Files for my website
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Fix typo in About
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src/content/posts/headless_steam_remote_play.md
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src/content/posts/headless_steam_remote_play.md
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cowsay: We have Stadia at home
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---
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For a while, I've wanted a setup where I can simply SSH into my desktop, start Steam, and use remote play to play my games.
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For a while, I've wanted a setup where I can simply SSH into my desktop, start Steam, and use remote
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play to play my games.
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Gamescope offers a backend called `headless` that allows me to do this, after some messing around I got it working mostly.
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Gamescope offers a backend called `headless` that allows me to do this, after some messing around I
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got it working mostly.
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There's other software like [Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine) that seem cool and have NixOS modules. I chose to avoid these because of the extra setup they need, and my use-case is a lot simpler than what they're made for.
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There's other software like [Sunshine](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine) that seem cool and
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have NixOS modules. I chose to avoid these because of the extra setup they need, and my use-case is
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a lot simpler than what they're made for.
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## Steam/Gamescope Setup
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First some manual setup for Steam, I had to enable Remote Play and pair my laptop to my desktop for the first time. when you first try to connect to a device to remote play from it, you need to enter a PIN on the host.
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First some manual setup for Steam, I had to enable Remote Play and pair my laptop to my desktop for
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the first time. when you first try to connect to a device to remote play from it, you need to enter
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a PIN on the host.
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Luckily I have a monitor plugged into my desktop so I just turned that on, opened Steam in a graphical session, and got everything set up. Hopefully I only have to do this once (but also Steam loves to clear my preferences so we'll see).
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Luckily I have a monitor plugged into my desktop so I just turned that on, opened Steam in a
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graphical session, and got everything set up. Hopefully I only have to do this once (but also Steam
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loves to clear my preferences so we'll see).
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My NixOS setup for steam and gamescope is this:
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···
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### Extest
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We disable extest since it's not really needed, and it will panic when you try to send any input to a game Steam launches. `false` is the default so you can omit the line, but figured I should mention it.
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We disable extest since it's not really needed, and it will panic when you try to send any input to
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a game Steam launches. `false` is the default so you can omit the line, but figured I should mention
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it.
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### capSysNice
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This is an [already discussed](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/351516) issue. The way I'm launching gamescope is causing issues with bubblewrap passing the sysnice capability to Steam. I just disable that and renice it later.
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This is an [already discussed](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/351516) issue. The way I'm
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launching gamescope is causing issues with bubblewrap passing the sysnice capability to Steam. I
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just disable that and renice it later.
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I'm like 80% sure this is a skill issue on my part to be honest. Most stuff says this has been fixed, at least in the NixOS module for Steam.
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I'm like 80% sure this is a skill issue on my part to be honest. Most stuff says this has been
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fixed, at least in the NixOS module for Steam.
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## Running Steam
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With Steam set up and those options enabled, we can run gamescope. My laptop uses a 2256x1504 resolution so I'm setting that here. I set both gamescope's resolution (`-W/-H`) and Steams (`-w`/`-h`).
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With Steam set up and those options enabled, we can run gamescope. My laptop uses a 2256x1504
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resolution so I'm setting that here. I set both gamescope's resolution (`-W/-H`) and Steams
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(`-w`/`-h`).
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```sh
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gamescope -W 2256 -H 1504 -w 2256 -h 1504 --backend headless --steam -- steam -tenfoot -pipewire-dmabuf
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```
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We launch gamescope with our preferred resolution, with a headless backend and Steam integration enabled. Then we launch Steam in big picture mode.
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We launch gamescope with our preferred resolution, with a headless backend and Steam integration
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enabled. Then we launch Steam in big picture mode.
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I'll usually start this in a GNU screen session so it doesn't stop Steam if my SSH session drops.
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···
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## Renicing
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Finally just renice all gamescope processes because it can start to degrade in performance after a while allegedly.
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Finally just renice all gamescope processes because it can start to degrade in performance after a
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while allegedly.
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```sh
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sudo renice -n -20 -p $(pgrep -d " " "gamescope")
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```
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Not the best solution but works fine. You could also repeat this for Steam and the game you're running once it launches.
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Not the best solution but works fine. You could also repeat this for Steam and the game you're
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running once it launches.
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## Final Results
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On a wired connection all the games I've tested are responsive and work very well besides some minor issues that are more a Linux/NixOS thing™ than specific to this. Here's a screenshot from Portal 2 with the overlay enabled.
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On a wired connection all the games I've tested are responsive and work very well besides some minor
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issues that are more a Linux/NixOS thing™ than specific to this. Here's a screenshot from Portal 2
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with the overlay enabled.
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Consistently I get <1ms input latency and ~20ms display latency in-game, which for me is perfectly acceptable. I'm able to have all the settings on high now without my laptop becoming a nice and toasty 100°C.
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Consistently I get <1ms input latency and ~20ms display latency in-game, which for me is perfectly
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acceptable. I'm able to have all the settings on high now without my laptop becoming a nice and
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toasty 100°C.
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The nice thing is how I can choose to start this whenever I want remotely; I don't need a Steam session always open on a display on my desktop. I do wish Steam would let me add non-steam games in the big-picture UI because I still have to do that manually.
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The nice thing is how I can choose to start this whenever I want remotely; I don't need a Steam
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session always open on a display on my desktop. I do wish Steam would let me add non-steam games in
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the big-picture UI because I still have to do that manually.
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## Conclusion
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I'm sure Sunshine is way better in both performance and versatility but this works well enough for me and requires far less setup that I can deal with it. Security-wise I didn't want to introduce an entirely new service just to stream games, especially since it has an entire auth system to set up.
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I'm sure Sunshine is way better in both performance and versatility but this works well enough for
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me and requires far less setup that I can deal with it. Security-wise I didn't want to introduce an
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entirely new service just to stream games, especially since it has an entire auth system to set up.
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Connecting via SSH is already easy since I use keys, and Steam handles everything for the actual remote play authentication for me already, so I see it as a much simpler setup.
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Connecting via SSH is already easy since I use keys, and Steam handles everything for the actual
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remote play authentication for me already, so I see it as a much simpler setup.
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Of course Sunshine does a lot more than Steam so it's not really a fair comparison. I might end up trying it anyways to see how well it works.
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Of course Sunshine does a lot more than Steam so it's not really a fair comparison. I might end up
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trying it anyways to see how well it works.
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First blog post in 2 years, maybe I'll make another one this decade!
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src/pages/index.astro
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src/pages/index.astro
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</p>
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<p>
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I'm currently in college majoring in Computer Science. I'm hoping to graduate in 2027 with a
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Bachelors in Computer Science and a minor in Professional Technical Writing. to use for
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programming competitions.
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Bachelors in Computer Science and a minor in Professional Technical Writing.
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</p>
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</div>
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