Posted Wed May 21, 2014 at 02:58 PM PDT by Brian Hoss
One windows machine can now stream playable games in-home to weaker computers and other operating systems.
While it doesn't hardly only apply to the Steam machine concept, Valve has been teasing the ability to use multiple varied, relatively game unfriendly computers to play games via streaming. The idea is that the user has one beastly gaming rig which can stream a game to another computer logged into the same steam account on the same home network. Not only does this mean that a weak windows machine can be used to say, play a streamed game in the living room while the big gaming PC does all the work in another part of the home, but even computers that run Mac OS X, Linux, and Steam OS can stream games from a Windows PC that would not otherwise be playable with those operating systems.
From Valve:
PLAY YOUR GAMES ANYWHERE IN YOUR HOME WITH STEAM IN-HOME STREAMING
When you log into Steam on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the remote PC.
Play your Windows games on devices running other operating systems Currently Mac OS X, Linux, and SteamOS, with support for more systems coming soon.
Play your demanding games on lower-end systems System requirements dictate the rig you’ll need to run your game, but with In-Home Streaming they won’t limit where you can play.
Kick back with your laptop or home theater PC Your Steam games are now available throughout your home when you stream them from your PC to your computer, netbook, laptop, or HTPC.
Seamlessly pick up where you left off Looking for a change of scenery? Steam knows whether your game is already running. Move to another device and start streaming your game right as you left it on your PC.
Download once, play anywhere No need to wait for your game to download again when it’s already installed on one of your home computers.
For any users interested in using the Steam In-Home Streaming, which has been in beta for several months, a few additional notes should be known. Valve currently recommends that streaming be done through a wired connection. All audio is downmixed to stereo on the Client system. Not all games can currently be streamed and others have issues such as no audio.
Source: Valve
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