PittRipply Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 I am highly anticipating the ability to use LaunchBox as a game media server similar to how Plex works for video/audio. Within Plex, there is an ability to add family and friends as plex friends so that they may stream content that I have organized to their device. My question for this forum is Will LaunchBox ever implement such an ability as this within there software or is their goal focused only on its use by one gaming computer? I would imagine such an ability would require screen capturing coding and quality downgrading to fit the speed of the users who stream from it. Streaming is proving to be the new standard of the future. Also some sort of ability to receive controller commands from the user so that they game may be controlled and run on a virtual server machine in the background within its own session without interfering with my personal use on the server. As long as the hardware specs are high, I do not see reason to dismiss such an implementation. I am running a ASUS Geforce GTX 1080Ti on 32GB of DDR3, Intel Core i7 4GHz, 120TB (10TB/slot, 12 sata ports) current total capacity. On 1Gbps internet w/ Netgear CM1000 Modem + Nighthawk X10 Router. I have custom built to tackle this idea. If Project LaunchBox has not made plans to implement such a feature within its software similar to Plex, please consider it or at the very least please assist in educating me of a way to make it possible through customization of other tools. Thanks -PittRipply Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Probably not exactly what you got in mind but you can use Steamlink to stream play your games over your home network, we have users who do this already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PittRipply Posted December 31, 2017 Author Share Posted December 31, 2017 Just now, Lordmonkus said: Probably not exactly what you got in mind but you can use Steamlink to stream play your games over your home network, we have users who do this already. I own 2 Steamlinks however I have not tested them out yet. I was thinking that they would be strictly designed for Steam and strangled by DRM. Are DRM free games like GOG or Console Emulation possible on Steamlink? I have tested running the Moonlight app by connecting to the graphics card which is very useful for only one session but it has no ability for multiple users from different locations simultaneously. It also has no security such as it displays my entire desktop and the freedom to roam outside of LaunchBox. That is not something safe if you stream to children so to speak who could mistakenly make changes to the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 I know you can run other programs through Steamlink that are not directly tied to Steam, @Zombeaver uses it quite a lot and he can fill you in on more of the details of. I have dabbled a bit with it on my home network using my HTPC and main PC just to check it out but I don't use it on a regular basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 The problem I see with this is that plex is just simply sending the file over the network or internet or transcoding then sending the file and the plex client on the other end simply plays the incoming file, Emulation is a whole other thing in order to be able to stream a game to another PC Bigbox would have to be running on the server computer as would the actual emulator being used, and we have no real control over the emulators so if someone was to start playing a game on a client machine then the emulator would have to be running on the server side machine and would probably be fullscreen also so you could be using the server computer when all of the sudden a emulator launches and goes full screen and you can no longer use the server side system, For this to work the way you want it to all the emulator authors would have to recode there emulators in order to send the image while still being minimised on the server side system and unfortunately I don't see this happening any time. As for the steam link you can add any program on your system to steam as a "non steam game" Bigbox included obviously and stream to steam link or another system on the network using steam, however you will have the same issue as I described above the game or program would be running fullscreen on the server system and would be unusable for the local user. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 11 hours ago, neil9000 said: As for the steam link you can add any program on your system to steam as a "non steam game" Bigbox included obviously and stream to steam link or another system on the network using steam, however you will have the same issue as I described above the game or program would be running fullscreen on the server system and would be unusable for the local user. Pretty much this. You can stream Big Box (and, by proxy, emulators) over Steam Link by adding it as a non-steam application in Steam. You start streaming, which puts the host in Steam Big Picture, you navigate to Big Box (I have it added as a "favorite" so it's immediately visible in the application list), start it, and now you're streaming Big Box, when you start an emulator you can play the game and when you exit it drops you back into Big Box, when you exit Big Box it drops you back into Steam Big Picture. The caveats are that 1) the emulator needs to support Xinput (which thankfully is pretty ubiquitous thanks in no small part to the wide range of platforms that are covered under Retroarch); Dinput won't work 2) the Steam Link (and "Steam In-Home Streaming") essentially tie up the host computer - it's not like Plex where you're just streaming X or Y file from your server, you're starting a game on the host PC just like if you were sitting in front of it, you're sending inputs over the network to the host, the host sends them to the game and then sends the video back to the Steam Link (or other PC if you're using Steam In-Home Streaming) - all with minimal latency so that it's actually playable and not a laggy mess (I've beaten Contra 3 over Steam Link, to give you some idea). No one else will be able to use the PC at the same time as you're basically just controlling it remotely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwball69 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Curious, can you use a program like joy2key to get around the dinput issue? also are you wirelessly using a xinput controller or does it have to be wired? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 You can use VirtualHere to get around the Dinput issue (as well as allowing things like Joy2Key or Xpadder to work, which ordinarily don't work over Steam Link) but VirtualHere comes with its own share of problems - it tends to be more taxing on bandwidth and can cause some audio/video distortions as result; at least it used to when it was first implemented, I haven't used it in quite a while. I use a wireless 360 controller with mine. This requires that you have a wireless 360 dongle plugged into one of the USB ports on the Link. The Link also supports Bluetooth natively, but I haven't tried any Bluetooth controllers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwball69 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 hmm, this makes me tempted to pick up a Steam link despite the fact it never goes on sale in Canada Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombeaver Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 If you have two PCs on the same network, you can test out how the Link will work by using Steam In-Home Streaming. It's functionally identical to how the Link works, except that you'll be streaming from one PC to another rather than one PC to a small box (Steam Link). I actually recommend doing this if possible to get a better idea of how it works before you get a Link. They go on sale directly on Steam fairly frequently. I think it was on sale for like $10 shipped recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Yeah, they never go on sale for that low of a price here in Canada, even when taking the exchange rate into consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screwball69 Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 Yeah the Steam page for us just makes you go to Amazon where its always full price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vroomfondel Posted June 6, 2023 Share Posted June 6, 2023 (edited) I really want this type of functionality and have been looking everywhere for it. I have a very large library of games (.iso games take a lot of space) and would love to be able to distribute a "library" that contained all the metadata, but only when you wanted to play a game, would it reach out to my server and dl the necessary files. Instead of needing to stream files live (like plex/emby) , it would download the rom, iso, or zip package for dos/windows games. This would be stored locally and then you could run the game as usual. You could also add a "Free up space, or Remove Local Copy" leaving local saves and other files intact. The benefit of this is that you could copy your launchbox install to a laptop, and only grab the games you wanted to play on the go. You could share your library with friends who were remote, etc. EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize how old this post was, I will create a new post with this request. Edited June 6, 2023 by Vroomfondel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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