaming software that is meant to stream from your PC to Shield tablet; it is called Moonlight. I have also bumped into two different pieces of software that might work (I have no experience with either); they are called Parsec and Monoflow. Please keep us updated as I am also interested in this kind of project.

Good luck!
 
oh man, good luck with that. Do share your results, though
 
I have tried remotr which is meant to do this and it works ok. If your home pc and laptop are both on good networks you can absolutely do simple things like dailies in wow. I used it to play skyrim on my tablet at work from my main pc at home and it was playable for sure.
 
modi123 said:
I believe someone tried putting something like that out in the market.. like nine or ten years ago.. clearly hasn't gone far, but they tried.
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LiquidSky Computing and Parsec.TV are among several companies that have products in either testing or live operation. Parsec.TV uses AWS and is operating mostly in Europe, while LiquidSky is in testing in both Europe and North America (that is what I use to game remotely currently) and is based on a modified XEN/Server 2016 framework. Unlike Parsec.TV, LS has an ad-supported option for their service - performance under that plan is actually pretty darn decent (my "test" game is ANNO 2205 - a DX11-based city-builder/RTS from two years ago; it uses either the uPlay service or Steam - LiquidSky supports both - I am using my personally-owned uPlay version in testing). Their virtual PCs - called SkyComputers - are based on Windows Server 2016 and use nVidia GRID M60 vGPUs. The GAMER plan (the core of their ad-supported bottom-end tier) can - literally - firewall ANNO's highest-end settings over desktop gigabit (which is where I have it set); that is very much on-par with the highest-quality YouTube OR Twitch streams of the same game (and curb-stomps playing on my local desktop). While it is possible to match the quality in an all-local PC, it does require an initial outlay of at least $400USD in hardware upgrades (in my case, the upgrades would be a Haswell i5 and a GTX1050Ti - kinda hard to do when you're basically working on "sweat equity" to earn the funds for such upgrades) - and that is just desktop PCs. The issue for notebook and other portable PCs is - naturally - worse. Non-Windows computers (such as Macs)? Android phones and tablets? Services like LiquidSky and Parsec are your ONLY option. (While I have no local Macs, I DO have an Android phone AND an Android tablet.)
 
otherweeb said:
While i'm not any expert, I'd think the added lag from the notebook to the desktop to the server then back is gonna ruin your experience more than just using the laptop.
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It's possible - in fact, I have personally done so - however, you really can't have any sub-5 GHz wireless legs in the trip between the remote PC and you (by sub-5 GHz-N, I'm also including 100 mbps wired Ethernet as well; basically all legs MUST be either wired gigabit OR 5 GHz-N; it applies to desktops as well).
 
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