Corona Time: Affordable modern gaming from the living room
In this unexpected “Corona vacation”, we are all home, ended up watching TV all day. This isolates us from others and diminishes our social connections. Watching TV “together” doesn’t trigger social interaction between us and it is almost the same as watching alone. TVs are not bad! We just use them in a bad way. We all need to take the opportunity and get quality time with our families and friends. There is no better way to do it than to play together (even if you are a grownup).
Once upon a time
I was a gamer when I was younger. I played Atari and old PC (DOS) games.
I remember my dad bought me the first version of PlayStation when it arrived in our country.
Since then, I played more than 50 PS1 games. It was an astonishing piece of tech! Consoles, at that time, were the innovators of the gamer’s world. PS2 succeeded the first. Then Xbox came out after a while. This is when gaming big-bang happened. This is also the time I returned to PC gaming. PC gaming, at that time, started to look better with graphic cards, played easier with mouse accuracy and customizable keyboard. I even remember games at first used the arrow keys for movement and I had to get accustomed to WASD keys.
I got the chance to play several online multiplayer games.
I don’t like companies controlling where my money goes. It was cheaper to update the graphic card than to buy a new console every 4–6 years with new games (old ones won’t work for you). For this reason, I didn’t return to play consoles at all.
After a long while, I wished to play again. At first, I thought of buying a console. However, today’s console doesn’t seem to be innovative. It appears that my good old PC could deliver the same experience as I get from consoles.
My setup at home and the quest for a solution
I bought a new graphic card and extra RAM for my 10-years old PC. The PC is largely for my wife’s work (she does a lot of 3D modeling), but I wanted to find what I can do with it to set up my new gaming station.
The PC was set-up in our working room. I had a Samsung “Smart” TV (nothing smart about it believe me) in the living room. Both were connected to my WiFi (the router is far from the TV in the living room).
I searched for possible options to stream my games from the PC to the TV “wirelessly” (no one wants messy cables all over the house). The best method appeared to be via Steam Link (after a thorough search online)!
Steam Link is a hardware/software for streaming and remote controlling in realtime (in great performance!). it is made by Valve, the same company that started the Steam gaming platform. One of Steam’s goals (since they started) was to unite gaming and make it available on various hardware and operating systems (you can game on Linux if you wish).
When Samsung started the fuss about “smart TV”, they installed a Google Android OS on their TVs. But today, and to make things cheaper, they deployed their Tizen OS on all TVs. Whatever app you had in your Android, you won’t have it on your TV.
Still, this didn’t stop me from using Steam because they developed a Link app for Android, Tizen, Rasbian, and iOS!!
I must say, Steam, you have earned my respect!
I hope someday they will contribute to the open-source community. It will make them thrive and give a chance for other developers to contribute back.
if you don’t have the same setup as mine, don’t worry. I’ll discuss other alternative solutions later (don’t skip!).
Gaming from the living room
On your PC side, you need Windows 7+ (10 is recommended for higher DirectX version — better gaming performance). You can play on Linux (but you won’t have the same games — Linux store is developing). You can go almost with every hardware (you’ll be limited by games’ requirements). If you want a recommended hardware to run almost all Steam games, you’ll need a minimum Intel i5 CPU (or AMD’s equivalent — newer CPUs are better), 8GB RAM, GPU that costs 120$+ (if you go with 180$+ cards you’ll delay the next upgrade — check this page for more) and large storage (go with regular HDD; not SDD, you can get 500GB for low prices). The more storage you have the more games you can play simultaneously.
Install Steam application (Steam Link for windows is built-in) and sign-up/sign-in to your account. Buy/download some games (there are free games!).
Steam store categorizes games based on their features and support. So you should check the game’s compatibility and minimum requirements beforehand to avoid buying any irrelevant games.
On your TV side, install Steam Link app (using the app store).
Connect whatever controller to your TV. I bought 2 wireless controllers — I advise you buy good quality for higher durability. You could also connect a wireless mouse and keyboard. Be wary, Steam Link doesn’t support all controllers on the market. Check these pages for supported controllers for Android, iOS, Samsung TV/Tizen OS, Rasbian.
For extra fun, connect more controllers to play local multiplayer with your family and friends, you can find such games under “Shared/Split screen” (offline PvP/Co-op also means shared screen).
Some TVs don’t have enough USB ports. Just use a simple USB hub to connect multiple controllers (such as this). It is possible to play with up to 4 local players as other consoles.
You don’t have a “smart” TV?
It is even better! What you need to do is connect your TV to a smart device of your choice. It can be your smartphone! But for additional flexibility and convenience, it is probably best to buy a dedicated device. You have many smart devices out there. You can buy an Android/Apple TV streamer or you can buy a Rasberry pi 3+ and install on it Rasbian (see this page for reference). If you wish for hassle-free gaming on your TV side, just buy one of Steam Link boxes (the hardware). It comes with exclusive Steam controllers (refer here). When you have your “smart” box connected to the TV, install Steam Link app — for Android/iOS just search the official app store, for Rasbian use this guide.
Network setup
Your two sides need to be connected to the internet with a cable, on WiFi, you’ll experience lags. It is not worth the work if your two sides are connected to WiFi. You can connect one side with a cable and the other with 5Ghz WiFi — check your router for support, usually, you’ll have “[your network name]_5Ghz” WiFi.
If you are using a smart box without a network connection, you can connect it with a cable using a network USB adapter — such as this. However, I recommend to check the device’s support for these adapters. If you have an Android/Rasbian box it will probably work fine.
Although connecting both sides with cables seems hard, you can do so with “cable-free” (between rooms) installation. Read my next article to find out more (coming soon).
With Steam Link, you can have your desktop streamed (not just games) to watch movies, view documents or surf the internet.
After a lot of hard work, I can say it was worth it!
Now I play games just as if any console was connected to my TV, with greater flexibility and cheaper upgrades.
Happy Corona vacation to you all :)
The corona virus will be soon gone before you know it but until then, make better use of your time and play with others! Just remember to clean your hands and controllers well before/after use.
