The Tech Show 1: Steam For Mac
Soon you can play PC games on your smartphone or tablet via the app for iOS and Android. Announced Steam Link for mobile devices along with Steam Video, an app that lets you watch movies and shows available on Steam on your Android or iOS device. The Steam Link app release date is slated to be 'next week' while Steam Video is out 'later this Summer'. According to Valve, Steam Link app allows you to play your Steam Library on Android or iOS devices including smartphones, tablets, Android TV, and even Apple TV. No requirements have been made public just yet aside from the need to be connected via 5GHz network or wired Ethernet to a host system (Mac or PC). Android access will be initially offered in beta, although no further details have been provided on how or when this would be accessible for all.
The Steam Link App will feature support for the Steam Controller, MFI controllers, and more across both platforms. As for the Steam Video app, it will let you watch video content from Steam on your iOS or Android device over WiFi or LTE. Interestingly, you will be able to download your videos to watch offline, ensuring you don't have to be online at all times. The release of these two apps further cement Steam's position as the go to place for PC gamers. Though we won't be surprised to see specific games be disallowed from Steam Link.
Valve usually lets developers set access restrictions and not too many take advantage of, hopefully this won't be the case here given that you still need your PC to be running to take advantage of this. Steam owner Valve has been in the news of late for a host of reasons. From acquiring indie outfits like to making new games like, it seems that although appears to be its big revenue driver, it's not shy from exploring other opportunities.
More so when you consider the likes of Activision looking to break out from the Steam ecosystem and make its games exclusive to Battle.net like. If you're a fan of video games, check out, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via or, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.
Games On Steam For Mac
RELATED: When you use Steam In-Home streaming, one PC sends its video and audio to another PC. The other PC views the video and audio like it’s watching a movie, sending back mouse, keyboard, and controller input to the other PC. This allows you to have a fast gaming PC power your gaming experience on slower PCs. For example, you could play graphically demanding games on a laptop in another room of your house, even if that laptop has slower integrated graphics. You could connect a slower PC and use your gaming PC without hauling it into a different room in your house. Streaming also enables cross-platform compatibility.
The Tech Show 1 Steam For Mac
You could have a Windows gaming PC and stream games to a Mac or Linux system. This will be Valve’s official solution for compatibility with old Windows-only games on the Linux (Steam OS) arriving later this year. NVIDIA offers their own game streaming solution, but it requires certain NVIDIA graphics hardware and can only stream to an NVIDIA Shield device. How to Get Started RELATED: In-Home Streaming is simple to use and doesn’t require any complex configuration — or any configuration, really. First, log into the Steam program on a Windows PC. This should ideally be a powerful gaming PC with a powerful CPU and fast graphics hardware. Install the games you want to stream if you haven’t already — you’ll be streaming from your PC, not from Valve’s servers.
(Valve will eventually allow you to stream games from Mac OS X, Linux, and systems, but that feature isn’t yet available. You can still stream games to these other operating systems.) Next, log into Steam on another computer on the same network with the same Steam username. Both computers have to be on the same subnet of the same local network.
You’ll see the games installed on your other PC in the Steam client’s library. Click the Stream button to start streaming a game from your other PC. The game will launch on your host PC, and it will send its audio and video to the PC in front of you.
Your input on the client will be sent back to the server. Be sure to update Steam on both computers if you don’t see this feature. Use the Steam Check for Updates option within Steam and install the latest update. For your computer’s hardware is always a good idea, too. Improving Performance Here’s what Valve recommends for good streaming performance:. Host PC: A quad-core CPU for the computer running the game, minimum. The computer needs enough processor power to run the game, compress the video and audio, and send it over the network with low latency.
Streaming Client: A GPU that supports hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding on the client PC. This hardware is included on all recent laptops and PCs. Ifyou have an older PC or netbook, it may not be able to decode the video stream quickly enough. Network Hardware: A wired network connection is ideal. You may have success with wireless N or AC networks with good signals, but this isn’t guaranteed. Game Settings: While streaming a game, visit the game’s setting screen and lower the resolution or turn off to speed things up.
In-Home Steaming Settings: On the host PC, click Steam Settings and select In-Home Streaming to view the In-Home Streaming settings. You can modify your streaming settings to improve performance and reduce latency. Feel free to experiment with the options here and see how they affect performance — they should be self-explanatory. Check for troubleshooting information.
You can also try streaming non-Steam games. Click Games Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library on your host PC and add a PC game you have installed elsewhere on your system. You can then try streaming it from your client PC. Valve says this “may work but is not officially supported.” Image Credit.